Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Cardinals, Wong stumble in defeat
NATIONALS 7, CARDINALS 0
JUPITER, Fla. — Ryan Zimmerman hit his second home run of the spring and the Cardinals committed five errors as the Washington Nationals beat St. Louis 7-0 on Saturday.
Kolten Wong had one of those errors and exited the game after bruising his knee diving for the ball, all in a three-run Washington fourth.
“It just felt tight so I started kind of stretching it out,” Wong said. “As I was walking through the infield it just kept getting worse.”
St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny characterized Wong as being day to day and Wong said he might return to the lineup as early as today.
Wong landed directly on his left knee cap while diving after a bouncer hit by Wilson Ramos. The ball scooted off Wong’s glove and into right field.
After Chris Heisey’s double off the left field wall moved Ramos to third, Danny Espinosa’s grounder rolled through Wong’s legs, allowing both Ramos and Heisey to score. Wong said the injury did not affect his ability to field the ball.
Zimmerman’s home run came earlier in that inning when he drove a 3-2 Mike Leake offering over the left field wall.
St. Louis’ defensive struggles continued in the sixth, when back-to-back errors by Ruben Tejada and Matt Carpenter led to three unearned Washington runs.
Washington struck for a run in the top of the first when Michael Taylor’s ground rule double to left advanced Matt den Dekker to third. Den Dekker scored one batter later when Zimmerman grounded out behind second base.
Tanner Roark pitched with St. Louis runners on base much of the afternoon but kept them from scoring during his five innings, allowing six hits while striking out four.
“You’ve got to make pitches,” Roark said. “They are a good hitting ball club and we had some great defense behind me for sure.”
Despite striking out seven, Leake took his first loss of the spring after allowing 4 runs on 7 hits in 5 innings.
Washington’s Stephen Drew struck out three times in the first four innings, the beginning of a 0-for-4 afternoon. He’d struck out only three times during his previous 26 spring at-bats.
YANKEES-BLUE JAYS
A-Rod, Teixeira have RBI
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira drove in runs, leading the New York Yankees to a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Making his second road appearance of spring training, Rodriguez drove in Caesar Puello from third in the sixth with a line drive to center field following a long battle with Toronto starter J.A. Happ. Teixeira added another one batter later on a fielder’s choice.
A-Rod also struck out swinging and grounded out. The three-time AL MVP raised his average to .303 but has not hit a home run since his first at-bat March 3 against Philadelphia.
Yankees starter Bryan Mitchell allowed 1 hit — a double by Justin Smoak — and struck out 4 in 4 innings.
TWINS-PIRATES
Plouffe leads way
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Trevor Plouffe had two hits and two RBI as the Minnesota Twins beat a Pittsburgh Pirates split squad 3-0.
METS-BRAVES
DeGrom strong
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Jacob deGrom pitched six-plus strong innings and drove in a run as the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves played to a 10-inning 3-3 tie.
In his longest start of spring training, deGrom struck out 5 and allowed 1 walk and 2 earned runs on 3 hits.
After retiring the first nine batters, he allowed back-to-back singles in the bottom of the fourth before Adonis Garcia grounded into a run-scoring double play.
In the top of the fifth, deGrom drove in a run when Marc Krauss scored on a groundout to first.
Braves starter Bud Norris allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, struck out 5 and walked 3.
In the sixth, Michael Borne pinch hit for Norris and hit a triple, the Braves 12th this spring, which leads the Grapefruit League.
TIGERS-PHILLIES
Upton hits first two HR
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Detroit outfielder Justin Upton hit his first two home runs in a Tigers uniform in a 6-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Upton, who signed a six-year, $132 million free-agent contract with Detroit in January, entered the day hitting .189 (7 for 37) with one extra base hit, a double, in 15 games this spring.
He launched a two-out, solo home run off Philadelphia left-hander James Russell in the first inning and then added a second solo shot off right-hander Luis Garcia in the sixth inning.
The Phillies’ Ryan Howard, the 2006 National League MVP who could platoon with Darin Ruf this year, went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
ORIOLES-RED SOX
Big sixth paves way
SARASOTA, Fla. — J.J. Hardy hit a home run for the third consecutive game, Manny Machado for the second in a row, and Chris Davis hit his second of the spring as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox 16-8.
The home runs from Machado and Davis were part of a six-run sixth inning against Roenis Elias, who’s a candidate for Boston’s fifth starter’s job.
Minor league catcher Audry Perez added a three-run home run for Baltimore.
Yovani Gallardo started for the Orioles and allowed 7 runs and 8 hits in 32/3 innings. Mark Trumbo had three RBI for the Orioles.