Everett has deep bruise on hand
MINNEAPOLIS -- Twins infielder Adam Everett was removed from Monday's game against Oakland after being struck on the right hand by a Nick Punto foul ball in the sixth inning.
Everett was sitting in the dugout when the ball came screaming at his chest.
"I just happened to get my hand up in front of my chest," Everett said.
X-rays revealed no break. The injury was labeled a deep bruise.
"At first I really thought my hand was broken because it puffed up immediately and was throbbing," Everett said. "But good news, it's not, thank goodness."
Brendan Harris replaced Everett at shortstop in the top of the seventh.
It continued a season-long injury bug that has hit the team's middle infield.
"I was telling [Michael Cuddyer] earlier: 'If you don't have bad luck, you don't have luck at all," Everett said.
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Carpenter will miss start Friday
MIAMI -- An MRI and exam by Cardinals team doctor George Paletta late Tuesday indicated that right-hander Chris Carpenter has apparently escaped serious injury, but he still will miss his scheduled Friday start in Cincinnati.
Paletta confirmed that Carpenter has a muscle strain in his right "posterior shoulder," according to a press release issued by the Cardinals. Paletta indicated that Carpenter has no rotator cuff problem and will rejoin the team in Florida for more medical treatment.
Carpenter caught a 2 p.m. CT flight to St. Louis on Tuesday to have Paletta make a diagnosis. He had injured the shoulder pitching against the Cubs on Sunday.
At Dolphin Stadium, the Cardinals had already been considering their options to fill in for Carpenter on Friday.
Manager Tony La Russa had said, "If I have any doubts about his health, I'll err on the side of caution."
Pitching coach Dave Duncan said any replacement for Carpenter would come from among his bullpen. He mentioned Brad Thompson and Jaime Garcia, who both have starting experience.
It is still difficult to pick a likely choice between the two because La Russa emphasized before Tuesday night's loss to the Marlins, "We need to win the next three games any way we can."
In other words, he'll use as many pitchers to win a game as is necessary. That puts both Thompson and Garcia in line to be used as relievers before Friday, when the Cardinals open a series at Cincinnati.
Neither Thompson nor Garcia pitched on Tuesday.
Of Thompson's 19 appearances this season, three have been starts. He is 4-2 with a 4.34 ERA. Garcia has six appearances, with one start. He is 1-1 with a 3.27 ERA.
Garcia has pitched only 11 innings for the Cardinals, while Thompson has thrown 45 2/3.
At least the Cardinals can take solace in the fact that Carpenter is not lost for the season. The pitcher acknowledged Monday that the area was still "a little sore." He said it's the first time he's been injured there.
Copyright 2008 Sporting Life UK Ltd, All Rights Reserved.
Record needed for Rays to top Tribe
ST. PETERSBURG -- Forget about division rivals like the Red Sox and Yankees, the toughest opponent for the Rays this season has been wearing a different shade of red and blue.
And after five straight losses to Cleveland, it was only fitting it would take a record and a slew of arms for the Rays to finally come up on the right side of Tuesday night's 8-4 victory at Tropicana Field.
"We got the monkey off our back with the Indians," Cliff Floyd said. "Weird as that sounds, they've got a scrappy team ... so we will take this one and run."
With one out in the seventh inning, Evan Longoria blasted a 2-2 pitch off reliever Rafael Betancourt to set a new Rays rookie club record with his 22nd long ball this season. Longoria's knock also scored Carlos Pena and was followed by back-to-back solo shots from Floyd and Dioner Navarro to give the Rays some distance on the Tribe.
Just 22 years old, Longoria's poise in the batter's box continues to impress, as the young infielder hit several threatening foul balls off Betancourt prior to the homer.
"When do you ever see a guy hit a home run foul and then hit an actual home run?" Dan Wheeler marveled. "The offense came through big. ... Hopefully, it's a sign of things to come."
Although Tuesday's win involved the Rays' usual recipe of pitching, defense and timely hitting, it was the seventh inning's power blasts that helped take the heat off the pitching staff.
"It's been saving us all year," Floyd said of the Rays' solid pitching. "You kind of know what makes you win and what makes you lose, and what makes us win is our pitching and our defense. And then we have timely hitting. Tonight, we got the hits when we needed it."
While the Rays have played musical chairs with their bench the last few days, Tuesday night was a revolving door of arms as the team used five different pitchers to record the win.
Starter Edwin Jackson batted through 5 2/3 innings -- allowing three runs on seven hits -- before exiting with runners on first and second. Jackson was followed by J.P. Howell, who walked Grady Sizemore to load the bases, forcing Maddon to insert Grant Balfour as the inning's third pitcher.
