Baseball Capsules: Piniella gets emotional after finale
CHICAGO (AP) — Baseball has been the fabric of Lou Piniella's life. For 48 years, first as a player and then a manager, his passion for the game was undeniable. You could usually see it on his face.
Piniella was an aggressive, sharp-eyed hitting outfielder and an often fiery, sometimes raging, manager who'd cooled his act for the most part as manager of the Chicago Cubs over the past three-plus seasons.
When his ailing mother needed his attention, though, Piniella decided it was time to leave sooner than he'd expected and go home to Florida to take care of her.
And after his final game at Wrigley Field on Sunday, his emotions ran over in his postgame news conference. Saying goodbye was difficult.
"I cried a little bit after the game. You get emotional. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be. This will be the last time I put on my uniform," Piniella said Sunday with tears flowing and his voice cracking after the Cubs were routed by Atlanta 16-5 in his final game at Wrigley Field.
"It's been very special."
After Sam Fuld grounded into a game-ending double play, Piniella took off his cap and shook it in the direction of the Atlanta dugout, apparently to say goodbye to fellow retiring manager and friend Bobby Cox. Many in the crowd of 37,518 had already left Wrigley Field after the Cubs surrendered 11 runs in the final three innings.
"It's a good day to remember and also it's a good day to forget," Piniella said.
Piniella said last month he planned to retire at the end of the season and reiterated his plans just Saturday. But he missed four games in August to be with his mom in Florida and decided this weekend his divided attention wasn't helping anyone.
"She hasn't gotten any better since I've been here," said Piniella, who turns 67 on Saturday. "She's had a couple other complications, and rather than continue to go home, come back, it's not fair to the team, it's not fair to the players. So the best thing is just to step down and go home and take care of my mother."
Piniella's final game led to a memorable scene when Piniella brought the lineup card to home plate and greeted Cox.
And Cox said he understood what a difficult situation Piniella was facing.
"It's in your blood that long, but Lou's mom is in ill health," Cox said before the game. "It's a sad day for me because I kept on thinking that Lou would be back, not here but somewhere else."
Piniella and Cox shook hands after they reached the plate, hugged each other and exchanged back slaps as Piniella's No. 41 was posted on the center-field scoreboard.
Cox was announced to the crowd and took his cap off and waved it to the fans.
Then the public address announcer ran down Piniella's achievements as he stood at the plate, and scattered cheers of "Louuu" could be heard throughout the crowd.
After Piniella and Cox posed for a picture with the umpires, the managers hugged each other again. Piniella then headed to the dugout and, as the cheers got louder, took off his cap, waved it to the crowd and began to clap for the fans.
When Piniella made the first of three trips to the mound in the seventh inning to change pitchers, fans behind the dugout gave him a standing ovation as he came off the field and he acknowledged them with a little wave of his hand.
Third base coach Mike Quade was promoted to interim manager, getting the nod over bench coach Alan Trammell, who was thought to have been a candidate to succeed Piniella next season. But general manager Jim Hendry said Trammell was not going to be considered for the job, so Quade was selected to finish out the season.
Piniella met with his team to let them know he was leaving and it was very emotional, despite the Cubs' terribly disappointing season — two years after they had the best record in the NL.
"I wish we would've played better for him," reliever Sean Marshall said.
"You hate to see stuff like that. You hate to see a grown man kind of tear up like that, it just shows his heart for winning and his drive for baseball and his family."
Piniella finished with an overall record of 1,835-1,713. He trailed only Tony La Russa, Cox and Joe Torre in victories among active managers.
Piniella's record with the Cubs was 316-293. Under the mellowed skipper, Chicago won consecutive NL Central titles in 2007-08, but missed the playoffs last year and slipped back even further this season with a new owner, Tom Ricketts, in charge.
"I've made a lot of friends and had some success here, this year has been a little bit of a struggle," Piniella said. "But, look. Family is important, it comes first."
In 18 years in the majors as a player — he had a .291 career batting average — and another 23 as a manager, Piniella made five trips to the World Series and has three championship rings. He began his professional playing career in 1962.
Piniella began managing in 1986 with the Yankees and lasted three years, including a stint as general manager. He managed the Reds from 1990-92, leading them to a World Series championship in his first season. He also got national attention during his time there for a clubhouse wrestling match with reliever Rob Dibble, who downplayed the incident and said "we've been family ever since."
"I think a lot of the antics — which don't go away unfortunately thanks to our friends on TV ... I think it distracts you from what basically he's all about," Dodgers manager Torre said. "And that's being a winner. He's had success pretty much everywhere he's gone."
