Sunday Baseball
| 8
|
Don't look now but the Atlanta Braves aren't quite ready to concede 2006 as a lost season. They completed a three-game thrashing of the Padres at Petco Park on Sunday with a 10-5 win.
Thirty-six runs and 43 hits were the final offensive tallies for the weekend with Chipper Jones contributing a lot of the fireworks. The Atlanta fixture was 8-13 with three home runs and seven RBI in the three-game series and yesterday's two-run blast made it 14 straight games with an extra-base hit for Larry, tying Paul Waner's record set in 1927.
Home-plate umpire Bruce Dreckman ejected four, including both managers, as the 56 runs the teams combined for over the weekend obviously had everyone's blood boiling. The Braves are five and a half out of the Wild Card spot and looking better with every passing day.
The Braves weren't the only team to toss a sweep over the weekend. Cincinnati took four straight from the Rockies in Coors Field, keeping pace with the Cardinals who got as many RBI from Albert Pujols (6) as the Dodgers mustered runs in four straight victories of their own. The Reds took a lot of heat for last week's trade of offensive strengths Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez for relief help from the Washington Nationals but GM Wayne Krivsky could have the last laugh after a few more 6-4 victories like Sunday's. It's true, neither Gary Majewski nor Bill Bray took part in the game, but Everyday Eddie Guardado, another recent pick-up earned the save as the Red bullpen threw three quality innings to enable a five-run eighth inning that lifted the Reds to victory.
In St. Louis, meanwhile, the Cards were running away with an 11-3 win against All-Star starter Brad Penny. King Albert went 4-5 with three ribbies and two runs scored and Yadier Molina drove in three of his own to lift Anthony Reyes to his second victory despite getting just five innings from the rookie starter.
While the Dodgers were getting swept their crosstown (cross-freeway?) rivals were breaking out the brooms at home against the Devil Rays. Rookie Howie Kendrick drove in the go-ahead run with his third hit of the afternoon and the Angels won 7-5 and sit just a game and a half behind the Oakland A's. Kendrick was joined by the other two men who make up the bottom third of the Angel lineup, Robb Quinlan and Jose Molina, to drive in six of the Angel runs on Sunday.
Source
Date
Mon 07/17/06, 6:20 am EST
