some notes for sunday..

[IE]

Alomar was out of the lineup for the first time since May 15 and only the third time this season, as John Valentin started in his place. Valentine said a combination of factors led to the decision. For one thing, he said, yesterday was a day game following a night game and there are several exceptionally hot days forecast for the upcoming week. Also, with lefty Ted Lilly pitching for the Yankees, Valentine thought he was better off with Valentine instead of Alomar, who has hit .188 from the right side, compared to .292 from the left. Alomar said he had no problem with the decision. "There's only one Cal Ripken," he said.

Granted: Grant Roberts will be activated from the DL within the next few days, but senior assistant GM Jim Duquette, holding court in place of an ailing Phillips, said the team has not decided who to send to Triple-A to make room. Jaime Cerda is the likely candidate, but when asked whether Satoru Komiyama could be sent down, converted to a starter and then returned to give Jeff D'Amico more rest between starts, Duquette said, "I wouldn't rule anything out." The Mets could also designate Bobby Jones for assignment and keep Cerda as a second lefthander

 

[IE]

Braves notes

Braves notes

Colon will face Braves Tuesday





Boston -- When Gary Sheffield was asked about Montreal adding Bartolo Colon to its rotation, he gave a quizzical look and said, "Who is that?"

He'll see Tuesday, when Colon is scheduled to make his National League debut in a start against the Braves and Damian Moss.

Javier Vazquez will start the series opener against Tom Glavine.

Sheffield seemed genuinely oblivious about Colon. Other Braves know him well, most having faced him in spring training.

The second-place Expos surprised many when they were able to pull off a trade of Lee Stevens and three prospects to Cleveland for Colon, who was 10-4 with the AL's second-best ERA (2.55).

"The whole deal with Montreal has been, 'What are they going to do if they stay in [the race] a long time?' " John Smoltz said. "Now, you can't even say that because Major League Baseball owns them. It's a little awkward situation.

"You've got to try to operate to win, I understand. But . . . it will be interesting to see how it plays out. It's going to have a huge eye on it by a lot of people."

The Vazquez-Colon tandem could rate among the NL's best, with Glavine-Greg Maddux and Philadelphia's Curt Schilling-Randy Johnson.

Jones-less outfield

Manager Bobby Cox filled out a lineup card with no Joneses in the outfield Saturday for the first time this season. Darren Bragg was in center instead of Andruw Jones, and Wes Helms was in left for Chipper Jones.

Andruw had started every game in center, and Chipper had started 76 of 79 in left. Andruw served as the designated hitter before moving to center in the sixth inning. He went 0-for-3 and is 1-for-15 on the trip.

Cox said Andruw Jones, who started 161 of 162 games in center last season, still had some soreness in his left shoulder after banging into the Shea Stadium wall chasing a home run on Wednesday.

Chipper Jones had some mild blisters on his hands but took batting practice and grounded out on the first pitch as a pinch-hitter in the ninth.

He is 1-for-15 on the trip, after going 10-for-22 with four doubles, two homers and 10 RBIs in the last six games of the last homestand.

Chipper was 1-for-9 lifetime against Saturday starter Derek Lowe, but he is 5-for-15 with two homers against Frank Castillo, today's starter.

Maddux recovering

With his strained left calf and battered right shin, jogging is harder than pitching for Maddux. He still is scheduled to start on Wednesday.

Maddux left after five innings Friday with recurring soreness in the calf and a bruised and bloodied shin, courtesy of a Carlos Baerga line drive.

Facts and figures

The Braves are 20-5 in June, their most wins in the month since the franchise moved to Atlanta. They went 19-6 in June 1992 and 19-9 last June. . . . They are 12-1 on Fridays, their best record for any day. The Braves' only losing day is Tuesday (2-9).

