Sunday, September 4, 2011
The Vicksburg Post
mlb
Red Sox snap out of funk, slam Rangers
Dodgers take down Atlanta in 10 innings ATLANTA (AP) — Dee Gordon scored the go-ahead run on Juan Rivera’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers won their season-best sixth straight game with a 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night. The speedy Gordon, who entered the game as a pinchrunner in the eighth, doubled off rookie Anthony Varvaro (0-1) to begin the 10th, advanced to third on James Loney’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Rivera’s flyout. Dodgers closer Javy Guerra, the fifth Los Angles relief pitcher, retired Michael Bourn, Martin Prado and Brian McCann in order to earn his 15th save in 16 chances. Atlanta, which began the night with an 8 1/2-game lead in the NL wild-card standings, has lost two straight and dropped to 27-19 since the AllStar break. The Braves, who fell to 14-9 in extra-inning games, missed a chance to win it in the ninth. With two out, Jose Costanza beat out an infield single against Hong-Chih Kuo. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly brought in Mike MacDougal (2-1), who allowed a single to Alex Gonzalez before striking out pinch-hitter Brooks Conrad. Los Angeles took a 1-0 lead in the second on A.J. Ellis’ second homer. Atlanta tied it in the second when Dan Uggla hit his 32nd homer. Uggla has hit safely in 50 of his last 57 games. Atlanta’s Mike Minor allowed one run and six hits with
By The Associated Press
Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp catches a fly ball in the fourth inning of Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Braves. two walks and seven strikeouts in six innings. The lefthander had won three straight decisions. Nathan Eovaldi gave up one run, three hits, five walks and struck out five. The righthander was coming off a loss last Sunday to Colorado but was 3-1 in his first four starts. Atlanta relievers Eric O’Flaherty, Jonny Venters and closer Craig Kimbrel combined to allow two hits and two walks with five strikeouts in the seventh, eighth and ninth. The Braves dropped to 20-2 when O’Flaherty, Venters and Kimbrel pitch in the same game. Scott Elbert got the first out of the seventh for Los Angeles. Kenley Jansen allowed one hit and struck out four over the next 1 2/3 innings. Atlanta failed to capitalize in the fourth after McCann and Uggla walked on eight straight balls, but Chipper Jones and Freddie Freeman flew out and Jason Heyward struck out. Loney went 2-for-3 and is hitting .463 in a span of 54 atbats over his last 13 games, but Rivera, who entered with a .412 average in 51 career atbats against Atlanta, struck out in his first three times up before driving in the deciding run.
Carolina sinks M-Braves with huge comeback By The Associated Press In one nightmarish inning, the Mississippi Braves let a seemingly easy victory slip away. Carolina scored nine runs in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday night, quickly erasing a six-run deficit before going on to beat the M-Braves 10-9. Bill Rhinehart and Cody Puckett started Carolina’s big comeback with back-to-back homers to cut it to 7-3. The Mudcats then got five consecutive hits, including a tworun single by Brodie Greene to take an 8-7 lead. Rhinehart added an RBI groundout and Jake Kahauleio hit a sacrifice fly to make it
B5
10-7. The M-Braves scored twice in the ninth to get within a run, but left the tying run at third. Ernesto Mejia homered twice for the M-Braves and went 3-for-5 with four RBIs. Cory Harrilchak was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored. Rhinehart drove in three runs for Carolina. The loss snapped a fourgame winning streak for the M-Braves as they wind down the season. Mississippi and Carolina will play today at 5:15 p.m. in Kinston, N.C., then conclude the season on Monday with a game beginning at 11 a.m.
The Red Sox had managed all of two runs during a brief two-game skid. The offensive drought ended with flurry, though, as Boston scored eight times in the fourth inning Saturday, including a grand slam by Carl Crawford, in a 12-7 win over the Texas Rangers. “That was our inning to hit and luckily nobody missed pitches,” said Josh Reddick, who had two of his career-high four hits in the fourth. Reddick led off with a single and scored right away when Jarrod Saltalamacchia followed with a home run. The Red Sox added six more hits in 13 at-bats, highlighted by Crawford’s two-out slam to right. The big inning gave Erik Bedard (5-9) more than enough run support to get his first win as a member of the Red Sox. Bedard went six innings, allowing three runs and five hits. He walked four and struck out six. Dustin Pedroia barely missed a grand slam, hitting a shot high off the center-field wall with the bases loaded in the sixth as the Red Sox tagged six Texas pitchers for 16 hits. Adrian Beltre drove in two runs and Esteban German hit a solo homer, his first of the season, to open the ninth for Texas. Colby Lewis (11-10) lasted only 3 1/3 innings, allowing four runs and seven hits. He was pulled shortly after Saltalamacchia’s homer to left tied
The associated press
Boston’s Carl Crawford, right, and Texas Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba watch Crawford’s grand slam during the fourth inning of Saturday’s game at Fenway Park. The Red Sox won, 12-7. it at 3-all in the fourth. “The man couldn’t get the ball down. If you keep giving these guys an opportunity with runners in scoring position, sooner or later they’ll come through and they really did,” Texas manager Ron Washington said. “In the fourth inning we just couldn’t stop the bleeding. He just couldn’t get the ball down.” Elsewhere in the American League on a busy Saturday, it was the New York Yankees 6, Toronto 4; Oakland 3, Seattle 0; Detroit 9, the Chicago White Sox 8; Tampa Bay 6, Baltimore 3; and Kansas City 5, Cleveland 1.
Brewers 8, Astros 2 George Kottaras became the first major league player to hit for the cycle this season and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Houston Astros. Kottaras hit a solo homer in the fourth inning off Bud Norris (6-9) to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead and tripled in the sixth ahead of a two-run shot by Craig Counsell, his first of the year. Kottaras added an RBI single in the seventh and doubled to deep center field off David Carpenter in the ninth for the first cycle by a Brewers hitter since Jody Gerut on May 8,
2010. Colorado slugger Carlos Gonzalez was the last major leaguer to hit for the cycle, on July 31 last season against the Chicago Cubs. According to STATS LLC, two of the last three big league catchers to hit for the cycle did it for Milwaukee: Kottaras and Chad Moeller (2004). Bengie Molina also accomplished the feat for Texas on July 16 last year. Kottaras went 4-for-5 with two RBIs and scored twice. Prince Fielder drove in two runs with a grounder and a single. Chris Narveson (10-6) allowed two runs and four hits over five innings in his first start for the Brewers since Aug. 22. He walked four and struck out four, working out of jams in the second and third. Narveson is trying to overcome a pair of injuries to his pitching hand. He went on the 15-day disabled list Aug. 9 after injuring himself with scissors while repairing his glove. He left his last start on Aug. 22 with an injury to the middle finger on his left hand. Carlos Lee extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a two-run homer for Houston in the fifth. Norris gave up six runs, five earned, and nine hits in 5 1-3 innings. He struck out five. In other National League games, it was Pittsburgh 7, the Chicago Cubs 5; St. Louis 6, Cincinnati 4; Washington 8, the New York Mets 7; Florida 8, Philadelphia 4; Colorado 5, San Diego 4; and Arizona 7, San Francisco 2.