29 SEP 2009: Scott Elbert of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches during a game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park in San Diego, CA.

The Dodgers were already trailing by the final score in the eighth inning Tuesday night when Scott Elbert took the mound for the Dodgers, but it wasn’t a meaningless outing for the rookie left-hander.


“He’s auditioning,” said manager Joe Torre, who has been impressed enough by Elbert’s composure and stuff to suddenly use him in close games with an eye on October.

Indeed, with Hong-Chih Kuo’s elusive command only a couple months after seemingly overcoming control issues, Elbert could very well be this year’s James McDonald, sneaking onto the postseason pitching staff via an impressive September after having virtually no role during the previous five months.


Click here to read the full article – By Ken Gurnick of MLB.com

They clinch fifth division championship in six years with 11-0 rout of Texas, then start the celebration — but only after an emotional remembrance of the late Nick Adenhart.

The champagne-and-beer showers, the ear-thumping hip-hop music and dancing, the victory cigars — all the trappings of a traditional division-winning celebration would have to wait.

Before the revelry came a remembrance.

The Angels clinched their fifth American League West title in six years with an 11-0 romp over the Texas Rangers in Angel Stadium on Monday night, and after a huge group hug in the middle of the infield, players and coaches quickly retreated to the clubhouse.

Click here to read the full article – By Mike DiGiovanna of Los Angeles Times

San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore is expected to miss three weeks because of a right ankle strain.


The 49ers said Monday night that the strain was revealed during an MRI.

Gore injured the ankle on his only carry during Sunday’s 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. He left the game after a four-yard gain and did not return.

Gore was taken to the locker room on a cart, but X-rays revealed no broken bones.

The team says the injury is not related to the ankle sprain Gore sustained during his 207-yard rushing performance against the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 20.


Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of The Sacremento Bee

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Through 21 games in the NFL, JaMarcus Russell has struggled.
In particular, the Oakland Raiders quarterback has had a rough start this season.

As the Denver Broncos prepare to face Russell and the Raiders on Sunday, however, they are preparing for him as a dangerous weapon.

“He’s a gifted quarterback,” Broncos linebacker Andra Davis said. “It’s no secret why he was the No. 1 pick in the draft (in 2007).”

To this point, Russell hasn’t lived up to his status as the No. 1 overall pick. The Raiders are 6-12 in his starts, and he’s got a mediocre 70.5 career passer rating.

This season, Russell has led the Raiders to a 1-1 record, but he’s completed just 35.2 percent of his passes (19-of-54) and has a dreadful 46.6 rating. He was 7-for-24 against Kansas City last Sunday.

Click here to read the full article – By Brian Howell of timescall.com

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“Stranger things have happened,” Bruce Bochy was saying late Wednesday night.


San Francisco’s manager referred to a long-shot rally by the Giants into the playoffs — not to Jonathan Sanchez stepping up as the rotation’s stopper.

Although that was strange enough.

In a rotation of marquee pitchers with headlines and honors, you wouldn’t expect Sanchez to be the one to put his foot down and call for order, as he did in taking a shutout into the sixth inning of a 5-2 victory over the D-backs that kept the Giants’ playoff hearts beating.

Click here to read the full article – By Tom Singer of MLB.com

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Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp celebrated a quarter century of life on Wednesday while Dodgers fans are celebrating a rising star who has a good shot of reaching a statistical plateau that has never been reached in the more than 100-year history of the franchise.


Kemp is aiming to become the first Dodgers player to hit .300 with 25 homers, 100 RBIs and 30 steals in one season. Through Wednesday, his 25th birthday, Kemp was hitting .304 with 25 homers, 97 RBIs and 34 steals in 149 games.

Already, he is only the sixth player in Dodgers history to have 20 homers and 30 steals in one season, and the first since Raul Mondesi in 1999.

There will be those who tell you that they knew this is what they’d eventually see from the gifted but raw young athlete drafted in the sixth round of the 2003 First-Year Player Draft out of high school in Oklahoma, where he turned down an offer from the Sooners to play shooting guard and instead opted to focus on baseball.


Click here to read the full article – By Lisa Winston of MLB.com

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During his time as an ace right-hander for the A’s, Jim “Catfish” Hunter was known as someone who carried more than his share of the load.


Current A’s catcher Kurt Suzuki can certainly identify with that, and so Wednesday’s announcement that Suzuki was selected by his teammates and coaches as the recipient of the 2009 Jim “Catfish” Hunter Award seemed fitting.

Suzuki, who likely will lead American League catchers in games started for the second consecutive season, and Hunter, who twice threw more than 300 innings and eclipsed the 250-frame mark in six other seasons, would have made quite the battery.


Click here to read the full article – By Mychael Urban of MLB.com

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After winning the American League Player of the Month honors after setting the Angels’ club record with 33 RBIs in August, first baseman Kendry Morales suddenly fell into a rut in early September.

The switch-hitter went into a 3-for-28 skid and all of the talk about being a legitimate American League Most Valuable Player candidate began to lose a bit of its steam.

Morales was even held out of the Angels’ starting lineup on Monday to get a day of rest and to clear his head of his recent slump.

But Morales was still called on to pinch-hit in the seventh inning against the Yankees and he delivered a towering home run to right field off reliever Brian Bruney in the Angels’ 5-2 win.

And then he followed that up with a 4-for-4 performance with a walk the next day, and he was swinging the bat like he did just a few weeks earlier. Morales even singled in his first at-bat on Wednesday to reach base safely in seven straight plate appearances over three days.


Click here to read the full article – By Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com

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The fifth one was the charm for Chase Headley and the Padres on Monday night at PNC Park.

The Padres third baseman had his first career five-hit night and finished a triple shy of a cycle, but it was the fifth and final hit, an 11th-inning double against reliever Jeff Karstens, that led to an 11-6 win and allowed San Diego to head to Colorado having taken three out of four from Pittsburgh.

“He had big hits,” an appreciative manager Bud Black said. “I liked the fact he was getting the ball down the right-field line, getting the head out. He showed straightaway power as well and got the ball down the left-field line for a double, too. That’s hitting, when you go line-to-line with a homer to straightaway center. That tells me he’s seeing the ball. He’s hitting it where it’s pitched.”


Click here to read the full article – By Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com

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Second baseman Freddy Sanchez had to leave Monday night’s game against Arizona in the bottom of the first inning with a twisted left knee.


Sanchez will undergo an MRI on Tuesday, but manager Bruce Bochy already wasn’t counting on being able to have him available for Tuesday night’s game against the D-backs.

“He’s day-to-day for now, but I assume he’s definitely out [Tuesday],” Bochy said following Monday’s 5-4 victory in the opener of the series against the D-backs.

The aggravation of the injury that had marred Sanchez around the time of his late-July acquisition from the Pirates occurred in bizarre fashion: as he gloved an innocuous throw in from center fielder Aaron Rowand after Justin Upton had flied out.


Click here to read the full article – By Tom Singer of MLB.com

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