Allison finds redemption in recovery
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- So many emotions must've raced through Jeff Allison's mind on July 14.
That night at Yankee Stadium, during the State Farm Home Run Derby, Josh Hamilton set the baseball world on fire by hitting a record 28 home runs in the first round.
By now, everyone knows Hamilton's story. How he was engulfed so deep in drugs he could barely see the light of day; how he completely reversed his life into the great story it is now; how he battled back to become one of the best hitters in baseball, giving recovering addicts like Allison hope.
"I definitely know what he went through," said Allison. "I'm definitely inspired by his story and what he overcame, because me and him have similar paths."
Allison's story is the same as Hamilton's in many ways.
But he's a long way from Yankee Stadium.
Allison now makes his living with the Marlins' Class A affiliate, the Jupiter Hammerheads. Five years ago, as a recent high-school graduate from the small town of Peabody, Mass., the world was his oyster. He was considered the best high-school player in 2003 and, soon thereafter, was the Marlins' first-round pick.
Back then, everybody thought in five years he'd be gracing magazine covers and dominating on Major League mounds. But an addiction to OxyContin and, eventually, heroin forced him to play just two seasons in half a decade in the Minor Leagues.
Now 23, his money is short and his bus rides are long. And for the second time since blowing Major League scouts away as a high schooler, he's trying to make a comeback.
In 23 appearances for the Hammerheads this season -- 22 of them starts -- Allison is 8-7 with a 4.72 ERA. Not the kind of numbers the Marlins envisioned when he was Baseball America's Player of the Year as a high-school senior. But at this point, Allison's life is no longer about wins and losses, ERAs or even WHIP.
The 6-foot-2 right-hander has been sober for 19 months. There was a time, he said, when he didn't even know if he'd be sober for 19 minutes.
To Allison and so many of those who haven't given up on him yet, that's the most important stat of all.
"Being mediocre is a million times better than my best high," Allison said. "I love what I do. I love waking up every day, going out to the field, knowing that I'm doing the thing I love to do and getting paid for it. That's something I've never felt before. When I was 18 and I signed that contract, I had too big of a head, and I didn't understand anything.
"I didn't understand life and what it was made of -- what it was going to bring to the table for me."
A budding prospect
Allison is a little bit different now than when he was a teenager. The swagger he carried when he was almost a god in his town of less than 50,000 people is gone, and his fastball isn't as electric as it used to be.
When Allison had those things, he was a can't-miss prospect.
At 14, he led his team to the Babe Ruth League World Series title. Then, when he went to high school at Veterans Memorial, he was the pitcher everyone came to see, capping his career with the kind of statline that makes you rub your eyes over and over again: 9-0, 0.00 ERA, 13 hits, nine walks, 142 strikeouts, 64 innings pitched. His fastball was clocked at 98 mph, and his curveball had some Major League scouts saying it was the best they'd seen in many years.
The Marlins selected him out of high school with the 16th overall pick in the First-Year Player Draft. Shortly thereafter, he'd be receiving a $1.85 million signing bonus and heading to Dolphin Stadium to showcase his talents for South Florida. He took batting practice, fired darts in the bullpen in front of then-manager Jack McKeon, and, most of all, took the first steps to what was promised to be a great career.
He was supposed to move up the ranks quickly. He was supposed to become one of the best pitchers in the Marlins' farm system. He was supposed to be as good as Josh Beckett.
"We thought he was a tremendous prospect," Marlins vice president of player development and scouting Jim Fleming said. "I mean, he was a first-round pick. We thought about him like you would with any first-round pick."
Drugs take hold
But that was before the Marlins knew about his addiction to OxyContin -- a potent painkiller that's said to give those who use it an intense high.
Months after graduating from high school, he entered his first residential treatment center. By February 2004, when pitchers and catchers were set to report, he had admitted to the Marlins he was addicted to the pills. Then, on July 17 of that year, while taking heroin for the first time, Allison was rushed to the hospital after blacking out.
That sparked his first comeback attempt.
He returned to pitch for Class A Greensboro in 2005, going 5-4 with a 4.18 ERA in 17 starts, but his stuff wasn't nearly as good, and his return was nowhere near complete.
"In '05, I went four months sober -- maybe three, if that," Allison said.
