Gonzalez shines as Nats beat Mets
Trout starts fast in Angels’ loss ‘Little by little’ Baseball making headlines in Brazil
PORT ST LUCIE, Florida, Feb 26, (AP): Gio Gonzalez wasn’t sure how fans would treat him in his first outing since his name surfaced in reports about a clinic drawing scrutiny from Major League Baseball.
Gonzalez drew cheers and positive chants Monday night as he pitched two hitless innings for the Washington Nationals in a 6-4 win over the New York Mets.
The left-hander who led the majors with 21 wins last season struck out three and walked one.
Gonzalez recently was linked to a Miami-area clinic under investigation by MLB for allegedly supplying performance-enhancing drugs to players. Gonzalez denied getting PEDs from the clinic, and last week said the players’ union told him blood and urine tests he took after the report were clean.
“It’s good to get on the mound again and get back at it, especially with the fan support I was getting out there,” Gonzalez said. “It’s good to hear the fans still support and love you.”
“You get the butterflies again, which is a good thing. When you get that feeling, you know baseball hasn’t left your emotions or anything like that. When I got the first pitch out the way, I was pretty excited to go out and play my game,” he said.
Gonzalez heard fans chanting his name as he came in from the bullpen before the game, then received a round of applause as he walked off the mound after his second and final inning.
The 2012 All-Star didn’t get as much support from his teammates in terms of their fielding in the first inning. The infield committed two errors behind him.
The only blip to show up on his pitching line, however, was a walk issued to Brandon Hicks.
“I was just going out there, trying to pound the strike zone and try to get them back in the dugout as fast as possible,” Gonzalez said.
The Mets managed just two hits through the first seven innings, including a long home run by Ike Davis off Ross Ohlendorf.
The Nationals scored three times off Mets starter Collin McHugh, who made his major league debut last August. He gave up six hits in 2 1-3 innings Monday.
Mariners 9, Angels 8 In Peoria, Arizona, hours before Mike Trout singled in his first at-bat this spring, the Los Angeles Angels’ outfielder was a big hit with some kids.
Trout and teammates David Carpenter, Michael Kohn and Travis Witherspoon brought $5,000 worth of school supplies and toys Monday morning to Children First Academy, a Tempe charter school for underprivileged and homeless kids.
“After it was all over the kids ran up and gave us a big hug,” the 20-year-old Trout said. “Put a smile on my face and all the teammates that came.
“Doing stuff for the community,” Trout added, “it means a lot to me.”
A few hours later, Trout scored twice for the Angels in a 9-8 loss to the Seattle Mariners. The AL Rookie of the Year and runner-up in the MVP voting last season also walked.
Last spring, a lingering illness and shoulder tendinitis kept Trout off the field and forced him to start the 2012 season in Triple-A. He didn’t stay there long.
Los Angeles called him up in lateApril and Trout blossomed into a superstar. He scored a major league-leading 129 runs, hit .306 with 30 home runs, 83 RBIs and 49 stolen bases.
Now, a healthy Trout is looking forward to getting an exhibition schedule to prepare for the regular season.
Trout led off the game with a single and scored later in the inning when catcher Hank Conger ripped a three-run home run off Seattle starter Jeremy Bonderman. Conger, competing for a reserve role, added a double and single, going 3 for 3 with five RBIs.
The 30-year-old Bonderman, trying to secure a spot in Seattle’s rotation after missing the past two seasons and undergoing elbow surgery last year, allowed two hits and a walk in his lone inning.
Cardinals 10, Astros 2 In Jupiter, Allen Craig has been prevented from playing first by a sore shoulder. The injury doesn’t appear to have affected his swing, though.
Craig and Matt Holliday each hit their first homers of spring training, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 10-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday.
Craig was starting as the designated hitter. He reached base in all three at-bats, adding a walk and an RBI single.
“I feel good,” he said. “We’re just taking it extremely slow. It’s a really long spring. I want to get out here and play in the field, but at the same time the season starts April 1 and I want to be ready for that.”
The homers were back-to-back as part of a five-run third inning that broke the game open.
Holliday’s two-run drive landed on the balcony of the Miami Marlins clubhouse beyond the left-center field wall, driving in Kolton Wong. The Marlins and Cardinals share the Roger Dean Stadium complex.
“I hit it pretty good,” Holiday said. “I’m just trying to put good swings out there.”
Pete Kozma added a solo homer in the seventh for St Louis.
Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals’ likely opening-day starter, allowed four hits while striking out three in 2 2-3 scoreless innings.
Braves 7, Marlins 6 In Kissimmee, Florida, Justin Upton was eager to get his first hit with the Atlanta Braves.
Boy, it was a memorable one Monday, even if it was just spring training.
Upton launched one of the longest home runs ever seen at the Disney World complex, a towering drive that cleared the grass berm beyond left field, as the Braves picked up their first win of the spring with a 7-6 victory over the Miami Marlins.
Upton’s teammates estimated the homer traveled at least 450 feet. He was thrilled just to get a hit after starting 0 for 6 this spring, having joined the Braves - and older brother B.J. - after a blockbuster trade with Arizona.
“I don’t know (how far it went). I don’t have a tape measure,” Justin Upton said. “I hit it good. Everything just happened to fall into place for me and I squared up. Obviously, you know when you’ve got it. The ball just leaves your bat differently when you catch one square. You more know from the sound. When you hear that sound, you know, ‘All right, I got that one pretty good.”’
He didn’t see fans scrambling to the top of the hill, looking up helplessly as the ball sailed over the heads toward the players’ parking lot.
“I tried to put my head down,” he said. “It’s spring training. You shouldn’t be admiring home runs right now.”
Upton was hoping he didn’t do any damage to his new teammates’ vehicles.