"It just didn't want to work the way I was seeing it in my mind's eye," Maddon said, adding that Jackson's walk to No 9. batter Asdrubal Cabrera forced Howell into the game. "But it rarely does. So we just had to make the adjustments on the fly and our guys did a great job."
Balfour was brought in to relieve Howell largely for his strikeout abilities, but that didn't go according to plan either. Instead, it was center fielder B.J. Upton's on-the-run grab that retired Ben Francisco and effectively ended the threat.
And when Balfour opened the seventh inning in a jam, it was Wheeler's turn in the merry-go-round of arms. With Cleveland threatening with runners on first and third, Wheeler got the best of Franklin Gutierrez. The right-hander tossed a slider that caused the outfielder to fly out, and the Rays to put the kibosh on another potential Indians rally.
"I really believe we showed a lot of heart," Maddon said. "A lot of want to -- we wanted to win that game. Somehow we did, because these guys have really pressed us hard. So I was really pleased with the effort of our players tonight."
Whether it was Pena twice stretching a single into a double, or Navarro collecting a two-out single to plate a pair of early runs, the Rays' entire lineup stepped up and took some pressure off the pitchers.
With the win, the Rays maintained their three-game lead in the AL East over the Red Sox. And as the calendar creeps closer and closer to October, the club knows how important every victory has become.
"Every win is huge and we need [it] over the course of the season," Floyd said. "In our minds, to get to 90-something wins, you got to win now, as much as you can, every day."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Dunn takes homer lead prior to Deadline
HOUSTON -- This summer, talk about Adam Dunn's trade value has been met with mostly silence and crickets. For years, many Reds fans have been eager to get him out of town.
Dunn might often be unappreciated but he was anything but unproductive in July.
During the Reds' 9-5 win over the Astros Wednesday, Dunn hit two home runs and moved past Ryan Howard for the Major League lead with 32. The left fielder finished the month with 12 homers and 26 RBIs -- both best in the Majors. He's hitting .301 (28-for-93) over his past 27 games.
"That's what the big boys do. They carry people," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "Adam has been swinging as good as I've seen him swing since I've been here. Boy, it's very, very welcome."
The Reds had a 7-0 lead through five innings, aided by four homers, before Houston mounted a late comeback attempt because of sloppy defense. With one out in the second inning, Dunn launched a solo shot into the right-field upper deck for the Reds' first run of the game against Wandy Rodriguez.
In a five-run fifth inning, Ken Griffey Jr. hit a one-out, 0-1 Rodriguez pitch into the right-field seats for his 15th homer of the season and No. 608 for his career. Griffey is one homer behind Sammy Sosa for fifth place on the all-time home run list.
Two batters later with two outs, Dunn went deep again with another solo homer over the yellow line on the left-center-field wall. Next batter Edwin Encarnacion made it a seven-run game with a homer to left field off reliever Chad Paronto as the Reds snapped a five-game losing streak and salvaged one game of the three-game set in Houston.
"I think everybody is happy we won the last game of the series," Reds starter Edinson Volquez said. "Everybody was tired of losing every day."
Volquez pitched 6 1/3 innings and with the exception of Hunter Pence's leadoff homer in the fifth, encountered little trouble. That was until a four-run seventh inning that was extended by two errors from shortstop Jeff Keppinger. The fielding mistakes led to a three-run homer by pinch-hitter Ty Wiggington that made it an 8-5 game.
Only one of Volquez's five runs allowed was earned on six hits with one walk and five strikeouts. Now 12-4 with a 2.71 ERA, Volquez had cooled with a 9.00 ERA over his first two second-half starts but made some corrections after watching video.
"I think I was aggressive," Volquez said. "I threw a lot of strikes tonight. I attacked the zone and the hitters. I think all of my pitches were there too."
Volquez wasn't the only one who has been working on improving himself. Dunn, now batting .243 with 74 RBIs, has endured a streaky season. By the end of June, he was batting just .221. Cage time with hitting coach Brook Jacoby began around that time, which Dunn believed helped.
"Me and Jake worked on a few tweaks," Dunn said. "I hate that word, tweak. It's terrible. It's like tendinitis. It means nothing. I've just been swinging at pitches I had normally been taking. Maybe it's the ash bats [instead of maple], I don't know."
Since 2004, Dunn's 198 home runs lead the Majors and have him ahead of mega superstars Alex Rodriguez (196), David Ortiz (191) and Albert Pujols (189). Dunn's 511 walks are also most in the Majors.
"It looks like he's getting better at it," Baker said of Dunn's approach. "He's more aggressive early in the count, which is what you like to see. He's not fouling off or missing as many pitches as he was earlier. He's centering a lot of balls. He's knocking them far. Those balls are no-doubters as soon as he hits them."
