Baseball roundup: Thursday's action on the diamonds
Published Friday September 5th, 2008
At this point in another dismal season, the Cincinnati Reds are looking for any reason to feel a little better about themselves.
How about this: At least they're not in last place. Toronto native Joey Votto hit a solo homer and a tiebreaking, bases-loaded single in the eighth inning Thursday, completing the Reds' rally from a five-run deficit to an 8-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, who got to stay all by their lonesome at the bottom of the NL Central standings.
"It was real important for us," manager Dusty Baker said. "They were gaining on us, trying to get out of last place."
Instead, the Pirates blew a big early lead, gave up three runs in the eighth inning and lost for the 11th time in their last 13 games. A victory over the Reds would have completed a series sweep and left the two teams tied in the loss column.
"You couldn't have scripted a better day," manager John Russell lamented. "We're going for a sweep and we're spotted five runs."
And yet, with seemingly nothing to play for, the Reds somehow found a rallying point.
"Generally, we're just finishing off strong, trying to win as many as we can and hope it transfers to next year," Votto said.
Elsewhere in the NL it was: Atlanta 2 Washington 0; San Diego 5 Milwaukee 2.
At Cincinnati, Craig Hansen (0-3) couldn't hold a one-run lead in the eighth, when his wild pitch let in the tying run. Hansen has given up runs in six of his nine appearances with the Pirates, who got him from Boston as part of the three-team trade involving Canadian outfielder Jason Bay.
He came in throwing 96 m.p.h. fastballs, but most of them were off the mark. He walked two of the batters he faced and threw the wild pitch.
"He was trying to do too much in a situation like that," Russell said. "He wants to come in and throw hard and dominate the inning, and it got away from him."
Votto's run-scoring single off T.J. Beam put the Reds ahead for the first time, and Edwin Encarnacion followed with a sacrifice fly.
Nick Masset (1-0), who came to the Reds in the trade that sent Ken Griffey Jr. to the White Sox, got the victory despite giving up a solo homer to Nate McLouth in the eighth. Francisco Cordero pitched out of a threat in the ninth for his 27th save in 33 chances.
The Pirates swept the first series at Great American Ball Park in 2003. Since then, the two mirror-image franchises have shared misery and, quite often, the bottom spots in the NL Central.
At 59-80, the Pirates are two defeats away from clinching their 16th straight losing season, which would tie the major-league record held by the 1933-48 Phillies. The Reds are 62-78, leaving them within four defeats of their eighth straight losing season. It's their longest such slump in a half-century.
The Pirates pulled ahead 5-0 in the second inning against Josh Fogg, who left after three innings with a strained groin. Chris Gomez hit a two-run shot off Fogg, the 37-year-old infielder's first homer since April 14, 2007, when his grand slam off Kansas City's Joel Peralta accounted for his only homer of last season.
It was another poor showing by Fogg, who has only one victory in 10 starts since returning from a sore back. His ERA over that span is 6.30. He strained his groin while tagging up on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third.
The Reds pulled even by scoring a run in five consecutive innings off left-hander Tom Gorzelanny and the Pirates bullpen. Jay Bruce and Votto hit solo homers.
"I was just trying to do too much," Gorzelanny said. "I left a lot of balls up."
Braves 2 Nationals 0
At Atlanta, James Parr tossed six sharp innings in his major league debut, leading the Braves to a win over Washington.
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Padres 5 Brewers 2
At Milwaukee, Will Venable hit his first career homer and San Diego handed the slumping Brewers their fourth straight loss.
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The Toronto Blue Jays don't want to be known as spoilers, but that's exactly the part they have played against the Minnesota Twins this season.
Travis Snider crushed his first big-league homer, a massive blast to dead centre, to highlight a three-hit performance in the Jays' 9-0 romp over the playoff-contending Twins on Thursday.
The win also gave Toronto a 6-0 sweep of the season series with the Twins (77-63), who fell 1 1-2 games back of the idle Chicago White Sox for top spot in the AL Central after completing a gruelling 14-day, 15-game road trip at 5-9.
