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

It's been a roller-coaster week for the Washington Nationals. They started it with an important series against the Boston Red Sox and proceeded to get swept out of their stadium. This is how they welcomed new D.C. United signing Wayne Rooney to "the baseball." Anyway, the loss was enough that the Nationals clubhouse immediately called for a players-only meeting, which is basically the last resort for teams that are struggling.

The day after the meeting, Washington welcomed the last-place Miami Marlins into town, and it appeared as if the team meeting did absolutely nothing because the Marlins proceeded to drop nine runs on their heads. Then, a funny thing happened: The Nationals finally woke up and proceeded to score 14 runs over four innings after going down 9-0, including eight RBI from Trea Turner.

The Nationals are still in a bit of a hole in the NL East. Going into Friday's action, they're six games behind the Braves for first place, and they haven't really shown signs of going on a consistent run all season. It's been a rough first half for the Nats, but if this ends up being the catalyst for their revival, then this night in July will go down as one of the most memorable moments of a wacky season.

Dee Gordon and the Mariners bring 2027 to 2018

This past weekend, the Seattle Mariners and Kansas City Royals went back to the past in order to go to the future as they brought back the 1998 Turn Ahead the Clock throwbacks that were supposed to be a guess as to what baseball uniforms would look like in 2027. While it was probably a stretch to suggest that baseball would change that dramatically after spending so much of its time basically looking the same when it came to uniforms, it's still fun to see these wacky uniforms.

The best look was when Dee Gordon decided to lean all the way into the spirit of the uniforms. He wore a backward hat, he had his chain out, he didn't wear any sleeves so his arms were fully bare and the jersey was untucked. It was a great look, and if you're going to do a throwback night, you may as well go all the way out. That's exactly what happened here.

Ohtani returns from the disabled list

Yes, you read that headline correctly. We haven't seen the last of Shohei Ohtani this season, as he's been activated from the DL and returned to the Angels' lineup in his customary spot of designated hitter. He returned in time for the holiday series against the Mariners, and while he still didn't go back to destroying opposing pitching like he was doing before the injury, it was a sight for sore eyes to see him swinging the bat again.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that he still won't be pitching until 2019. It's for the best since pitching any more would make his elbow issues worse so for now, we'll have to wait until next season to see the dual threat actually be used as a dual threat. 2019 can't come soon enough, since he's been one of the joys of watching baseball season.

Three Down

Dexter Fowler's relationship with the Cardinals is on the rocks

Hoo boy, it has gotten ugly between the Cardinals organization and Dexter Fowler. Of course, people would be willing to overlook any issues if Fowler was producing, but unfortunately he hasn't been doing well at all. He's currently on track to have what would easily be the worst season of his career. Going into Friday's action, Fowler was sporting a downright disgusting slash line of .171/.275/.276 and was worth -1.1 WAR according to FanGraphs.

Naturally, this lack of production plus the whole issue of coming directly from the rivals in Illinois and the fact that a particularly loud set of fans disagreed with Fowler's opinions on politics before he even played a game in St. Louis is a recipe for an ugly scene. If you think that Fowler would get help from his organization, you're sorely mistaken. Both the GM and the manager have basically marooned Fowler on an island with their recent comments.

While it's hard to talk about what's going on without being in the St. Louis clubhouse, we can go by what's happened in the past. Mike Gianella of Baseball Prospectus brought up that Fowler hasn't had any major issues in his other destinations, so it could very well be that the Cardinals organization just isn't a good fit for him. Whatever the case, it's clear that the relationship between Fowler and the Cardinals may be beyond repair.

Guy gets bonked on the head by awful first pitch

Speaking of the Cardinals, this past weekend was a rough one for them as they got swept by the Atlanta Braves over three games. Their game on Sunday got off to a bad start before it even began, but it wasn't because of anything that the players did. Instead, we were all blessed with another chapter to add to the book of comically bad honorary first pitches.

This time, a fan got the opportunity to throw out the first pitch at the Cardinals game, and he hilariously failed the test of throwing a strike. Instead, it was juuuuuuuuuuust a bit outside. In fact, it was so outside that it eluded the catcher and bopped an unsuspecting bystander who was walking by. The ball bounced right off of his head. It's not quite a "50 Cent" moment where the ball landed closer to first base than home plate, but it was pretty close!

Tim Tebow has a Canseco moment

Whenever you get compared to Jose Canseco, it's either because you are smacking the ball with all of your might at a prolific rate or something incredibly dumb has happened to you. Unfortunately for completely anonymous minor league All-Star Tim Tebow, it was a case of the latter. The 30-year-old New York Mets prospect was busy playing against the Portland Sea Dogs when a fly ball came his way in left field.

The stadium in Portland has a Green Monster replica. Now, some major league outfielders have trouble playing balls off of that wall, so it could be a nightmare for anybody else who doesn't have experience. Indeed, the wall ended up being very mean to Tebow to the point where it deflected the ball directly onto Tebow's head. The result was a triple and another highlight for the totally normal and not-at-all celebrity minor leaguer trying his best to make it to the bigs.