Dunn's homer helps beat Padres
PHOENIX -- When Adam Dunn smacked a two-run homer in the fourth inning, his first since being acquired from the Reds, it seemed like it would be a footnote in Tuesday's game.
After all, the D-backs were already up and seemed to be cruising to a win over the last-place Padres.
As it turned out, though, the D-backs needed every run they could muster, as a ninth-inning rally by the Padres turned the game from a laugher into a 7-6 Arizona win.
"Pretty exciting," D-backs manager Bob Melvin deadpanned to reporters after the game.
The D-backs carried a 7-3 lead into the ninth, and with closer Brandon Lyon needing the work -- he hadn't pitched in a week -- Melvin brought him in even though it wasn't a save situation.
"I don't think he's the kind of guy where you have to bring him into a save situation," Melvin said. "I don't think he's the kind of guy that needs the emotion or the adrenaline."
Whether it was the lack of urgency or simply rust, Lyon struggled to hit his spots with his fastball and what was not a save situation suddenly turned into one.
The Padres loaded the bases with one out, and Adrian Gonzalez came through with a two-run single to center that almost proved disastrous as the ball nearly skipped by Chris Young.
Chase Headley followed with a single to right that scored Kevin Kouzmanoff, and suddenly the Padres were within a run.
Melvin then turned to Tony Pena, and the right-hander got Nick Hundley to ground into a fielder's choice before Luis Rodriguez flied out to center to end the game.
It was Pena's second save of the year and another in a string of good performances after tweaking his mechanics to avoid having his front shoulder fly open.
"I came in and threw strikes," Pena said.
That was something that Padres starter Josh Banks struggled with in the first inning. The right-hander walked the first two batters of the inning and three of the first four, as the D-backs gave their starter, Doug Davis, a 4-0 lead.
"The team going out there and scoring four runs made it a lot easier to go out there and throw strikes," Davis said.
Still, Davis, who had scuffled with his command in his previous three starts, didn't look sharp in the top of the second as he gave two of the runs right back. The lefty was able to settle in after that and wound up going six innings.
"Walking only two compared to my last three starts, that's huge," he said. "I ended up getting strike one a few more times tonight, and I was able to make them hit my pitch."
Dunn gave the D-backs some breathing room in the fourth with a two-out, two-run homer. It was his first since coming over in the Aug. 11 trade from the Reds and his 33rd of the year.
"He's been grinding, trying to get that home run," Melvin said.
That's because not only was Dunn trying to make a good impression in his first home game since the trade, but he was also in the midst of a 60 at-bat homerless streak, almost unheard of for him.
"I was grinding because I hadn't hit one," he said. "It's been a long time since I've hit a homer, and that's not really not like me. I'm usually walking and hitting balls out of the park."
The win, along with the Dodgers' loss to the Rockies, moved the D-backs one game up in the National League West.
The adrenaline and excitement of a pennant race is something new to Dunn, but as he discovered in his first game for Arizona last week against the Rockies, it's one he likes.
"It was kind of nerve-wracking, but I settled down a lot quicker than I did in Colorado," Dunn said of his home debut. "That's such a good feeling. That's not a feeling that I've been getting very often besides maybe Opening Day and opening day of deer season."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Zobrist's double carries Rays past A's
OAKLAND -- Ben Zobrist is serving his fourth tour of duty with the Rays this season.
In two years, he has gone from being the team's starting shortstop to riding the shuttle between Triple-A Durham and the Rays. But like so many of the players on this year's team, he has found a way to contribute. And Wednesday night he contributed with the game-winning hit, when he doubled with two outs in the seventh to give the Rays a 3-2 win over the A's in front of 21,438 at McAfee Coliseum.
The Rays moved to 72-47 on the season, in addition to maintaining their three-game lead in the American League East over the second-place Red Sox, who defeated the Rangers, 8-4. The Rays are now 4-2 on their current 10-game, three-stop road trip, and they improved to just three games under .500 on the road.
