Dan Haren had his best outing in a month and the Arizona Diamondbacks overcame a three-hit night by Manny Ramirez to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 on Friday. Ramirez singled twice and doubled to improve to 13 for 24 in his career against Haren, but the rest of the Dodgers managed just three hits off the Arizona ace, including Matt Kemp's home run in the fifth.
Adam Wainwright ran his bulldog streak to 23 straight starts of six or more innings, the longest in the major leagues. While the St. Louis Cardinals' right-hander was handcuffing the San Diego Padres on Friday night, he also got the offense going against impressive rookie Mat Latos. Wainwright joined Boston's Josh Beckett as the only 14-game winners in the majors and contributed his fifth…
Roy Halladay got the run support he needed to earn his first win of the season against Tampa Bay. Halladay gave up two runs over eight innings for his 13th win and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Rays 5-2 on Friday night. "You're always determined to beat teams, but I think you always are conscious of controlling what you can control," Halladay said.
Felix Pie became the fourth player in Baltimore Orioles history to hit for the cycle, then got two pies in the face from his teammates during the postgame television interview. It was an emotional Friday night for the seldom-used outfielder, who later apologized for celebrating the rare feat a bit too vigorously.
The third and final standing ovation for Josh Johnson was the loudest. After allowing only one hit in 7 1-3 innings, Johnson left the game to a big roar from the small crowd. He helped the Florida Marlins tighten the NL wild-card race Friday night by beating the Colorado Rockies 6-5. Johnson (12-2) didn't give up a hit until Garrett Atkins homered with two outs in the seventh.
The Braves kept coming up just short of the fence. Chase Utley and Ryan Howard showed them how it's done. Utley hit a two-run homer and Howard led off the ninth inning with a tie-breaking shot that gave the Philadelphia Phillies their fourth straight win, 3-2 over Atlanta in the opener of an important NL East series Friday night.
Bobby Parnell got to Citi Field about three hours before his second major league start Friday night. He went over San Francisco's hitters, took some swings in the batting cage to prepare for Barry Zito and started warming up a little earlier than usual. It looks as if this routine will work just fine.
For two weeks, Jarrod Washburn thought he needed to earn his spot in the rotation with the Detroit Tigers. He took care of that on Friday night. After struggling in two starts since being acquired from Seattle on July 31, Washburn matched Zack Greinke in a scoreless duel before Brandon Inge's ninth-inning homer gave the Tigers a 1-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
Alex Rodriguez was scratched from the Yankees' lineup Friday night because of a new ailment: back spasms. And Joba Chamberlain will take his normal turn in New York's rotation, after all. He'll start at Seattle on Sunday. Manager Joe Girardi had Rodriguez in the lineup for the second game of New York's series against the Mariners, after he missed Thursday's victory resting a…
Josh Johnson allowed one hit and had a career-high 11 strikeouts in 7 1-3 innings, and the Florida Marlins tightened the NL wild-card race by beating the Colorado Rockies 6-5 on Friday night. The Marlins won for the seventh time in eight games and climbed within two games of the Rockies, who lead the wild-card race.
