BASEBALL TONIGHT EXTRA
By Mark Simon, ESPN Research
If you look at the current list of Red Sox killers, which includes the likes of Magglio Ordonez, Ichiro Suzuki and Ken Griffey Jr., and you can add a new name -- Vernon Wells.
Wells had the third three-homer game by a player this season, joining Albert Pujols and Alfonso Soriano, in Toronto's win over Boston on Tuesday. The Blue Jays and Wells, according to Karl Ravech, have been sneaky good this season.
Toronto is just 1½ games out of first place in the AL East and has succeeded even without high-priced free-agent acquisition A.J. Burnett.
TUESDAY'S NEWS AND NOTES
• Mariners RF Ichiro Suzuki played in his 293rd consecutive game, tying Edgar Martinez's franchise record.
• 1B Lance Niekro, who had been sidelined with a right shoulder injury, was activated from the DL and went 3-for-4 with two solo home runs in the Giants' 5-3 loss to the Marlins. 1B Travis Ishikawa was optioned to Double-A Connecticut to make room on the roster for Niekro.
• Orioles RHP Daniel Cabrera will make a rehab start Wednesday night for Double-A Bowie. Cabrera has been on the disabled list since May 15 with a muscle strain in his right shoulder.
• OF Lastings Milledge got his first major league hit, a double leading off the seventh inning, in the Mets' 7-2 loss to the Diamondbacks. Milledge replaces OF Xavier Nady, who was placed on the DL after undergoing appendectomy surgery.
• The Marlins activated reliever Franklyn German (right shoulder tendinitis) from the DL and optioned left-hander Renyel Pinto to Triple-A Albuquerque.
• Indians manager Eric Wedge picked up his 266th career win, tying him with Alvin Dark for 10th on the club's career list.
ELIAS SAYS
• Andre Ethier has been in the majors for less than a month, but he hit his fourth home run in the Dodgers' 8-3 win at Atlanta. In April of last year, Jason Repko hit four home runs in the month of his big league debut, but before that, no Dodgers rookie had done so since Dick Gray belted four homers in April 1958, the Dodgers' first year on the West Coast.
More from Elias
WHERE WILL BARRY LAND?
By Buster Olney, ESPN The Magazine | Olney Archive
Barry Bonds sure sounds like a guy who is ready to keep playing, writes Mike Berardino, and this is Bud Selig's worst nightmare. Bonds says he's discovered a softer side to himself, and says he's never going back.
What will be utterly fascinating in the offseason is to see how Bonds is treated by the baseball owners, if he chooses to come back as a designated hitter to pursue Hank Aaron's record. Will he be treated as a controversial numbers accumulator who can put people in the seats of your ballpark? Or will he be treated as a pariah?
Undoubtedly, there is sentiment within Major League Baseball that the best possible situation would be for Bonds to be jobless in 2007. So which American League owner will give Bonds a shot?
More from Olney's blog