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Baseball roundup: Sunday’s action on the diamonds
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Sunday, May 10, 2009

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Cincinnati Reds’ Joey Votto hits a solo home run off St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Kyle McClellan in the seventh inning. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Al Behrman)

The Cincinnati Reds hit five home runs, including a pinch-hit solo shot from one of their pitchers, but still came up short against St. Louis.

Cincinnati’s offence included two solo shots in the ninth off Ryan Franklin (1-0) to tie it, but Colby Rasmus’ double in the 10th inning sent the Caridnals to an 8-7 victory Sunday that salvaged the final game of the series and left everyone shocked over what had just happened.

"That was a blast," said Jay Bruce, who hit one of the Reds’ homers.

It was dramatic right down to the 401st and final pitch - Paul Janish fouled out with the bases loaded to end it after four hours, 23 minutes.

"What a game," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "Good luck asking me questions because I don’t remember much of anything except a 1-2 slider that Janish popped up. I can’t think of anything else that happened, really."

Everyone was a bit numb.

Coming into the series, St. Louis’ staff had given up only 11 homers, the fewest in the majors. The Reds hit seven in the last two games, including those two in the ninth that got the crowd of 27,664 revved.

Jerry Hairston led off with a full-count homer. Micah Owings, the Reds’ fifth starter and one of their top pinch hitters, came to the plate with two outs, worked the count full, fouled off three pitches, then hit a slider for his first homer.

Owings raised his right arm in triumph as he rounded second base on his sixth career homer. He was pummelled in the dugout by teammates and took a curtain call for the fans.

"That’s like what you do in the backyard - 3-2, bottom of the ninth," Bruce said. "We were jumping around in the dugout. It was awesome."

Elsewhere in the NL it was: New York 8 Pittsburgh 4; Chicago 4 Milwaukee 2; Atlanta 4 Philadelphia 2; Colorado 3 Florida 2; Houston 12 San Diego 5; Arizona 10 Washington 8; and San Francisco 7 Los Angeles 5 (13 innings).

At Cincinnati, Bruce, Adam Rosales and Joey Votto of Toronto also homered for the Reds, who had won three in a row for their best record in three years. Votto was out of the starting lineup for the fourth straight game because of the flu, but had a pinch-hit homer off Kyle McClellan.

Franklin hadn’t allowed a run all season and had given up only four hits in his previous 13 2-3 innings.

"I had a good run there," he said. "I made two mistakes, pretty much."

Rasmus quickly changed the mood with his RBI double off Francisco Cordero (0-2), who is perfect in nine save chances but has lost twice when pitching with the score tied.

Over? Not even close.

Cincinnati loaded the bases with two outs in the 10th against Blaine Boyer. Right-hander Chris Perez came on and got Janish to foul out, picking up his first save in two chances this season.

For the first time all weekend, the Cardinals could smile.

"That was really important," said Chris Duncan, who drove in three runs. "We didn’t want to get swept."

The Cardinals ended Edinson Volquez’s scoreless-inning streak at 16 - he let in a run in the first with his errant throw - and scored seven times off the right-hander. Skip Schumaker had a pair of doubles and scored twice for the Cardinals, and Duncan drove in three runs with a double and a single.

Albert Pujols’ solo homer off Volquez snapped his 0-for-11 drought. Pujols’ 12th homer was his only hit during the three-game series.

Mets 8 Pirates 4

At New York, Livan Hernandez survived a shaky start to go six innings as the Mets welcomed manager Jerry Manuel back from his one-game suspension with their seventh straight victory.

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Cubs 4 Brewers 2

At Milwaukee, Alfonso Soriano hit a towering two-run homer in a four-run third inning as the Cubs beat the Brewers to avoid a series sweep.

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Braves 4 Phillies 2

At Philadelphia, Casey Kotchman had three hits and three RBIs and Kenshin Kawakami pitched six effective innings as Atlanta rallied to get the win.

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Rockies 3 Marlins 2

At Denver, Aaron Cook pitched six solid innings and Troy Tulowitzki homered as part of a third consecutive multi-hit game, leading Colorado to the win..

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Astros 12 Padres 5

At Houston, Miguel Tejada and Carlos Lee each drove in four runs to help Astros ace Roy Oswalt get his first win of the season.

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Diamondbacks 10 Nationals 8

At Phoenix, Chris Snyder and Eric Byrnes each drove in three runs and the Diamondbacks gave manager A.J. Hinch his first victory.

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Giants 7 Dodgers 5 (13 innings)

At Los Angeles, Randy Winn hit a tiebreaking, two-run single with the bases loaded in the 13th inning and finished with four hits, leading San Francisco over Dodgers.

