SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010
KLMNO BASEBALL
EZ SU
D5 Rookie Bell homers two times as Orioles handle Lee, Rangers
Third baseman finally finds missing power against Texas ace
BY DAN CONNOLLY
baltimore — When the Balti- more Orioles dealt away Miguel Tejada in late July, the primary purpose was to make switch-hit- ting third baseman Josh Bell the everyday starter, even against tough lefties, and to see whether the husky 23-year-old could repli- cate the power stroke he flashed in the minors. Through his first 74 big league
at-bats, Bell had no homers, and just three extra-base hits, includ- ing only one against a lefty. Inthe Orioles’ 8-6 win over the
Texas Rangers on Saturday, Bell rewarded the club’s patience by
bashing the toughest of south- paws, Rangers ace Cliff Lee, for twohomeruns and five RBI in his first two at-bats. Bell even added a bare-handed pickup and pin- point throw from third to get the speedy Elvis Andrus in the sev- enth inning. “It was the Josh Bell Show,”
OriolesManager Buck Showalter said. “I was almost as impressed with his play on the slow roller, which was a big play at that time. Outs are so precious against them. Great to see a smile on his face.” Twenty minutes after the
game had ended, Bell was still smiling. “I don’t think it’s ever really
going to set in. But this is some- thing I’ll remember for the rest of my life and my family that was watching, just something for them,” said Bell, whom the Ori- oles acquired in July 2009 as the
ANN HEISENFELT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Josh Bell, center, hit the first two home runs of his career as the Orioles beat the Rangers for the sixth time in nine meetings.
centerpiece of theGeorge Sherrill deal with the Los Angeles Dodg-
ers. “I just feel blessed to get an opportunity towhereI can play in
the big leagues and just help a big league team win.” Bell’s first major league homer
came in the third, a two-run shot against Lee that landed in the center field seats. The second came in the fourth, a 398-foot, three-run blast that was caught by a fan sitting next to the one who snagged the first homer. Bell got both souvenirs back, for a ransom of one autographed ball and game bat each. “I was telling [Jake Fox], ‘Is it
OK to open my eyes now?’ ” Bell quipped. “It feels great, definitely a confidence-booster.” Bell’s second homer was the
Orioles’ third in the fourth in- ning. Ty Wigginton and Luke Scott hit back-to-back home runs in the inning to put the Orioles up, 4-2. Wigginton’s shot, his 19th, traveled an estimated 442 feet and landed alongside the Orioles bullpen in center. Not to
be outdone, Scott smashed his 23rd on the season, a 422-foot blast to right. It was the fifth time the Orioles have had consecutive homers this season. Combined the Orioles hit
1,660 feet of longballs against Lee, who has surrendered just 13 all season—seven by the Orioles. Three came on July 10 in Lee’s Texas debut and the rest came Saturday before a fired-up an- nounced crowd of 23,041 at Cam- den Yards. “He doesn’t make many mis-
takes, and when he does you better take advantage of them,” Showalter said. “We did.” The win gave the Orioles (44-
80) their sixth victory in nine tries against the American League- West leading Rangers, guarantee- ing their first season series victo- ry over Texas (68-54) since 2004.
—Baltimore Sun
NATIONALS8,PHILLIES1 WASHINGTON
Morgan cf......................5 0 1 Desmond ss...................5 2 4 A.Dunn 1b .....................2 1 0 Maxwell pr ....................0 1 0 Batista p .......................0 0 0 Zimmerman 3b .............5 1 1 Bernadina lf ..................4 3 2 A.Kennedy 2b-1b ..........4 0 1 I.Rodriguez c .................5 0 2 W.Harris rf....................4 0 1 Strasburg p ...................2 0 0 Stammen p....................1 0 0 Slaten p.........................0 0 0 Mench ph.......................1 0 0 Clippard p ......................0 0 0 Alb.Gonzalez 2b............0 0 0
TOTALS PHILA.
