Major League Baseball ToDay

Mark Teixeira and Vladimir Guerrero were at it again on Sunday against the Twins, combining for five hits and two RBIs, but the biggest hit of the game came from an unexpected source.

Gary Matthews Jr., who didn’t even start the game and replaced Garret Anderson in the second inning because of a left knee injury, was called upon.

But Matthews didn’t disappoint, as the switch-hitter drove in what proved to be the winning run on a triple in the eighth inning to help lead the Angels to a come-from-behind 5-3 win over the Twins.

Matthews entered having just three at-bats in the Angels’ previous 11 games but proved to be the hero Sunday by getting the winning hit.

Matthews, though, laced a 2-2 fastball down the right-field line to score Guerrero while legging out a triple, much to the delight of the 40 thousand plus fans, with their Anaheim Angels merchandise on, at Angel Stadium. He later scored on Juan Rivera’s sacrifice fly to give the Angels a two-run cushion.

“This team has played so well, the last thing I want to do is take away what we’re trying to accomplish on the field,” Matthews said. “You let your personal feelings and your situation take a backseat because we’re having such a tremendous year as a team.”

The Angels added another run in the seventh before Teixeira was back to his heroics in the eighth, when he opened the inning with a double. He then scored the tying run on a rare triple by Guerrero that bounced off the center-field wall.

Carlos Zambrano has come out of games because he’s thrown too many pitches, because he’s given up too many runs, and even because of cramps caused by either too much time on the computer or dehydration.

However, on Thursday, the problem was a cracked molar.

“I’ve been out to the mound many times to check pitchers’ injuries,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of a visit in the fifth inning, “but never for a cracked molar. We needed a dentist.”

Zambrano spit out the tooth and stayed in the game. He didn’t need much help as he almost single-handedly beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2. The right-hander hit his fourth home run, and gave up one run over seven innings for the win, ending his three-game winless streak. On Friday, he’ll get his tooth fixed.

It was just another “Cubby occurrence,” a phenomenon Piniella has discovered in his nearly two years in Chicago, whether referring to the Cubs players or fans in the stands with Chicago Cubs merchandise.

“That was a first for me and a first for the umpires,” Piniella said.

The Cubs had not been worried about Zambrano’s oral hygiene lately, just his pitching mechanics. He was winless in three August starts, and had been rushing his delivery. Against the Reds, he was back in sync, and the Cubs were able to win their seventh straight series.

There was a moment in the Blue Jays’ 8-3 win this weekend’s game when Toronto manager Cito Gaston paid a visit to the mound to talk to David Purcey.

The left-hander, who was making his third career Major League start, had already surrendered a two-run home run in the inning and subsequently allowed two more runners to reach base, before Gaston decided to speak to him.

Purcey was surprised when Gaston came to the mound and did not ask for the ball.

“That was a great moment because normally when I see a manager come out, it means that you’re done and they’re going to go to the bullpen,” explained Purcey with a smile.

He helped Toronto to a win, while in turn the offense was able to provide more than enough run support. The victory gave the Jays five straight wins, which ties a season high. Toronto fans surely got excited and started waving Toronto Blue Jays merchandise including signs as their team racked up runs.

Gaston viewed the decision to leave Purcey in the game during the sixth inning as important.

Purcey ended his outing having surrendered three runs on seven hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out four, needing 99 pitches.

Commissioner Bud Selig took Manhattan on Tuesday in the hours before the 79th All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.

He told two distinct audiences that instant replay is a possibility on a limited basis for Major League Baseball playoff games. He also said for the first time that it isn’t practical to place an asterisk next to the name of any player who set a record during Major League Baseball’s so-called steroid era.He said that changing the first-round playoff format has been considered, but won’t be altered at this point because of the season’s length.

And finally, Selig said he’s happy with the All-Star format, which was collectively bargained and is part of the current Basic Agreement, which is due to expire after the 2012 season.

