In his final three at-bats Saturday, Adrian Beltre made an obvious effort to go to the right side with the pitch, and got singles all three times. The balls weren't hit tremendously hard, but I still think it's an encouraging sign to see him go with an outside pitch rather than trying to hook around it like he was taming the Indy 500.

Beltre went a little too far to his right when taking his lead from second base in the eighth inning, unfortunately.

McGriff-Kinkade Day 3

Mike Kinkade continued to defend my honor by getting hits and drawing what was essentially a Barry Bonds-like intentional walk with runners on first and second and two out.

I'm not trying to make this about me, but I do feel my credibility is at stake.

I still think I'm right about McGriff, and that the past two nights were a fluke. But the debate is purely philosophical now. With two consecutive big games off left-handed pitching, Jim Tracy will now have no qualms about continuing to bat McGriff cleanup against lefties every day for quite a while.

I fought the Crime Dog, and the Crime Dog won.

(Just to be clear, this was only about lefties. McGriff already had my blessing to go to town against righties.)

But what to do about Kinkade? The guy simply has not been getting out. How much work do you do to get him more at-bats?

If you're not going to play him at first against lefties, I don't know what you do. His poor fielding at third base neutralizes his offensive value if you put him there - he simply doesn't field well enough at the position to consider him as a replacement for Adrian Beltre - even if you're a Beltre-basher, which I'm not.

He could give Brian Jordan - and even Shawn Green - more than an occasional rest in the outfield. Keep everybody fresh.

I suppose that as long as McGriff hits, it's not really a problem. But if McGriff reverts to form against lefties, it could get frustrating watching Kinkade languish on the bench.