38 8 12
Rollins ss.......................4 0 1 Polanco 3b.....................4 1 1 Utley 2b.........................3 0 0 Howard 1b.....................4 0 1 Victorino cf ...................4 0 0 Ibanez lf ........................3 0 0 Do.Brown rf...................2 0 0 J.Romero p....................0 0 0 M.Sweeney ph ..............1 0 0 Contreras p ...................0 0 0 Durbin p.........................0 0 0 Werth ph.......................1 0 0 Schneider c....................3 0 0 K.Kendrick p..................1 0 0 B.Francisco rf................2 0 1
TOTALS 32 1 4
AB R H BI BB SO AVG 0 0 0 .262
0 0 0 .279 0 3 1 .265 0 0 0 .105 0 0 0 .125 0 0 1 .303 3 1 0 .270 2 1 0 .261 2 0 1 .274 0 0 2 .180 1 0 0 .050 0 0 0 .243 0 0 0
0 0 1 .091 0 0 0 .500 0 0 0 .278
8 5 6 —
AB R H BI BB SO AVG 0 0 1 .246
0 0 0 .315 0 1 0 .273 1 0 1 .292 0 0 3 .253 0 1 3 .263 0 0 0 .227 0 0 0
0 0 0 .242 0 0 0
0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 .301 0 0 1 .219 0 0 1 .100 0 0 0 .253
WASHINGTON ......... 302 000 003 — 8 12 PHILA........................ 000 100 000 — 1 4
1 2 10 — 1
0
E: Stammen (4). LOB: Washington 8, Philadelphia 6. 2B: Zimmerman (27), Rollins (12), Polanco (22), B.Francisco (12). 3B: Morgan (7). HR: Bernadina (8), off Durbin. RBI: Bernadina 3 (36), A.Kennedy 2 (24), I.Rodriguez 2 (34), Strasburg (1), Howard (82). SB: W.Harris (3).
DP: Philadelphia 1 (Utley, Rollins, Howard). WASHINGTON
IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA
Strasburg..................4.1 2 1 1 0 6 56 2.91 Stammen.....................1 1 0 0 0 0 21 5.11 Slaten .......................1.2 0 0 0 0 2 22 2.76 Clippard........................1 1 0 0 0 1 11 3.04 Batista.........................1 0 0 0 2 1 20 4.39
PHILA. IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA
K.Kendrick ................5.2 9 5 5 4 2 101 4.58 J.Romero ..................1.1 0 0 0 0 1 10 4.05 Contreras.....................1 1 0 0 0 1 10 3.43 Durbin ..........................1 2 3 3 1 2 33 3.83
WP: Slaten (3-1); LP: K.Kendrick (8-6). Inherited runners-scored: Slaten 2-0, J.Romero 1-0. T: 3:06. A: 45,266 (43,651).
HOWTHEY SCORED NATIONALS FIRST
Morgan grounded out. Desmond infield single. A.Dunn walked on four pitches,Desmondto second.Zimmerman grounded out, Desmond to third, A.Dunn to second. Bernadina walked. A.Kennedy walked, Desmond scored, A.Dunn to third, Bernadina to second. I.Rodriguez singled to center, A.Dunn scored, Bernadina scored, A.Kennedy to second. W.Harris grounded out, second baseman Utley to first baseman Howard.
Nationals 3, Phillies 0 NATIONALS THIRD
Zimmerman doubled to center. Bernadina singled to right, Zimmerman to third. A.Kennedy singled to right, Zimmerman scored, Bernadina to second. I.Rodriguez infield single to first, Bernadina to third, A.Kennedy to second. W.Harris struck out. Strasburg grounded into fielder’s choice, second baseman Utley to shortstop Rollins, Bernadina scored, A.Kennedy to third, I.Rodri- guez out. Morgan flied out to left fielder Ibanez. Nationals 5, Phillies 0
PHILLIES FOURTH
Polanco doubled to center. Utley grounded out, second baseman A.Kennedy to first baseman A.Dunn, Polanco to third. Howard grounded out, second baseman A.Ken- nedy to first baseman A.Dunn, Polanco scored. Victorino struck out. Nationals 5, Phillies 1
NATIONALS NINTH
Durbin pitching. Desmond singled to left. A.Dunn walked, Desmond to second. Maxwell pinch-running for A.Dunn. Zimmerman struck out. Bernadina homered to right on a 2-0 count, Desmond scored, Maxwell scored. A.Kennedy grounded out, pitcher Durbin to first base- man Howard. I.Rodriguez struck out.