Selig, though, was asked in both places about Barry Bonds, MLB’s all-time home run leader who is an unsigned free agent this season with criminal proceedings pending next year in a San Francisco federal court.

Do you really think people, especially those wearing San Francisco Giants merchandise, want to see Barry Bonds taint their franchise any more than what it already is? No, I didn’t think so.

About instant replay, last year the general managers voted 25-5 to institute replay on home run calls only — fair or foul or in and out of the park.

MLB is trying to determine whether an official in a central location will have access to the television broadcasts of every game and communicate with the umpire crew chief on location when a call is in question.

On an evening honoring the rich tapestry of Yankee Stadium’s history, the American League won again.

In the longest All-Star Game in history, Michael Young’s sacrifice fly delivered the final blow, allowing the AL to defeat the NL in 15 innings, 4-3, on Tuesday.

The final twist took hold with the Phillies’ Brad Lidge on to work the 15th. Justin Morneau slid home after Young’s fly ball to right, with Corey Hart’s throw home arriving just a little bit too late.

The thrilling conclusion couldn’t have come without the gifted right hand of Mariano Rivera — it was where the final All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium belonged, and almost as importantly, where the thousands filling the grandstands demanded it be.

He entered a tie game with one out in the ninth, satisfying the wishes of most of the crowd of 55,632, which many had on New York Yankees merchandise. Rivera’s work in the ninth was typically efficient, but he needed the help of his infield in the 10th, getting a double play on a Dan Uggla hit to preserve the tie.

It was a Midsummer Classic — in every sense of the phrase — taking place in a building best known for its immaculate stage.

It was the House that Ruth Built. It was where Don Larsen was perfect, where Roger Maris toppled the Babe and where Reggie Jackson forever acquired October with just three swings.

If recent rumors are true, the Brewers are working really hard toward a deal that would send Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia to Milwaukee in exchange for a few of the team’s prospects.The team is trying to close a deal that could send Matt LaPorta, Taylor Green and another Minor Leaguer in return for Sabathia.

Sabathia is the best starting pitcher available as the trade deadline approaches. If the Brewers get Sabathia, then Milwaukee Brewers merchandise sales will go through the roof because that will greatly affect their second half push to making the playoffs. A free agent after the season, Sabathia and the Indians made no progress on a long-term deal to keep the ace in Cleveland past 2008.

The Brewers would likely be willing to part with them if it meant adding a starter like Sabathia for a run that might include the team’s first playoff berth in 26 years.

The window of opportunity for this team to make the playoffs, as it’s assembled now, is a short one.

But for a team that has been absent from the postseason since 1982, taking a gamble that includes losing a couple of prized prospects now might be one the Brewers are willing to make.

Justin Duchscherer insisted all season long that he belongs in the starting rotation.

Despite spending most of his six years in the Majors as a relief pitcher, he knows he has what it takes to start.

And despite spending the most of last season and part of this season on the disabled list, he knows he has the ability to start.

After Saturday’s showing, everyone else should know.

The pitcher carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning before allowing a one-out single to David Ortiz. That helped to give Oakland to a 3-0 shutout in front of almost 34,000 on Saturday night at McAfee Coliseum. Oakland A’s merchandise was seen waving furiously over a good deal of the stadium—something that doesn’t happen too often.

Duchscherer said he first started thinking about the history books after the fifth inning, but it wasn’t until the sixth when he really considered it a possibility. He retired the first 15 batters he faced, but opened the sixth by hitting Jason Varitek with a pitch.

The right-hander’s gem was backed by a three-run, nine-hit offensive effort highlighted by Ryan Sweeney’s solo home run in the seventh.

Beckett threw what would normally be an impressive game, limiting the A’s to two runs on seven hits and no walks with nine strikeouts through seven innings.

The Rangers have been feeding off of each other for weeks now. They only seem to be getting hungrier.

The Rangers hit six home runs in Friday’s 16-8 victory over Houston, two of them by Josh Hamilton. Young, Saltalamacchia, Shelton and Murphy also went deep.

