Wednesday afternoon, Roy Halladay threw a six-hit shutout against the (last-place) Astros, running his record to 18-5 and his ERA to 2.34.

Not to be outdone, Clayton Kershaw -- Halladay's top rival for the Cy Young Award -- opened his outing Wednesday night against the (first-place) Diamondbacks with five shutout innings, allowing just one hit and dropping his ERA to 2.30.

But Gerardo Parra led off the top of the sixth. Tuesday night, Gerardo Parra was involved in a kerfuffle. Wednesday night, Kershaw plunked him, and was immediately ejected by plate umpire Bill Welke. Shortly, so was Don Mattingly.

Kershaw enjoyed a 2-0 lead when ejected, and reliever Josh Lindblom escaped the inning by striking out the first Diamondbacks he faced. But if Kershaw's going to hang with Halladay he'll need every win he can get, and getting kicked out of a game he was winning doesn't figure to help.

Did Kershaw deserve his ejection, though? One can never be completely sure about intent; perhaps Kershaw didn't believe he'd be ejected without a prior warning, but on the other hand would he really want to put the leadoff man aboard in the middle of a close game?

Only he knows. But you can take a look and come up with your own theory ...