"Feels great," Zobrist said. "Things aren't going the greatest for us injury-wise. So myself, Willy [Aybar], [Eric] Hinske, [Gabe] Gross, [Justin] Ruggiano, all of us who haven't been playing on a regular basis this year, we have to step up, like I was able to do that on that at-bat right there, and it just feels great."
Rays manager Joe Maddon likes what he has seen of Zobrist this time around.
"He's getting better," Maddon said. "You look at him on defense, he's getting more consistency at fielding grounded balls and his throwing is better. His at-bats from both sides of the plate have gotten better. Not only that, he's hit for more power. There's more force in his swing.
"He's done a great job for us; he's been very valuable for us. And again, I felt good about him in that situation. I know he's going to throw out a good at-bat out there."
Maddon added that Zobrist overall looks more comfortable playing the game, an observation with which Zobrist agreed.
"I think I was afraid to fail a little bit before," Zobrist said. "I've been through that. You kind of have to go through that before you can succeed, and hopefully I'm on the rise now."
Andy Sonnanstine started for the Rays and held the A's to two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out six to earn his 12th win of the season, which made him the quickest to reach a dozen wins in club history. He surpassed Rolando Arrojo, who reached 12 wins in the 135th game of 1998.
"I thought Sonnie had really good stuff tonight," Maddon said. "The last two outings I thought his stuff was as good as I've seen him in a long time. Velocity, fastball, location on the fastball, break on the breaking pitch -- it wasn't flat. It had depth. And I thought he pitched inside a little better tonight, too."
The Rays got home runs from Carlos Pena in the first and Hinske in the second to give Sonnanstine an early cushion.
Sonnanstine got some help from Rays fielders when Mark Ellis singled to left field with two outs in the third. Kurt Suzuki attempted to score from second on the play, but Hinske quickly retrieved the ball and threw home. Third baseman Aybar cut off the throw and delivered a perfect relay to catcher Dioner Navarro, who tagged Suzuki for the third out.
"That was unusual, that rarely ever occurs," Maddon said. "The ball was hit so hard, A, and B, Hinske got it in quickly. You might see that play once a year, to have a guy thrown out at the plate. I've seen the Yankees with [Hideki] Matsui and [Derek] Jeter do that extremely well. He gets the ball in quickly, then Jeter, boom, throws.
"But that was just a reaction play by Willy out there. Again, I know Willy has the game awareness. He knew how hard that ball was hit and he knew he got it quickly enough to do what he did. That's what I saw. That was a great instinctive play by Hinske and Aybar."
Sonnanstine found trouble again in the fifth, when Eric Patterson doubled with the bases loaded to tie the score at 2. One out later, his fielders again bailed him out by turning a 5-4-3, inning-ending double play.
After Sonnanstine left the game, the Rays' bullpen once again put forth a solid effort. Grant Balfour pitched a scoreless seventh and Dan Wheeler a scoreless eighth to feed into closer Troy Percival, who got the final three outs of the game to preserve the win while earning his 27th save of the season.
Wednesday night's win came a night after the Rays lost a close one that was riddled with mistakes. So the turnaround felt significant.
Wednesday night's win is "big after yesterday, because yesterday wasn't our best day for sure," Zobrist said. "So to come back and have a close game again and to pull it out puts our confidence right back up there, and we're ready to go get them again tomorrow."
Copyright 2008 Sporting Life UK Ltd, All Rights Reserved.
Samuel to join Phillies Wall of Fame
PHILADELPHIA -- Mounted on a red brick wall in Citizens Bank Park's Ashburn Alley are 29 bronze plaques that commemorate members of the Phillies Wall of Fame.
There's Jim Bunning, who threw a perfect game in 1964. There's Chuck Klein, who earned at least a share of the National League home run title four times between 1929-33. All four of the Phillies enshrined in baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. -- Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt -- are also represented in the Phillies Wall of Fame.
On Friday, they'll welcome No. 30 to the ranks when Juan Samuel is inducted.
