Nine-run inning equals big win for Tigers
ARLINGTON -- Armando Galarraga got the message. So did Matt Joyce. The Tigers, in turn, got the win.
Galarraga didn't try to prove to the Rangers that they made a mistake in trading him. That case had long since been proven. Instead, Galarraga pitched his normal game Tuesday before Joyce pounced on Rangers mistakes for two home runs and another three-run play to make a winner out of him.
It was the same steady, level performance as always from Galarraga, but it was the same sudden scoring outburst as the night before that put the Tigers on top. In the end, Detroit's 11-3 win at Rangers Ballpark was almost as much about hustle as it was about focus.
For Joyce and his fellow hitters, hustle proved huge. For Galarraga, it was all about the latter.
"This was like the same [as any other] start," Galarraga said afterward. "I'm not trying to change anything. I'm not trying to think too much. I didn't have any pressure. It's the same old thing."
It meant a little more than that. After all, this was the team for which Galarraga struggled to try to crack the big leagues, only to be sent to Detroit in a Minor League trade just before Spring Training. His performance all season has been enough to torment Texas for the move, and he said on Monday that if he had still been with the Rangers, he'd be having this kind of season at Double-A or Triple-A rather than getting a chance in the Majors.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland also had his comments Monday, saying it would be "the biggest mistake of his life" for Galarraga to pitch this game like he was trying to prove something more to the Rangers. On Tuesday, he saw the usual Galarraga form.
"I thought he had very good poise," Leyland said. "I thought he had concentration on the task at hand. I thought he tried to pitch to hitters with a game plan, and I thought he handled it very, very well."
Same old performance, just a slightly different reaction afterward.
"It's a little special," he said. "I'm not going to say no. It's special, because the other team traded me."
Galarraga didn't retire the side in order in any of his six innings, but limited his damage to singles and walks to take a 1-0 lead into the sixth before one big swing changed his game. Milton Bradley's one-out walk and Marlon Byrd's single put the go-ahead run on base to give Texas its first real threat of the night. Galarraga retired Gerald Laird for the second out and put Chris Davis in an 0-2 hole, but he hung a 1-2 slider to Davis.
"It looked like he tried to backdoor a slider that just flattened out and stayed up," Leyland said.
Galarraga was a teammate with Davis for a brief while last year at Double-A Frisco, where Davis homered 12 times in just 109 at-bats over 30 games. He knew what Davis could do with a mistake pitch, and the drive to left-center field made it a reality for a 3-1 Rangers lead.
"Yeah," Galarraga said, "it was a bad pitch. Not the right location."
That gave Rangers starter Vicente Padilla a chance to take out his frustrations on the Tigers for a bad loss earlier this season in Detroit. Three batters later, the Tigers had taken the game back, thanks to Joyce.
Leyland had recently talked with his rookie outfielder about the promise he saw in him as a prospect. Leyland also said that he wanted to see more "tenacity," as he put it. Joyce said that he could do that.
"He's a young player that obviously has some pop in his bat," Leyland said. "He's just going through the process, learning what it's about up here. You have some good days, and you have some bad days."
He had shown that in recent days, Leyland said. Still, tenacity had little to do with the bulk of his damage on this night. His fifth-inning solo homer down the right-field line had been the only run of the game until Davis' blast. With Detroit trailing, he came up in the seventh as the go-ahead run after Carlos Guillen's leadoff walk and Gary Sheffield's single.
Like Davis, Joyce pounced on a slider and hit the ball a long way. Unlike Davis, Joyce's shot went more towards right field than center, ending up on a 422-foot trip into the right-field upper deck to give Joyce his first multi-homer game as a Major Leaguer, not to mention his first home runs since July 21.
"I haven't really had a bunch of big home run games," Joyce said. "I never really considered myself a power hitter. I just try to hit line drives. Coming up through the Minors, you're taught to hit line drives and keep learning, keep progressing and getting better. I'm still learning."
Edgar Renteria's seventh homer of the year in the next at-bat knocked Padilla (12-7) out of the game, but the change only temporarily halted the onslaught. Joyce was the 12th batter of the inning when he came back up, this time with the bases loaded against Josh Rupe.
Joyce seemingly was jammed into the third out on a fly ball. However, left fielder Brandon Boggs had stopped en route to the ball, which fell in between him and center fielder Josh Hamilton while all three runners came around to score. Joyce, running out the fly ball, ended up on second.