Drugs continued to keep Allison away from the baseball field. In 2006, he was suspended by the Marlins, and in August of that year, Medford, Mass., police reportedly found him unconscious in an apartment building after overdosing once again.
It didn't get any better after that.
Allison was put on the Marlins' restricted list once again in 2007, and on Aug. 29, he had his last wakeup call. That's when Allison was sentenced to 75 days in jail with three years' probation after pleading guilty to possessing heroin and drug paraphernalia, among other charges.
Trying to work it out
That was the last reported incident for Allison before his second attempt to live a clean life. He says there was nothing special to get him to finally be where he's at today -- no wakeup calls or anything that clicked in his head.
He just grew up.
"Forget about wakeup calls, because you can overdose, you can [have seizures], you can do all these things physically that can bring you down," said Allison, who was named to the Florida State League All-Star team this year. "But until you figure it out for your own and reach out to the people that tried to reach out to you in the beginning, that's when you're really going to figure it out.
"That's when you're really going to choose life over death, and that's what I did."
Allison now makes sure he stays clean. Just like Hamilton did in his recovery, he opts to watch movies in his room instead of going out, he always makes sure someone is with him whenever he steps outside his apartment and, most of the time, he even has a friend on call in case of an emergency.
"He's 23 years old now, and his maturity level is a lot higher than it was when he was 20 years old," said Hammerheads manager Brandon Hyde, who also coached Allison when he pitched in Greensboro. "He's a man now."
Hyde is just one of the countless people who are rooting for Allison -- and it has nothing to do with wins and losses.
"I just want to see Jeff pitch every five days," Hyde said. "Whatever happens, happens, but I just want to give him the ball every five days.
"I admire the heck out of him. I love him. I think he's a super person."
Allison said he hasn't had any temptation to go back to drugs since committing to staying sober, which is something that makes him even more admirable.
"If something happens bad in the game or in his personal life, what do you think he starts thinking about?" said one of his catchers with the Hammerheads, John Purdom. "Just to stay away from it is amazing."
Lately, Allison has stayed away from controversy, too. The only articles found on him now are basic recaps of his outings in Jupiter. No more arrest records or drug relapses or suspensions.
"Two things with [Allison]," Fleming said. "First of all, I'm happy he has his life together, and he's focused on something and being productive. As far as expectations, I didn't expect all of his stuff to come back, especially since he's been out of the game for so long, but he's shown what he can do.
"He's on track to be a big league pitcher."
Allison may very well live out a life like Hamilton's and play in the Major Leagues. But for now, he's just a regular guy trying to make his living in the Minors.
It's funny how when he was young, Allison did his best to make sure he was better than everybody else. Now, he's found his purest sense of happiness in being ordinary.
"That's what I wanted to do -- I wanted to be a normal human being," Allison said. "And for me to do that, I had to do certain things to get back to normal life. And I did those things, and I became a man.
"I knew that I had to become a man quick."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Jays rally late to get Burnett 15th win
DETROIT -- A.J. Burnett was able to smile shortly after his emotions briefly got the best of him on Tuesday night. After a troublesome sixth inning, the Blue Jays pitcher retreated to the visitors' dugout at Comerica Park and took out his frustration on a water cooler.
Burnett then disappeared to the clubhouse, collecting himself after handing the Tigers a three-run advantage. Upon returning to the bench, Burnett was able to witness his teammates piece together a late rally to claim a 6-4 victory, putting the pitcher in the win column for his fifth start in a row.
In each of his previous three outings, including the latest showing in Detroit, Burnett has been on the hook for four runs. In each game, the Blue Jays' offense managed enough support to overcome his mistakes -- this time using a four-run outburst against Detroit's bullpen in a decisive seventh.
"That's three games in a row that they've picked me up," Burnett said. "It's not about me tonight. It's about this team and about how they've been playing."
The win was the second in a row and sixth in the past nine games for the Blue Jays (61-59), who remain eight games behind the Red Sox in the American League Wild Card standings with 42 games to play on the regular-season slate. For Burnett, the win improved his record to 15-9 and gave him seven victories in his past eight trips to the hill.
Against the slumping Tigers (58-61), who have dropped nine of their last 12 contests, Burnett logged six rocky innings, in which he struck out six to up his AL-leading total to 165 whiffs. On this night, though, Burnett surrendered a season-high three home runs and was bailed out by Toronto's bats.
