pinch hits

St. Louis activated former Ole Miss pitcher Lance Lynn for the National League Championship Series, and he pitched a scoreless sixth inning in Game 1 today. His stint came just after the Cardinals surrendered six runs in a game-changing fifth inning of the 9-6 loss to Milwaukee. Maybe they should have gone to Lynn sooner. ... Lance Berkman, the former Jackson Generals standout, went 2-for-4 with an RBI in the losing cause for St. Louis. ... Detroit did not activate former Generals infielder Carlos Guillen for the ALCS when Delmon Young was put on the disabled list. Guillen apparently is still unable to play because of a calf injury suffered late in the regular season. ... In case you missed it, Mississippi State product Mitch Moreland was 1-for-3 on Saturday night in Game 1 of the ALCS, helping Texas beat the Tigers 3-2 in a rain-delayed contest. The second-year first baseman also had a hand in two double plays.

7.50!

Allow 10 earned runs in 12 innings of work, which Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt combined to do in the National League Division Series for Philadelphia, and that's what you get: a 7.50 ERA. And that's bad. The Mississippi junior college products lost their starts — Lee in Game 2 and Oswalt in Wednesday's Game 4 — and the Phillies now face a decisive Game 5 against St. Louis on Friday. Oswalt was given a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning but couldn't hold it. He allowed a run in the first, two in the fourth and two more in the sixth in the 5-3 loss, his first as a starter in postseason play. The squirrel incident occurred in the fifth inning and, though it generated a lot of buzz, was really a non-factor. As Lance Berkman told mlb.com: "Where he's from (Weir), that's par for the course." However, it's safe to assume the Phillies don't want to see any squirrels running across the field on Friday.
P.S. Joey Terdoslavich, a first baseman who hit 52 doubles and 20 homers in A-ball this season, has replaced second baseman Phil Gosselin as an Atlanta Braves representative in the Arizona Fall League. Terdoslavich is a good bet to play first for the Mississippi Braves in 2012.

in the center ring

Roy Oswalt goes to the mound today for Philadelphia in a potential National League Division Series clincher at St. Louis. Though Oswalt's 2011 season was a bit shaky, he has been a horse in the postseason over his career. The ex-Holmes Community College standout from Weir is 5-1 with a 3.39 ERA in 12 playoff appearances; the one defeat came in relief (last year in the Phillies' NLCS loss to San Francisco). Among Oswalt's postseason W's is a victory over St. Louis in Game 6 of the 2005 NLCS, a win that sent Houston to its first World Series. In his career, Oswalt is 9-10 with a 3.69 ERA in the regular season and 2-0, 3.27 in the postseason against the Cardinals, who will trot out some hitters who have good numbers against the 34-year-old right-hander. Albert Pujols has hit .316 against Oswalt with seven homers, according to MLB Network. Rafael Furcal is a .333 hitter against Oswalt, Yadier Molina .364. And Lance Berkman, the former Jackson Generals star, knows Oswalt well from their many years together as Astros. Oswalt has battled a bad back all year, but remember, in his last outing, in the next-to-last game of the regular season, he beat Atlanta in what was a critical game for the Braves. It's all about starting pitching in the postseason, and this is Oswalt's moment. You never know if another will come along.
P.S. Thumbs up to former Mississippi Braves lefty Matt Harrison, who got his first postseason win in Texas' ALDS clinching victory over Tampa Bay on Tuesday. Harrison struck out nine in five innings. ... Thumbs down to former M-Braves outfielder Jordan Schafer, who was arrested on marijuana possession charges in Florida. Schafer, now with Houston, has been in trouble before. M-Braves fans will recall his 2008 suspension for a violation of MLB's minor league drug policy. The Atlanta Braves may be happy that the enigmatic Schafer is someone else's problem now.

bombs away

Itawamba Community College product Desmond Jennings hit two home runs for Tampa Bay on Monday, but the blasts came in a losing cause against Texas in Game 3 of the American League Division Series. There was another homer from a player with Mississippi ties that was more meaningful. Delmon Young's blast was the go-ahead run in Detroit's 5-4 win over the New York Yankees in the other ALDS. Mississippi Braves fans might remember Young for the monstrous home run he hit over the center-field screen in 2005 as a member of the Montgomery Biscuits. But Young has an even more relevant Mississippi connection. His father, Larry, and brother, retired big leaguer Dmitri, were born in Vicksburg. Larry Young, who grew up as the son of a sharecropper in the 1960s, became a Navy fighter pilot and flight instructor and Delta pilot. Dmitri Young, a two-time All-Star, played 13 years in the majors and spent five of those with the Tigers, including their 2006 World Series year. Delmon Young was born in Montgomery, Ala., but went to high school in California, as did Dmitri. The Rays made Delmon the No. 1 overall pick in the draft in 2003. He has been traded twice, moving to Detroit this summer.

eye on ...