"I was still a little frustrated that I popped it up," Joyce said. "I probably could've run a little harder, but I still ran it out. Things like that, even when you're frustrated and the game gets to you, that's still putting the effort in and running things out."
Galarraga (12-4) took over the Major League rookie wins lead over Braves hurler Jair Jurrjens, the subject of a well-critiqued Tigers trade from last fall. The long seventh inning helped end his night, but he had nothing more to prove.
"I've proven myself, that I can pitch in the big leagues," he said. "That's important for me. I got traded. I'm not the first one. I'm not the last one."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
LaRue's double sends Cards to win
MIAMI -- On a night when the Cardinals got 18 hits, they found themselves celebrating the pitching of a rookie and a defensive play by a backup outfielder.
The upshot is the Cardinals needed lifts from a variety of sources to defeat the Marlins, 6-4, on Wednesday night at Dolphin Stadium.
"That was a grinder," manager Tony La Russa said afterward.
St. Louis entered the home half of the eighth inning with a 5-2 lead after right-hander Braden Looper's seven strong innings. The starter allowed two runs -- one earned -- and just five hits.
Yet the Marlins opened the eighth against Kyle McClellan with a hit and a hit batsman. Up came Luis Gonzalez, who drove a pitch toward the left-field wall.
Joe Mather, a defensive replacement for Rick Ankiel in left field, jumped as high as his 6-foot-4 frame could take him -- and made a spectacular catch.
The Marlins still went on to score two runs in the inning. La Russa could only speculate how many they could have scored if Mather had not made that catch.
"That was huge," La Russa said. "If Luis bangs that ball off the wall, that inning is going to get away from us."
The Cardinals were not out of danger yet. After the Marlins scored two runs, in came rookie reliever Chris Perez. The visitors' lead had been trimmed to one run, and Florida had runners on second and third with one out.
Perez pitched carefully to power-hitting Dan Uggla, walking him to load the bases. But then Perez enticed Josh Willingham to ground a ball to third base, triggering an inning-ending double play.
"Early in the count, I was trying to get a ground ball," Perez said. "When I got ahead of him, 1-2, I was trying to get a strikeout or a ground ball. I threw an OK pitch, and he hit a grounder to third."
That pleased La Russa, of course, but he was more impressed with Perez's work in the ninth. The right-hander struck out the first batter, but was charged with a wild pitch when the ball bounced away from catcher Jason LaRue.
"He had the strikeout thing happen and didn't faint after that, either," La Russa said. "You're looking to see how he acts. He kept concentrating. He didn't get distracted. That's a good sign."
Perez wound up converting his third straight save chance.
Every Cardinals starter except Ryan Ludwick got at least one hit. Troy Glaus went 4-for-4 and drove in an insurance run in the ninth, Skip Schumaker was 3-for-5, and Adam Kennedy was 2-for-2 and had two sacrifice flies that helped the Cardinals soften the Marlins' tough starter, Ricky Nolasco.
But a guy with just one hit, LaRue, got perhaps the key hit of the game. With two outs in the seventh in a 2-2 game, LaRue drove a ball to deep right-center, scoring two runs.
"You can't exaggerate how big a hit that was," La Russa said.
LaRue predicted the Marlins would walk Glaus to get to him, and he was correct. He said he went up to the plate "with a chip on [his] shoulder," determined to turn that strategy into a mistake.
Almost overlooked by game's end was the quality work of Looper, who also helped his cause with two singles that put runners in position to be driven home by Kennedy's sacrifice flies in the fourth and sixth innings.
It was Looper's fifth straight quality start, but he hadn't had much to show for it until tonight.
"Right now, I feel as good physically as I have all year," Looper said. "I'm in a good spot, where I can go out there and make my pitches every time."
He said he has had command of his fastball, which is key for him.
"I could throw it for strikes on both sides of the plate," he said.
As well as Looper pitched, he still had to endure a frustrating fifth inning.
With one out, John Baker singled. Then Alfredo Amezaga hit a hard one-hopper back at Looper. It bounced off his glove as he went stumbling back over the mound. Amezaga was given a single.
Then came the parts where Looper couldn't be blamed for cursing his luck. Nolasco hit a soft fly that barely eluded Kennedy, loading the bases. Then Hanley Ramirez was fooled on a pitch but managed a weak fly that looked similar to Nolasco's hit, falling in front of Ludwick in right field.