"That's a really good feeling for this team," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "We haven't done a lot of that this year. To battle back and win that ballgame is a big win for us, because those are the sorts of things we'd like to do a little bit more often. If we could do that, certainly we'd have a better ballclub."
The Jays' offense was paced by left fielder Adam Lind, who finished with three hits, including a solo homer in the second inning and a single in the ninth that drove in a crucial insurance run. In the seventh inning, Lind jump-started Toronto's comeback with a leadoff single to right field as well.
Trailing, 4-1, Toronto mounted its rally after Zach Miner exited following six sharp innings for the Tigers. After Lind's base hit opened the seventh, he later scored on a groundout by Joe Inglett. Detroit turned to reliever Joel Zumaya (0-2), who yielded a run-scoring single to Marco Scutaro and a two-run double to Vernon Wells.
Wells' two-base hit moved the Blue Jays ahead for good, 5-4 -- effectively erasing Burnett's issues. Burnett didn't make many mistakes, but the few misplaced pitches he did feature wound up costly. After Lind's homer in the second put Toronto ahead, 1-0, Burnett gave up a solo shot to Gary Sheffield in the home half of the inning.
It was the first of two homers Sheffield launched on the night.
"He hit that first ball just like Hank Aaron used to hit home runs," Gaston marveled. "The first home run to left-center field, that was just a high fastball. That's the Sheffield that I'm used to seeing."
In the sixth inning, Magglio Ordonez lifted the first pitch he saw from Burnett deep to right field, where the ball bounced off a railing just over the wall for a leadoff homer. Sheffield later added his second blast and Brandon Inge added an RBI double to complete Detroit's three-run outburst.
With two outs, Inge was caught trying to steal third base, bringing an abrupt end to the sixth. It was a fortunate turn for the Blue Jays, who were able to take advantage.
"After they score the three runs, we seemed to pick it up," Gaston said. "When we got an opportunity to score some runs and drive in some runs, it happened."
After seeing Burnett's slight blowup in the dugout, the Blue Jays' hitters were happy they were able to help the pitcher avoid what would've been a tough loss. Lind said he had one simple reaction after seeing Burnett boil over.
"Just keep battling," Lind said. "A.J. gave us everything he had and you never want your starting pitcher to get the loss."
Burnett certainly was thankful.
"It just shows you that this team is coming together and playing good ball," he said.
Copyright 2008 Sporting Life UK Ltd, All Rights Reserved.
Waters baffles Angels in debut
ANAHEIM -- Nobody saw this coming.
Chris Waters, a last-minute emergency replacement for the unfortunate Hayden Penn, shined in his Major League debut Tuesday night, when he easily handled the best team in baseball. Waters fired eight innings of one-hit ball, brushing aside questions about whether this was a one-start situation and leading the Orioles to a 3-0 win over the Angels.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the best debut for a Baltimore starter since Bob Milacki allowed one hit over eight scoreless innings on Sept. 18, 1988 -- when Waters was just an 8-year-old with a dream.
"Gosh, we didn't expect it, [but] we'll take it. This was a great performance," said Baltimore manager Dave Trembley, before fielding a question as to whether Waters would start again. "That's like asking if on Halloween they're going to have trick-or-treating. That's about it, that correlation right there. Are they going to trick-or-treat on Halloween?"
They're going to trick-or-treat on Halloween, and Waters is going to start next week against Cleveland.
The southpaw, who had pitched to a 3-6 record and a 5.70 ERA for Triple-A Norfolk, was tabbed to start after Penn got hit by the shard of a broken bat in his last outing. And he made it look like an inspired choice, getting 14 outs on ground balls and holding the Angels to two runners in scoring position -- both in the third inning and both stranded on grounders.
Waters (1-0) walked one batter in the fourth inning and one in the sixth, but he managed to wriggle out of jeopardy without much duress. The 27-year-old got ground balls to end five of the first seven innings and retired 15 of the final 16 batters he faced. And afterwards, he did the postgame interviews and endured some hazing from his teammates.
"They stayed away from me," said Waters, who spent eight-plus years in the Minors. "I felt secluded."
First, Waters was on the receiving end of a shaving-cream pie from third baseman Melvin Mora. And then, as he spoke to the print reporters, he did so over the din of an electronic novelty device that delivered some ear-splitting harmonics.
