Index-Journal, Greenwood, S.C. Sunday, July 19, 2015 4B MINNEAPOLIS Torii Hunter turns 40 this weekend. been bracing for trouble. Not from his body or mind, despite that daunting number for a professional athlete, but from his Minnesota Twins teammates. know what going to do to me, but it sound good because they keep saying, is it? When is Hunter said.
the guys start talking about your birthday a week out, up to something. The special occasion is Saturday, and his concern ought to be limited to potential pranks. The way his season has gone, Hunter be worried about an age-related regression. Returning to his original team in a mentoring role has been energizing. He even said being back in Minnesota has made him feel younger.
The Twins, though, have been the ones experiencing the rejuvenation. Their 50-40 record was the second-best in the American League before the All-Star break, and presence has played a real part. a very funny guy. He knows how to play the game. a leader, you Twins pitcher Ervin Santana said.
follows him, because doing a lot of the right Signing Hunter to a one- year, $10.5 million contract gave the Twins a durable right fielder, a five-time All-Star who has played just as well if not better in his 30s than in his 20s. Another reason: Leadership for a team that averaged 96 losses over the last four seasons. mentality that he brings in, that kind of embraced, of that short memory, forgetting about yesterday, forgetting about the game that happened an hour ago, something really helped third baseman Trevor Plouffe said. kind of been the difference in the team from the years For outfielders Byron Buxton and Aaron Hicks, having another fellow former Twins first-round draft pick has been invaluable. impact has transcended his position group, too.
His affable, jokester nature has given the Twins clubhouse the kind of life it had since, well, Hunter was here the last time a decade ago. He has initiated an elaborate ritual following victories by the Twins at home, featuring fog machines, laser lights and dancing in the middle of the room for the unofficial player of the game. just go out there and do what I have to do a part of me, and I always want to make guys around me Hunter said. Santana played with Hunter for five seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. love to have a few more together.
way treating himself, the way eating, he can play four more Santana said. tell him that all the time, and like, like, right, Hunter is the second-oldest active position player in the majors, behind only Ichiro Suzuki, who at 41 is a part- timer for the Miami Marlins. Two of the seven 40-plus pitchers are currently on the disabled list. His range in the outfield what it was when he was collecting nine Gold Glove awards with the Twins and Angels. His career-high errors total is five, established last year with the Detroit Tigers, and he had four by the All-Star break.
His .312 on-base percentage projects to the third- worst of his 19 major league seasons. Still, he has 14 home runs, a pace that would give him 25, the most since he went deep 28 times in his last year with the Twins in 2007. driving in runs at the same rate he has in that span, too. Last Saturday against the Tigers, he hit a two-run homer into the third deck at Target Field, a place only a few right-handed sluggers have reached. In the ninth inning that night, he made a tumbling catch of a sinking line drive.
been really, really manager Paul Molitor said, citing aloud his estimates of statistics. just a lot of production. Good at-bats. When you hit him second, he knows what to do there as far as taking pitches and using the whole field. And he can still ambush a Baseball Baseball You might have Peripheral Neuropathy Peripheral neuropathy is a condition that affects nearly 20 million Americans.
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The second baseman responded to hearty first- inning boos with a blast off Michael Pineda (9-6) over the center field wall with Kyle Seager aboard, helping the Mariners end a seven-game skid against New York. Seager connected twice in loss Friday night. Cano connected again off Pineda in the sixth, driving a ball into the second deck in right field for his 14th mul- tihomer game his first 13 came with New York. Cano singled between his long balls and grounded out with a shot for his first three-homer game. Carson Smith gave up an RBI grounder to Garrett Jones in the ninth before getting Didi Gregorius to ground out to Cano with the tying run on second base for his seventh save.
Brian McCann hit a tying two-out, two-run shot off Iwakuma (2-1) in the fourth, just one of two flyballs off the Japanese right-hander in 5 2-3 innings. McCann had the other, too, an out to left field. Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner started the sixth with singles but Iwakuma struck out Alex Rodriguez for the third time and got Mark Teixeira on a grounder. Joe Beimel, who yielded go-ahead homer Friday, relieved and retired McCann on a popup. Iwakuma allowed five hits and two runs without a walk and five strikeouts in his third start since coming off the disabled list.
With the win, the Mariners improved to 22-22 on the road after losing 11 of 17 to start the season. Seattle denied the Yankees a chance to move 10 games over .500 for the first time since Cano was closing out his career in pinstripes, on Sept. 13, 2013. Pineda took a shutout into the seventh against his former team in his first start against Seattle on June 2, but he struggled to throw strikes Saturday. The righty walked two for the first time since June 17 and needed 105 pitches to get through six innings.
He gave up six hits and four runs. room Mariners: LHP Charlie Furbush (biceps tendinitis) was feeling discomfort in his throwing arm so the team slowed the steady progress in his throwing program. Yankees: The Yankees sent RHP Bryan Mitchell to Triple-A after Friday win and called up Branden Pinder on Saturday. Manager Joe Girardi said he wanted to stretch out Mitchell in case New York needs him to make a spot start. Up next Mariners: All-Star right- hander Felix Hernandez starts.
