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Baseball Today
Friday, Sept. 4
Boston at Chicago (8:11 p.m. EDT). Paul Byrd, who dazzled with six shutout innings in his first start in nearly a year, makes his second start for the AL wild card-leading Red Sox as they begin a three-game set against the White Sox.
STARS Wednesday
• Brad Penny, Giants, pitched five-hit ball over eight shutout innings in his first start with San Francisco, leading the NL wild-card contenders to a 4-0 victory over Philadelphia.
• Chris Carpenter, Cardinals, won his 10th straight decision for St. Louis despite laboring at times in a 10-3 victory over Milwaukee.
• CC Sabathia, Yankees, allowed one run in seven innings to earn his AL-leading 16th victory as New York beat Baltimore 10-2 to complete a three-game sweep.
• Ted Lilly, Cubs, pitched eight shutout innings to reach the 10-win mark for the seventh consecutive season in Chicago’s 2-0 victory over Houston.
• Wes Helms, Marlins, hit a game-winning homer to lift Florida to a 8-7 victory over Atlanta.
• Felix Hernandez, Mariners, pitched eight scoreless innings to spoil Scott Kazmir’s Angels pitching debut in Seattle’s 3-0 victory over Los Angeles.
• Landon Powell, Athletics, hit his first career grand slam to help Oakland score five runs in the second inning en route to a 10-4 win over Kansas City.
SIDELINED
New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera has soreness in his left groin, an injury that could sideline him into the weekend. Rivera said he first began to feel sore on Aug. 15 in Seattle. The right-hander has pitched in five games since then, including Monday and Tuesday, when he recorded his 37th and 38th saves against Baltimore.
MILESTONE
Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez got his 2,500th hit and drove in four runs in New York’s 10-2 rout of Baltimore. Rodriguez got his milestone hit in the fifth inning, a single off Jason Berken.
STATS
New York hit 20 homers at Camden Yards this season, the most by any visiting team in one year since the ballpark opened in 1992. It was the 12th series sweep of the season for New York, including three against the Orioles. … Toronto SS Marco Scutaro had his third error in three games, after only four errors the first 126 games this season. His throwing error in the sixth allowed a run. … The Cardinals are 31-4 since July 1 in starts by their big three of Carpenter, Adam Wainwright (16-7) and Joel Pineiro (14-9), and are a season-best 24 games above .500. Although shy of his best stuff for the second straight start despite an extra day of rest, Carpenter is 10-0 with a 2.17 ERA in his last 12 outings and leads the majors with a 2.28 ERA.
STREET CLOSURE
Colorado Rockies closer Huston Street has biceps tendinitis in his pitching arm and is being shut down for an undetermined amount of time. Street said he first felt discomfort Tuesday night when he threw a six-pitch ninth inning against the New York Mets in his first action in a week. He brushed it off as the effects of a weeklong layoff.
SENATOR SCHILLING?
Curt Schilling, the former major league pitcher who won the allegiance of Bostonians by leading the Red Sox to the 2004 World Series title, said Wednesday that he has “some interest” in running for the vacant seat held for nearly 50 years by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Schilling, a registered independent and longtime Republican supporter, wrote on his blog that while his family and video game company are high priorities, “I do have some interest in the possibility.”
SEE YA
Pittsburgh’s Garrett Jones homered in the second inning at Cincinnati to give the Pirates 10,000 all-time homers in 123 years. The Pirates first baseman led off the second inning by hitting Homer Bailey’s 1-0 pitch into the right field seats at Great American Ball Park to make Pittsburgh the 14th of the 16 pre-expansion teams to reach 10,000 home runs.
SPEAKING
“The second you hear a pop in your hamstring, you think something’s wrong and it’s going to be more than a month recovery time. So for them to tell me there’s a good chance I’ll be available the last two weeks, that’s great news to me. That’s all I’m going to focus on.” — Texas third baseman Michael Young, who will miss at least two weeks while he recovers from an injured hamstring.
SEASONS Sept. 4
1916 — Longtime pitching rivals Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown closed out their careers, by special arrangement, in the same game. Mathewson won the game 10-8.
1928 — The Boston Braves started a grueling string in which they played nine straight doubleheaders, a major league record.
1941 — The New York Yankees clinched the pennant on the earliest date in baseball history with a 6-3 victory over Boston.
1966 — The Los Angeles Dodgers became the first team in major league history to draw more than 2 million at home and on the road in an 8-6 victory over the Reds in front of 18,670 fans in Cincinnati.
1974 — Don Wilson of the Houston Astros was replaced by a pinch hitter after pitching eight no-hit innings against Cincinnati. Mike Cosgrove pitched the ninth inning and gave up a leadoff single to Tony Perez for the only hit as the Reds won the game 2-1.
1985 — Gary Carter hit a pair of solo home runs to tie a major league record and singled in another run to lead the New York Mets to a 9-2 victory over San Diego. With the three homers he hit the night before, Carter became the 11th player in major league history to hit five home runs in two games.
1993 — Jim Abbott threw the New York Yankees’ first no-hitter in 10 years, leading them to a 4-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
1995 — Robin Ventura became the eighth player in major league history — and the first in 25 years — to hit two grand slams in one game as the Chicago White Sox beat Texas 14-3.
1998 — The New York Yankees reached 100 wins on the earliest date in major league history — five days before the 1906 Chicago Cubs and 1954 Cleveland Indians — with an 11-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The ’06 Cubs set the major league record for fewest games to reach 100 victories (132).
2002 — The Oakland Athletics set an AL record by winning their 20th straight game. They somehow blew an 11-run lead before pinch-hitter Scott Hatteberg homered in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat Kansas City 12-11. Oakland broke a three-way tie for the longest winning streak in AL history with the 1906 Chicago White Sox and the 1947 New York Yankees.
2006 — Florida became the first team in major league history to climb above .500 after being 20 games under, rallying to beat reeling Arizona 8-5. With four consecutive victories, the Marlins (69-68) have a winning record for the first time. They were 11-31 on May 21.