"Wonderful. A great, great feeling," he said, savoring the awkward moment. "I came in knowing that they were probably going to take on me because a rookie coming into a big stadium, I was just focusing in on really trying to find the zone."
Afterwards, it was hard to find a teammate who wasn't seriously impressed. Catcher Ramon Hernandez said it was the best game pitched by any Oriole this year, and Mora said that Waters had earned his stripes the hard way.
"I didn't say hello all day. I wanted to see what he got," said Mora, whose greeting of choice was the shaving-cream pie. "If he goes four innings [or] five innings, I didn't want to say anything. Just catch the ground ball and that's it. I wanted to wait until the end of the game. He's lucky I didn't throw the cooler on him. I didn't hit him hard. I just rubbed it in."
"You have somebody's career in your hands. I was trying to make it a success so he can be in the big leagues for the rest of his career," added Hernandez, who ushered Waters through his start. "He was throwing strikes no matter what. It didn't matter who was hitting. He wasn't scared to get hit. That's the main thing about young guys coming in like that."
Baltimore (54-58) gave the southpaw all the offense he'd need in the first inning, taking a two-run lead just three batters into the game. Nick Markakis doubled in Brian Roberts to score the first run, and he scored on a single by Mora. The Orioles didn't score again until the seventh, when Luke Scott crushed a homer far beyond the right-field fence.
The Angels (70-43) never got a runner into scoring position after the third inning, and closer George Sherrill locked down the ninth inning for his 31st save of the season. Trembley was asked after the game if it was a hard decision to hook Waters and go to his relief ace, but he replied that he didn't really see any other way to get it done.
"You've got a guy that most people would've said, 'If you got five innings out of him, everybody would've been happy,'" said Trembley of Waters. "He takes you past the eighth against the team that's got the best record in baseball, playing on the road [in front of] 40,000 people. You've got a guy who's got 30 saves in the big leagues [and] you've got the middle of the lineup coming up against him for the fourth time. I think it's an easy call."
And finally, when given a moment to reflect, Trembley picked a pitch-perfect anecdote to describe the moment.
"We're trying to hide him in the hotel yesterday," he said. "I talked to him early in the day and I said, 'Just stay in the hotel. Don't come to the game because I've got to make a move after the game and I really don't want people to start looking over their shoulders.' ... Sure enough, I was over here yesterday at 1:30 p.m. doing some work in my office and he shows up.
"He says, 'Dave, I've got to play catch before tomorrow. I've got to play catch and do some running.' I said, 'Well, you're a ghost. Don't let anybody see you.' I sent [pitching coach Rick] Kranitz out on the field before they opened the clubhouse ... to play catch and do some running. And I said, 'Go back to your room, have a nice dinner. I'll congratulate you tomorrow.''
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Pudge deal opens full-time spot for Inge
CLEVELAND -- Ivan Rodriguez had every reason to be emotional after his trade from the Tigers Wednesday. Brandon Inge isn't going anywhere, but it was tough for him to contain how he felt.
On many teams, it would've been an awkward situation -- a future Hall of Famer leaving and a teammate trying not to be too happy about replacing him. Given all that Inge and the Tigers have been through this year, however, it was understandable. After watching his starting job vanish with last winter's trade for Miguel Cabrera, Inge is back in the everyday lineup at a different spot, one he owned before Rodriguez arrived in 2004.
After all the offseason and Spring Training drama about Inge's future, it turns out it's behind the plate in Detroit.
"You tell people sometimes to be a little patient and things will probably work out, they don't understand that," manager Jim Leyland said. "Well, I didn't know it was going to work out any way, shape or form like this, but here it is. He's the Detroit Tiger catcher. There you are. Take it. See what you do with it."
Leyland jokingly called it the moment of truth, a line he repeated to Inge as he talked with reporters in the Tigers' clubhouse. Inge had to realize something to get to this point, though -- that he could fall in love with catching again.
"I can't tell you how excited I am about it," Inge told reporters before Wednesday's game.
Without Inge's successful job retraining, the Tigers wouldn't have thought about trading Rodriguez. The irony is that Inge only got back behind the plate as an extra backstop to work with pitchers in Spring Training once it became clear that Vance Wilson wouldn't be ready to return.
Inge opened the season as an occasional backup as part of his super-utility duties, progressed to a part-time catcher to rest Rodriguez, and recently became the Tigers' apparent future at the position once Rodriguez's contract expired at season's end. With Wednesday's trade, the future is now.