Brian Dozier will get a taste of October baseball — in the Arizona Fall League, a proving ground for major league prospects that starts its season on Tuesday. Southern Miss product Dozier, who will play for the Mesa Solar Sox, is coming off an excellent season at the high Class A and Double-A levels in the Minnesota system. An eighth-round draft pick in 2009, he hit .322 at Fort Myers and .318 (with seven homers) at New Britain this season. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound second baseman-shortstop was rated the Twins' 30th-best prospect entering 2011 by Baseball America. He surely has moved up the ranks. If he plays well in the AFL, he should get a long look from the big league club next spring. ... Among the players Atlanta is shipping to the AFL are four who could be in Mississippi in 2012: reliever Billy Bullock, catcher Christian Bethancourt, second baseman Phil Gosselin and outfielder Todd Cunningham.
P.S. Cliff Lee, who once seemed unbeatable in the playoffs, has had his aura tarnished. The former Meridian Community College star, now Philadelphia's No. 2 starter, was knocked out in the seventh inning of Sunday's 5-4 loss to St. Louis, leaving him 0-3 with a 7.13 ERA in his last three postseason appearances. "They got 12 hits," Lee told mlb.com. "Anytime they do that, they're hitting good pitches, they're hitting bad pitches, they're hitting." If there is a decisive fifth game in this series, and Lee gets the call, it'll be interesting to see how he responds.

check your schedule

In case anyone was wondering, the Mississippi Braves will open the 2012 season in the new-look Southern League at home on April 5. The M-Braves will play a five-game series with Mobile from April 5-9, then a five-game home series with Montgomery from April 10-14. The SL divisions have done a minor shuffle: With the Carolina franchise relocating to Pensacola, the new Blue Wahoos (some kind of fish) will play in the South Division. Birmingham shifts to the North. Pensacola, still a Cincinnati affiliate for 2012, will make its first visit to Trustmark Park on May 6. The M-Braves' final home game of 2012 — unless they make the playoffs — will be against Pensacola on Aug. 28. The SL All-Star Game is set for June 19 at Tennessee. The full schedule is on the Southern League web site.

faith rewarded

After enduring a mostly dismal September, Mitch Moreland got his October off to a nice start on Saturday. The former Mississippi State standout from Amory drove in two runs, one with a home run, in Texas' 8-6 victory over Tampa Bay in the American League Division Series, which is now squared at 1-1. Rangers manager Ron Washington had said he still had faith in Moreland despite his late-season slump, and Washington put his lefty-swinging first baseman in the lineup for the crucial Game 2 against Rays right-hander James Shields. Moreland got an RBI goundout in the pivotal five-run fourth inning against Shields and blasted his homer, his first in Arlington since June 21, off Brandon Gomes in the eighth. "This game is going to be full of ups and downs and you can't dwell on the downs," Moreland told espn.go.com. Moreland batted .348 with a homer and seven RBIs in the 2010 postseason, helping the Rangers reach their first World Series. Meanwhile, Rays outfielder and ex-Itawamba Community College star Desmond Jennings, who finished the regular season in an awful skid at the plate, is 2-for-7 in the ALDS with a hit in each game.
P.S. Lance Berkman's home run off Roy Halladay on Saturday was his second against the Philadelphia ace in two weeks and the eighth postseason homer for Berkman in his career. Alas, St. Louis lost Game 1 of the NLDS 11-6. ... Terry Francona's departure as manager in Boston leaves former Jackson Mets Dave Magadan (the Red Sox's hitting coach) and Tim Bogar (third-base coach) in an uncomfortable limbo until a new manager is hired. Of course, they could follow Francona to his next job, possibly with the Chicago White Sox.