MLB Baseball Line

07/08/08

Haren, D-backs agree to new deal

PHOENIX -- When he was traded to the D-backs last December, Dan Haren said he hoped he would be in Arizona for a long time.

It appears he will get his wish.

The right-hander agreed with the team on a four-year extension worth $44.75 million, a deal which could keep him in Sedona Red through the 2013 season.

"I knew I'd like it here," said Haren, who was acquired from the A's for six prospects. "I've said before I didn't know I'd like it this much. The guys have been great, the team is exciting to watch and it's fun to have them play behind me."

In 23 starts this year, Haren is 12-5 with a 2.75 ERA, the fourth-best mark in the National League.

"He's been everything we had hoped for and more," D-backs GM Josh Byrnes said. "His performance has even gone to a higher level. I think the most impressive thing about him is the motivation for winning."

Haren, who will turn 28 next month, was initially under contract through 2009 with a team option for 2010. That contract no longer exists, as the new one is for 2009 through 2012 with a team option for 2013.

The deal calls for $7.5 million next year, $8.25 million in 2010 and $12.75 million each in 2011 and 2012. The team option is for $15.5 million, and if the D-backs choose not to pick it up they must pay a $3.5 million buyout.

"I'm not the mentality kind of guy that wants to go cash it in and make a huge, just ridiculous contract," said Haren, who would have earned $5.5 million next year and $6.75 million in 2010 under his old deal. "I'm comfortable here, and I wanted to be here. I wanted to talk, and I wanted to stay here."

Arizona manager Bob Melvin had seen plenty of Haren before he came to the D-backs but has been surprised by some things he's learned about him.

"I didn't realize what an intense competitor he is and what a big-game pitcher he is," Melvin said, citing the way Haren pitched against the Red Sox in Fenway Park earlier this year. "The better the opponent, the tougher the game, the more excited he is about pitching. It's just about competing for him. It's not about the money."

Haren, along with teammate Brandon Webb, gives the D-backs one of the best one-two punches in the game.

"What I hoped for was to make things a little easier for him," Haren said. "I wanted to try and take a little pressure off him because I knew he would take pressure off me with the way he's thrown the ball the last couple of years. It's great having him in the rotation. He's a true staff ace."

The talks with Haren had been going on for quite a while, and the two sides reached agreement just prior to leaving on their recent 10-game road trip.

With the D-backs having a young core of position players as well as Webb tied up through 2010, Haren has a good idea of what the team will look like for years to come, and that was one of his motivations in signing the deal.

"The guys really care for each other and pick each other up," he said. "It's been fun to see the way we've come back -- especially the last few weeks -- and played so well. The guys really got together, and we all have one goal to win this division."

Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.

01/08/08

Brewers searching for clutch hits

MILWAUKEE -- Brewers hitting coach Jim Skaalen had no easy answers for his charges' recent funk with runners in scoring position. He knows of only one way to break out of it.

"Relax," Skaalen said. "We're a little sketchy with that at times. We're a little too aggressive."

In three consecutive losses to the Cubs, Brewers hitters are 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position. In their past eight games, they are 3-for-60 (.050). The Brewers' troubles go back even further. From the All-Star break through Tuesday, the Brewers are 19-for-115 (.165) in the clutch, the lowest mark of the 16 National League teams. Of the 30 teams in the Majors, only Tampa Bay (.163) was in a deeper slump.

The key to breaking out of it, Skaalen said, is to maintain what he called "relaxed aggressiveness." Easier said than done.

"We talk like we always talk, about having a plan," Skaalen said. "Stay easy, stay up the middle, get good pitches to hit. As of late, they haven't done a good job of that. They've gone up there a little too aggressive.

"And guys know. They know we haven't been coming through, and everybody wants to be 'the guy.' That puts a little added effort into swings, and that affects selection. We went through periods of it last year, too. It goes up and down."

Brewers manager Ned Yost believes that hitting with runners in scoring position is "part of the ups and downs of the game." The only way to break out is to be patient.

"When you're not scoring runs, it does tend to put a little more emphasis on that," Yost said. "They do press a little bit at times, but I don't see it as a major ordeal that they are going through. I think, for the most part, that our guys are pretty focused when they get in the [batter's] box.

"You watch to make sure they're battling. If they're battling, you let them battle. There's nothing that I can do to control the game, and there's nothing that I can tell them to all of a sudden start hitting with runners in scoring position."

Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.