"We think he's ready to be our everyday catcher," president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said. "Our plans were to make him our everyday catcher going into the future. He's ready for it. So it's a position where for us, we have somebody we think can step up and do that, and we also helped our bullpen, which we think is an area we needed to address."
Once Kyle Farnsworth joins the club Friday at Tampa Bay, his pitching will become part of Inge's responsibility. That's how he views his role. It's a similar viewpoint that he had when he was the Tigers' catcher from 2001-03, but he's better prepared for it now.
"I'm so happy to just know that this is what it is," Inge said. "I'm catching. I can run the staff, make them comfortable and prepare. I can put these guys in the best possible opportunity to win ballgames, period."
The longest-tenured Tiger on the club, Inge jumped from the Minors to become Detroit's regular catcher as an injury replacement for Mitch Meluskey in 2001, when Phil Garner was managing and Randy Smith was the GM. His strong arm and ability to call a game weren't in question, but his offense was a struggle. Not until the tail end of 2003 did he show consistent production at the plate, but it became a moot point when Detroit had a chance to sign Rodriguez at season's end.
Off went Inge to utility work, only to end up at third base by season's end in place of the struggling Eric Munson. He spent three-plus seasons at the hot corner, where his offense emerged, highlighted by 27 homers and 83 RBIs in 2006. Not catching, he said then, freed him to improve his hitting.
Inge signed a four-year, $24 million contract that offseason, seemingly cementing his future in Detroit. After he struggled at the plate in 2007, however, the Tigers pounced on a chance to trade for Cabrera and installed him as the third baseman, putting Inge's future in flux again.
He didn't embrace catching in Spring Training but was willing to do whatever he could to get playing time. He just wanted to play, wherever it was. It was a late April series at Yankee Stadium, of all places, where Inge began to realize he enjoyed it again.
"I had a chance to catch a few guys for a complete game," he said, "and it was like, 'All right, I called a pretty good game. Everything went smoothly. The guys seemed like they respected me back there.' That's kind of when it set in, and things started to be fun.
"It was all a big transition. You go from losing your job, to not knowing where you're going, to a position where your only thoughts of remembering the position was that it was hard to play. Catching was pretty hard for me. And now, I get back there and I'm like, 'Hey, wait a minute, this is not what I remember. This is not as hard, because now I've learned a lot more. I've learned how to slow the game down. There's not as much pressure on me anymore.' So it became fun again."
In an interesting twist, Inge credits the man who replaced him at catcher for helping him make that step. By watching Rodriguez and how he separated his catching from his hitting, Inge said, he learned how to draw a dividing line and not become consumed by the job. He can enjoy handling a pitching staff and still find time to work on his swing. When he was a catcher years ago, anything he provided at the plate was just a bonus.
Inge's progression is at the point now that Leyland believes this team can get to the playoffs with him as its regular catcher. It's an incredible journey from where the season started, and it's one that even Rodriguez took time to appreciate as he talked about his feelings on the trade.
"Brandon is doing a good job," Rodriguez said. "He had a great game [Tuesday] night. He's starting to hit the ball good. And he's a good catcher. That was his position when he came into the league, and I'm sure that he's going to do a good job. For me, I'm just going to continue to do what I do, but in another uniform."
Before he did that, though, he made a point to talk with Inge and give his good-byes. In some ways, it was a changing of the guard.
"He's a class act. He really is," Inge said. "He told me, 'Hey, it's yours now. You take over and do well.'"
The Tigers are counting on it.
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Offense backs Balester to win in debut
MIAMI -- After Nationals closer Jon Rauch blew a one-run lead in the ninth inning and then lost it in the 10th on Monday, manager Manny Acta said he'll take a situation like that every day because most of the time, it means his team will win the game.
Tuesday night provided a similar scenario.
Despite the Nationals putting up nine runs and their rookie pitcher, Collin Balester, pitching five innings of one-hit ball, the Marlins were right there in the ninth inning. But facing a 3-0 count on Luis Gonzalez with runners on first and second in a three-run game, Rauch battled back to make it a full count and then got the veteran outfielder to fly out, giving the Nationals a much-needed 9-6 win in front of 12,166 at Dolphin Stadium.