"Looking at the names of those guys, I can't believe that I was going to see my name on a plaque next to those guys," Samuel said. "Coming from where I came from as a kid from the Dominican Republic, I never even dreamed about this happening."
Samuel signed with the Phillies as an amateur free agent on April 29, 1980, and made his Major League debut on Aug. 24, 1983. He hit leadoff in that game, and tripled in his second at-bat. In 1984, he set the Phils' single-season and rookie records with 72 stolen bases on his way to 105 runs scored and 191 hits. Samuel also set modern Phillies records for triples, with 19, and at-bats (701) in a season. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins broke both marks in his 2007 MVP campaign.
Samuel became the first player in Major League history to reach double digits in doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases in each of his first four seasons.
Samuel's 6 1/2 years with Philadelphia were just the beginning of a 16-season Major League career that also included time with the Mets, Dodgers, Royals, Reds, Tigers and Blue Jays. Samuel is also a member of the Dominican Republic's baseball Hall of Fame and a member of the Reading (Pa.) Hall of Fame, for the 47 games he spent there in 1983.
The 47-year-old will attend the pregame ceremonies for Friday's contest against the Pirates, and all fans will receive a commemorative poster of Samuel, courtesy of Toyota.
"It probably hasn't hit me yet, and won't until I get there," Samuel said. "But I've realized how big it is from all the people calling me from Philadelphia. They're letting me know that they're advertising this with a big billboard of me smiling somewhere in the city."
Samuel, now the third-base coach for the Orioles, said that he felt like he never left Philadelphia. On a recent road trip through Toronto, Samuel learned that Phillies fans also feel like he hasn't left.
"One of the custom agents saw my passport and said, 'Oh yeah, you played for the Phillies,'" Samuel said. "I said, 'I played for the Blue Jays, too.' People who know me know how much I loved the Phillies and the fans in Philly."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Gardenhire ejected out of Twins game
MINNEAPOLIS -- Thursday's series finale between the Twins and White Sox was suspended for a short period of time in the seventh inning, after fans at the Metrodome began throwing objects onto the field of play.
With hats and various other objects being tossed from the stands after Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was ejected, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen raced onto the field and pulled his players off it.
The incident began when Gardenhire went out on the field to argue with third-base umpire Marty Foster about what he felt was a missed call.
With the White Sox leading 4-3, in the bottom of the seventh, outfielder Denard Span appeared to have been struck in the right leg by a pitch from White Sox starter John Danks. Home-plate umpire Bill Welke awarded Span first base for being hit, but Foster overruled the call and said that that because Span was squaring to bunt, he went far enough to constitute a swing.
Gardenhire immediately jumped out of the dugout and started arguing with Foster. He was tossed quickly, earning his fifth ejection of the season and 41st of his career.
"[Foster] said he bunted at him and I just wanted him to check and see," Gardenhire said. "Span got hit with a ball and I didn't think he bunted at him. But Marty was right to throw me out. You can't argue balls and strikes."
Before leaving the field following his ejection, Gardenhire argued with Foster for several minutes to get the entire crowd of 31,493 at the Metrodome on their feet. The announced crowd of 31,493 started shouting chants of "Gardy! Gardy!"
On his way off the field, Gardenhire then threw his hat into the air and punted it 15 feet high in protest.
"It was probably a little too much emotion," Gardenhire said of his kick after the game. "It got a little nuts out there. I felt bad it stopped the ballgame. I don't like that ... I'm just out there arguing for my team. That's all. Kicking the hat was probably a little much."
Although he kept apologizing for his actions, the Twins' skipper tried to lighten the situation a bit.
"I hope [Vikings head coach Brad Childress] saw that," Gardenhire added. "If he ever needs a kicker, I got good height on it."
The kick caused a ruckus from the crowd. Immediately after Gardenhire's action, fans began throwing hats of their own onto the field.
"I don't want anyone hurt," Guillen said. "I think the umpires do a good job and take control of the situation. I was not worried about hats. I saw a couple of balls flying on the field and it was a dangerous situation."
