SCOREBOARD
Saturday, May 19
Kansas City at Colorado (8:05 p.m. EDT). Gil Meche looks to lower his 1.91 ERA for the Royals.
STARS
Friday
-Grady Sizemore, Indians, had four hits, including a two-run homer, and Cleveland beat Cincinnati 9-4.
-Boof Bonser, Twins, struck out a career-high 11 while giving up one run in seven innings in Minnesota’s 8-1 victory over Milwaukee.
-Andrew Miller, Tigers, pitched six scoreless innings in his first major league start and Detroit defeated St. Louis 14-4.
-Brian Roberts, Orioles, tied a career high with four hits in Baltimore’s 5-4 win over Washington.
-Emil Brown, Royals, hit a three-run homer to lift Kansas City over Colorado 5-2.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD?
e series with a record 7 1/2 games better than that of the Yankees – before this year, the biggest margin the Mets had held was 3 1/2 games in July 2000, according to Elias.
PROUD NEW PAPA
Brandon Duckworth is on top of the world. First he witnessed his daughter’s birth and then he returned to the Royals and picked up his first win in almost a year. Duckworth pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings and also had a single in Kansas City’s 5-2 win over Colorado on Friday night. Duckworth was given the scorecard after the game and said he plans to hang it up in the nursery of Sophia Duckworth, who was born Wednesday morning.
WITH THE SACKS FULL
Mark Ellis hit his second career grand slam in the Giants’ 15-3 victory over the Athletics on Friday night. … Torii Hunter hit his second grand slam of the season in Minnesota’s 8-1 victory over Milwaukee.
MEMORY LANE
Colorado’s interleague meeting with Kansas City brought back good memories for a pair of former Royals currently residing in the Rockies’ dugout. Manager Clint Hurdle was a first-round draft pick of the Royals in 1975. In addition, the Royals selected current Colorado bench coach Jamie Quirk with a first-round pick in 1972. He spent 11 seasons with Kansas City. The Royals defeated the Rockies 5-2.
STREAKS
Brandon Phillips extended his career-best hitting streak to 20 games in Cincinnati’s 9-4 loss to Cleveland on Friday. The Indians have won eight in a row at home following the win. … Randy Winn extended his hitting streak to 17 games in San Francisco’s 15-3 loss to Oakland. … Jorge Posada extended his hitting streak to 13 games in the Yankees’ 3-2 loss to the Mets.
SNAPPED
Baltimore snapped a five-game losing streak by beating Washington 5-4 on Friday.
FUTILITY
The eight runs for the Padres in an 8-1 win over the Mariners Friday night were an offensive eruption. San Diego is 11th in the National League in runs scored and scored three runs or less nine times this month.
MAJOR ROUT
Lake Elsinore – the San Diego Padres’ minor league affiliate – put on a record-setting performance, beating Lancaster, Boston’s farm team, 30-0 Friday night in the Class-A California League. Lake Elsinore posted the most-lopsided victory ever against Lancaster. The Storm came close to the league mark for runs, set by Fresno with 34 in 1947.
SPEAKING
“I really didn’t want to go, but the ball was hit pretty well. My legs felt like Jell-O for two innings after that.” – Twins third baseman Jeff Cirillo, after hitting his first triple of the season in the Twins’ 8-1 victory over Milwaukee on Friday night. Cirillo, who played for the Brewers the past two seasons, also hit a two-run homer and had three RBIs in his first trip back to Miller Park.
SEASONS
May 19
1910 – Cy Young won the 500th game of his career as the Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 5-4, in 11 innings.
1910 – Boston beat the Pirates 6-3 for the first time in 26 tries.
1942 – Paul Waner of the Boston Braves got his 3,000th career hit off Pittsburgh’s Rip Sewell in a 7-6, 11-inning loss to the Pirates.
1956 – Pittsburgh’s Dale Long hit a ninth-inning homer against the Chicago Cubs. It was Long’s first of eight straight games with a homer.
1962 – Stan Musial of St. Louis became the NL career hits leader. The 41-year-old got a ninth-inning single for his 3,431st hit and moved past Honus Wagner. The Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-1.
1968 – After hitting 10 home runs in six games, Frank Howard of the Washington Senators was stopped by pitcher Earl Wilson of Detroit, which won the game 5-4.
1981 – Pittsburgh’s Jim Bibby gave up a leadoff single to Terry Harper of the Atlanta Braves, then retired the next 27 batters for a 5-0 one-hitter. Bibby also hit two doubles.
1998 – Mark McGwire hit three two-run homers against Philadelphia. It was the second time this season and fourth time in his career McGwire hit three homers in a game. McGwire became the 12th player to have two three-homer games in a season.
2000 – Jason Kendall hit for the cycle and drove in a career-high five runs, leading Pittsburgh to a 13-1 rout of St. Louis. Kendall had a two-run homer in the first inning, an RBI single in the second, a double in the third and a two-run triple in the eighth.
2004 – Atlanta’s 45-year-old Julio Franco broke his own record for the oldest player to hit a pinch-hit homer. Franco, who had a pinch-hit homer two weeks earlier against San Diego, hit a two-out, two-run homer to tie the game at 4 in the eighth. The Braves lost 6-4 in 11 innings to the Diamondbacks.
Today’s birthdays: Claudio Vargas, 29; Brandon Inge, 30; Josh Paul, 32.