"He's a tough guy for us," Acta said. "He doesn't back down, he wasn't thinking about last night. He had to go through a tough part of the lineup there and to battle back from a 3-0 count and make that pitch. It says a lot about him, especially since he's throwing for the third straight day."
After Balester completed the fifth inning and the Nationals jumped out to a 6-1 lead thanks to a Ronnie Belliard grand slam in the top of the sixth, Acta told his 22-year-old righty, "There's no way we can blow this one for you."
He was almost wrong.
The Nationals' offense cranked out 15 hits -- their highest since they got 16 on June 5 against the Cardinals -- and five players had multi-hit games, but it almost wasn't enough.
After Balester allowed only one run in five innings, the Nationals' bullpen yielded five runs over the next three innings to give the Fish a fighting chance.
In the top of the eighth, the Nationals seemed to break the game open after Marlins first baseman Mike Jacobs fielded a sharp ground ball by Kory Castro with the bases loaded, but threw the ball away. From there, Felipe Lopez hit an RBI single -- his third hit of the night -- and Willie Harris followed with another RBI single to right to make it a 9-4 game.
But in the bottom half of that inning, Alfredo Amezaga and Hanley Ramirez -- who hit a three-run homer earlier in the game -- got RBI singles to make it a three-run game off Luis Ayala. The 30-year-old righty then struck out Jeremy Hermida with the bases loaded to end the inning and stop the bleeding before Rauch racked up his 17th save.
"Those last four innings seemed like it took about four hours," Balester said. "It was fun, though, to watch. Even me, I'm so happy to be here, and so happy to be in the big leagues."
In five innings, the 6-foot-5 righty gave up one hit while walking three and striking out three. Balester hadn't given up a hit until a leadoff single by Cody Ross in the fifth and left after tossing 95 pitches -- 54 for strikes. But Balester ran into a little trouble in the fifth.
That inning saw him walk opposing pitcher Mark Hendrickson on four straight pitches, face seven hitters and give the Marlins their first run. But Balester was able to work out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation with only one run across.
"He's got good stuff, it's just a matter of him harnessing it a little bit," said Paul Lo Duca, who finished the night 2-for-4 and was behind the plate mostly to ease Balester through his first start. "He's got an electric fastball and an electric curveball, and he's going to be a good pitcher for a long time."
After Belliard's second career grand slam made it a five-run game, the Marlins threatened off reliever Steven Shell in the bottom of the seventh. Before recording an out, Shell put runners on first and second, and Ramirez followed with a three-run shot to make it 6-4.
But Joel Hanrahan came in after that and retired three straight hitters -- which was all the Washington bullpen could hope to do off the Marlins' high-powered offense all night.
The Nationals are now 2-9 against the Marlins this season, but have won four of their last six games.
"We're playing well," Acta said. "I like the way we've been playing over the last five, six days. We lost a tough one last night, but we've been playing good baseball.
"We've been playing hard, and that's what I like them to do."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Mulder unlikely to return on Saturday
DETROIT -- Mark Mulder threw a bullpen session on Thursday, but it looks highly unlikely that he will start for the Cardinals in Kansas City on Saturday.
The man who would receive that start if Mulder is not activated, Mitchell Boggs, was listed as a potential reliever for St. Louis' series finale against the Tigers. However, Boggs did not pitch in the game, leaving him available to pitch Saturday.
Mulder is on the long road to recovery following two shoulder surgeries the past two years. He missed a scheduled Minor League rehab start on Monday due to back stiffness, but that condition had cleared up enough by Thursday for him to throw off a mound at Comerica Park.
The throwing session went fairly well, but not well enough to convince Mulder or the club that he's ready for a big league game.
"Probably not," Mulder said when asked about Saturday's game.
The fact is, though, that even with 12 pitchers on the roster, the Cards are short of bullpen help. Rookies Kyle McClellan and Chris Perez were considered unavailable on Thursday due to recent heavy workloads, and Randy Flores was placed on the disabled list on Thursday morning. That put Boggs on the relievers list.
"It's an expression of how limited we are if we need help today," manager Tony La Russa said before the game on Thursday. "I explained to [Boggs], if Mark can't go, then Mitchell starts Saturday. But before Saturday is Thursday, and we have several guys unavailable today. I wanted to make sure that as this game is played, he mentally knows that we need him. And we'll worry bout Saturday, Saturday."
Copyright 2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Padilla, power prevail against Braves
ARLINGTON -- Two cleanup hitters batted with one out and the bases loaded at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Tuesday night.