But that was the extent of the scoring, as Looper prompted Gonzalez to hit into an inning-ending double play.
Then he had to watch the rest of the game's twists and turns. The playoff hunt seemed to bring out the best in both clubs. As La Russa said, "You have two teams battling for the same thing."
Copyright 2008 Sporting Life UK Ltd, All Rights Reserved.
Tigers' theory not yet formulated
CHICAGO -- On paper, the Detroit Tigers could still make a move.
For all their difficulties this season, for all the unmet expectations, they are 8 1/2 games out of first place in the American League Central. With 49 games remaining, this is not a mountain to climb. With their offense, second in the AL in runs scored, loaded with proven run-producers, they could conceivably just outscore a bunch of people over an extended period of time. They went 19-8 in June. A miracle would not be required.
"I think that we can make a run," manager Jim Leyland said on Wednesday. "But we've got to get our pitching in synch. We've got to do better. We can talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, but we've got to go out and do it."
And there is the problem. The Tigers entered Wednesday night 11th in the AL in team ERA. That doesn't get a team into October, no matter how impressive its offense is. The Tigers have been done in by a dismaying combination of pitching shortcomings. The starters haven't consistently worked enough innings, leading to an overworked bullpen. And now, there is uncertainty in the closer's role.
When the Tigers won the AL pennant in 2006, they had a terrific trio at the back of the bullpen, hard-throwing setup men in Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney and a veteran closer in Todd Jones, who, if he didn't have overwhelming stuff, had suitable results in save situations.
Now, none of the three is fully in place. Zumaya missed the first 2 1/2 months of the season after offseason shoulder surgery. He has more recently had bouts of tightness and soreness in his upper right arm after pitching. Rodney was out until June with right shoulder problems and has not pitched with consistent effectiveness. Jones, the incumbent closer, was removed from that role on July 27, but it turned out that he had been pitching hurt and he went on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation on July 31.
"We've been kind of in a Catch-22," Leyland said in regard to Zumaya and Rodney. They are both obviously talented. Zumaya is one of the hardest throwers in the game. But they have both had injuries, and at the moment, they are in the "handle with extreme care" category.
Leyland was asked who his closer would be for Wednesday night and his response was: "I don't know." Rodney was unavailable, having pitched three innings in the 14-inning loss on Tuesday night. The plus side of that was that those were three exceptional innings, including no hits and five strikeouts. Zumaya had pitched just long enough to give up a lead and Nick Swisher's three-run homer in the 14th, but Leyland was adamant that Zumaya was not yet ready to pitch in back-to-back games.
"I'm not going to have it on my plate that I got Joel Zumaya hurt by getting greedy," the manager said. "I'm not going to have that on my watch."
The Tigers were sufficiently desperate for relief help that they traded catcher Ivan Rodriguez to the Yankees for Kyle Farnsworth. The salient point of Farnsworth's work this season is that he has given up 14 home runs in 47 2/3 innings. With Detroit, he has given up three homers in 3 1/3 innings.
Jones took some heat for his shortcomings earlier this season, but, over the course of his career, he has more than 300 saves. The time when he was closing for the Tigers now begins to resemble the good old days. As Leyland says, every time a pitcher strikes out the side in the seventh inning, there will be someone saying: 'He should close.' But that's not how it works.
"Everybody thinks they can close, until it's time to close," Leyland says. "And then, all of a sudden, it doesn't work so good. It's a different time, boys."
Beyond this, 40 percent of the expected rotation is gone. The Tigers had justifiably high hopes for Jeremy Bonderman and Dontrelle Willis, but Bonderman has been out since early June after surgery to correct a circulation problem and Willis is now working in the depth of the Minors at Class A Lakeland in an attempt to regain his lost command of the strike zone.
Add it all up and it's 55-58; a long, long way from the preseason predictions of greatness for the club. It's been a Murphy's Law kind of season for the Tigers. On Wednesday night, starter Justin Verlander gave up a three-run homer to Jim Thome in the first and then settled down. His line would have looked considerably better had reliever Aquilino Lopez not allowed two of his runs to score in the eighth.
In any case, the Tigers could do nothing against White Sox starter John Danks and the result was a 5-1 defeat. This was not a typical defeat for the Tigers, but at this point, the losses do not require categorization.