03/07/08

Cameron clutch in Brewers' exciting win

PHOENIX -- Who says the Brewers can't score in the late innings?

They bucked their recent trend on Wednesday, tallying single runs in each of the final four innings for a dramatic 4-3 win over the D-backs at Chase Field that ensured the Brewers will head home Thursday night with at least a .500 road trip.

Mike Cameron drove in two of Milwaukee's runs including the game-winner, which came on a one-out RBI single off Arizona closer Brandon Lyon (2-3) in the top of the ninth inning that capped a flurry of late runs by both teams.

"That was a wild game, man," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "It was nothing early, and then big hit after big hit from both sides. There were nice defensive plays, a lot of daring baserunning. That was a great game."

And it was a departure for the Brewers, who did not score a single run after the sixth inning in any of the first seven games of a 10-game road trip that concludes Thursday afternoon.

They snapped that streak with a single seventh-inning run in Tuesday's win, then scored a bunch in the late innings Wednesday to come back from an early 2-0 deficit. J.J. Hardy extended his hitting streak to 14 games with an RBI single in the sixth inning, and Cameron tied the game at 2 in the seventh with an RBI double. Rickie Weeks temporarily put the Brewers ahead with his first career pinch-hit home run leading off the eighth inning before Cameron won it in the ninth.

"We were stringing them together," Cameron said. "[Lyon] is fastball, curveball, occasionally changeup. I got the curveball and put a good swing on it. Turns out it was a big hit."

Cameron's second clutch hit of the night made a winner of right-hander David Riske (1-1), who entered the game after Weeks' eighth home run gave Milwaukee a 3-2 lead and promptly lost it. Jason Kendall set up on the outside corner for a first-pitch fastball to Arizona outfielder Juston Upton, but the pitch drifted inside. Upton drove it to the left-field seats and knotted the game at 3. Riske held it there, and the Brewers rallied off Lyon in the ninth. Russell Branyan reached on an error by first baseman Mark Reynolds, who is usually the D-backs' third baseman and was manning first for the first time in his career. Gabe Kapler sacrificed Branyan to second base for Cameron, who fouled off three consecutive pitches before ripping the winning hit to left-center field.

Salomon Torres surrendered a hit and a walk in the ninth, but induced a game-ending double play for his 15th save. He is 14-for-14 in save chances since taking over for an injured Eric Gagne.

Cameron and Hardy had two hits apiece to lead the Brewers. Hardy is hitting .386 (22-for-57) during his streak, but Cameron entered the night hitting .174 on the trip.

"Milwaukee hasn't seen Cameron hot," Yost said. "We saw in Spring Training what he's capable of doing. Those are as big of hits as you can get to get us a chance to win that ballgame."

Just as clutch was Weeks, who received two liters of intravenous fluids on Tuesday while recovering from what he believed was a bout of food poisoning and stayed in his hotel room the rest of the day. He missed a second straight start on Wednesday but was called upon with the teams tied at 2 in the eighth.

"It was like, 'Rickie's a leadoff hitter, let's see if he can't lead off this inning and get on base,'" Yost said. "He put a jolt into one."

Weeks fell behind, 0-and-2, before hitting the go-ahead homer to left field. It temporarily put lefty reliever Brian Shouse in line for a win after Shouse doused a D-backs rally in the seventh, when Arizona had runners at second and third with one out but did not score.

Arizona stranded 12 men on base and went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Many of those scoring chances came against Brewers starter Seth McClung. While D-backs starter Yusmeiro Petit retired all nine hitters he faced in the first three innings, McClung battled, facing 16 batters in the first three frames. He surrendered seven hits in that span and plunked two batters with pitches, but somehow limited Arizona to two runs.

McClung settled in after the third and got the Brewers through 5 1/3 innings, allowing just those two runs on eight total hits with one walk and six strikeouts.

"It was kind of a dogfight," McClung said. "They hit some really good pitches, but I tried to limit them to singles. Guys made plays behind me and I really relied on Kendall and the scouting report to get me through some stuff.

"I didn't break. I wouldn't break for these guys. We needed the win, so I tried to do the best I could to keep us in it."

The Brewers improved to 5-4 on their road trip. They will try to win the series on Thursday behind Manny Parra, who has won seven consecutive decisions.

"I want to win [Thursday] but this game guaranteed us at least a .500 trip," Yost said. "That's huge."