Nationals 8, Phillies 1 PHOTOS BY H. RUMPH JR/ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg had six strikeouts and gave up two hits before leaving the game against the Phillies in the fifth inning. TheNationals won, 8-1. Strasburg leaves with right forearm injury in Nats’ win nationals from D1
ing no chances with their fran- chise pitcher, the Nationals scratched Strasburg minutes be- fore the start of the game. The top selection in the 2009
draft made his first start after coming off the disabled list on Aug.10, giving up six hits and six runs in 4 1/3
innings against Flori-
da for the worst outing of his brief major league career. He started again on Aug. 15, going five in- ningsandallowedoneearnedrun with seven strikeouts and no walks in a 5-3 victory over Arizo- na.
Then came another promising
start on Saturday night in Phila- delphia, where Strasburg was greeted with jeers upon his intro- duction in his first crack at the Phillies. Strasburg struck out leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins in a 1-2-3 first inning and faced just two batters over the minimum in his next three. Strasburg began the fifth in-
ning with his sixth strikeout, this time victimizing Raul Ibanez. Brown then stepped to the plate and took two pitches from Stras- burg for a 1-1 count before the change-up that sent him to the dugout and left him short of what almost certainly would have been his sixth victory. Strasburg had no real injury
history when the Nationals gave him a record-setting $15.1 million contract a year ago this month,
NATIONALSONDECK
AT PHILLIES Sunday , 1:35 (WDCW, Channel 50, MASN)
VS. CUBS Monday, 7:05 (MASN) Tuesday, 7:05 (MASN) Wednesday, 7:05 (MASN)
VS. CARDINALS Thursday, 7:05 (MASN) Friday, 7:05 (MASN) Saturday, 7:05 (MASN) Aug. 29, 1:35 (WDCW-50)
Radio: WFED (820 AM, 1500 AM)
but Saturday night’s departure marked the fourth time since joining the organization that he has been scratched or had a start shortened because of injury. In the Arizona Fall League last No- vember, he missed scheduled starts with, respectively, a stiff neck apparently incurred while sleeping and a twisted knee suf- fered while playing catch in the outfield. Then came last month, when he went to the 15-day dis- abled list. TheNationals,whohave taken
extraordinary steps to safeguard their prized phenom, expected Strasburg to make only four or five additional starts after Satur- day, in order to keep him around 160 innings this season, and it is possible the club could shut him down for the season if the injury requires another stay on the dis-
Tracking Strasburg INN.
STRIKES-PITCHES 1
2 3 4 5
W-L 5-3
8 nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn12
11 nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 17 5 nnnnnnnnnnnn6
9 nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn13 5 nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn8 38 56 (67.9%)
IP 68 H 56
Season totals BB 17
SO 92
abled list. The quick exit significantly
blunted a polished performance on all fronts for the Nationals, who wasted no time in giving Strasburg plenty of support. They almost batted around in their half of the first inning against Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick, scoring three runs before Strasburg set foot on the mound. The barrage began when Ian
Desmond singled and Adam Dunn walked. Ryan Zimmerman grounded to second for the sec- ond out, but Roger Bernadina and Adam Kennedy walked con- secutively. Ivan Rodriguez deliv- ered a single that added twomore runs, and it appeared Strasburg would be at the plate before he threw his first pitch. No. 8 hitter WillieHarris, however, grounded to second to end the inning. Washington continued its as-
Ian Desmond fields a ground ball hit by Philadelphia’s Domonic Brown. Desmond also contributed at the plate, with four hits.
sault on Kendrick in the third, beginning with Zimmerman’s leadoff double to deep center
HR 5
ERA 2.91 6Interactive season tracker:
www.washingtonpost.com/nationals
field. Bernadina singled to move Zimmerman to third, and Kenne- dy singled for a 4-0 lead. Rodri- guez made it three straight sin- gles, prompting a Phillies group conference on the mound before Harris struck out with the bases loaded. Moments later, Strasburg
stepped inside the batter’s box and took a sharp cut at the first pitch. He put a subsequent pitch in play with a roller Chase Utley scooped and delivered to short- stop Jimmy Rollins for the force- out at second. Rollins then tried to double-up Strasburg at first, but his throw wasn’t in time, allowing Bernadina to score and giving Strasburg the first RBI of his big league career. Bernadina added a three-run
homer in the ninth off reliever Chad Durbin for the finishing touches on the Nationals’ fourth win in their past 13 games.
wangg@washpost.com sheinind@washpost.com
STRIKE PCT.
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STRIKEOUTS
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