The Tigers came to Chicago with hopes of putting a major dent in the White Sox divisional lead. All that is left to them in this series now is the possibility of a consolation victory on Thursday night. The alternative would be a deficit very nearly in double digits.
The big run that this club theoretically has in it remains at this point a matter of theory.
"Sooner or later, you have to do it, and we haven't done it," Leyland said. "I get tired of saying that we've got to win some games.
"We've got to do the things that are conducive to winning games. Whatever the combination is, we haven't done it."
It is much too early to dismiss the rest of Detroit's season, particularly with a club that has won before. But there isn't much here to cling to, other than the spare comfort of the Tigers being a long way from mathematical elimination.
When you don't pitch well enough to win consistently, that's the kind of thing that remains for you. You could imagine Jones coming back and being effective, Rodney and Zumaya pitching effectively and in good health, and the starters pitching more innings and better innings.
You could imagine all of that, but the problem is that early August is turning toward mid-August and for the Tigers, none of it has happened yet.
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Twins rally to take series from Sox
MINNEAPOLIS - The Metrodome was a picture of tranquility throughout Thursday morning and afternoon. Minnesota, 1 1/2 games behind Chicago in the AL Central, had not made a Trade Deadline deal, fostering a placid atmosphere and moods of ambivalence.
Through 4 1/2 innings of that evening's ballgame between the clubs, the White Sox had a four-run lead, and the Dome's faithful were stifling yawns.
A study of contrasts, this day. Because the next five innings offered enough plot twists to appease M. Night Shyamalan -- a furious comeback started by a three-run Justin Morneau homer, an ejection of Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire, a subplot involving hats, a threat of forfeiture from the public address system due to fan behavior and a three-run blast by Jason Kubel that capped the comeback en route to a wild 10-6 victory for the Twins.
"I wouldn't quite call it a playoff atmosphere," Minnesota starter Scott Baker said. "But it was pretty close."
Trailing, 4-0, in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Twins nicked White Sox starter John Danks for the first time. With two on and two outs, Morneau crushed a 1-1 fastball 371 feet over the right-field wall for a three-run home run.
Chicago held the 4-3 advantage heading into the bottom of the seventh inning -- a frame that would take over 40 minutes to complete and take its place among the most bizarre half-innings of the Major League season.
Danks got leadoff hitter Denard Span into a 1-1 count. From then on, all normality ceased. On the next pitch, Span was awarded first base after apparently being hit. The call was overruled by third-base umpire Marty Foster, who said Span, on a bunt attempt, had gone far enough to constitute a swing.
Gardenhire exploded from the dugout and was ejected. While leaving the field, the skipper was so furious that he tossed his cap into the air and punted it roughly 15-feet back into the air. The crowd, apparently in a show of solidarity, rallied around the skipper by cascading the field with hats of their own. After a few baseballs, a nerf football, and other paraphernalia was thrown, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen bolted from his dugout and frenetically waved his players off the field. The animated crowd of 31,493 showered boos and a threatened forfeiture was levied by the stadium's public address system.
"I think it got the crowd into it a little bit more," Morneau said. "They were pretty fired up. You don't want to see people throwing stuff on the field, it almost cost us the game. It was good that it stopped. But everyone was on their feet yelling and cheering. It kind of ignited us."
When order was restored, the Twins offense blew up. Span made all points moot by coaxing a walk. Danks was pulled for Matt Thornton, who gave up an RBI single to Joe Mauer to tie the game. Two batters later, Chicago reliever Octavio Dotel entered the game and plunked Delmon Young. With two on, Kubel lined a 92-mph fastball from Dotel over the right-field baggie.
The crowd, not yet settled from earlier malfeasance, exploded again. Players spilled from the dugout as Kubel's coiled body bounced around the bases.
"I don't know how many walk-offs in the ninth inning we've had this year, but I think that beats them all," Baker said.
"We were all jumping up and down, it was awesome," Morneau said.
The home run, resulting in a 7-4 lead, put the Twins up for good.
"I missed a couple of good pitches earlier in the at-bat, then just made sure I was ready to not let him beat me again," Kubel said.
The White Sox made it interesting when a two-run Jermaine Dye homer in the eighth off reliever Matt Guerrier pulled Chicago within one run. But the Twins answered with a three-run bottom of the eighth to end the drama, especially with normally impeccable closer Joe Nathan set to emerge from the bullpen.
