1. Party of five: Five different Tampa Bay Rays — Johnny Damon, Casey Kotchman, Kelly Shoppach, Elliot Johnson and Evan Longoria (career No. 100) — connected for solo home runs off New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia in their 5-1 victory.
"You talk about the homers, but the pitching and defense were spectacular," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.
Agreed, and I'll get to David Price next paragraph, but it's interesting to note that Sabathia came into the evening having never allowed more than three home runs in a start. The Rays had four by the fifth inning.
"It just happens," Sabathia said. "I just don't know what else to say."
The results were much better for Price, who rebounded from a rough outing at Yankee Stadium last month — Derek Jeter may remember the game — to throw eight innings of one-run ball and even his record at 10-10.
2. Party of five: Part 2: Meanwhile, down south in Atlanta, the Braves were doing a similar number on Carlos Zambrano. Dan Uggla hit a pair of home runs, running his hitting streak to 32. He added a single to complete a perfect 3-for-3 night. Freddie Freeman, Chipper Jones and Jose Constanza also homered against Zambrano, giving the Braves five of their own, a 10-4 win, while likely expediting the end of the volatile right-hander's career with the Chicago Cubs in the process.
3. Their word is golden: The San Francisco Giants kept their promise of no retaliation on Friday night. They also kept to their pattern of not scoring runs, falling to the Florida Marlins, 2-1.
4. Halladay and... Kennedy?: You may not have predicted it before the season, but Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Ian Kennedy now shares the National League lead in wins with Roy Halladay after earning his 15th in a 4-3 victory over the New York Mets. Arizona's lead in the NL West is now two games. *
5. One man down: The Detroit Tigers recovered from the loss of reliever Al Alburquerque —*who suffered a concussion after being struck in the head by a line drive during batting practice —*to defeat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3. Phil Coke, Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde picked up the slack in the bullpen, with Valverde notching his 34th consecutive save.
6. Smoaked: The scary trend of head and facial injuries continued in Seattle, where Mariners first baseman Justin Smoak suffered a broken nose on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's bad hop grounder. A few innings later, Boston's Josh Reddick would break Seattle's spirit with a long two-run go-ahead home run off the Safeco Field cafe's windows in right field, leading his Red Sox*to the 6-4 win.
7. All's Wells in Toronto: Former Blue Jay Vernon Wells was greeted by a warm standing ovation in his return to Toronto. One pitch later, the cheers became a mixed reaction as Wells launched Brandon Morrow's hanging slider over the left field fence. A perfectly scripted moment for Wells personally, as was Ervin Santana's performance up until Eric Thames spoiled his shutout with a one out homer in the ninth. Los Angeles Angels win it, 5-1.
8. K-Rod's knock and tweak: The Milwaukee Brewers continued their home dominance over the Pittsburgh Pirates with a solid 7-2 victory, but the real story here is Francisco Rodriguez collecting his first big league basehit. With his fellow relievers cheering him on from the bullpen, K-Rod hit for himself in the eighth and grounded one softly into no man's land between the mound and first base. He then outraced Garrett Jones to the bag for the hit as his teammates erupted.
That's the good news. The bad news is Rodriguez tweaked his hamstring on the play and was removed one pitch into the ninth inning. Score one for the DH lovers I suppose.
9. Double trouble: Carlos Santana and Matt LaPorta delivered game-tying and go-ahead RBI doubles in the eighth to help the Cleveland Indians edge the Minnesota Twins, 3-2. That gives Cleveland 14 wins in their final at-bat at Progressive Field.
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