After Cincinnati, Piniella had a long run in Seattle, where his teams won at least 90 games four times and 116 in 2001. The three-time manager of the year also spent three seasons in Tampa Bay's dugout, but he questioned his hometown team's commitment to winning at the time before the team bought out the final year of his four-year contract.
The Cubs won 97 games under Piniella in 2008, but were swept out of the playoffs for the second straight year and then missed the postseason a year ago despite a third straight winning season.
What Chicago fans saw for the most part was a more reserved Piniella, although he did have one dirt-kicking meltdown with umpire Mark Wegner early in his first season and soon thereafter the Cubs took off and eventually overtook the Milwaukee Brewers to win the NL Central in 2007.
Piniella joined the Cubs after doing some TV work, looking for a final challenge and hoping — like so many before him — that he would be the manager to bring the Cubs a long-awaited championship. The Cubs' last World Series appearance came in 1945, their last World Series winner in 1908. It didn't happen, despite the promising first two seasons.
There has been plenty to deal with over the past two seasons, including emotional players in Milton Bradley last season and former ace Carlos Zambrano this year.
"It's a tough job. But, look. I mean. They're going to win here. They've got a family-owned business now," Piniella said.
"The Ricketts family is going to do what they need to do to get this thing to where it can win. They're going to give it the care that it deserves. When I took this job I didn't call anybody. I came here and did the best I could for as long as I've been here. That's all you can do," he added.
Piniella said he would look back later. He added that he has no future plans, other than to tend to his family and relax.
"I'll have plenty of time to reflect, I will," he said.
Commentary: Piniella: Good day to remember ... and forget
Lou Piniella is one of those guys you hate to see go. Sadder still is the way he went out.
An ailing mother back home in Tampa tugged at his heartstrings, changing the date of his previously announced retirement from the end of the season to Sunday. But that was only one reason Piniella looked so worn out.
Last week a local TV station ran footage from the day he arrived in Chicago four years ago, then cut to a shot of Piniella in the dugout that day. It was like one of those before-and-after comparisons we see every time a president leaves office — paler, grayer, with more furrows in the forehead and bags under the eyes — and Piniella had served the equivalent of only one term. But the Cubs have that effect on a lot of people.
"It's a good day to remember," he said after they got clobbered 16-5 by the Atlanta Braves, continuing their NL Central nosedive, "and also it's a good day to forget."
It wasn't the losing that got to Piniella in the end, so much as the how. Don't forget — he was 316-293 during his stay in Chicago, including consecutive division titles in 2007-08, and he came over soon after a stint managing in Tampa Bay, when the Rays were still a running joke.
But he was touted as the last piece of the Cubs' puzzle, an old hand used to winning with enough vinegar left to nudge a veteran squad across a line the franchise hadn't crossed in almost a century. He tried being mellow and wound up almost coming to blows with a few of those vets. He tried exploding, but the only guy Piniella seemed capable of rousing was himself.
One of the last things he said before leaving Wrigley Field for good made clear how much Piniella felt he was leaving a job unfinished.
"I cried a little bit after the game. You get emotional. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be," he said.
Piniella was struggling to hold back tears, and soon enough he lost that fight, too.
"This will be the last time I put on my uniform," he said.
If so, there's already enough material from the four teams Piniella played for and the five he managed for more than one highlight reel. Most people could assemble a Top 10 of his equipment-busting, base-throwing, umpire-baiting tantrums from memory. Those who saw him play could make up another using only clutch hits from his postseason performances with the Yankees.
But while those reels reflect how motivated and competitive Piniella was as both player and manager, what rarely came through was how much joy he squeezed out of just hanging around the game.
Piniella could seem mad, but was more often funny, maybe because he had few regrets. At the end of a 23-year managerial career, he could say he had wrung every ounce of success from his modest gifts. The late George Steinbrenner loved Piniella's fire and his clutch-hitting, but it was probably a self-deprecating humor that kept him employed in New York for so long — as coach, field manager, general manager, field manager (again) special adviser and broadcaster — after his playing days were done.
On the eve of his 1990 World Series win in Cincinnati, reporters were poking through Piniella's background looking for a different angle.
"Is it true you spoke Spanish growing up?" one asked.
"Until I was 6 years old," Piniella replied. "The nuns in elementary school taught me to speak English."
Hoping to shift the conversation to Piniella's deft handling of perpetually grumpy Reds owner Marge Schott, another cut in, "Is that where you learned the word 'yardstick,' like the one you get your knuckles rapped with?"
"That," Piniella answered without missing a beat, "is where I first learned the word 'second-guess.'"