The talk in the clubhouse upon the game's conclusion was centered as much on "the kick" as the climactic home run.
Said Kubel: "That was a good one. I looked over and saw Ozzie was laughing. It was pretty funny. [We] scored a couple of runs after that, maybe got us going."
Quipped Baker: "It would have been embarrassing if he missed it, but he squared it up pretty good."
Baker labored early, throwing 61 pitches through three innings. But he endured, lasting six innings, allowing four earned runs on five hits and three walks while recording a no-decision.
Jesse Crain got the win after pitching a scoreless seventh inning of relief. Thornton was tagged with the loss.
The victory ensured a series win for the Twins, who took three of four games. Minnesota now trails Chicago by just a half-game in the American League Central.
It is a relief for a team that was swept in a four-game series at Chicago from June 6-9.
With an intense series whittling Chicago's lead to a half-game, possible foreshadowing could indicate another epic late-season pennant race between the clubs, ala 2006.
Chicago returns to the Metrodome on September 23 for a three-game series that promises drama.
"Hopefully, it's not quite like it was two years ago, but we get the lead and hopefully sooner," Kubel said. "If this is how fun it's going to be, we have a lot to look forward to."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
White Sox walk off behind Pierzynski
CHICAGO -- Before A.J. Pierzynski stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning during Wednesday night's series finale against the Indians, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen told him not to try to be a hero in front of the home faithful with the game tied.
Pierzynski didn't quite follow his instructions, which was a lucky thing for the fans remaining at U.S. Cellular Field.
Instead, the White Sox catcher opted for a walk-off home run to left-center field on the first pitch from Masa Kobayashi, beating a possible rain delay and completing a three-game sweep of the Indians with a 6-5 victory. It was Pierzynski's second home run on the night and the White Sox third walk-off long ball this year.
It was a special moment that resulted in a double shot of postgame shaving cream for Pierzynski, now becoming a South Side ritual after game-ending plays. Those shots followed a thorough beatdown in celebration administered by his teammates as Pierzynski crossed home plate, marking the White Sox ninth straight victory at U.S. Cellular.
"I don't know if it was that dramatic of a home run," said Pierzynski with a laugh. "But it's always fun when you hit a home run in the ninth or 10th inning to win a game. It's a good feeling to see all your teammates there and how excited everyone is, especially with the way the rain was about to start pouring."
The White Sox, who moved a season-high 14 games over .500 at 49-35, carried a rare lead into the ninth inning earned against American League Central archnemesis C.C. Sabathia. The big left-hander continues to be the target of trade talks, with the Indians (37-48) currently sitting 12 1/2 games behind Guillen's crew, but Sabathia battled through eight innings and 123 pitches on Wednesday. He allowed four earned runs, a great showing for the White Sox, who have a 4-14 record against Sabathia overall.
Sabathia allowed home runs to Pierzynski and Jermaine Dye (No. 19) in the first and then lost a 4-3 lead in the seventh when Brian Anderson lined a two-run double to left-center on a 2-1 pitch. That slim advantage held up until the ninth, when Grady Sizemore launched his second home run of the game and 21st of the season on a 1-1 pitch from reliever Scott Linebrink to open the inning.
Linebrink pitched in a fourth straight game, while closer Bobby Jenks was unavailable for a third consecutive night due to soreness on the upper left side of his back. The AL's top slugger caught up with Linebrink, but the veteran hurler also blamed himself for poor pitch location.
"You can't make mistakes to him," said Linebrink of his approach against Sizemore. "You certainly don't want to put him on the bases to lead off an inning in a close ballgame like that. The next thing you know, he's on second, in scoring position.
"That was a changeup in the zone, and he hit it. You want to be aggressive and go after him, but I have to make a better pitch right there."
Sizemore's power stroke gave Pierzynski a chance to lead off Wednesday's highlight reel with his 10th-inning heroics. And Pierzynski's home run made a winner of Adam Russell (2-0) for the second straight night.
Russell struck out one and gave up one hit in the 10th, as the 6-foot-8 rookie right-hander continues to serve as a White Sox good-luck charm.
"That's the first time I've had that nickname right there," said Russell with a laugh. "I guess we are starting a little trend, but guys might start calling me a vulture -- stealing all these wins. We are just playing good ball right now.
