SCOREBOARD
Thursday, May 17
San Francisco at Houston (8:05 p.m. EDT). Giants rookie Tim Lincecum faces off against Astros ace Roy Oswalt.
STARS
Wednesday
-A.J. Burnett, Blue Jays, pitched a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts and Toronto beat Baltimore 2-1.
-Brad Hawpe, Rockies, homered twice and drove in four runs in a 5-3 victory over Arizona.
-Hunter Pence, Astros, had four hits, including his second homer in as many games, to help Houston beat San Francisco 2-1.
-Hideki Matsui and Chien-Ming Wang, Yankees. Matsui drove in four runs and Wang pitched seven effective innings to help New York to a 8-1 win and a split of a doubleheader with Chicago.
-Jorge Sosa, Mets, pitched seven-plus innings of one-hit ball, leading New York over Chicago 8-1.
ROOKIE REWARDS
Rookie Hunter Pence homered for the second straight game Wednesday to give Houston a 2-1 victory and its first home series win over San Francisco since 1999. Pence, called up on April 27 to boost the offense, is 7-for-7 in this series and has four homers and 15 RBIs this season.
COLE POWER
Cole Hamels retired his first 18 batters and struck out 11 in eight innings to lead Philadelphia to a 6-2 win over Milwaukee on Wednesday night. Hamels (6-1) allowed two hits and one walk in his 32nd career start. The 23-year-old also singled twice for his first career multihit game.
SALE
Hank Aaron will take on an increased role with the Atlanta Braves following the team’s sale Wednesday from Time Warner Inc. to Liberty Media Corp. The deal, which Braves chairman Terry McGuirk said values the franchise at $450 million, was unanimously approved by baseball owners at a special meeting called to beat a midnight change in tax laws.
STREAKING
Toronto has won five of six since ending its nine-game slide after a 2-1 win over Baltimore on Wednesday. … Washington won for the fifth time in six games by beating Atlanta 6-4.
SIDELINED
ed. Beckett leads the majors in wins with seven.
SPEAKING
“I got out of running for a couple of days.” – Los Angeles starting pitcher John Lackey after getting hit in the ankle with a line drive in the Angels 5-0 win over Seattle on Wednesday. Lackey threw six shutout innings to earn his sixth win of the season.
SEASONS
May 17
1925 – Cleveland’s Tris Speaker got his 3,000th career hit, off Tom Zachary, in a 2-1 loss to the Washington Senators.
1939 – The first baseball game on television was broadcast by W2XBS, an experimental station run by NBC in New York. Bill Stern handled the play-by-play as Princeton beat Columbia, 2-1, in 10 innings.
1945 – For the fourth time in four days, every American League game in the country was postponed by rain.
1961 – Roger Maris hit his first home run of the season at Yankee Stadium (fourth overall) on his way to a record 61.
1963 – Don Nottebart pitched Houston’s first no-hitter and the Colt .45s defeated the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 4-1.
1970 – Hank Aaron scratched out an infield single against Cincinnati’s Wayne Simpson to become the ninth player with 3,000 hits. The hit came in the nightcap of the Atlanta Braves’ doubleheader loss to the Reds in Cincinnati.
1977 – The Chicago Cubs hit seven home runs in beating the San Diego Padres 23-6 at Wrigley Field. Larry Biittner, Jerry Morales and Bobby Murcer hit consecutive home runs in the fifth for the Cubs.
1979 – Dave Kingman of the Cubs hit three home runs and Mike Schmidt of the Phillies hit two, and Philadelphia beat Chicago 23-22 in 10 innings at Wrigley Field. Bill Buckner had a grand slam and seven RBIs for Chicago. The game included 11 home runs and 50 hits.
1984 – Alan Wiggins of the San Diego Padres tied a National League record by stealing five bases in one game. He joined three others who have performed the feat – Dan McGann in 1904, Davey Lopes in 1974 and Lonnie Smith in 1982.
1992 – Toronto surpassed the 1-million mark in attendance earlier than any team in major league history. It took the Blue Jays 21 dates to draw 1,006,294. The previous record was shared by the 1991 Blue Jays and the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers.
1998 – David Wells pitched the 13th perfect game in modern major league history and the New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins 4-0.
2002 – Arizona’s Erubiel Durazo hit three home runs, a double and drove in nine runs as the Diamondbacks defeated Philadelphia 12-9.
Today’s birthdays: Jeremy Sowers, 24; Nick Masset, 25; Jose Guillen, 31.