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Injuries should have crippled Toronto’s starting rotation this year. Instead the Blue Jays have managed to unearth some potential gems and look surprisingly good on the mound.

Brett Cecil yielded five hits over eight impressive innings to earn his first major league victory as the Blue Jays beat the Oakland Athletics 5-0 on Sunday for their seventh win in 10 games.

Alex Rios drove in three runs for the Jays with a solo homer, a sacrifice fly and a ninth-inning RBI single to back Cecil (1-0), the latest blossoming prospect in Toronto’s rotation.

The 22-year-old left-hander struck out six in his second big league start for the Blue Jays, who headed home from their five-game California road swing alone atop the AL East despite going 3-2.

Injuries to several starters have forced the Blue Jays to reconfigure their rotation, but the replacements have been phenomenal so far. Cecil followed up reliever Brian Tallet’s outstanding seven-inning start Saturday with a gem of his own, allowing none of Oakland’s seven baserunners to reach third.

Cecil, a supplemental first-round pick in 2007, pitched six strong innings in his major league debut in Toronto last Tuesday. He didn’t get a game ball from his first win, but he expects to find one to send back home to his parents in Maryland.

"I’ve got 100 text messages to read right now," he said. "I didn’t have my best stuff early, but as the game went on, I got a little better control, got a lot of groundballs."

Either Cecil or Tallet likely won’t have a rotation spot once the Blue Jays are fully healthy.

"We’ll just go with whoever is pitching best," said manager Cito Gaston, noting both pitchers’ history of success in the bullpen. "It’s going to be a tough decision, but that’s all right. If they keep pitching that way, I’d like to make that decision."

Elsewhere in the AL it was: Boston 4 Tampa Bay 3; Seattle 5 Minnesota 3; Los Angeles 4 Kansas City 3; Detroit 5 Cleveland 3; New York 5 Baltimore 3; and Texas 7 Chicago 1.

At Oakland, Calif., Dallas Braden (3-4) gave up nine hits and three runs in six innings for the A’s, who have lost six of eight. At 11-18 with the AL’s worst offence in several categories, the A’s have matched their second-worst start since moving to Oakland in 1968.

"He’s hard to explain," Geren said of Cecil. "From the side, it didn’t look like his stuff was that superior. The guys said there was nothing over the plate. Everything was tailing away, breaking ball and changeup. It was hard to explain."

Braden pitched through a scary moment in the first inning when a drive by Vernon Wells hit the left-hander in his pitching hand before ricocheting hard off his right shoulder. Braden dropped to the grass as Wells joined the A’s clustered around the pitcher, but Braden stayed in the game.

Braden went for post-game X-rays on his hand, but returned to the clubhouse about an hour after the game when they were negative.

"He didn’t say much between innings," said Jack Cust, who went 1-for-4. "Dallas is a tough kid. You have to do a lot to get him out of the game. His hand looked pretty bad to me. He went out there and kept pitching. That’s the kind of player he is. We want him on the mound. He’s our guy right now."

The only solid starter in the A’s painfully young rotation prevented any big rallies by Toronto’s potent offence, but Braden’s teammates were shut out for the third time in his starts already this season.

"This is the best West Coast trip we’ve had in a long time," said Aaron Hill, who had two hits and a ninth-inning RBI. "Hopefully we can keep this momentum going. Whenever we come on this West Coast trip, we’ve had some interesting games, and not always good games. It’s nice to come out here and actually do some damage."

Red Sox 4 Rays 3

At Boston, Jonathan Papelbon powered his way out of a ninth inning jam with three straight strikeouts after Jason Bay of Trail, B.C., doubled home the go-ahead run in the eighth, and the Red Sox beat Tampa Bay.

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Mariners 5 Twins 3

At Minneapolis, Ken Griffey Jr. hit a tying, two-run homer in the eighth inning to rouse Seattle in a victory over the Twins that stopped their six-game losing streak.

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Angels 4 Royals 3

At Anaheim, Calif., Torii Hunter made a leaping catch above the left-centre field fence to rob Miguel Olivo of a tying homer in the ninth inning, and Los Angeles held off Kansas City.

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Tigers 5 Indians 3

At Cleveland, Rick Porcello extended Detroit’s streak of strong pitching, and the Tigers completed a three-game sweep of the struggling Indians.

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Yankees 5 Orioles 3

At Baltimore, Johnny Damon hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning, the biggest blow in a long-ball surge that carried New York past the Orioles.

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Rangers 7 White Sox 1

At Chicago, Hank Blalock homered twice, Vicente Padilla allowed one hit in seven innings and the Texas Rangers ended Bartolo Colon’s dominance against them by beating the White Sox.

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