 

[IE]

as noted late last night Vidro and Barrett are not in the lineup today for Mont

MONTREAL AT TORONTO -- LINEUPS

MONTREAL TORONTO
AVG HR RBI AVG HR RBI
Brad Wilkerson LF .283 6 23 Shannon Stewart DH .288 4 19
Jose Macias CF .262 3 12 Eric Hinske 3B .294 14 44
Vladimir Guerrero RF .327 18 55 Raul Mondesi RF .220 15 44
Wil Cordero DH .255 0 9 Carlos Delgado 1B .255 16 57
Fernando Tatis 3B .259 9 23 Jose Cruz Jr LF .229 11 40
Andres Galarraga 1B .260 1 10 Vernon Wells CF .252 9 36
Orlando Cabrera SS .260 4 29 Dave Berg SS .229 3 13
Brian Schneider C .236 1 14 Joe Lawrence 2B .198 2 9
Henry Mateo 2B .250 0 0 Ken Huckaby C .250 0 5

Tomokazu Ohka RHP (7-4, 3.02) Esteban Loaiza RHP (3-4, 5.37)

 

[IE]

Todd Helton, Colorado's star first baseman, was unavailable to play last night for the Rockies after he suffered a strained back Thursday in Los Angeles.

Manager Clint Hurdle said Helton, who had been batting .342 before the injury, was feeling better before yesterday's game and had received treatment. Helton also was scheduled to take some swings in the batting cage.

"Hopefully he'll start (today)," Hurdle said

 

[IE]

Jeff Nelson finally pitched again last night, going one scoreless inning against the Rockies.

"I thought he threw the ball well for having been gone five, six weeks," Mariners Manager Lou Piniella said. "His velocity was good and he had great life on his fastball."

The Mariners will use Nelson in non-pressure situations for the next few games.

It makes things difficult for Nelson, who as the team's top set-up man in the bullpen expects to be in the most demanding situations of games. Waiting patiently like the last man on the pitching staff is not something he does well.

"You want to get back in there as quickly as possible and get back into the groove of things," said Nelson, who underwent surgery on May 10 to have bone chips removed from his throwing elbow.

Nelson came off the disabled list on Thursday, but in his first two nights after being reactivated he sat in the bullpen as situations arose in which he would usually be asked to warm up. It was odd, he said, to watch Shigetoshi Hasegawa loosen several times on Friday night, when he knew it would normally be him.

"You understand why (the Mariners want him to return slowly), but then you wish that it wasn't that way," he said. "But I'm sure the first couple of times they see that everything's fine, they'll put me back in there again."

 

[IE]

PITTSBURGH AT DETROIT -- REVISED LINEUPS

PITTSBURGH DETROIT
AVG HR RBI AVG HR RBI
Jason Kendall C .280 2 25 Julio Santana SS .000 0 0
Jack Wilson SS .252 0 14 Damion Easley 2B .178 3 6
Brian Giles LF .303 18 45 Craig Paquette 1B .211 4 18
Aramis Ramirez 3B .225 4 25 Dmitri Young DH .279 5 23
Kevin Young 1B .244 8 20 Rob Fick RF .290 10 34
Craig Wilson DH .287 6 32 Brandon Inge C .264 6 11
Rob Mackowiak RF .250 10 26 Wendell Magee CF .276 5 26
Pokey Reese 2B .239 1 19 Chris Truby 3B .200 1 5
Chad Hermansen CF .209 6 13 George Lombard LF .143 0 0

Kris Benson RHP (1-4, 7.03) Mike Maroth LHP (1-1, 3.86)

 

[kosar]

Boston -- When Gary Sheffield was asked about Montreal adding Bartolo Colon to its rotation, he gave a quizzical look and said, "Who is that?"



Sounds about par for the course for ol' Shef. Good info, IE!

 

[JJP]

Sheffield's comment ranks right up there with Rickey Henderson's recent comment regarding Caminiti's estimate of 50% of the players used steroids:

"Well, I'm not one of them, so that's 49% right there."

A little inflated view of oneself, Rickey?