Saturday reading: The Bankruptcy Bowl, Jason Pridie, Ivan Nova and Roy Oswalt

At the Mets' victory over the Dodgers, I wrote about the Bankruptcy Bowl, as threatened. It really is a crying shame that both of these jewel franchises are in such rough shape.

It also serves as a great story, of course. So there will be no actual crying here.

As for the game, nice job by Jason Pridie, who slammed his third homer in 40 plate appearances and knows what he's doing defensively, too. Logic states that, if Angel Pagan's injury persists and Pridie keeps playing, the 27-year-old Pridie will be exposed for the Quadruple-A-type player he is. But it's always nice when you have a player whom you can plug in and he plays this well.

--Andre Ethier extended his hitting streak to 30 games. You look at the Dodgers' lineup, and you wonder why clubs wouldn't just intentionally walk Ethier and Matt Kemp every time up and just deal with the other seven guys.

(Of course I'm being overdramatic. But I do wonder what the heck I was thinking when I picked the Dodgers as my NL wild-card team.)

--Jim Baumbach wrote a good sidebar about the Dodgers players and how they're coping with their owner's fiasco.

--The Yankees halted their three-game losing streak by winning in Texas - does anyone actually use the word "halt" in conversation? - and Ivan Nova pitched extremely well. Funny how Nova seemed on his way back to Triple-A just a few starts ago, but now it really looks like he's figuring it out.

Good exhibition of patience by the Yankees. Of course, it helped that the Red Sox's and Rays' slow starts afforded the Yankees some time to wait out Nova.

--Ramiro Pena replaced Eric Chavez. It's a downgrade, obviously, but given Chavez's injury history, it wasn't realistic at all to think that he could make it until the All-Star break - let alone the whole season - without sustaining an injury like this. Chavez already has earned his money with what he has given the Yankees so far.

--Nick Swisher sat out with a head cold.

--You figured the Phillies' top four starting pitchers all couldn't make it through the season healthy, and Roy Oswalt was the first one to hit the disabled list. 

--Have a great day.