"There's no quit in this team. We get it done late in the game when it counts."
Getting it done late has become a calling card for the White Sox at home, where they have an amazing 30-11 record in 2008. They also maintained a 2 1/2-game lead over the Twins and dropped the recently surging Tigers to seven games back in the AL Central while improving to 24-11 in the division.
For good measure on Wednesday, Pierzynski's game-deciding home run even helped both teams avoid what looked to be a brief rain delay on the horizon.
"Rain was starting to come down -- thick rain, too -- and I was hoping it would hold off," Russell said. "Luckily, A.J. came through."
"These games you can win, every game means a lot at the end of the year," Linebrink continued. "It's what makes good teams. The offense comes through when pitching doesn't, and we are able to get a win."
"Well, it was great," Guillen added. "The momentum on this ballclub is great. I think it's special. The way we won last night, we know we always got a shot in the last inning. They did it again today. They faced one of the best pitchers in the game right now and did a tremendous job handling him."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Royals run win streak to five in sweep
KANSAS CITY -- Out of last place, at last.
The Royals defeated the Colorado Rockies, 4-2, on Wednesday night to sweep the series and extend their winning streak to five games as 16,115 fans watched at Kauffman Stadium. Rookie Luke Hochevar went eight innings for his fifth victory and closer Joakim Soria notched his 21st save.
Kansas City boosted its record against National League clubs to 12-3, best in baseball, and won for the 10th time in 11 games.
And, for a cherry on top, the Royals escaped last place in the American League Central by passing the Cleveland Indians. The Royals had been in last place or tied for it for a month, since May 24.
"That's a step, no doubt," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "Sometimes you'd like to take giant steps, but we dug ourselves such a big hole, we just have to get back in it in baby steps."
Helped by two errors, the Royals scored twice in the third inning. They gave Hochevar a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning and knocked out Rockies starter Aaron Cook in the process. Singles by Mark Teahen and John Buck preceded Ross Gload's two-run double into the right-field corner.
Gload had three hits, extending his hitting streak to five games (9-for-19, .474). He's started the last 11 games at first base, with the Royals winning 10.
"I can't say enough about Ross sticking with it," Hillman said. "We all know he had trouble getting it going."
Hochevar had some trouble getting it going against the Rockies. His pitches were staying up but, happily for him, four hits in the second inning produced just one run.
Then he marched on through eight innings, the longest outing of his career, and thereafter gave up only Brad Hawpe's leadoff homer in the seventh.
"If I'm kind of in a skid, it's just: Go out and compete like a madman and keep the ball down," Hochevar said.
He had to rely on a few mental tricks, too, like pretending some of the guys hitting against him weren't the same Rockies that he cheered for as a kid growing up in Denver.
"You have to think of them as just a hitter in there. Like Todd Helton -- he's a future Hall of Famer -- and if that's going through my head, I'm in trouble," Hochevar said.
Helton had a harmless double in four at-bats against him.
In his Hochevar's last inning, he got some help from Buck. Ryan Spilborghs was safe on an error, but Buck, after going 0-for-23 against basestealers this season, nailed him trying to steal second base.
"It was good at the right time. It was a big out and kind of pushed that momentum back on our side," Buck said.
Soria, as is his habit, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and got two strikeouts. A ground ball slipped past him but second baseman Alberto Callaspo backed him up and got the second out.
"I looked in my glove and it wasn't there," Soria said.
Although there was anticipation of some added drama, a pregame warning by the umpires about throwing at hitters apparently had its effect. Some wildly misdirected flings by Royals pitcher Ramon Ramirez in Tuesday night's game had riled the Rockies.
Cook began the Royals' first inning by drilling David DeJesus in the leg but no action was taken.
"We weren't worried about it at all," DeJesus said.
The Royals don't have many worries these days. Since a 12-game skid ended, they've gone 15-9, closed to within seven games of .500 and skipped out of last place.
"We went through the 12-game losing streak and we're feeling good now," DeJesus said. "We've got to keep an even keel. We can't be, 'Oh, yeah, we're too good.' We've just got to stay humble and keep playing hard."
Veteran Mark Grudzielanek, on the bench because of a sore back, was watching the scoreboard.
"Yeah, I saw Cleveland lost tonight," he said. "It's nice. We're in a very challenging division and it's up in the air right now. If we can get a little more consistent out there, I think we can be within striking distance of the division leaders."
