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Baseball roundup: Thursday’s action on the diamonds
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Thursday, May 21, 2009

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Washington Nationals starter Craig Stammen pitches in the second inning. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

With seven straight losses, the Washington Nationals turned to rookie starter Craig Stammen on Thursday night.

The triple-A callup didn’t disappoint. Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn had RBI singles in the eighth inning to help the Nationals end their skid with a 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates as Washington made sure the rookie’s gutsy effort wasn’t a footnote in another disappointing defeat.

"I thought I controlled my emotions and my thought process pretty well," said Stammen, who allowed four runs on four hits in 6 1-3 innings, walked one and struck out three.

Stammen retired the first 12 batters he faced in his first big league game, but couldn’t hold a 3-0 lead and left the game trailing.

"I just didn’t make pitches when I needed to," said the 25-year-old right-hander. "The third time through the lineup, I needed to make some better pitches."

Stamman, who had his contract purchased from triple-A Syracuse earlier in the day, didn’t allow a base runner until Adam LaRoche led off the fifth with a double over the first-base bag.

"Whenever somebody comes out there and gives you an effort like that, you obviously want to do everything you can to reward them," Zimmerman said. "It was nice to come back and get (Stammen) off the hook because he did throw so well."

Elsewhere in the National League it was: St. Louis 3 Chicago Cubs 1; Arizona 4 Florida 3; Colorado 9 Atlanta 0; Philadelphia 12 Cincinnati 5; Milwaukee 4 Houston 3; and San Diego 3 San Francisco 2.

At Washington, LaRoche homered for the Pirates, who had won five straight.

"We just battle. We were down early and then they fought back," Pirates starter Ian Snell said. "Unfortunately, that’s a good lineup. You can’t contain them for much longer, and they scored some runs."

The Nationals bullpen - which had been 1-15 with 13 blown saves in 19 chances - came through for a change.

Julian Tavarez (1-3) got the victory with 1 2-3 innings of scoreless relief and Joel Hanrahan got three outs for his fourth save in seven opportunities.

Washington’s comeback bailed Stammen out and prevented a season-high eighth straight loss.

Trailing 4-3 in the eighth, Cristian Guzman started the decisive rally with a one-out single off Tom Gorzelanny (1-1) and moved to second on Nick Johnson’s single to centre.

Zimmerman followed with a tying single to right, the 39th straight game he has reached base safely. Dunn put Washington ahead with the fourth straight single of the inning.

Josh Bard had two RBIs for Washington.

The Nationals staked Stammen to a 2-0 lead in the second as the rookie set down 19 of the first 20 hitters he faced.

"(Stammen) didn’t look intimidated the whole night," Washington manager Manny Acta said. "He attacked the strike zone, worked fast, had very good sink on his fastball and just made it look easy.

"As he found out later, it’s not that easy, but he did a very nice job for us."

Josh Willingham drew a leadoff walk and moved to third when Willie Harris doubled to right. Bard’s grounder scored Willingham and Anderson Hernandez followed with a sacrifice fly for the 2-0 lead.

In the fourth, Bard’s two-out single up the middle made it 3-0, scoring Willingham, who had doubled down the left-field line.

Pittsburgh cut the lead to 3-1 in the fifth. LaRoche doubled to lead off the inning, moved to third on Brandon Moss’ grounder and scored on a bouncer to short by Andy LaRoche.

Adam LaRoche’s seventh homer tied the game in the seventh. Nate r

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Baseball’s highest scoring team picked a bad time to have their bats to go silent.

The Boston Red Sox beat Toronto 5-1 on Thursday to complete three-game sweep of the Blue Jays, who saw their lead in the American League East whittled down to just half a game over their division rivals.

"I don’t think anybody in this clubhouse is happy," Toronto manager Cito Gaston said before leaving for a three-game series in Atlanta. "We certainly have to put this behind us and move on and go down to Atlanta and see if we can play a little better baseball."

Red Sox starter Jon Lester escaped jams in each of the first four innings, blanked Toronto through six.

The high scoring Blue Jays were held to just five runs in the three-game series and only one off Lester (3-4).

"As he got into the flow of the game, he got better," manager Terry Francona said. "As he feels good about himself, he’ll relax a little bit."

Toronto fell to 4-5 against AL East opponents - 3-0 against last-place Baltimore and 1-5 against Boston and the New York Yankees.

"If we are going to be in first place, we will have to beat the Sox and the Yanks," Lyle Overbay said. "We can beat these teams. We just have to figure out how."

