Feathers!

Well, that's five wins in a row now, and six of seven since I last posted on the debacle in Yankee Stadium. Looks like the demoralizing carryover we all worried about, coming out of New York, didn't happen. I think the credit for that starts with Eric Wedge. The team has surely handled adversity to this point — they've been jobbed out of a five-inning win, had a four-game series canceled and a home series transfered to another park, and they had their butts handed to them in excruciating style in the Bronx.

What's that? We're now in first place? Way to keep your eyes on the prize, boys.

When I was in the Indian Guides — yes, I was in the Indian Guides — the kids were awarded feathers of various colors for their accomplishments. Sort of like merit badges or Buckeye leaves. I'm going to seize on that model and distribute some feathers to players who made notable contributions over the last week.

Feathers are awarded as follows:

*to Travis Hafner (of course), Red Feather, as in "red hot" — for being consistently exceptional at the plate through the road trip. Maybe there's something to the blather about contract talks being a "distraction" during the season. Talks suspended, and Pronk takes off. Coincidence? Dunno.

*to the bullpen generally, Blue Feather, for freezing out opponents and keeping the team in a lot of close games down the stretch. Today's win over Texas was the rare game in which a starter handed the ball over with a significant lead. These have for the most part been nailbiter games, and for the most part the 'pen has come through. Betancourt? Solid. Borowski? 8 for 9 in save opps: can't complain. Hernandez? Big strikeout with men on last night.

*to Fernando Cabrera, Multicolored Peacock Feather, for finally emerging in style, as many of us were expecting he would last year. I didn't get to listen to him pitch last night — sorry, boys, I went to bed — but it was the same, old same-old: plenty of Ks and no runs. Hammy said today that he's earning some consideration as a back-end reliever. That's an understatement.

*to Shin-Soo Choo, White Feather, for making the most of the callup and infusing some life into the bottom of the order. I've always been a big Choo fan, and he's given me no reason to backtrack over the past few days. I appreciate that he doesn't have any "big tools," but he surely does a lot of things well. Gunning down Kenny Lofton at the plate on a sacrifice fly today was huge. Lofton ain't what he once was, but he's still got 9 steals this year in limited duty. Throwing him out is no mean feat.

*from Fausto Carmona — in this case Feathers come off, along with Tar — for making us forget last year. Carmona drew matchups with the mighty Yankees (yeah, we lost the game, but we lost in spite of Fausto) and Johan Santana, and he shrugged off the pressure and got to work getting batters out. Having a sixth starter who can come in and throw quality starts is a luxury. Fausto could have a big future with this team.

Put those feathers in your caps, boys, and let's get back to work tomorrow.