"What did I see get thrown? You name it," Danks added. "Everything from a hat to a beer bottle to a football, a Nerf football. It was different. It was something I had never seen before. I'll leave it at that."
The public address announcer at the Metrodome warned to fans that if objects continued to be thrown on the field, it would lead to the Twins forfeiting the game.
After approximately a five-minute delay with the PA announcer pleading to fans to calm things down, Guillen finally sent his club back on the field and the game was resumed.
Despite the seriousness of the incident at the time, both sides could laugh a little about it Gardenhire's tantrum.
"I knew Gardy was going to throw his hat eventually," said White Sox catcher and former Twin A.J. Pierzynski. "That's his go-to move. He usually doesn't kick it. That was kind of entertaining."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Cairo sparks Seattle in victory
SEATTLE -- Utility infielder Miguel Cairo has established a pretty steady role for the Mariners this season. A game at first base here, a start at second there, pinch-hitting, defense, your all-around glue guy that managers covet in their wistful dreams each night.
So it was a bit odd when, after Wednesday's 4-2 win against the Blue Jays to take the series, the rather attention-deflecting, light-hitting role player found himself boxed in at his locker with plenty of people eager to hear about the recent addition to his reputation -- that as an RBI and extra-base-hit machine.
With two doubles and three RBIs on the night, Cairo turned a fill-in start at second base for Jose Lopez into a performance that carried Seattle to its fifth win in its past six games and seventh in its past nine in front of 23,283 at Safeco Field.
"Something that I learned during my career is you always gotta be ready and prepared to go out to the game, no matter what, no matter if you don't play that day or whatever," said Cairo, who was making his 16th start this season. "You gotta come to the ballpark expecting to play and expecting to help the team that day."
Cairo frequently stopped himself in his postgame answers from saying the word "try." His point? You don't try to do something -- you step up, and as he put it: "You go out there, and you gotta do your job, that's the bottom line."
Cairo had the "doing" part down pat on Wednesday, and everyone took notice.
"Cairo was outstanding. Miguel, he's just a real pro," manager Jim Riggleman said. "He's the ultimate professional, and we really needed to get him in there for some at-bats, and he went just over and above tonight for us."
It certainly didn't start out that way, as Cairo whiffed in the first inning on a fastball from Dustin McGowan, who stifled the Mariners in a complete game earlier this season.
"The first at-bat, he threw me some fastballs that were pretty hard," Cairo said. "And I said, 'I gotta get on top of that and get set a little earlier and sooner.' "
That goal was accomplished just two innings later in the third, when he bruised the center field wall with a drive that drove home Ichiro Suzuki with two outs for the game's first run. And when Toronto erased Seattle's 2-0 deficit in the fifth on an Adam Lind two-run homer, Cairo provided the immediate answer in the bottom of the frame by taking another McGowan pitch and depositing it into the left-center-field gap for another two-bagger to score two runners and give Seattle its two-run lead again.
The surprise factor stemmed from the fact that Cairo had just two doubles -- and extra-base hits -- the entire season up to that point. And as a team that had a .376 slugging percentage entering the game, the Mariners will take some larger-sized hits from just about anywhere.
"We try to get him in there whenever we can, and it's maybe not been as often as we should've," Riggleman said. "But we'll try to get him in there more as we go along."
Cairo's offensive power assured Jarrod Washburn a win, as the left-hander had his fifth straight strong start by allowing two runs in six innings.
He showed plenty of fire in the fourth after a testy inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Washburn let fly what he termed "maybe one of the better splits I've ever thrown," to strike out Rod Barajas and end the inning. That was followed by a yell before he pounded his fist into his mitt while walking off the mound.
His lone mistake came on Lind's two-run homer in the fifth, and even though Riggleman came into the game concerned with Washburn throwing too many pitches for a third straight start, the lefty came out for a 1-2-3 sixth with two strikeouts.
"[Riggleman] tried talking me out of the game after the fifth inning but I told him I had one left," Washburn said. "So it worked out good."