5-1 with a 1.37 ERA at the new Yankee Stadium. Teixeira has made King Felix almost look ordinary. 20 for 66 (.303) with six homers and 13 RBIs overall against the 2010 AL Cy Young Award winner. Yankees: LHP CC Sabathia faces the Mariners for a second time this year. He allowed nine hits and two run in 5 2-3 innings at Seattle on June 2.
Associated Press ASSOCIATED PRESS Seattle Mariners' Robinson Cano (22), right, and New York Yankees catcher Brian McCann watch a ball hit by Cano for a two-run home run during the sixth inning Saturday in New York. leadership, homers have lifted Twins Associated Press ASSOCIATED PRESS Minnesota Twins' Torii Hunter (48), Eduardo Escobar (5) and Danny Santana (39) celebrate after the Twins' 2-0 win in a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday, July 2, 2015, in Kansas City, Missouri. Blue Jays support Dickey, lose to Rays TORONTO No team in baseball has scored more runs than the Toronto Blue Jays. But for whatever reason, they just never seem to get any whenever R.A. Dickey is on the mound.
Curt Casali hit a tiebreak- ing home run in the eighth inning and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Blue Jays 3-2 on Saturday. Dickey allowed one run and four hits in six innings. pitched Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. get a start like that out of anybody any day and take Still, Dickey remained winless in five starts since beating the New York Mets on June 18. Toronto has scored two runs or fewer in 11 of 19 starts this season, including each of the past five.
been a peculiar year in that Dickey said. Rays manager Kevin Cash said Dickey made it tough on Tampa Bay. could tell the knuckleball was giving us fits because they coming Cash said. were kind of staying on that same plane where it seems like they take off and gain The Rays fared better once they began facing bullpen. Brandon Guyer hit a game-tying homer off left- hander Aaron Loup in the seventh before Casali connected off righty Ryan Tepera (0-1).
and Guyer both, those were huge a- Cash said. Tampa Bay snapped a five- game road losing streak and won for the eighth time in 12 meetings with Toronto this season. Jose Bautista homered for the Blue Jays, who fell to 10-19 in one-run games. Gibbons called it a defeat. coughed it up late via the home run Gibbons said.
tough. If we improve there, going to be a long Kevin Jepsen (2-5) worked one inning for the win, Brad Boxberger pitched out of a jam in the eighth and Jake McGee finished for his fourth save. The Blue Jays used a hit by pitch and a walk to put runners at first and second with two outs in the eighth. Boxberger escaped by getting Justin Smoak to ground out. John RBI double gave the Rays a 1-0 lead in the third.
They missed an opportunity to add to their lead in the fifth when center fielder Kevin Pillar threw out Tim Beckham trying to score from second on two- out single. Cash asked for umpire Chris call to be reviewed, but the play was confirmed. Pillar doubled to lead off the bottom half and scored on a double by Devon Travis. Bautista put the Blue Jays on top with a towering solo homer into the third deck off Steve Geltz in the sixth, his 18th. Associated Press Dodgers split day with Nationals WASHINGTON Clayton Kershaw struck out a season-high 14 in eight shutout innings and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Washington Nationals 4-2 to earn a split of the two games decided Saturday.
Hours earlier, pinch-hitter Matt den Dekker lined a two-run homer in the eighth inning that lifted the Nationals over the Dodgers 5-3 in the completion of a game suspended a day earlier after the fifth because of a lighting malfunction. Kershaw (7-6), coming off a shutout of the Phillies, scattered three singles and walk a batter. The lefty has won six straight starts against Washington, fashioning an 0.96 ERA in the process. Bryce Harper struck three times against Kershaw, but hit a two-run homer in the ninth off reliever Kenley Jansen. It was 27th of the season.
Doug Fister (3-5) allowed four runs on nine hits over five innings. Washington second baseman Danny Espinosa left the game after diving for Adrian single in the ninth. Gonzalez and Justin Turner each got three hits in the win, and Yasiel Puig drove in two runs for the Dodgers. Gonzalez hit two home runs in the game that began Friday night and ended Saturday afternoon. The Dodgers gave Kershaw a 1-0 lead on three consecutive singles in the second, the last coming on infield hit that deflected off Fister.
In the fifth, Turner and Puig sandwiched RBI singles around Andre sacrifice fly to make it 4-0. The series opener was delayed three times Friday night by a bank of lights on the third base side that kept going out, and finally stopped with Washington ahead 3-2. The Nationals said Saturday that a faulty circuit breaker caused the outage. When the suspended game resumed, Gonzalez hit his second homer of the game, a tying shot in the sixth. Den Dekker hit his second homer of the season and the first of his career as a pinch hitter.
The two-out drive into the second deck came against Pedro Baez (2-2). Yunel Escobar homered and doubled twice for Washington. Casey Janssen (1-2) pitched one inning, and Drew Storen picked up his 28th save. Associated Press ASSOCIATED PRESS Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw throws during the fifth inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on Saturday in Washington..
