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Baseball Today
Tuesday, Sept. 1
Boston at Tampa Bay (7:08 p.m. EDT). The Red Sox open up a three-game series against the Rays trying to distance themselves further in the AL wild-card race.
Sunday STARS
• Edgar Renteria, Giants, hit a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning and San Francisco pulled even in the NL wild-card race with Colorado, beating the Rockies 9-5.
• Zack Greinke, Royals, pitched a one-hitter, allowing only a second-inning single by Kenji Johjima, and Kansas City beat Seattle 3-0.
• Adam Wainwright, Cardinals, earned his major league-leading 16th win on his 28th birthday as St. Louis completed a three-game sweep of Washington with a 2-1 victory.
• Nelson Figueroa, Mets, struck out a career-high 10 and had an RBI single to lead New York to a 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs.
• Matt Kemp, Dodgers, homered early before hitting a sacrifice fly in the 12th inning that lifted Los Angeles over Cincinnati, 3-2.
• Mark Teixeira, Yankees, homered and drove in four runs to help New York finish off a three-game sweep of the struggling Chicago White Sox with an 8-3 victory.
• Placido Polanco, Tigers, hit a three-run homer with two outs in the eighth inning, lifting Detroit to a 4-3 win over Tampa Bay.
• John Lackey, Angels, pitched eight innings of five-hit ball for his 100th victory and Los Angeles beat Oakland 9-1.
STILL SIDELINED
Jake Peavy is having a hard time getting healthy. Still waiting to make his first start for the Chicago White Sox, Peavy left his minor league rehab outing after only 3 1-3 innings and 68 pitches Saturday night because he felt tightness in his pitching elbow. Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said Peavy will join the White Sox by Monday in Minnesota, where he is expected to get X-rays and be evaluated by the club’s medical staff.
OUCH
Instead of celebrating a three-game sweep, the Arizona Diamondbacks tended to closer Chad Qualls, who dislocated his left kneecap on a freak game-ending play. Qualls crumpled to the dirt after deflecting a liner by Jason Michaels to shortstop Stephen Drew, who fired to first base for the final out. Qualls immediately motioned to the dugout for help, and trainers and teammates rushed to the mound. After several moments, trainers helped the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Qualls to his feet and off the field.
SHUTDOWN
Zack Greinke held Seattle to one hit in a 3-0 win by the Royals. It was the 16th time in franchise history that the Mariners had been one-hit and the first since April 8, 2006, by Oakland. It was the 10th individual one-hitter, the last one coming by the Yankees’ Ted Lilly on April 27, 2002.
DRIVING IN RUNS
Los Angeles Angels slugger Kendry Morales hit his 30th homer off reliever Jay Marshall in the Angels’ five-run eighth inning that gave the Cuban first baseman 33 RBI in August, breaking the club record for RBIs in a month. Bobby Bonds drove in 31 runs in August 1977, but Morales leads the AL with 45 RBI since the All-Star break.
SCRATCHED
Boston Red Sox right-hander Tim Wakefield expects to get a cortisone shot Monday after his next scheduled start was scratched because his balky back acted up again. The 43-year-old knuckleballer spent 5 1/2 weeks on the disabled list with back problems after the All-Star break. He returned Wednesday and pitched seven innings, allowing one run and six hits in Boston’s 3-2 win over the Chicago White Sox.
SPEAKING
“Give up five or six ground balls and a lot of them turn into hits, there’s nothing you can say. Those guys are a speed-oriented team. It was like someone sacrificed a chicken for those hits. I made good pitches.” — Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson after the Twins scored three runs using a walk, three singles, a squeeze bunt and an error to rally for a 5-3 victory Sunday.
SEASONS Sept. 1
1906 — The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 in 24 innings. Jack Coombs of the Athletics and Joe Harris of the Red Sox pitched all 24 innings. Coombs fanned 18.
1912 — Smokey Joe Wood of the Boston Red Sox, on his way to a 34-win season, beat Washington’s Walter Johnson 1-0 in a specially arranged pitching duel at Boston. The victory was Wood’s 16th consecutive.
1930 — Wes Ferrell of Cleveland beat the St. Louis Browns 9-5 for his 13th straight victory.
1931 — Lou Gehrig hit his third grand slam in four days as the Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 5-1.
1958 — Vinegar Bend Mizell of the St. Louis Cardinals set a National League record by walking nine batters and tossing a shutout. Mizell beat Cincinnati 1-0 in the first game of a doubleheader.
1963 — Curt Simmons of the St. Louis Cardinals allowed six hits, drove in two runs with a triple and stole home in a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
1975 — Tom Seaver struck out Manny Sanguillen in the seventh inning to become the first pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in eight consecutive seasons. Seaver recorded 10 strikeouts in the Mets’ 3-0 triumph over Pittsburgh.
1998 — Mark McGwire broke Hack Wilson’s 68-year-old National League record for home runs in a season, hitting his 56th and 57th in the St. Louis Cardinals’ victory over the Florida Marlins.
1999 — Twenty-two of baseball’s 68 permanent umpires found themselves jobless, the fallout from their union’s failed attempt to force an early start to negotiations for a new labor contract. Under the deal mediated by U.S. District Judge J. Curtis Joyner, the union agreed the 22 “will provide no further services.”
2001 — Rafael Palmeiro drove in three runs for Texas, including a two-run homer in an 8-7 loss to Kansas City. Palmeiro became the fourth player in major league history to record seven straight seasons of at least 35 home runs and 100 RBIs. The other three are Jimmie Foxx (1932-40), Babe Ruth (1926-32) and Sammy Sosa (1995-2001).
2002 — Miguel Tejada hit a game-ending three-run homer to power Oakland to a 7-5 win, Oakland’s 18th straight victory, over Minnesota.
2007 — Clay Buchholz threw a no-hitter in his second major league start, just hours after being called up by the Boston Red Sox. Buchholz struck out nine, walked three and hit one batter to give the Red Sox a 10-0 victory over Baltimore. He became the 21st rookie to throw a no-hitter.
2008 — Stephen Drew of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Adrian Beltre of the Seattle Mariners became the first players to hit for the cycle on the same day since Bobby Veach of the Detroit Tigers and George Burns of the New York Giants did it on Sept. 17, 1920. Beltre homered and singled, twice, off Texas Rangers starter Matt Harrison, then doubled in the seventh off Luis Mendoza and tripled in the eighth off Josh Rupe to become the fourth Mariner to hit for the cycle. Drew singled, tripled and homered against St. Louis Cardinals starter Joel Pineiro. He then added a pair of doubles.