A side note to the win was three innings of hitless relief from Cesar Jimenez, Sean Green, Arthur Rhodes and Brandon Morrow, who picked up his fifth save. And with its third consecutive series win, Seattle finds itself building a bit of momentum as it heads into a four-game series against the Tigers, although Washburn couldn't put a finger on the reason for the team's change. The Mariners are 8-4 since Riggleman took over.
"No, I really can't. It's frustrating because we're playing right now the way we envisioned ourselves playing," he said. "And I don't think we're doing anything differently as far as approach or how we're playing the game -- it's just things are clicking now. We're pitching well, we're playing good defense, we're getting the big hit when we need it. Seems like a different guy steps up every night. Cairo did a great job tonight. He got a chance to get in there and got some big hits."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Cubs' early offense backs Lilly
CHICAGO -- The Cubs were able to cover up Ted Lilly's mistakes Wednesday night.
Geovany Soto drove in three runs and Jim Edmonds hit a solo homer to back Lilly and lift Chicago to a 7-4 Interleague victory over Baltimore, which got two home runs from Jay Payton.
The Cubs resumed their winning ways at Wrigley Field after a one-game blip, and now have won 15 of their last 16 at home. Kerry Wood struck out the side in the ninth for his 20th save.
Lilly (8-5) helped himself, collecting a career-high two hits. But don't tell anyone.
"The fourth at-bat [in the sixth], they started throwing me changeups," Lilly said. "I definitely don't want the word to get out and have them start throwing me offspeed stuff. Let's keep that in this room here."
Let's talk about pitching. The lefty struck out four and served up five hits, including both of Payton's homers, over seven innings. It was his fifth straight win at Wrigley, although it was also the sixth time this season he's served up multiple home runs in a game. He didn't get his curve working until the fourth inning, and then it kicked in.
The Cubs gave Lilly a 4-0 cushion when they batted around in the first. Ryan Theriot doubled with one out, advanced on Derrek Lee's single and scored on Aramis Ramirez's single. Matt Albers (3-3), a last minute replacement for Brian Burres, who was ill, then walked Edmonds. Albers then left the game because of discomfort in his right shoulder. Soto greeted Lance Cormier with a two-run single, and Mark DeRosa hit an RBI single.
Lilly tried not to change his approach.
"Early leads in the game with so much left to go doesn't dictate a whole lot," he said. "I've seen too many things happen. Some clubs will score early and take some innings off, and the next thing you know, it's a close game late. You can lose on a broken-bat single or something crazy in the game.
"I wanted to throw zeroes up there," he said. "I made some mistakes again. Fortunately, I'm getting away with it because we can score a lot of runs."
After Payton hit his first homer in the Orioles second to close the gap to 4-2, the Cubs added two more runs in the second on a run-scoring fielder's choice by Edmonds and an RBI single by Soto.
Edmonds, who came into the game averaging one home run every 11 at-bats, third best among National League outfielders, improved the ratio with a solo shot leading off the fourth. It was his second homer in as many games. Just don't ask him about it.
"I'm not here to talk about my hitting," he said. "I'm just going to keep my head down and keep going out there and playing and help this team."
"He's worked hard, and he's done a really nice job in center field and now he's starting to supply some punch," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella, who has been looking for some power from the left side. "He gives you a good at-bat. He knows the strike zone and he's hitting the ball out of the ballpark and that's something we really needed, especially with all the injuries we have."
Add Kosuke Fukudome to the injury list. After playing six games on artificial turf in Toronto and Tampa Bay, the Cubs' outfielder was scratched Wednesday because of a sore calf. His status is day-to-day.
Edmonds has been on World Series teams, and likes what he sees of the Cubs.
"It's a solid team," he said. "We have a lot of great athletes. We have everything that we need to be there. We just need to play well. A lot of times, you put a good team on paper and it doesn't play well. We just have to stay consistent."
