It was fun while it lasted. The Oakland Athletics’ rookie reliever with the unusual delivery started his career with 39 consecutive scoreless innings, tying Al Benton of the 1949 Cleveland Indians. Grover Cleveland Alexander has the overall record with 41 consecutive scoreless innings to start his career, set in 1911. The streak ended in the ninth inning of tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The secret to Ziegler’s success isn’t anything eye-opening or mind-blowing. His 4.03 K/9 and 2.61 BB/9 are unimpressive and with a .189 BABIP/.260 xBABIP, one could make the case that it was only a matter of time until he was given a bruise anyway. His propensity for inducing ground balls is impressive, as they make up 70% of batted balls against him. He relies heavily on his defense, and with an .861 RZR, the Athletics are the best in the American League in that regard. As a result, his 0.00 ERA going into tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays contrasts with his 3.12 FIP. Still not bad, though.

He came into tonight’s game and pitched a perfect eighth inning, and manager Bob Geren asked him to come out and pitch the ninth as well. It’s common for Ziegler to be used for more than one inning, as 14 of his 29 appearances have been multiple inning stints. In the ninth inning, he got the first out, but then allowed a single to Akinori Iwamura and a double to B.J. Upton. Iwamura scored, and the streak was over. Unfazed, Ziegler intentionally walked Carlos Pena both to avoid his power and to set up the double play, then got Cliff Floyd to — you guessed it — ground into a double play.

Is Ziegler a potential Rookie of the Year award winner? He ranks sixth among all rookie pitchers in VORP, and in the A.L., he only trails Joba Chamberlain and Armando Galarraga, both starters. On the offensive side of things, Evan Longoria appears to be a runaway favorite despite his recent injury, and Ziegler would still have to beat out Mike Aviles of Kansas City. It’s unlikely, but he’s been such an intriguing story that it’s not impossible.

The Atlanta Braves activated Tom Glavine from the disabled list to start Thursday’s game with the Chicago Cubs.  Glavine has been sidelined since June 10 with an elbow injury.

Glavine’s decision on whether to play or not will definitely be affected by his performance over the last six weeks of the season.  “I want to get out there and see if the desire to do it again [next year] is still there,” Glavine said in an MLB.com report.

This season, Glavine is 2-3 with a 4.85 ERA but had elbow discomfort in eight of those starts.  The 42-year old starter made two rehab starts with Class-A Myrtle Beach and Double-A Mississippi where he was 0-1 with a 3.00 ERA in nine innings.

The roster move is expected to be made official before the start of tonight’s game.

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After missing 30 games, Aaron Boone was activated by the Washington Nationals on Thursday.  To make room for Boone, shortstop Alberto Gonzalez was optioned to Triple-A Columbus.

Boone is hitting .258 with five home runs and 17 RBI this season.  He suffered a left calf strain on July 6 and has been on the DL ever since.  In four rehab games, Boone went 2-for-11 in stints with their Gulf Coast League affiliate and Columbus.

Gonzalez, acquired at the deadline from the Yankees, was 6-for-13 (.462) in four games with the Nats.

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In more Washington Nationals’ news, the club has less than 48 hours to ink Aaron Crow, the ninth overall selection of this year’s draft, to a Major League contract before losing their draft rights to the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year.  Meanwhile, Crow did sign a professional contract with the Fort Worth Cats of the American Association.

If the Nationals fail to sign Crow before the August 15 deadline, the University of Missouri pitcher will re-enter the First-Year Player Draft in 2009.  Crow was 13-0 with 127 strikeouts for Missouri last season.

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With Yorvit Torrealba out with an undisclosed injury, the Colorado Rockies promoted catcher Adam Melhuse to the Major League roster and optioned outfielder Cory Sullivan to Triple-A Colorado Springs.

Torrealba was scratched before Thursday’s game and sent to be examined by the team’s medical staff.  Chris Ianetta was Torrealba’s replacement and Melhuse was en route during the game.

The 36-year old Melhuse hit .317 with three homers and 14 RBI in 29 games with Colorado Springs.

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Geno Espineli is not having the best week.  The Giants’ reliever got blasted on Tuesday for three runs in 1 2/3 innings and despite bouncing back with a scoreless eighth inning on Wednesday, he was sent to Triple-A Fresno ending his first stint in the Majors which began on July 20 and interferred with his ability to play for Team USA at this year’s Olympics in China.

Espineli was removed from the Team USA roster because of the promotion to the Giants and the 25-year old Espineli went 1-0 with a 5.40 ERA in nine appearances.

To replace Espineli, the Giants recalled reliever Matt Palmer from Fresno.

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The San Diego Padres returned pitcher Chris Young to the 15-day disabled list on Thursday.  This time, a right forearm strain has sidelined the Padres’ starter.  The team activated Brian Falkenborg – a waiver claim from the Los Angeles Dodgers — to take his roster spot. 

Young is 4-4 with a 4.74 ERA in 13 starts this year but missed most of the season after being struck in the face with a line drive in May.  With him on the DL, the team will likely turn to a starter from Triple-A Portland to replace him in the rotation when the move becomes necessary.

