Three Up, Three Down: The MLB hot/cold report

A while back, the Seattle Mariners suffered a huge blow when they lost Robinson Cano to injury and then a PED suspension. This was supposed to be yet another sad moment in Seattle's time in the playoff-less wilderness, yet ever since Cano went down, the Mariners have gotten hot. As of this writing, they are 33-22 and only one game behind the Houston Astros for first place in the AL West.

Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger have been doing some heavy-duty lifting so far, while James Paxton is proving that he's not a one "no-hitter" wonder. He has been consistently good every time he's taken the mound. Everything is clicking for Seattle right now, and it's impressive to see that this is the response to losing the team's most consistent player.

There's no guarantee that this will last, but it's always nice to see the Mariners playing well. Their playoff drought has to end sometime, and while we're still far away from saying that this is definitely the year, the fans in the Pacific Northwest can at least have some hope that this could be the year they finally get some October action going.

Scherzer assumes the throne as baseball's best ace

Normally at this point in the baseball season, it's a safe bet that Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher in all of baseball. However, that's not the case this season as he's gotten off to a slow start for his standards. Instead, you could argue that there are a handful of other pitchers who could lay claim as the top ace in the sport today.

The pitcher with the biggest claim to that particular throne is Max Scherzer. Scherzer has been extremely good for quite some time now, but 2018 could very well end up being his magnum opus if he keeps up his current rate of production. He's currently sitting on a 1.92 ERA of and 1.95 FIP, and he's complimenting that with a strikeout rate of 38.7 percent. All of those would be career-high numbers for Scherzer, driving home that he's pitching lights out.

Plus, if you still care about the pitcher wins stat, he reached 150 for his career Wednesday night and did so in style. He struck out 12 batters while only walking one, giving up two hits over eight innings of shutout ball against the Orioles. That is pure domination, and it would not be shocking to see Scherzer keep this up and add another Cy Young Award to his collection.

Danny Farquhar will make his return to the mound

Back in April, White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result of a ruptured aneurysm, which caused a huge scare when it came to his health. Fortunately, he survived the incident, and while he'll definitely have to miss the season in order to recover, he won't be completely without the game.

Farquhar won't stay away from the baseball mound entirely. He'll return to Guaranteed Rate Field on June 1 in order to throw the first pitch for the White Sox game that evening. He'll be accompanied by family and the doctors who helped save his life on that fateful day he collapsed. Although it's not exactly making a return as a player, it'll definitely be a huge step in the road to recovery for Farquhar, and it'll be an emotional moment for everybody involved.

Three Down

Rizzo's takeout slide infuriates everybody involved

The Cubs beat the Pirates 7-0 on Memorial Day, but Chicago's victory didn't come without controversy. In the top of the eighth with the game still somewhat competitive at 3-0, the Pirates faced a bases loaded situation for the Cubs with just one out. Fortunately, they induced a ground ball that was surely going to be a double play, but Anthony Rizzo had other ideas.

Rizzo decided to ignore home plate and slid at the legs of catcher Elias Diaz to break up the double play. It worked: Diaz threw the ball into right field, the Cubs scored two runs and Diaz went down in a heap following the slide. The play was reviewed and ruled legal, but MLB later returned to the side of sanity and stated that it was actually an illegal slide.

This infuriated the Pirates when it happened because the officials saw nothing wrong with Rizzo's slide. This also somehow infuriated the Cubs because Joe Maddon was steadfast in his belief that Rizzo didn't do anything wrong. It appears that if you ask any person about the home plate rule, you'll get a different answer on how to apply it, which is surely the sign of a rule that still needs to be fixed.

An actual wild goose chase happened in Detroit

As expected, the Tigers are having a down season. There's not really much excitement to discuss when it comes to the day-to-day goings-on at Comerica Park. That changed in a big way on Wednesday night, but it wasn't due to anything the Tigers or their opponent did. Instead, a wild goose invaded the diamond and actually sent human beings on a chase to corral it.

The goose acted like a typical goose, in that the bird believed it owned all the territory it could see with its own eyes and refused to leave the diamond for several minutes. After eventually being cornered by the grounds crew, the goose finally decided to take flight since it had clearly conquered this domain and was ready to take over another large swath of land.

However, the goose's hasty escape proved to be painful as it flew smack-dab into a scoreboard and fell into the seats. At first glance, it sure seemed like this was the end for the goose, but the bird walked away and was eventually released outside of the stadium by the grounds crew. If only the goose had flown away clean, it would have been the star of this past week in baseball. Instead, the bird got embarrassed so here it is in the "Down" section. Step your game up, goose!

They're not saying "Boooooliani!"

Remember when Rudy Giuliani was that rare bird of politician who was actually considered to be popular? It sure feels like forever ago, but there was a time where "America's Mayor" could show up anywhere and not get mercilessly booed by a crowd of people. That time has come and gone, as Giuliani learned himself on Memorial Day.

The former mayor of New York City decided to take in a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium on what also happened to be his birthday. When the team publicly acknowledged his presence at the game, I'm sure he expected a warm reception from his former constituents. Boy oh boy, did he get the opposite.

Giuliani publicly took it in stride by taking the out-of-towner's approach, saying that New Yorkers only boo people they respect. That may be true, but it's also true that Giuliani has been taking a long slide down the unpopularity tunnel for a while now. He's finally reaching the nadir when a stadium full of Yankees fans is champing at the bit to boo him.