Last night's Dodgers/Rockies game had some interesting twists and turns. Leading 7-6, Saito took the ball for the Dodgers to tie up the win, but walked the first runner and allowed a hit up the third base line. Watching on MLB.TV, I noticed Garciaparra hold up and go lame. Uh oh. Sure enough, he walked off the field with an apparent hamstring pull. With Blake DeWitt having just been sent back down to the minors to make room for a 12th pitcher on the roster, Torre had a conundrum in hand: who to play at third? Russell Martin.

Martin played 3B in the minors but had never manned the corner hot spot at the major league level until Torre made the move last night.

Gary Bennett replaced Martin behind the plate and promptly missed Saito's first pitch to the next batter, allowing the tying run to score. The look on Martin's face after the play was uncanny. Would he have caught that ball and preserved the Dodgers' lead?

In the end, Martin took matters into his own hands, capping a 4-hit game with a sacrifice fly in the 13th to win it for LA, 8-7.

There should be no more talk about him being an emerging star–Russell Martin is a true leader who carries the Dodgers with his passionate, balls out playing style, and in my view, will be the face of the organization for years to come.

(I scored the autographed photos shown above earlier this week. My sister is friends with Russell's sister, who graciously passed these on to this Martinhead. I plan to get them framed for the office.)

What a great day of baseball!

The biggest story of the day was the release of Frank Thomas by the Blue Jays. Thomas was informed yesterday of reduced playing time due to his recent slump. However, Thomas has started the past two years in a similar weak fashion, but managed to turn it around and put up great numbers in 2006 and 2007. Something else was up and Frank was not pleased…

A key to understanding what lies in Thomas' contract, which included plate incentives: 304 more plate appearances would have guaranteed him a $10 million option for 2009, money that the Jays are now free to spend elsewhere next season.

Thomas was vocal about his displeasure at being benched, saying "My career is not going to end this way." Wisely avoiding distraction that could derail the Jays right now, GM J.P. Ricciardi met with Thomas this morning and the result was an unconditional release.

Some feel this now paves the way for the Jays to sign Barry Bonds, but I'm hoping this isn't the case. I think Matt Stairs can do a fine job as the new DH and this makes room to bring back Adam Lind from the minors, who needs playing time to develop into an everyday major leaguer (and who's sporting a hot .360 BA right now!)

Back to the diamond, there were some awesome games played today, with at least three players hitting two home runs:

• Hanley Ramirez sparkled defensively and led the Marlins to victory over the Nationals with his two homers.
• The Reds' Edwin Encarnacion made up for a fielding error with two homers, and Ken Griffey Jr. was the game hero, driving in the winning run in a dramatic 10th inning victory over the Brewers. 
• Chase Utley led the Phillies past the Mets with his two homers in a fantastic game that closed out this great day of Sunday baseball.
  

I also really enjoyed the Padres/D-backs game, but I missed the last 3 innings. Did Byrnes keep that 14-game hitting streak going, or is he shaving that mustache tonight?

(By the way, I love those old baby blue Jays uniforms like the one Frank is sporting above, but the award for best retro uniform is a tie between the Padres and Astros!)

Sweet! Fans will get free access to three live MLB Spring Training exhibition games today on MLB.TV:

• Indians at Braves, 1:10 p.m. ET
• Orioles at Nationals, 6 p.m. ET
• Padres at Angels, 9:05 p.m. ET

The freebie is a test-drive of the new MLB.TV NexDef plug-in, which enables users to watch games in 1.2MB clarity.

I think my MLB.TV subscription is set to auto-renew–at least I seem to remember a mention of this when I signed up at the beginning of last season. Alas, there's nothing in my MLB.com account mentioning an auto-renew of the service, and I have yet to receive any emails from MLB.com regarding my MLB.TV account–not even an attempt to upsell the new 1.2MB service. I guess I'll find out on my next Visa bill. I'm looking forward to catching the free games today and will use this as an opportunity to decide about whether or not I upgrade to a MLB.TV Premium account.