Chicago also lost, so the Royals are just seven games out of first place.
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Brewers set up sweep vs. Jays
MILWAUKEE -- The shirttails were out. Must have been a good night for the home team.
First baseman Prince Fielder had barely squeezed the final out of the Brewers' 5-4 win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday when he and at least a dozen teammates untucked their blue jerseys and gathered on the infield for high-fives.
It's a budding tradition at Miller Park, but center fielder Mike Cameron started doing it years ago in Seattle. Many of the Brewers fans who followed Wednesday's game at home after a 9-to-5 will relate when they hear why.
"Normally when you come home from a good, hard day's work, what do you do?" Cameron said. "The first thing you do is you take your shirt out, go get a beer and sit on the couch. The first thing you do after a long day is you get comfortable."
It was especially fitting after the Brewers' win over the Jays, one that secured a series win and pushed Milwaukee five games over .500 for the first time since the team was 11-6 on April 19.
At the plate, Cameron and Russell Branyan continued the team's power surge with solo home runs, giving the Brewers 36 homers in their last 18 games.
On the bases, Corey Hart and Cameron scampered home in one of the team's best baserunning innings this season.
And on the mound, starter Ben Sheets (8-1) won without his best stuff while closer Salomon Torres notched his ninth save, wiggling out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning and then working the ninth for his third save this season while working more than one inning.
"I definitely didn't get stronger, but we made it stand up," said Sheets, who walked four batters for the first time in nine starts, but limited the damage to two runs in six innings and won his fourth straight decision.
Against Blue Jays right-hander Shaun Marcum (5-4), the American League's ERA leader at 2.43 entering play, Branyan put the Brewers on the board with a 445-foot solo home run in the second inning, his ninth homer in 57 at-bats. Toronto tied the game in the top of the fourth when Sheets allowed a two-out single, a walk and then an RBI double to catcher Gregg Zaun, but the Brewers reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the frame by playing small ball.
Hart snapped an 0-for-18 slump with a leadoff double, moved to third on Branyan's flyout and then broke for home on Cameron's full-swing tapper toward the pitcher's mound.
Marcum scooped up the baseball with his glove and shoveled home to Zaun while Hart slid safely between Zaun's legs.
"I was going on contact, and I could have stopped, but I could see he was going to have to make a really good play to get me," said Hart, who inched home the moment he saw Cameron was getting a hittable pitch. "Stuff like that is awesome. I take a lot of pride in my baserunning, that I can do some things that some guys can't do. I'm not going to hit 40 [home runs] so I have to do other things to help out."
"The key is, can you read it immediately?" Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "If he hesitates, he's done."
Cameron reached first on the fielder's choice, then stole second base. He took third on one of Jason Kendall's two hits, and scampered home the moment Jays catcher Zaun threw to first to retire Sheets on a sacrifice bunt.
First baseman Lyle Overbay threw back to the plate, but Cameron tiptoed around Zaun and scored, creating a 3-1 lead.
"He was already too low," Cameron said, referring to the catcher. "If I slide, there's a chance [the umpire] may call me out. So to be on the safe side, I just kind of went through him."
Yost put Cameron among the two most instinctual baserunners he had ever been around (Rafael Furcal was the other). Hart is nearly as good, according to Yost, and it just happened that the Brewers had the right runners in the right spots in the fourth inning.
"I don't know if that was our best [baserunning] inning of the season," third-base coach Dale Sveum said. "But put it this way: It won us the game."
That's because the Blue Jays kept chipping away. They cut the deficit to 3-2 against Sheets in the sixth inning, 4-3 against reliever Carlos Villanueva in the seventh and 5-4 against Guillermo Mota in the eighth, when Zaun hit a two-out solo home run.
Mota surrendered a double, a walk and threw a wild pitch before Yost called on Torres, who walked Brad Wilkerson to load the bases. Torres struck out Joe Inglett to strand all three runners, then worked around a leadoff single for a scoreless ninth.
Out came the shirttails. Cameron made sure first-base umpire Rob Drake signaled the final out before pulling out his jersey.
Cameron was fooled over the weekend when Prince Fielder hit what looked like a game-winning home run. Instead it was a triple off the top of the center-field wall, and Cameron was left looking sloppy in the dugout.
"I was a little premature," Cameron said. "Not tonight."
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