27/06/08

Kendrick tames A's to end losing streak

OAKLAND -- With enough hitting, spirited hustle and brilliant starting pitching, the struggling Phillies earned their first win since June 16.

They'll take it.

Led by Kyle Kendrick's career-high eight shutout innings and Chase Utley's slump-busting four hits, Philadelphia snapped a six-game losing streak with a 4-0 win over the A's on Wednesday.

"We hadn't been winning games," manager Charlie Manuel said. "When things start going bad, you don't want it to continue. You start panicking. You start gripping the bat too tight, swinging at balls in the dirt. This is a relax game. Every day you lose makes it tougher."

Things were plenty tough for the Phillies since beating the Red Sox on June 16. A team-wide slump produced a .170 batting average during the next six games, with two home runs and 11 total runs scored, or 1.8 per game. The pitching staff compiled a 4.92 ERA. Before Pat Burrell homered in the fourth inning of Tuesday's loss, the Phillies hadn't seen a lead in 48 innings.

Prompted by the recent plate woes, Manuel juggled the batting order, placing Jayson Werth at leadoff and bumping Utley to second. That pair helped secure a first-inning run when Werth walked and Utley singled.

After Jimmy Rollins popped out, Werth and Utley pulled off a double steal, allowing Werth to score on Burrell's sacrifice fly to medium left field. Burrell singled in the fourth and scored on Pedro Feliz's triple.

Utley singled, doubled and tripled in his first three at-bats, coming within a home run of becoming the 15th player in history to hit for the cycle in order. Gary Matthews Jr. turned that specific trick on Sept. 13, 2006, while with the Rangers.

"You've got something to write about now," Manuel said.

Asked sarcastically how worried the manager was about his All-Star second baseman, Manuel played along.

"I was scared to death," he said, with a laugh.

Shane Victorino used his speed for Philadelphia's final run, scoring from first base on a bloop single to shallow center field. Running with two outs, Victorino kept going when Carlos Gonzalez unsuccessfully dived for the ball.

The Phillies recorded 11 hits, one more than they had in the past two games combined. They still couldn't break the game open when they came up empty after loading the bases in the eighth. They left 11 on base for the game.

Baby steps.

"That lineup could've scored more runs," Manuel said. "We got four, but we could've gotten two more. But we did good enough to win."

It was enough because Kendrick brought his best sinker and thwarted an Oakland lineup stacked with six lefties. A's manager Bob Geren saw that lefties batted .328 off the sophomore this season and acted accordingly.

Kendrick made that not matter. Using an aggressive fastball to lefties to set up the devastating sinker, he didn't allow a hit until Jack Hannahan's ground-rule double in the fifth. That ended a string of 11 straight batters retired.

"Pitching inside was the big key, I think," Kendrick said. "I was able to command my fastball. It was a good night."

Kendrick might have earned his first complete-game shutout, but Manuel ended his night after 113 pitches. Kendrick's last out recorded, a comebacker, helped him escape his only jam of the evening.

"The secret of his success is always location of his sinker," Coste said. "He got a lot of strikes with it, and a lot of weak ground balls, which is what he does when he's going well. It's that simple for him."

Coste suspected such a night for Kendrick might be in the offing, when the right-hander's pitches darted and dived while throwing in the bullpen.

"I didn't say anything, but I thought, 'I hope he can bring this into the game.' His first warm-up pitches had a lot of bite on them. He was able to maintain that for the entire game. When he aims for the middle of the plate, it's not going to be there. He was able to throw on both sides by aiming for the middle. When he has his sinker, he's going to have games that are quality."

The Phillies needed it.

"We found a way to win tonight, and break the streak that we were on," Victorino said.

19/06/08

Valverde slips in extras

BALTIMORE -- The Astros' starting pitching staff can fairly be viewed as one of their weaker areas, so when the team wastes a well-pitched game from someone other than its ace, it might sting just a bit more.

The Astros' month-long frustrations continued on Wednesday, as they dropped their seventh game in a row, losing to the Orioles, 2-1, in a 10-inning affair that made Brian Moehler's brilliance go for naught.

Jose Valverde was tagged with a loss for the second straight night, after he allowed a game-winning single to Kevin Millar that scored Melvin Mora from third. The Astros have lost 16 of their past 19, and the only team preventing them from occupying last place in the National League Central is the Reds, who have one more loss (40) and the same number of wins.