Playing on the eve of Thursday's 4 p.m. ET non-waivers Trade Deadline, Dunn appears to be staying put unless the Reds get an offer they can't refuse. In the past, he's been a prime name around Deadline time. Not so much now with reports indicating there are surprisingly few suitors seeking his bat.
Last month, Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi publicly blasted Dunn, which probably didn't help. Detractors, which usually point out his strikeout totals and poor defense, also got their share of both Wednesday. In a 3-for-5 game, Dunn struck out twice and dropped a fly ball for an error in the eighth inning.
A likely free agent after the season, Dunn's future in Cincinnati is uncertain. Owner Bob Castellini publicly supported him on Tuesday but remained silent about the future.
Silence on the rumor mill is bliss for Dunn, who usually dreads July 31 because of the multiple questions he gets about his future.
"I don't ever want to hear them. I hate it," Dunn said. "The only time I ever hear them is through you guys [in the media]. I don't watch a lot of TV. I don't read the papers. It's hard to believe, but I don't listen to the radio shows. I just hear what people tell me and I haven't heard anything. I guess that's good."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Escobar suffers right shoulder setback
ANAHEIM -- Right-hander Kelvim Escobar suffered a setback on Monday night in his road to recovery from a torn right labrum when he experienced shoulder pain after pitching three innings at Class A Rancho Cucamonga.
Team physician Lewis Yocum examined Escobar's right shoulder on Tuesday and found irritation. Yocum advised Escobar to rest this week before being re-examined this weekend.
Escobar had pitched well, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced. He said he could tell during warmups that something was wrong with his shoulder. But he decided to pitch, and on Tuesday he admitted that it wasn't the right decision.
"It's hard to make that call because this is kind of like Spring Training for me," Escobar said. "Sometimes you go through a process where you are getting loose and I thought it was one of those things. But I shouldn't have pitched last night, because when I tried to get loose, I felt like I was pushing the ball."
"I feel like I was feeling all the way back to February," Escobar said. "I am worried. This is driving me crazy. I was supposed to make a decision [on surgery] back in March and now it's July."
Escobar also said it was tough on him because he's been going through a long rehab process that started in mid-May when he began a long-toss program. He was on track to rejoin the Angels as early as the All-Star break if everything went as planned.
"I was so happy and everything was going well," Escobar said. "I want to feel good and normal. I know it's not going to be perfect, but I can't pitch like that.
"I worked so hard. Everything was going well, but it seems like in 10 days I lost everything that I had done in five months."
Angels manager Mike Scioscia said he's holding out hope that Escobar's injury is just a small bump in his road to recovery.
"Hopefully, best-case would be a minor setback and we'd get some information that he'll be OK," Scioscia said. "I think today he came out of it a little sore. As far as how he pitched in the game and how his stuff was -- it was terrific."
Escobar, 32, was diagnosed with a torn labrum in late March after experiencing shoulder pains late last season. His 18 wins in '07 with the Angels set a career high.
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Ross beginning to use entire field
MIAMI -- Pretty much a pull hitter, Cody Ross is seeing results when he uses the entire field.
The gritty Marlins outfielder connected on his 12th home run last Saturday night at Oakland, delivering a drive to right-center that tied the game in the eighth inning. The Marlins went on to win, 6-4.
A high majority of Ross' home runs are pulled to left field. But in recent weeks, he's hit two big homers to right-center. He had a walk-off shot to beat the Reds in the ninth inning at Dolphin Stadium on June 7.
To become a more complete hitter, Ross recognizes the importance of using the entire field, and staying back on certain pitches, driving them in the other direction.
Hitting coach Jim Presley is a big believer of using the entire field. It's the same approach Hanley Ramirez and former Marlins All-Star Miguel Cabrera have.
Presley preaches for his batters to look to stay up the middle of the field, and being able to hit from gap-to-gap. It's an important approach because it means hitters are seeing pitches deep in the zone, and if it is, say, an outside pitch, they can drive it the other way. When hitters try to pull everything, they tend to turn the ball over, and hit weak ground balls.
On Wednesday afternoon, Presley joked about Ross during batting practice. During pregame, Kyle Skipworth, the Marlins' first-round pick in the June 5 First-Year Player Draft took BP at Dolphin Stadium. An 18-year-old left-handed hitter, Skipworth started off hitting everything to the opposite field. Seeing the young catcher hit prompted Presley to yell out, "Paying attention, Cody?"
Ross laughed. But it is an approach he also is working on. Now Ross is seeing results.
"I've been working quite a bit with Pres about staying the other way," Ross said. "[Manager] Fredi [Gonzalez] is always on me, and he will try to make a bet with me to hit the ball the other way.