The Rangers hit three home runs off two different pitchers. They hit three home runs in a six-run bottom of the eighth that leveled an Astros team that has already won three games this season when trailing after eight, and which had won 18 of its last 24 games.

“I totally believe hitting is contagious,” said Murphy, who had his fifth home run of the season. “A few guys have a few good at-bats, and it just snowballs.”

Hamilton was the big story, hitting home runs in consecutive innings, a solo shot in the third and a three-run blast in the fourth. Hamilton has three home runs on this homestand.

Saltalamacchia hit his first home run of the season. It might have been the most important home run of the night.

Three of the Rangers’ first seven batters hitting in the eighth went deep, as everyone in the lineup fed off each other’s momentum. Murphy started the inning with a home run to right-center field. It was a sweet home run for Murphy, who went to Klein High School outside of Houston.

“It was fun to hit one against the team I grew up loving and admiring,” said Murphy, who counted Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Ken Caminiti as his favorite Astros growing up.

Shelton’s homer was also a meaningful one. Arlington’s Hunter Pence robbed him in the sixth on a deep fly ball to right field that would have cleared the bases. Shelton rebounded in the eighth with an opposite-field home run.

“The first one, I just went up there trying to put the ball in play and Hunter made a great catch,” Shelton said. “It was nice to get one after that. For the most part we hit the ball well that inning.”

Young’s never-in-doubt solo shot to left gave the Rangers a 16-8 lead, and actually gave Hamilton one last shot at the cycle. The home team, which was the Rangers, were proudly showing off their Texas Rangers merchandise as they put blew out their cross state rival.

For the second game in a row, the Twins pitching staff accomplished the improbable. Saturday night a rookie reliever came in for an injured starter and pitched four scoreless innings, earning his first Major League win. Sunday afternoon was even better.

After giving up six runs in a 45-pitch, 26-minute top of the first inning, Boof Bonser started the game over to give the Twins a chance. They took advantage, coming back for a 7-6 victory over the Tigers.

“He gained his composure and started locating his fastball and using his offspeed stuff,” acting manager Scott Ullger said of Bonser. “That’s all we could ask from him. We said, ‘Boof, you have to start over.’ After that first inning, he went out and started over and pitched a strong five after that.”

He didn’t actually start the game over — he still had that six-run deficit to account for — but when he came out firing in the second inning and retired the Tigers on five pitches, it gave the Twins a spark.

Bonser made no excuses for the first inning after the game. He said the Tigers just seemed to be able to hit everything he threw over the plate. But beginning in the second, he started locating his fastball and gaining control of his offspeed pitches.

“I think a game like that just proves you can’t count us out,” Bonser said. “I gave up that six runs, but we went out and scored seven. The game’s not over. It wasn’t a good thing it happened in the first inning, but at the same time, I’m glad it didn’t happen in the sixth inning. For us to have a perfect homestand is a great thing.”

The Tigers fans, with their Detroit Tigers merchandise on, had a pretty good time as they saw a good game down the stretch.

What began two years ago as a bold statement has grown into a baseball tradition.

Bidding is under way for seven signed pink Louisville Sluggers. Three pink bats bear the autographs of Yankees stars Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. This bat could become a part of your New York Yankees merchandise.

The other four are each signed by Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo and Sam Champion.

“It’s about bringing awareness to breast cancer and raising money for research so we can stop cancer and save lives,” said John A. Hillerich IV.

Last year there was a huge increase in the number of players who swung pink bats for at least part of their games. Expect even more this time. The breast-cancer-awareness theme will be carried throughout the Mother’s Day games, including pink-ribbon logos on bases, uniform patches, pink wristbands, commemorative home plates, pink merchandise and pink dugout lineup cards.

“We expected that this would be something that would draw a lot of interest,” Hillerich said two years ago, at the inception, “but it has far exceeded our expectations. It is wild around here. People are calling, wanting to buy a pink bat. It’s crazy. The good thing is that it’s drawing attention to the cause.”