One had a two-run single that was the biggest hit in a four-run rally. The other had a sacrifice fly when his team needed much more than that against a pitcher who was clearly in trouble for the first and only time of the night.
Milton Bradley had the two-run single, Mark Teixeira had the sacrifice fly and the outcome of those two plate appearances turned out to be crucial as the Rangers opened their three-game set against the Braves with a 7-5 victory.
The two at-bats were also a reminder of Bradley's importance to the Rangers this season. When the Rangers traded Teixeira on July 31, they were left with a void in the cleanup spot that they had trouble filling over the final two months of the season.
Bradley, at manager Ron Washington's recommendation, was signed in the offseason to help fill that void and he continues to do an outstanding job. After going 1-for-2 with two RBIs on Tuesday, Bradley is now hitting .330 with 15 home runs and 48 RBIs on the season, while leading the American League in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
It boils down to this: Because of Bradley, Rangers cleanup hitters have a combined .585 slugging percentage this season, the highest in the AL. Last season, even with Teixeira there part of the time, Rangers cleanup hitters had a combined .459 slugging percentage, the fifth lowest in the league.
"Milton has been huge," Washington said. "When I said he was going to be our cleanup hitter, I said it before we knew he would even be on the field [because of his knee problems], but I knew it was because of the type of at-bats he was going to have. When you're a cleanup hitter, you have to be able to handle breaking stuff, because they're going to try and make you chase. Milton doesn't chase. He gives you a good at-bat every time."
The only problem was Bradley suffered a slight strain of his right quadriceps muscle on his third-inning single and had to leave the game. He is day-to-day.
"He tried to stay in the game, but I told him it wasn't worth it," Washington said.
Bradley's hit helped the Rangers jump out to a 5-0 lead. They held on behind Vicente Padilla, who pitched six innings to get his ninth victory of the season. C.J. Wilson closed it out with his 15th save to get the Rangers back to the .500 mark on the season.
Padilla outpitched Tim Hudson, the Braves right-hander who once pitched for the Athletics, but hasn't had much success against AL since getting traded to Atlanta. Hudson gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings and is now 0-10 with a 7.82 ERA in 12 Interleague starts since joining the Braves. He is also 2-5 with a 6.79 ERA in nine starts in his career at The Ballpark.
"He's one of the best," outfielder David Murphy said. "He's effective on both sides of the plate and he throws a lot of different pitches. We know how good he is, but our offense is pretty good, and we battled him."
Hudson struck out the first two batters he faced before Josh Hamilton gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead with his 19th home run. That's where it stood in the bottom of the third, when Gerald Laird and Ramon Vazquez led off with singles and Ian Kinsler, after falling behind 1-2, drew a walk to load the bases.
Michael Young forced Kinsler with a grounder to second to score one run, Hamilton walked and Bradley, after working the count full, lined one into right-center to drive home two. Murphy's sacrifice fly scored Hamilton and it was 5-0.
"Just a great at-bat by Milton," Murphy said. "That was just one of many good at-bats we had tonight."
Padilla, showing what Washington said was his best stuff all year, retired the first 13 batters he faced and had a one-hitter and a 6-0 lead going into the sixth. But Omar Infante led off the inning with a home run and the Braves then loaded the bases with one out on a couple of walks and a dropped fly ball by Hamilton.
That brought up Teixeira for what clearly would be one of the big at-bats of the evening, and Padilla knew it.
"I had to throw my pitches right there because it was a tough situation," Padilla said. "I wanted to make him hit my pitches."
Padilla went with the fastball. The first one missed. Teixeira swung at the second one and hit a routine fly ball to center.
"I wish I could have gotten the bat head out a little more and then maybe that lazy fly ball could have maybe driven in more runs," Teixeira said. "But he's a good pitcher. That guy has good stuff. He's their ace right now, and he proved it tonight."
One run scored on the play, but Brian McCann flied out to end the inning and the Rangers escaped with a 6-2 lead.
"When he hit that sacrifice fly, I was happy," Washington said. "Because we all know what Tex can do, and I'm glad he didn't do that. I'll give him the sacrifice fly and the one run."
Teixeira still has 50 RBIs on the season, two more than Bradley. But the Rangers still found somebody to fill that huge void, and he did so again Tuesday night.
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