"We've got to get home and see if we can right the ship," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.
Led by Snider, at 20 the youngest player in the majors, and sophomore starter Jesse Litsch, who pitched his second career shutout for his 10th win, the Blue Jays (73-66) moved seven games over .500 for the first time since finishing the 2006 season at 87-75.
Snider, the 14th overall pick in the 2006 draft, has already impressed the Jays with his poise at the plate and ability to handle the bat.
"Man, he's something," said Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston. "He's very calm, he doesn't get excited, he handles himself up there well, even when he takes walks.
"I think we might have something here."
Elswehere in the AL it was: Los Angeles 7 Detroit 1; Kansas City 5 Oakland 4 (1st game, 10 innings); Kansas City 9 Oakland 6 (2nd game); and Tampa Bay 7 New York 5.
At Toronto, Snider's solo shot off Kevin Slowey (11-9) in the fifth gave the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead (he became the fourth-youngest Blue Jay to ever homer) and his two-out RBI single in the sixth tacked on more insurance
Brought up last Friday for a series at Yankee Stadium following the trade of Canadian slugger Matt Stairs to the Philadelphia Phillies, Snider was front and centre in the final two games with the Twins, and got plenty of love from the crowd of 25,128.
He picked up three hits in the 5-4, 11-inning win Wednesday, playing a catalyst's role in the game-tying rally in the ninth and in the winning rally in the 11th.
"Pretty excited, I was trying not to sprint, it was tough for me," Snider said of his trip around the bases. "It was a good moment to take it all in as you're travelling around the bases getting a good welcome from the home crowd."
While September stats are sometimes viewed as fool's gold since they can be amassed against inferior or unmotivated competition, and his 7-for-15 run in four big-league games is far too small a sample size to draw any conclusions from, Snider is certainly giving team officials lots to think about.
"It's just the way he's done it," said Gaston. "You put a kid in the game in New York and if that's not the big-leagues, there's no big-leagues. He carries himself well there and continues to do it well here with a contending team. It's the confidence he has in himself, which is half the battle.
"There's a lot of guys who should have been in the big-leagues but they just couldn't handle the pressure. This kid seems to handle the pressure well."
The Blue Jays are gauging his ability to contribute in 2009 over the remainder of the season to determine whether they need to upgrade at DH or not, but Snider is already winning over his teammates.
"When he gets in the box you can see that he's in there to do some damage," centre-fielder Vernon Wells said before the game. "It's been great watching him so far. When he takes pitches, he's balanced, when he takes his swings, he's balanced.
"And there's some authority when that bat goes through the zone."
Wells did some damage of his own Thursday, opening the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first and ripping a solo blast to left for a 4-0 lead in the seventh. A two-run double by Joe Inglett, a two-run single by Alex Rios and an RBI double by Adam Lind in the eighth broke things wide open.
That was plenty for Litsch (10-8), who allowed only four hits and two walks. He's now allowed just three earned runs in 28 2-3 innings since returning from triple-A Syracuse last month.
"I'm up here throwing four-seamers now, that's what I went down there to work on," said Litsch. "Hitting spots with my two-seamer was really key tonight. ... I feel like I'm pounding the zone a lot more now."
Angels 7 Tigers 1
At Detroit, Torii Hunter homered to back Ervin Santana, and the Los Angeles beat the Tigers and cut its magic number for clinching their fourth AL West title in five seasons to six games.
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Royals 5 Athletics 4 (1st game, 10 innings)
Royals 9 Athletics 6 (2nd game)
At Kansas City, Jose Guillen drove in three runs, Kyle Davies ended a four-game losing streak and the Royals beat Oakland to complete a doubleheader sweep.
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Rays 7 Yankees 5
At St. Petersburg, Fla., Scott Kazmir allowed one hit in six scoreless innings, and Tampa Bay's bullpen weathered ninth-inning home runs by Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez to hang on for a victory over New York.
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