"I work on that in BP and in my extra cage work. It's finally starting to come around. It's not just something that can happen overnight. I've been working on it for a month now."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Mora muscles a go-ahead winner
BALTIMORE -- Two worlds collided at Camden Yards on Tuesday night, when the Orioles got to test their new roster against their former franchise player. The Astros' Miguel Tejada made his first trip back to Baltimore since a December trade that heavily impacted both teams, but franchise stalwart Melvin Mora came up with the big hit in the Orioles' 6-5 win.
Tejada, a four-time All-Star, went 0-for-2 with a walk in his first game against his former team, but the Astros still controlled the game from the fifth inning all the way to the eighth. That's when Mora broke things open with a two-run double to right-center off Houston closer Jose Valverde, who had entered the game with one man out and two men on base.
"I don't care who's there," said Mora. "Miggy was a friend of mine and a friend of everybody here, [but] we just want to beat anybody. The only thing I don't understand is why the people booed him. He did everything he can do for this organization. He played day-in and day-out for us. He played hard every day, and I think you should clap when you see a guy like that."
The winning rally started on a single by Adam Jones, and shortstop Freddie Bynum bunted him over to second base. Reliever Doug Brocail wound up walking Brian Roberts, which forced the Astros (33-38) to summon Valverde. The right-hander struck out Nick Markakis and got ahead on Mora, who worked the count full and sprayed the game-winning double to right-center.
That hit helped the Orioles (35-34) improve to 4-28 when trailing after eight innings and to 16-10 in one-run games. Baltimore also earned its 16th victory in which it trailed by two runs or more and logged its 20th comeback win of the year. And to hear Mora tell it, the latest go-ahead hit seemed pretty unlikely considering the at-bat that directly preceded it.
"When I saw him pitching to Nick Markakis and he threw that high fastball, I said, 'I'm in trouble,' " said Mora, who went into the game hitting .370 with runners in scoring position. "I don't like when pitchers throw that high fastball, because you won't be able to catch it. I'm glad he threw me just strikes, and I said, 'OK, now I've got him.' ... I knew he was going to go after me."
"You know, people have asked me about Melvin being in the three-hole," added Baltimore manager Dave Trembley. "There's a lot of reasons. You put Roberts and Nick back-to-back [and] they're not going to walk one guy to face the other. So pick your poison there, but Melvin has experience and Melvin's numbers don't lie hitting with guys on base and hitting with men in scoring position. Melvin has got some awful big hits for us, and, boy, there was none bigger than the one he got tonight."
Baltimore starter Garrett Olson endured his second straight rough outing and was gone before the end of the fifth. The southpaw helped one run score with a pair of wild pitches in his first inning and was victimized for a two-out rally in the fifth. Three straight Astros got singles in that inning, and infielder Kazuo Matsui drove in two runs with a double.
Strangely enough, Olson had retired 12 straight batters when the Astros began to break through. The left-hander just couldn't find his best form, maddeningly searching for pitches that he had made easily just one inning before.
"Well, I didn't think it was going to end up like that," said Trembley of the way the game progressed. "I'm awful glad we won, but Olson pitched to the fifth [and had] two outs and nobody on and I don't know what happened. [Pitching coach Rick Kranitz has] got the term that he got stuck. I guess he got stuck and couldn't get it out of neutral."
"I think it started with that base hit," explained Olson. "I left the ball up, and for no reason I just wasn't making the adjustment to get the ball back down through the zone. I was just kind of leaving some pitches up and not trusting my pitches at all. I fell behind the next couple hitters and it just kind of snowballed on me. Before you know it, they have three runs.
"It was very frustrating, because I felt good. I felt like I had all my pitches working for me."
That hit sunk Baltimore behind, and starter Brandon Backe helped keep it that way. The right-hander had given up a two-run homer to Aubrey Huff in the third inning but stranded two runners on base in the fourth. Houston's bullpen escaped a tense situation in the seventh, stranding two runners on a strikeout by Baltimore catcher Ramon Hernandez.
The Orioles escaped a similar fate on Mora's full-count hit in the eighth, which meant that closer George Sherrill got a chance to exorcise some demons. The southpaw had a rocky weekend -- allowing runs in two straight outings and speaking of a "dead arm" on Sunday -- but redeemed himself by retiring the Astros in order for his 23rd save of the season.
"I felt pretty good today," he said. "I think icing [Sunday] and getting the day off yesterday really helped. I felt like I had a lot of life in the bullpen, so it gave me a little extra confidence going in."
Trembley, who will celebrate his one-year anniversary as Baltimore manager on Wednesday, reveled in the win.
"It's a real honor for me to be here. And somebody asked me earlier today what it was like for me, because I guess I've been here a year now," he said. "I'll tell everybody here: Watching this team, it's a privilege to be with this team.
"And for what this team has done and for the improvement that's gone on here and the approach and how these guys play the game, it's a real privilege for me to be a part of it."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
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