SCOREBOARD
Saturday, April 21
Seattle at Los Angeles (9:05 p.m. EDT). Bartolo Colon makes his season debut against the Mariners.
STARS
Friday
-Tim Hudson, Braves, didn’t allow a run over eight innings and lowered his ERA to 0.62 in a 7-3 win over the Mets.
-Adrian Gonzalez, Padres, homered and matched his career-high with four RBIs in an 11-1 win over Colorado.
-Travis Buck, Athletics, hit his first career homer and drove in a career-high five runs to help Oakland beat Texas 16-4.
-Craig Biggio, Astros, hit his first grand slam in 13 years with one out in the ninth and Houston beat Milwaukee 6-5.
STILL A HOT-ROD
ll and Stan Musial into the top 25 on baseball’s all-time homer list with 476.
REDEMPTION
Two players who almost cost the Cincinnati Reds a game ended up winning it for them. Scott Hatteberg hit a two-out, solo homer that tied it in the ninth, and Brandon Phillips singled with the bases loaded in the 10th inning Friday night, sending the Cincinnati Reds to a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Both of them had an error on the same play in the fifth inning, giving the Phillies a 1-0 lead that held until the two Cincinnati infielders got another chance.
WALK WOES
Texas pitchers walked 12 Oakland batters in a 16-4 loss Friday night just two days after giving up 10 against the Chicago White Sox. Oakland had scored 26 runs in its previous eight games before breaking out with a season-high total against the Rangers, who lost for the fifth time in six games.
HONORING ROBINSON
the video scoreboard at Shea Stadium. New York also recognized four Negro League players and Ralph Branca, who played with Robinson on the Brooklyn Dodgers, during the ceremony.
A GREEN TRIBUTE TO RED
The Red Sox wore green uniforms to honor late Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach, with black “VT” patches in memory of those who died at Virginia Tech. The Red Sox snapped a seven-game home losing streak against the Yankees, including an epic five-game sweep last August, with a 7-6 comeback win.
HOKIE AT HEART
Virginia Tech alumnus Joe Saunders, wearing a Hokies cap, scattered seven hits during his six scoreless innings Friday night in the Los Angeles Angels’ 8-4 victory over Seattle. The only former Hokies player currently in the majors, he also wrote VT on his cleats and scribbled Virginia Tech in the dirt back of the mound in memory of the 32 victims shot to death on the campus last Monday. During a moment of silence for them before the game, Saunders seemed near tears. He received special permission from commissioner Bud Selig to wear the Virginia Tech cap during the game.
STREAKING
Oakland stretched its winning streak to four with a 16-4 win at Texas on Friday.
SNAPPED
David Wright went 0-for-3 with a walk for the Mets in a 7-3 loss to the Braves on Friday night, snapping his club-record hitting streak at 26 games dating to last season. Hubie Brooks (1984) and Mike Piazza (1999) share the one-season record of 24 games in a row.
SPEAKING
“You run out of words and superlatives of what he’s into right now.”- Yankees manager Joe Torre, on Alex Rodriguez’s torrid start to the season. Rodriguez hit two home runs in a 7-6 loss to Boston a day after hitting his second walk-off homer of the year against Cleveland.
SEASONS
April 21
1910 – The Cleveland Indians played their first game at League Park and lost to the Detroit Tigers 5-0, in front of 19,867.
1955 – The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 14-4 at Ebbets Field for their 10th consecutive victory from the start of the season – a major league record that lasted until 1981.
1967 – After 737 consecutive games, the Dodgers were rained out for the first time since moving to Los Angeles. The St. Louis Cardinals were scheduled.
1982 – The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 for their 13th straight victory.
1984 – In his second start since August 1982, Montreal pitcher David Palmer threw five perfect innings against the St. Louis Cardinals in a 4-0 victory stopped by rain.
1987 – The Milwaukee Brewers’ 13-game winning streak from the start of the season ended with a 7-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox. Milwaukee shared the major league streak of 13 straight, set by the Atlanta Braves in 1982.
1994 – Eddie Murray set a major league record with his 11th switch-hit home run game as the Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins 10-6.
1996 – Brady Anderson led off the first inning with a home run for the fourth straight game for Baltimore. The Texas Rangers overcame that homer, beating the Orioles 9-6.
2002 – Randy Johnson struck out 17 batters while giving up two hits in Arizona’s 7-1 win over Colorado.
2002 – Atlanta’s Rafael Furcal tied a modern major league record and became the first Braves player in 46 years to hit three triples in a game, as Atlanta beat Florida 4-2.
2006 – Alfonso Soriano hit three home runs and drove in a career-high five RBIs as Washington beat Atlanta 7-3.
2006 – Albert Pujols hit his major league leading 11th homer of the season and drove in four RBIs in St. Louis’ 9-3 win over Chicago. Pujols’ first inning two-run blast was his 1,000th career hit. He became the fastest player in major league history to reach that milestone with 200 homers. Pujols needed 806 games to reach the milestones, topping the previous record by Willie Mays of 825 games.
Today’s birthday: Ronny Paulino, 26; Jeff Keppinger, 27; Jack Taschner, 29; Kip Wells, 30.