Mora singled off Valverde with one out in the 10th and advanced to third on Aubrey Huff's base hit to left. Following a mound meeting between manager Cecil Cooper and the entire infield, Valverde threw a 97-mph fastball to Millar, who laced it up the middle to win the game for Baltimore.

Valverde heeded Cooper's request for a ground ball. The only problem was it skipped out of the reach of either second baseman Kazuo Matsui or shortstop Miguel Tejada.

"That's all you can do at that point, try to defend where a guy makes a pitch and you can get a ground ball," Cooper said. "It's just unfortunate it went up the middle."

"[A ground ball is] what I wanted," said Valverde. "Cooper was on the mound, that's what he said to me -- 'You can get a ground ball here.' It was the same as last night -- I threw my best pitch. All of my pitches are working. My split-finger, my cutter is working. This guy was hitting good today -- nothing you can do about that."

Millar was 0-for-4 until his final at-bat. In his prior plate appearance in the eighth, the veteran infielder struck out while facing Chris Sampson.

"You've always got to remember the pressure's on the pitcher," Millar said. "You try to just maintain that thought -- the pressure's on him. He's got to make a pitch, and sometimes as hitters, we get too anxious. Obviously, the hit was nice, but taking the split-fingers and seeing those pitches, I knew I was focused."

Millar was complimentary toward Valverde, but he also mentioned the closer's demonstrative mannerisms as incentive to beat him.

"He's got great stuff," Millar said. "He's one of the better ones in the league [and] he's a guy you want to get, with his antics. We've done a great job the last couple nights."

Earlier, Moehler pitched brilliantly for the Astros, but it wasn't enough. Moehler shut out the Orioles through his first six innings of work, but Jeremy Guthrie was almost as good on the other side, matching his opponent inning-for-inning until Lance Berkman broke through in the seventh with his 20th homer of the year, a 430-foot shot that marked only the 44th ball in Camden Yards history to land on Eutaw Street behind the right-field fence.

The lead lasted all of five minutes. Former Houston outfielder Luke Scott launched a leadoff homer in the bottom of that frame with his 12th homer of the year, a 423-foot blast to left-center that tied the game at 1.

While disappointed with the loss, Berkman contended these aren't the ones that can demoralize a team over the course of a season.

"We'll win our share of them and lose our share of them," he said. "Whenever you've got a tightly-contested pitchers' duel, it can go either way. The games that you have to win are the ones when you are scoring runs, and certainly we didn't do a very good job offensively tonight."

A silent clubhouse has been the norm this month for the Astros, who are 3-12 in June. Their 17-11 May run is creeping further and further back in their memory banks as the team searches for answers as to what has gone wrong since they beat the Cardinals by a wide margin on May 27.

"Panic is probably the wrong word, but it's certainly not the same feeling you had in early May, when we're pulling games out and things are going well," Berkman said. "That's a bad part of this job; if you're in a rut like this, it's miserable. You come in and everybody wants to do something extra to try to help, and you have to kind of fight against that."

Despite the losses, Cooper is pleased with the effort the team has given during the first two games in Baltimore.

"The last two days are the way we should play," he said. "We play aggressive, we play solid defense, guys pitch real well. We just have to get some timely hits now. That's all we need."

12/06/08

Pujols suffers strained left calf

CINCINNATI -- Albert Pujols is likely headed to the disabled list.

The Cardinals first baseman aggravated a strained left calf during the seventh inning of a 7-2 victory against the Reds on Tuesday. He will return to St. Louis on Wednesday to be re-evaluated by team doctors.

Pujols hit a grounder to first, took a step and pulled up before falling to the ground just outside the batter's box. Pujols put very little weight on the leg as he was helped off the field by teammates.

"Based on what they come up with, we'll determine what we need to do and if it requires a roster move," Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said. "We'll determine how we'll deal with the injury as we see fit. I'm not a doctor, so I don't want to speculate what the outcome is until they see it."

Pujols left a game against the Nationals last Tuesday in the fourth inning after experiencing tightness in his left calf. He didn't start either of the next two games but was back in the lineup against the Astros over the weekend.

"I think it's worse than the other day when he pulled it," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

If Pujols goes to the disabled list, the corresponding roster move would likely be an earlier-than-expected callup of Chris Duncan, who was optioned to Triple-A Memphis on May 30 to iron out his struggles at the plate. Through six games at Memphis, Duncan is hitting .190 with no home runs.

"That would be the likely move at this point, yes," Mozeliak said. "I still want to talk with the Triple-A manager and so forth, but that's probably the move."

