honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, July 13, 2008

Victorino homers twice in loss to Arizona

Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Philadelphia's Shane Victorino gets a hand from third base coach Steve Smith after hitting his second homer of the game.

H. RUMPH JR. | Associated Press

spacer spacer

PHILADELPHIA — Randy Johnson liked the results of his fourth-inning at-bat. How he felt about his technique, well, that's another matter.

Johnson helped secure his 290th victory with a two-run double to start an eight-run fourth inning, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-4, yesterday.

"Watching me hit and run is like watching Manute Bol shoot a 3-pointer; it's not a pleasant sight," Johnson said.

A career .125 hitter, Johnson (6-7) laced a double to the left-field wall in the fourth inning to give Arizona a 4-2 lead. The Diamondbacks went on to match a club record for runs in an inning. In 573 career at-bats, Johnson now has 15 extra-base hits — 14 of which are doubles.

"You've got to be able to help yourself and put the ball in play. It helped and, more importantly, it got us going a little bit," Johnson said of his double, which came on a 3-2 fastball. "Every once in a while I'm lucky enough to put the ball in play. I take pride in it."

Johnson's trip around the bases caused a cramp in his calf that forced him to leave the game after warming up in the seventh inning. The 44-year-old departed after allowing four runs on five hits while striking out three and walking one.

"His base-running escapades took something out of him," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said, adding that the calf injury isn't serious. "But I was impressed (with the double). He was grinding through the at-bat and finally got a ball that he could handle."

Mark Reynolds' three-run homer to left-center capped the inning that saw eight Diamondbacks score, all with two outs.

"Eight runs is a luxury and the only bad thing is you don't want to have your focus derailed," Johnson said.

Except for Philadelphia's Shane Victorino, there wasn't much that derailed Johnson.

Victorino, a St. Anthony's alum from Maui, had three of the Phillies' five hits, going 3 for 3 with two homers. It was Victorino's first career multihomer game and all of his hits came off Johnson.

Philadelphia's Ryan Howard went 0 for 4, ending his 14-game hitting streak.

Phillies starter Adam Eaton (3-8) allowed eight runs on seven hits, failing to reach the fourth inning for the second straight start. Eaton has allowed 16 runs on 17 hits in 6 1/3 innings in his last two outings.

Mets 3, Rockies 0: Jose Reyes homered and New York's bullpen shut down visiting Colorado — after Pedro Martinez left with a sore shoulder after four innings, allowing just a hit and a walk — by combining on a one-hitter.

Carlos Muniz (1-1) pitched two innings for his first career win, Aaron Heilman and Scott Schoeneweis went an inning each, and Billy Wagner worked a perfect ninth to wrap up the Mets' fifth straight victory.

CUBS 8, GIANTS 7: Rich Harden, acquired from the Oakland A's in a six-player deal Tuesday, gave up one hit and struck out 10 in 5 1/3 scoreless inning in his debut for Chicago, which blew a five-run lead in the ninth inning before beating visiting San Francisco on Reed Johnson's RBI single in the 11th.

Jim Edmonds homered and drove in four runs for the Cubs, who led 7-0 after four innings and held on to win for the fifth time in six games. The Giants have lost six straight.

Astros 6, Nationals 4: Hunter Pence homered and drove in three runs, Lance Berkman added two RBIs and Carlos Lee had three hits to lead visiting over Washington.

Left-hander Wandy Rodriguez (4-3), who had only one victory in his previous six starts, allowed four runs and eight hits over 5 1/3 innings to earn the win. He walked one and struck out one. Jose Valverde worked the ninth for his 24th save in 29 tries.

Reds 8, Brewers 2: Edinson Volquez (12-3) gave up two runs and six hits with 10 strikeouts in seven innings, and Adam Dunn homered twice and drove in four runs to lead visiting Cincinnati past Milwaukee.

It was Cincinnati's seventh victory in nine games, while Milwaukee dropped to 2-4 since acquiring CC Sabathia in a trade with Cleveland on Monday. Sabathia makes his second start today for the Brewers, who fell six games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs in the NL Central.

Pirates 12, Cardinals 11: Troy Glaus homered leading off the top of the 10th to give St. Louis an 11-10 lead, but Jason Michaels hit a two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the inning to lift Pittsburgh.

The Cardinals appeared to be cruising with a season-high 22 hits while taking leads of 9-3 in the seventh and 10-4 in the eighth, but Jason Bay hit his second two-run homer of the game in the eighth to make it 10-6. The Pirates tied it with four runs in the ninth on Nate McLouth's three-run shot off Jason Isringhausen and Bay's fifth RBI of the game, on a force-play grounder.

Braves 4, Padres 1: Jeff Francoeur hit a broken-bat, two-run single with the bases loaded in the sixth inning for a 3-1 lead as visiting Atlanta beat San Diego and extended Greg Maddux's winless skid to 12 starts.

Maddux (3-8), who won his 350th game on May 10, is one start short of his longest winless drought, which was a 13-start stretch from May 11 to July 14, 1990, with the Chicago Cubs.

Marlins 5, Dodgers 3: Dan Uggla doubled home the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th inning, lifting Florida over Los Angeles.

Josh Willingham led off the 11th with a double against Ramon Troncoso (0-1), and scored when Uggla pulled a 1-0 pitch inside third base for his first RBI in three games after missing the previous 11 with a left ankle strain. Cody Ross added a sacrifice fly after Robert Andino sacrificed Uggla to third.