CINCINNATI (AP) — Joey Votto ended the second-longest homer drought of his career with yet another Reds grand slam.Votto homered for the first time in two months on Saturday
Pittsburgh Penguins Hats Authentic , connecting for Cincinnati’s 11th slam — one shy of the NL record — and the Reds beat the San Diego Padres 7-2 in a game called because of rain in the top of the seventh inning.The game started an hour early because of a foreboding forecast and was played in a steady rain that intensified with one out in the top of the seventh. Votto connected off Robbie Erlin (3-6) during a seven-run second inning for his first homer since July 9. Votto had gone 36 games without a homer, not counting his long ball in the All-Star Game. He spent time on the disabled list with a sore knee during the span.After hitting 36 homers last season, Votto has only 10.“I didn’t know it was two months,” interim manager Jim Riggleman said. “I knew he’d been stuck on nine for a while.”It was Votto’s second grand slam this season and the fourth of his career. Scott Schebler’s slam during a 12-6 win on Friday night set a franchise record of 10 in a season. The NL mark is 12 and the major league record is 14.Erlin went three innings and gave up eight hits and seven runs, all in the second inning. He struggled to control his pitches in the rain.“It wasn’t just one pitch in particular, it was all of them,” Erlin said.Matt Harvey (7-8) allowed Eric Hosmer’s two-run homer and escaped a bases-loaded threat in the fourth. He fanned 10 in six innings, his highest strikeout total since he fanned 10 at San Diego on May 8, 2016, and his ERA rose to 4.87.“You’re working on your routine and then your coach calls and says the game’s an hour and a half earlier,” Harvey said. “It was shocking
Custom Pittsburgh Penguins Jerseys , but you have to go out and deal with it.”The teams were willing to move up the start time to squeeze in a game with unrelenting rain in the forecast through Sunday. A rainout would force the Padres to fly back from San Francisco on Sept. 27 for a makeup game between last-place teams, and then fly home to finish the season.Sunday’s game was pushed back three hours to 4:10 p.m., when rain is forecast to ease.“We would love, love, love to get these games in here the next couple days,” manager Andy Green said. “I think we’re all in the same boat here. I think everybody was willing to jump to give us that chance.”The teams were coming off little rest. The Reds’ 12-6 win ended at 12:09 a.m. on Saturday because of a 2-hour, 37-minute rain delay.SLAM STUFFThe 1997 Braves and 2000 Cardinals hit 12 grand slams in a season, sharing the NL record. The 2000 Athletics and 2006 Indians hit 14 for the major league record. … The Reds’ 11 grand slams have been hit by Votto (two), Adam Duvall (two), Scooter Gennett, Eugenio Suárez
www.officialsharks.com , Jesse Winker, starting pitcher Anthony DeSclafani, reliever Todd Lorenzen, Jose Peraza and Schebler.NO IFS, ANDS OR BUNTS ABOUT ITFor the second game in a row, the Padres’ inability to field a bunt cost them. Harvey bunted on a sacrifice attempt in the second inning, but third baseman Wil Myers didn’t charge the ball, turning it into a single that set up Votto’s grand slam. The Padres misplayed two bunts on Friday night during the 12-6 loss.“Wil’s learning a brand new position,” Green said. “This guy’s never played third base. There has to be some measure of patience and understanding.”WALK THIS WAYVotto drew his 100th walk of the season. It’s his sixth season with at least 100 walks, tying Joe Morgan’s club record.TRAINER’S ROOMReds: Scooter Gennett was out of the lineup with a sore right thigh. He missed Thursday’s game and went 0 for 5 on Friday.UP NEXTPadres: Jacob Nix (2-3) is to make his sixth career start. He gave up five runs — matching his career high — during a 7-3 loss to Colorado last Sunday.Reds: Tyler Mahle (7-9) is slated for his first start since being called up from Triple-A. Mahle gave up six runs and lasted only 1 2/3 innings of a 10-4 loss to Washington on Aug. 2, prompting the demotion. ST. PAUL
San Jose Sharks T-Shirts Authentic , Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Wild coach Bruce Boudreau let out a big sigh.An impressive rally in an emotional game drained the veteran coach.Eric Staal scored with 2:31 remaining to send Minnesota to a 4-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets in an edgy, penalty-filled matchup on Friday.Nino Niederreiter, Eric Fehr and Zach Parise also scored for the Wild, who trailed 2-0 after two periods. Alex Stalock made 26 saves while filling in for Devan Dubnyk, who was scratched with an illness.“The whole night was competitive and emotional, but especially the third period,” Staal said. “Things happen in a game. You got to do your best at times to keep it even-keel. Sometimes it’s more difficult than others, but you see that emotion sometimes spill over. It did on a couple plays. At the end of the night, it was fortunate for us to come out on the other side of it.”Patrik Laine scored for the sixth time in three games for the Jets, who dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season. Nikolaj Ehlers added his fifth goal of the season, and Connor Hellebuyck made 35 saves.“Up until today
San Jose Sharks Hoodies Authentic , we’re winning a lot more than we’re losing recently, so the sky isn’t falling,” Winnipeg forward Blake Wheeler said. “It’s just on the road there’s going to be momentum changes. They’re probably going to score a goal more than likely and we just got to face that adversity and do a better job of that.”A tense affair between Central Division rivals boiled over in the third.Minnesota’s J.T. Brown hit Winnipeg forward Andrew Copp into the glass near the Jets’ bench, causing Copp to go to the ice. After several minutes, Copp skated off and went to the locker room.A few minutes later, Winnipeg’s Adam Lowry hit Joel Ericksson Ek with an elbow, starting a melee that ended up in the Jets’ bench. Wild defenseman Nick Seeler confronted Lowry after the hit and Lowry shoved Seeler into the bench area with the door open for an expected line change. Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno jumped in and both Wild players ended up on the bench.“I haven’t seen any of that kind of stuff in a long time,” Boudreau said. “I’m sure I’ll watch it again tonight on TV. It gets everybody whether it’s the crowd or whether it gets the players or whether it gets the coaches, it gets them all revved up. That was an emotional game that was fun.”Minnesota’s Ryan Suter was called for roughing later, but Staal scored after the penalty expired, notching his second straight game-winning goal.Parise added an empty-netter to finish the flurry.“We realized last year
San Jose Sharks Hats Authentic , we got bounced around a little bit,” Foligno said. “It’s not like you got to start cheap-shotting guys. It’s not like that, but you got to play strong and win your one-on-one battles, and I think you saw it tonight with a lot of extra efforts from our guys.”Laine scored for the third straight game to open the scoring in the first. He leads the league with 10 goals in November, running his total to 14 for the season.Minnesota had a power-play goal in five straight games and seven overall in that span but was 0 for 6 on Friday.“I think we kind of let the game get away from us,” Lowry said. “They got a couple good bounces and that’s the difference tonight. … I don’t know if that’s all the PK’s in the second period or what the cause was but we weren’t ourselves in the third.”NOTES: Jets coach Paul Maurice said Copp is going through concussion testing. … Winnipeg entered with the seventh-best penalty kill on the road this season, killing off 81.3 percent of its short-handed situations. … Niederreiter had a goal and assist after being demoted to the fourth line. . Wild opponents have scored the first goal in 15 of the past 21 games. Minnesota is 9-5-1 in those games. … It was the first meeting between the teams since Winnipeg beat Minnesota in a five-game series in the playoffs last season.UP NEXTJets: Play the second game of a back-to-back at St. Louis on Saturday.Wild: Host Arizona on Tuesday.