Pujols hit a two-run home run in the third inning Tuesday off Cincinnati's Homer Bailey, snapping a 1-for-17 slump.

29/05/08

Halladay duels Harden, stifles A's

OAKLAND -- It was the type of confrontation that can alter the course of a game in a hurry. In the eighth inning on Wednesday night, Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay engaged in a 10-pitch battle against Oakland's Jack Cust.

With the score deadlocked, neither would budge throughout the showdown. Halladay whipped every weapon in his arsenal toward home plate and Cust patiently waited for the most opportune pitch, taking three for balls and fouling off five along the way.

"Usually, late in the game, that kind of at-bat does you in," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, following Toronto's 2-1 victory over Oakland at McAfee Coliseum.

Finally, Cust won that battle, roping a 3-2 offering from Halladay into right field for a leadoff single -- the left fielder's third hit of the night off the right-hander. That put the possible game-winning run on base for the A's, who labored to solve Halladay in yet another gem from the ace.

"We threw him some curveballs, cutters, sinkers," Halladay said. "We threw him everything in that count. He did a great job. It was a great at-bat on his part and I think it's one of those situations where it's frustrating, but you've got to tip your hat a little bit and be able to move on."

Halladay moved on in his typical fashion, shrugging off the heightened pressure and escaping one of many jams on this night. Two strikeouts and a groundout later, Halladay was walking back to the dugout, where he then watched the Blue Jays (29-26) mount the game's decisive rally in the ninth.

The heroics were provided by Jays right fielder Alex Rios, who yanked a pitch from A's reliever Keith Foulke down the left-field line for a one-out double that scored Shannon Stewart. That pushed Toronto ahead, 2-1, and set the stage for Jays closer B.J. Ryan to pick up his 12th save of the year.

After scowling on the hill for eight stellar innings, that chain of events resulted in a postgame smile from Halladay.

"It worked out great," Halladay said. "Obviously, any time you can win, it's nice, but to be able to get it in the last inning you pitch and have a run for your closer, that's a great feeling. It's nice to have that timing."

Timing was everything for Halladay (6-5) in his latest effort, which included eight hits allowed, one hit batsmen, his first walk since May 9 and at least one runner on base in six of his innings. Despite the many dicey situations, Oakland (29-24) only broke through against Halladay once.

In home half of the third inning, shortly after Toronto took a 1-0 lead behind an RBI single from Stewart, Halladay yielded a two-out double to A's shortstop Bobby Crosby. The next batter to the plate, that pesky Cust, ripped a pitch up the middle for a run-scoring base hit that knotted the score at 1.

Following that inning, Halladay resumed his duel with A's righty Rich Harden, who bowed out of the contest after seven solid innings. Halladay -- the Major League leader with 89 innings pitches and five complete games -- had no designs on leaving that early.

Halladay finished with nine strikeouts, which matched a season high and upped his season total to an American League-leading 71. His performance lowered his season ERA to 2.93 and gave Halladay 117 career victories, passing Jimmy Key for sole possession of third place on Toronto's all-time wins list.

"That's what he does. He doesn't give in," Gibbons said. "He was strong the whole night tonight. A lot of times, as the game goes on, he gets stronger and stronger. That's typical of the really good ones. If you don't get them early, they hang around."

Oakland's best chance against Halladay came in the sixth inning, when Cust opened the frame with a single to right. Two batters later, Ryan Sweeney doubled to right to put runners on second and third base with one out against Halladay. With the infield in, Halladay induced a grounder off the bat of Emil Brown.

Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay gloved the ball and quickly fired home, where catcher Rod Barajas blocked the plate, received the throw and applied the tag on a sliding Cust for the inning's second out. Mark Ellis followed by drilling a pitch from Halladay deep into the left-center-field gap.

Rios, filling in as Toronto's center fielder while Vernon Wells recovers from a broken left wrist, glided into the gap and met up with the ball, making a spectacular catch to end the inning. It was just one of the many defensive plays that helped Halladay to his third win in a row.

"The Rios one comes to mind," said Halladay, when asked about Toronto's strong play in the field. "That's a game changer. I've been fortunate, the last couple times out I've got a lot of help behind me. When you're not hitting every spot you'd like, it's nice to have that."

MLB Baseball Line

07/08/08

01/08/08

03/07/08

27/06/08

19/06/08

12/06/08

29/05/08

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