Posts for 'Teams' Category

Lidge's Balk Forces Phillies To Go Extras For Win:  Brad Lidge  balked home the tying run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, forcing the Philadelphia Phillies to play three more innings before beating the NL West-leading San Diego Padres 3-2 Friday night on a perfect slide by Jimmy Rollins.

Rollins doubled to the right-field wall off rookie Ernesto Frieri (0-1) leading off the 12th and came around to score on Placido Polanco's single to center. Luis Durango made a strong throw to catcher Yorvit Torrealba, but Rollins slid wide to avoid the tag and reached back with his left hand to touch the plate. Umpire James Hoye signaled safe as Rollins popped up and clapped his hands.

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More than a dozen young Hollywood stars, including Zachary Levi of "Chuck," Clark Duke of "Greek" and Naya Rivera of "Glee" have joined forces for a public service announcement in support a cause that's recently become close to my heart--innovative cancer research.  Alex Gordon hit a leadoff double and scored on Greg Blanco's groundout in the ninth inning, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Gordon also homered, while Mitch Maier and Yuniesky Betancourt added two hits apiece for the Royals, who snapped a four-game losing streak to the A's. Newly acquired reliever Jesse Chavez pitched two scoreless innings for the win before Joakim Soria worked the ninth for his 30th save in 32 chances. The Royals bounced back after getting shut out by Oakland's Trevor Cahill a day earlier and have won four of five following their five-game losing streak.

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Hiroki Kuroda threw eight outstanding innings, Matt Kemp drove in both runs and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the offensively inept New York Mets 2-0 Thursday night. It was the Dodgers' second consecutive 2-0 win, having edged San Francisco a night earlier.

The Mets lost their fourth in a row and fell to 1-7 on their 11-game road trip, with three shutout losses. They are scoreless in their last 17 innings after going 24 straight innings without a run last weekend in San Francisco.Kuroda outpitched countryman Hisanori Takahashi in the sixth major league meeting of starters born in Japan.

A pinch-hit RBI single in the 14th inning by Chris Snyder gave the Arizona Diamondbacks a 4-3 victory over New York on Wednesday night, completing a three-game sweep of the fading Mets.

Snyder, the last position player available for Arizona, hit a 2-2 pitch from Fernando Nieve (2-4) over the head of left fielder Jason Bay to bring home Justin Upton, who had led off the inning with a double.

The Mets fell to 1-6 on their 10-game Western trip after the All-Star break and remained 6 1/2 games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East. They finish the trip with three games against the Dodgers in Los Angeles starting Friday night. Five Arizona relievers shut out New York on one hit over the last eight innings. Blaine Boyer (2-2) was perfect over the final two, striking out two, to get the victory.

Nate Schierholtz  hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning and the San Francisco Giants defeated Los Angeles 5-2 Monday night, keeping the Dodgers winless since the All-Star break.

The Giants' 10th win in their last 12 games moved them past Colorado into second place in the NL West, four games behind idle San Diego.

The Dodgers have lost five in a row, including a four-game sweep at St. Louis, since the break and seven of their last 11. They dominated the Giants in the first half, winning five of six, including a three-game sweep last month in San Francisco.

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Roy Halladay hit Marlon Byrd twice and gave up two-run homers to Geovany Soto and Alfonso Soriano after each errant throw, sending the Chicago Cubs to an 11-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday night.

Byrd became the first Cubs player in 105 years to be hit by a pitch 16 times in a season and Chicago took advantage of a rare wild night for Halladay, winning three of four in its first series since the All-Star break.

Halladay had tossed 18 consecutive scoreless innings before Chicago's four-run second, which began with All-Star Byrd getting nailed. Soto hit a two-run homer with one out and the Cubs added two more.

A similar scenario played out in the sixth, only this time it was Soriano hitting a drive to left after Byrd got hit in the back by a breaking ball. Soriano's 17th homer made it 6-2.

Gorzelanny (5-5) allowed three runs, two earned, and five hits in 6 2-3 innings. The left-hander walked five and struck out five while improving to 3-0 with a 3.06 ERA in his last three starts.

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Carlos Lee had three hits, including a tie-breaking RBI single in the eighth inning, and the Houston Astros rallied from a three-run deficit to beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 on Tuesday night. Colorado starter Jeff Francis left after seven innings with a 3-2 lead but the Rockies' bullpen could not protect it.

Pinch-hitter Michael Bourn singled off Matt Belisle (1-2) to start the eighth. He went to second on a balk and advanced to third on Tommy Manzella's one-out infield single. Franklin Morales relieved and Lance Berkman reached on an RBI fielder's choice. Rafael Betancourt relieved and Lee hit a broken-bat single to give the Astros their first lead.

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Armando Galarraga squeezed the ball in his mitt, stepped on first base with his right foot and was ready to celebrate. What happened next will be the talk of baseball for the rest of this season and likely a lot longer: the perfect game that wasn't.

Umpire Jim Joyce emphatically called Cleveland's Jason Donald safe, the Detroit Tigers argued and a chorus of groans and boos echoed in Comerica Park. Then Joyce emphatically said he was wrong and later, in tears, hugged Galarraga and apologized.

"It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the (stuff) out of it," Joyce said, looking and sounding distraught as he paced in the umpires' locker room. "I just cost that kid a perfect game."

"I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay," he said after the Tigers' 3-0 win.

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David Ross and Chipper Jones each drove in three runs, Derek Lowe remained undefeated in his career against Pittsburgh  and the surging Atlanta Braves beat the Pirates 7-3 on Friday night. The Braves had 13 hits, including three by Ross, while improving to 8-2 in their last 10 games.

Ross and Jones each had bases-loaded hits. Ross had a three-run double in the first and Jones knocked Zach Duke (3-5) out of the game with a two-run single in the sixth.

Lowe (7-4) gave up only one run on four hits and one walk in seven innings. He improved to 9-0 in nine career starts against Pittsburgh. The Braves, 17-8 in May, remained 1 1/2 games behind first-place Philadelphia in the NL East.

Mike Pelfrey and the New York Mets pulled off a most extraordinary pitching feat, shutting out hard-hitting Philadelphia for the third straight game and handing the flailing Phillies a 3-0 loss Thursday night.

Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and the NL champions got swept in the series without scoring a single run — it marked the first time since 1983 that Philadelphia was blanked three days in a row.

Pelfrey (7-1) and a pair of relievers held the Phillies to four singles while winning their fifth consecutive game. The big right-hander followed top efforts by knuckleballer R.A. Dickey and Japanese newcomer Hisanori Takahashi as the Mets threw back-to-back-to-back blankings for the first time since 1988.

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