Piniella is trying to make the Cubs better, even if he can't always explain it. On Wednesday, he was still a little riled about the bad at-bats in the ninth inning the night before against the Orioles. The Cubs had the bases loaded with none out, but Orioles closer George Sherrill struck out the final three batters for the win.
"You're not going to win every game -- that is understood," Piniella said before his Cubs evened the series. "If we would've showed a little more patience at home plate, I think the outcome possibly could've been different. I learned some things last night. This is, what do you call it? Something in motion."
Someone suggested "progress."
"It's a progress in motion," Piniella said. "When you see things, you make adjustments."
What's "progress in motion" mean?
"'Progress in motion' -- was that a good word or bad word?" Piniella said. "Oh, what the heck, it's a work in progress. What's the difference -- you all know what I'm trying to say."
We're trying.
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Haren's arm, bat too much for Athletics
PHOENIX -- Dan Haren had a little something extra going Wednesday night when he took the Chase Field mound, because he was facing his former team, the Oakland A's.
His D-backs teammates also had seemed to play with a bit of an edge, as they rebounded from a blowout loss the night before with an 11-1 win over the A's.
"Maybe we took yesterday a little personal," Haren said, referring to the 15-1 pounding. "Obviously we came out flat yesterday."
They sure didn't Wednesday.
After Haren battled his way through a 27-pitch top of the first, the D-backs' stagnant offense came alive as they scored five times off Joe Blanton.
It started with hits from the first four batters, including a two-run double by Chad Tracy, and it finished with a two-out, three-run homer by Chris Young.
"Five runs in the first is big," D-backs manager Bob Melvin said. "CY's home run is big, not only for us, but for him. Everybody seemed like they put good at-bats together."
The offensive outburst continued in the third, when Haren helped himself with a two-out, three-run double over the head of Carlos Gonzalez in center. The hit came right after A's manager Bob Geren elected to intentionally walk Jeff Salazar to get to Haren, who now has five hits on the year, four of which are doubles.
"I wasn't trying to do too much with two strikes. I just spread out and tried to put the bat on the ball," Haren said. "He struck me out before on a pretty similar pitch, a ball starting on the plate and running in, and I just tried to put the bat on the ball. The outfielders play me in most of the time, so if I hit it good I get it by them. It was nice."
The D-backs piled on three more runs in the fifth, two of which came on a homer by Stephen Drew, and suddenly an offense that scored just eight runs in the last four games was up, 11-0.
"It's good, especially how we've been swinging the bats lately," Young said. "It's good to break out like this."
For his part, Haren mixed in more cut fastballs than usual to compensate for the fact that his former teammates in Oakland probably had a pretty good idea of what his repertoire is given that he pitched there from 2005-07.
Haren used the cut fastball often during Spring Training, but then got away from doing so early in the season. It can be an important pitch for him, because it gives him something other than a straight fastball when he falls behind in the count, 1-0 or 2-0.
"I think you can look at it both ways," he said. "They know what I throw pretty much and how I'm going to attack them. I know them a little bit, and I remember some of their strengths. I went out with a pretty aggressive approach."
Haren (7-4) lasted seven innings and allowed just one run on four hits. The right-hander fanned eight and walked just one.
"Drove in more runs than he actually gave up," Young said in summing up Haren's performance. "So he pretty much won the game on his own today."
While Haren certainly wanted to have a good performance against his former mates, it was difficult for him to watch his good friend Blanton struggle so much. The right-hander allowed eight runs before leaving after three innings.
"Obviously, I want to win the game, but like I said before, he's probably one of my best friends," Haren said. "It's bittersweet."
The win was much needed for the D-backs, who have struggled to put together a good stretch of baseball since going 20-8 in April. In spite of that, they still have a 4 1/2-game lead over the second-place Dodgers.
"This is a critical time for us," Haren said. "We're trying to find out what kind of team we are. I think we've really battled. We know what we're capable of. We've got a bunch of guys that can swing the bat, and I think we've leaned on our pitching and we'll continue to do that and score enough runs to win. I feel confident that this team will make a run eventually and hopefully extend whatever kind of lead we have."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
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