Elsewhere in the American League it was: Minnesota 20 Chicago White Sox 1; Cleveland 8 Kansas City 3; Detroit 4 Texas 3; Tampa Bay 6 Oakland 5; N.Y. Yankees 7 Baltimore 4; and L.A. Angels 3 Seattle 0.

At Boston, Lester held Toronto to one run on eight hits in 6 1-3 innings with four strikeouts and one walk after allowing 13 earned runs in 10 innings in losing his two previous starts .

"You hit a little bit of a rough patch, you think you can’t get anybody out," Lester said, "so you need to just get back to the basics of throwing strikes and throwing to halves of the plate" instead of aiming for the corners.

Boston is 15-2 in its last 17 home games as Lester got all the support he needed in a three-run first.

Two came on Jason Bay’s 11th straight homer with runners on base, a club record. His opposite field shot into Boston’s bullpen in right field was his 13th of the season, second most in the AL.

"To hit it that far, he’s got some strong wrists on him," Francona said.

Boston led 5-0 before Aaron Hill singled in Toronto’s run in the seventh.

Bay, a native of Trail, B.C., broke a tie with Kevin Youkilis and Tony Conigliaro for most consecutive homers by a Red Sox player without a solo shot. He is one behind the major-league record set by Hank Aaron in 1970 and tied by Ken Griffey Jr. in 1999.

Lester left with one out in the seventh after a walk and a single put runners at first and second. Hill then lined an RBI-single to left off Ramon Ramirez before Adam Lind fouled out to Bay in left field with the bases loaded.

Robert Ray (1-2) made his fourth major-league start after getting his first victory last Saturday when he worked eight innings of a 2-1 win over the Chicago White Sox.

Jacoby Ellsbury doubled in the first to extend his hitting streak to 16 games. He took third on Dustin Pedroia’s groundout and scored on another groundout by David Ortiz.

Youkilis then walked and scored on Bay’s homer that hit the top of the five-foot high fence in front of Boston’s bullpen, just beyond the reach of Alex Rios.

The Red Sox made it 4-0 in the third on Pedroia’s double and Youkilis’ RBI single. They scored their last run in the fifth on Pedroia’s RBI single.

Twins 20 White Sox 1

At Chicago, Joe Mauer hit a grand slam, two doubles and drove in six runs as Minnesota routed White Sox, matching their most-lopsided loss in team history.

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Indians 8 Royals 3

At Kansas City, Mo., Victor Martinez drove in three runs as Cleveland got past Zack Greinke by getting to the Royals bullpen.

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Tigers 4 Rangers 3

At Detroit, Miguel Cabrera hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning as the Tigers won their sixth straight game, defeating Texas.

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Rays 6 Athletics 5

At St. Petersburg, Fla., pinch-hitter Ben Zobrist tied the game with a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth and Carl Crawford won it with an RBI single as Tampa Bay beat Oakland.

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Yankees 7 Orioles 4

At New York, Robinson Cano helped the Yankees race out to a big lead after losing Joba Chamberlain to a leg injury in the first inning, driving in three runs against Baltimore for their ninth straight win.

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Angels 3 Mariners 0

At Seattle, Juan Rivera, Gary Matthews Jr. and Howie Kendrick accounted for the Angels’ first three hits of the game with home runs, and Joe Saunders made the lead stand up over the Mariners.McLouth walked and LaRoche ripped a 2-2 fastball into the second deck in right field.

Andy LaRoche followed with a run-scoring single to centre, giving the Pirates a 4-3 lead and chasing Stammen.

"(Stammen) was impressive. I think he has a chance to be around for a while. He’s good," Adam LaRoche said.

Snell allowed three runs on four hits, walked one and struck out six.

Cardinals 3 Cubs 1

At St. Louis, Adam Wainwright came within an out of the Cardinals’ second complete game in their three-game sweep of Chicago.

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Diamondbacks 4 Marlins 3

At Miami, Mark Reynolds hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning and Arizona took advantage of Florida’s weary bullpen to rally for a victory.

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Rockies 9 Braves 0

At Atlanta, Aaron Cook pitched a four-hit shutout and Todd Helton’s grand slam ended Colorado’s power slump as they spoiled Kris Medlen’s debut with a win over the Braves.

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Phillies 12 Reds 5

At Cincinnati, Chase Utley homered and drove in four runs, and Philadelphia’s powerful offence overcame another disappointing performance by a starter to beat the Reds.

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Brewers 4 Astros 3

At Houston, Prince Fielder drove in two with a single and Corey Hart had an RBI double in a three-run seventh as Milwaukee rallied to beat the Astros.

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Padres 3 Giants 2

At San Diego, Scott Hairston singled in the winning run to cap a two-run rally in the ninth inning and give the Padres a win over San Francisco.

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