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Sunday, Jun. 11 4:35pm ET
Bautista's blast topples Angels | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
PHOENIX (AP) -- Danny Bautista wasted little time in proving his worth to the Arizona Diamondbacks. In his second game since joining the team, Bautista hit what proved to be the deciding home run in the seventh inning Sunday as the Diamondbacks beat the Anaheim Angels 3-2. "Wow," he said. "It felt wonderful. I was very happy." Greg Colbrunn, who played with Bautista in Atlanta, had tied it at 2 with 409-foot homer onto the porch in left-center field. Bautista, who came to the Diamondbacks from Florida in a trade for Andy Fox on Friday, followed with a homer to right field on a 2-0 pitch from Scott Schoeneweis, his first hit in five at-bats for Arizona. Bautista also showed his defensive ability in right field, cutting off what could have been an extra-base hit for a single and running far to his left to catch a fly ball. "I've got a lot of respect for Danny Bautista and I think he's going to do a good job for us," Colbrunn said. "He's real fast out there. He covers a lot of ground and he's got a cannon for an arm. And what's he hitting, .180 or .190 (actually .191)? That's just not him. Danny can swing the bat real well and he has a lot of juice. He's as strong as they come." The Diamondbacks, who had lost six of seven going into the game, took two of three from Anaheim, then left on a seven-game trip against the two teams chasing them in the NL West, four at Los Angeles and three at Colorado. Schoeneweis (5-4) allowed three runs on six hits, struck out four and walked three before leaving the game with none out after loading the bases with consecutive walks in the eighth. Reliever Al Levine got Matt Williams to hit into a double play and Colbrunn grounded out to end the inning. Byung-Hyun Kim, Arizona's 21-year-old sidearm reliever who had struck out Benji Gil, Mo Vaughn and Tim Salmon on 12 pitches in the eighth, struck out two more in a hitless ninth for his eighth save in 10 opportunities. For now, Kim has earned at least a share of the closer's role with Matt Mantei. "He's throwing strikes. He's making awfully good hitters look really bad," fellow reliever Dan Plesac said of the young Korean. "You really have to applaud how much he has improved. Right now he's about as nasty as there is in this league." Pitchers don't bat in the American League, but for the second consecutive game, an Anaheim pitcher had his first big league hit and RBI. A bloop single to left by Schoeneweis with two outs in the seventh drove in Bengie Molina to give the Angels a brief 2-1 lead. "I have no idea how to hit," Schoeneweis said. "I just got lucky. I'd trade that hit, though, to have had zero runs on the board." Plesac (1-0), a left-hander, relieved Armando Reynoso and struck out AL batting leader Darin Erstad on three pitches to end the seventh and get the victory. "When you're looking for good matchups against Erstad, they don't exist," Arizona manager Buck Showalter said. "It was more a case of Danny throwing the ball real well. He's been throwing the ball well all season, but just now is starting to get the breaks go his way. But the last thing you expect there is for any pitcher to punch out Erstad." Reynoso allowed two runs on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out two and walked one batter intentionally. "Armando goes out and throws 100 pitches and I go out and throw three," Plesac said. "Of the three guys that pitched, I probably had the least amount to do with anything and I end up walking away with the win, but that's the way it goes." The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the second on Garret Anderson's 16th home run of the season. Tony Womack led off Arizona's fourth with a single, the Diamondbacks' first hit. Jay Bell singled, then both runners advanced when Vaughn made a diving stop of Luis Gonzalez's hard grounder for an unassisted play at first. Womack scored on Williams' groundout to second to tie it at 1-1. "It was a tough loss but our guys battled," Angels manager Mike Scoscia said. "We played three good ball games and unfortunately came away with only one win." Game notesWilliams, who left Saturday's game after two innings because of recurring problems with plantar fasciatis in his left foot, took a cortisone shot after the game and was back in the Arizona linup Sunday. ... Todd Stottlemyre, on the 15-day DL with tendinitis in his right elbow, is scheduled to start for Arizona Thursday against Kevin Brown in Los Angeles. ... The Angels, who lead the AL in hitting, have hit home runs in 49 of their 62 games. ... Erstad had a double and single for his 34th two-hit game of the season. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Anaheim Clubhouse Arizona Clubhouse RECAPS Cincinnati 7 Cleveland 5
Chicago Cubs 6
Arizona 3
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