“I guess they’ll send me a bill if I did,” he said.
Miami manager Mike Redmond joked that he thought Upton’s homer was foul.
Tigers 10, Phillies 1 In Clearwater, Florida, Miguel Cabrera already looks ready for opening day. Jonathan Papelbon seems to still have some work ahead.
Cabrera hit a booming, three-run homer off Papelbon as the Detroit Tigers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 10-1 Monday.
The AL MVP and Triple Crown winner went 1 for 2 with a walk. He’s hit two home runs this spring.
“It’s nice to hit that one so early,” Cabrera said. “It makes you feel good. It makes you feel everything’s working good.”
Papelbon, meanwhile, struggled to get anyone out in his first action of the spring. The five-time All-Star closer faced nine batters in the fifth inning and retired just two before being removed from the game.
“Papelbon got a nice little ERA today,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “I’m not worried about Papelbon.”
Papelbon’s path to an 81.00 ERA began when Jeff Kobernus led off with a single and Nick Castellanos followed with a home run for a 2-1 lead. Three of the next four batters reached, on a walk and two singles.
With Detroit ahead 3-1, Cabrera hit a drive that cleared the Phillies’ bullpen beyond the left-field fence.
“With a runner in scoring position with one out, I try to hit the ball in the gap, I try not to kill the inning with a groundball double play right there,” Cabrera said. “It was like my goal to try to elevate the ball, try to hit the gap.”
Dodgers 7, Cubs 6 In Glendale, Arizona, the latest comeback try by Dontrelle Willis lasted just seven pitches.
Still trying find a flash of his former self, Willis said he hurt his left shoulder Monday in the Chicago Cubs’ 7-6 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 2003 NL Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Star walked Nick Evans on six pitches in the eighth inning. After throwing ball one to Brian Barden, Willis grabbed his shoulder.
Chicago coaches and trainers visited Willis on the mound and escorted him to the dugout.
“It’s a mild setback,” said Willis, who signed a minor league contract with the Cubs in January. “Hopefully, it’s not serious. It’s probably just fatigue.”
Willis got a loss to go along with the setback. Evans scored the go-ahead run when Willis’ replacement, Jensen Lewis, gave up an RBI single to Omar Luna.
The 31-year-old Willis burst upon the baseball scene in 2003 as a high-kicking, hard-throwing pitcher with the Marlins. He helped them win the World Series that year and was a 22-game winner in 2005.
Willis has never come close to duplicating that early success. He pitched in the majors and minors for five organizations after leaving the Marlins and announced his retirement on July 2, 2012.
Six months later, the Cubs then signed him. But manager Dale Sveum said the team didn’t have any lofty expectations.
Red Sox 4, Blue Jays 2 In Dunedin, Florida, the knuckleball fraternity was in full force for Monday’s game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox.
NL Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey gave up two runs and four hits in his Toronto spring training debut while fellow knuckleballer Steven Wright pitched two scoreless innings for a Boston split squad in a 4-2 win over the Blue Jays.
“You don’t see that too often,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said of seeing two starters tossing knucklers.
Wright, a minor leaguer, gave up two hits and struck out three. Former Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who is working with Wright, was at the game.
“Just a little nervous because you want to do your best in general, but to have guys with the keen eye for the knuckleball (watching),” Wright said. “But once I got out there I felt pretty good.”
Wright and Dickey have communicated by phone and text in the past. Wright sent a message to Dickey when he arrived for Monday’s game.
“He texted me right before the game,” Dickey said. “There just wasn’t time to connect, so I’ll have to connect with him, hopefully, when he pitches in the big leagues for the Red Sox.” SAO PAULO, Feb 26, (AP): With Brazil about to make its first appearance in the World Baseball Classic, the sport which is barely known in the land of football is starting to attract some rare attention.
Little by little, Brazilians are realizing that baseball is actually played in the country and that there is a national team good enough to compete among some of the most traditional powers in the sport.
At the WBC, Brazil will have the experience of Hall of Fame shortstop Barry Larkin as its manager, but it won’t have top player Yan Gomes - the country’s first major leaguer - after he decided to stay with the Cleveland Indians to try to make its roster this season.
Seattle Mariners prospect Luiz Gohara, who’s 16 and already one of the country’s top pitchers, also won’t play.
Brazil will debut in the WBC on Saturday against the defending champion Japanese - in Japan - and as the pace of the team’s preparations picks up, so does baseball’s exposure media.
Although coverage remains minor compared to football and other sports, some of the country’s main television stations have aired rare specials about baseball recently, producing pieces on the Brazilian team and many of its players. There have been some tutorials about the sport’s rules and traditions too, and newspapers and some of the nation’s top web portals have been reserving some valuable space for the Brazilian squad.
The attention is significant as the vast majority of Brazilians have very little connection to the sport, which is played mostly by members of the nation’s Japanese community in the country. There are only about 20,000 baseball players in Brazil, and the local confederation was founded just over two decades ago, in 1990.
“The community of baseball fans in Brazil is still limited but it can develop and it can grow,” Larkin told the Terra web site in one of his many interviews to Brazilian media recently. “It doesn’t happen overnight. I know that traditionally this is the country of soccer, but Brazil is also strong in other sports, such as volley, so the hope is that we can recruit athletes to play our sport in the future.”
Larkin’s arrival has been key for the sports’ increased exposure in Brazil.
The former Cincinnati Reds shortstop was hired last year after the Brazilian Baseball and Softball Confederation reached a partnership deal with Major League Baseball. He took over just before the team’s participation in a qualifying round for the WBC and eventually led the team to its first ever spot in the main tournament.
Larkin had been in Brazil before to instruct young South America players for MLB’s “Elite Camp.”
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