Falkenborg, a reliever who previously played for the Padres in 2005, went 2-2 with a 6.17 ERA in 16 appearances with the Dodgers.

…Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union Tribune has a great piece on pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who is the only collegiate player on Team USA’s roster at the Olympics. He took a no hitter into the 7th inning this morning against the Netherlands. He struck out 11 as he picked up the victory in a rain shortened game to bring Team USA to 1-1 in Olympic Round Robin Play.

Also our very own Matt LaPorta got his first Olympic hit, a mammoth 3 run home run.

…Honestly, I’m thinking some of these kids don’t have a clue. There were three more minor league suspensions for testing positive for PED’s. This time it’s Royals farm hands Juan Garcia and Juan Fortuna. But wait! There’s more Chicago Cubs farm hand Starling Peralta. They all tested positive for Boldenone. All have been given a 50 game suspension, which of course starts immediately.

This brings the total to 26 minor league suspensions since July 25th.

…It looks like Instant Replay is becoming more of a reality. According to this USA Today report, Replay could be in place by the end of August according to MLB CEO Bob DuPuy. One hurdle they’ll need to get over is getting the Umpires and Players unions to sign off on the instant replay.

…The Colorado Rockies have signed reliever Oscar Villarreal to a minor league contract. The former Atlanta Brave was traded in the off season to the Houston Astro’s who designated him for assignment July 2nd. He’ll debut as a starter for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox to get stretched out - he hasn’t pitched since August 5th for the Tacoma Rainier’s. But because he wasn’t called up by Seattle he opted out of his minor league deal and became a free agent.

…According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette it’s highly unlikely that Pirates will sign Pedro Alvarez to a Major League deal before the deadline. Alvarez is represented by Scott Boras, but the Pirates remain hopeful that Alvarez will sign with the organization.

…Andrew Baggerly, beat writer for the San Fransisco Giants is reporting that the Giants have signed Number 5 overall pick Buster Posey. He’s expected to get a major league contract in the neighborhood of $7.5 million dollars - that will shatter the record for biggest amateur bonus in franchise history.

It might seem that way if you saw the Milwaukee Brewers first baseman shove his teammate, pitcher Manny Parra, in the dugout on August 4. Since the incident, the Brewers have yet to lose and are currently riding the wave of an eight-game winning streak. There’s all the proof you need that A) shoving a teammate is beneficial and B) Fielder was trying to motivate his team and succeeded.

Let’s be realistic: the Brewers may have won eight games, but those eight wins have come against three teams with a combined record of 143-219 (.395): the Cincinnati Reds (two of three), the Washington Nationals (four-game sweep), and the San Diego Padres (took the first two of the three-game series). In the National League, the Reds, Nationals, and Padres rank 12th, 16th, and 14th respectively in average runs scored per game, and 14th, 11th, and 10th respectively in average runs allowed per game.

So, their eight-game winning streak is due entirely to playing poor teams, not Prince Fielder’s Shove of Inspiration. Their schedule doesn’t get much more difficult as the month wanes, either: after playing the series finale with the Padres today, the Brew Crew starts a three-game set in Los Angeles against the Dodgers, which will be a handful, but then they finish out the month with three games against the Houston Astros and six games against the Pittsburgh Pirates. September is tougher, but they still get four games against the Padres, three against the Reds, and three against the Pirates.

While you shouldn’t expect the Brewers to overtake the Cubs in the NL Central, they should be overwhelming favorites to win the NL Wild Card. They’re four games ahead of the division rival St. Louis Cardinals, 5.5 ahead of the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, and seven games ahead of the Florida Marlins. The NL East teams, presumably, will beat up on themselves and the division title may require as few as 87 wins; the Brewers are on pace for 94 and have an easy remaining schedule. The Cardinals shouldn’t be sending chills up anyone’s spine with their overall weak pitching and their recent inability to finish games.

With a week of decent run scoring, the Brewers could easily skip from seventh in the National League in average runs scored per game (4.71) to fourth (Pittsburgh, 4.77) or even third (New York, 4.88). As we’re well aware of, their starting pitching — at least the front part of it — is second to none, and the bullpen is sufficient.

The saying goes, “Pitching wins in the playoffs,” and it’s true. Most managers correctly shorten their starting rotation to three pitchers, so teams will be facing C.C. Sabathia and Ben Sheets twice in a series if it goes all five or seven games. Two other potential playoff teams have a fearsome starting rotation for the playoffs: the Cubs with Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden, and the Diamondbacks with Brandon Webb and Dan Haren.

The Cubs are the only team that is strong all the way around, and since the Brewers are guaranteed that they won’t match up in the NLDS, it’s almost guaranteed that the NLCS will run through the NL Central with the Cubs and Brewers. The Phillies (starting pitching), Mets (bullpen), Marlins (starting pitching), Diamondbacks (offense), and Dodgers (offense) all have obvious flaws and, presumably, only the Diamondbacks would be tough to dispose of in the opening round because of Webb/Haren.

Go ahead and print those NLCS tickets, Milwaukee. You have the Schedule gods and non-divisional mediocrity to thank for that, not your vegetarian first baseman.