Over the past four years, neither the charm nor the temper made a big enough dent in the culture of a franchise whose unofficial motto is "Wait 'til next year!" Piniella was exasperated, then outraged and dispirited by turns. By the time this season headed inexorably for the tank, he was mostly mailing it in, increasingly burdened by the feeling that he was no longer in the one place he could still make a difference — back home.
"I've enjoyed it here," Piniella said. "In four wonderful years I've made a lot of friends and had some success here, this year has been a little bit of a struggle. But, look. Family is important, it comes first."
What he said a few moments later, though, was less convincing.
"It's a tough job. But, look. I mean. They're going to win here."
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org
Reaction to Lou Piniella's retirement
Quotes on Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella, who retired after Sunday's 16-5 loss to the Atlanta Braves:
_ "He was fiery. But the fact that they keep showing the clips of him going off on umpires, that's only a small part of Lou Piniella's career. I've come to like Lou a lot. I've played against him, I've seen him manage, and what stands out most is that he doesn't care what you say or do — he's going to run his club the way he wants to run it." — Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker.
_ "Lou's been so good for this game. I guess you have to say that sometimes enough is enough, especially when in spring training you expect so much from the club. He's a Hall of Famer and I hope he'll enjoy his life. Baseball needs people like Lou Piniella." — Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.
_ "He was the same as a manager that he was as a hitter. I mean, he went berserk as a hitter — and I say that with love and respect. It meant a lot to him, and the game means a lot to him. So I think a lot of the antics — which don't go away unfortunately thanks to our friends on TV ... I think it distracts you from what basically he's all about. And that's being a winner. He's had success pretty much everywhere he's gone." — Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre.
_ "He was a fantastic manager and a very close friend. It's tough when anybody has to leave the game, maybe because of his mother's illness. He's a very good teacher, a very good manager of people. He's more worried about what's going on off the field then what's on the field with you. From a personal standpoint, he helped me with a lot of personal issues so that I can go out and be the best professional baseball player that I can be." — former Cincinnati Reds reliever Rob Dibble.
_ "He's a terrific winner and they're strugging. I'm sure he's suffering. He's had a great career." St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.
_ "Most of our time together was a little more fire than ice. A lot of my times that I remember is just a lot of heated conversations in the heat of the battle, but I think in the long run, I turned out to be a better ballplayer for it." — Houston Astros infielder Geoff Blum, who played for Piniella in 2004 with Tampa Bay.
_ "He was just a winner. Every day he came to the park and expected the guys to win. He instilled a winning attitude with the Mariners and helped turn around that franchise. His record speaks for itself." — Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest, who spent 10 years in the Mariners organization and worked with Piniella.
Other National League News
Vin Scully to return for 62nd season with Dodgers
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the autumn of his life, Vin Scully has decided to prolong summer for another year.
The 82-year-old Hall of Fame broadcaster said Sunday he'll return to the broadcast booth to call Los Angeles Dodgers games for his 62nd season in 2011 because "when push came to shove, I just did not want to leave."
Scully, whose nearly 61 years of service make him the longest tenured broadcaster in sports history, said he made the decision with the blessing of his wife, Sandy, and his five children.
"With continued health, we'll do next year," he said.
He has said that while he loves the job he's had with the team since 1950, when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, it's increasingly hard to be away from his wife of 36 years.
"My wife understood, God bless her," Scully said in the Dodger Stadium press box named for him before a day game against the Cincinnati Reds. "She said, 'You love it, do it,' and so I love it and I'm going to do it."
Scully said he considered cutting back his schedule, but at his wife's urging he decided to continue calling all Dodgers home games and road games against NL West and AL West opponents. He calls all nine innings of the team's television broadcasts, while the first three innings of his games are simulcast on the radio.
He works alone on the air and long ago reduced his travel schedule to avoid calling games east of the Rockies.
"I'm just going to try to do the best I can, certainly for next year," he said. "Please don't ask me anything about after next year. I'm lucky to look for tomorrow morning."
In March, Scully was briefly hospitalized after falling and hitting his head at home.
Scully said he is in good health and still gets excited about describing the action on the field.
"The love of the game still produces goose bumps. That might be my thermometer," he said. "Every time there's a good play, the other night when the kid at second base threw the ball to first behind his back, I had goose bumps like it was the first big league game I'd ever seen.
"I went home thinking, 'Holy mackerel, it's still deep inside of me, this love for the game.' I'm so blessed."
Besides, Scully said he has no hobbies away from baseball. He tried golf and leisurely lunches during the 1994 baseball strike, eventually finding himself rooting around the hardware store for nuts and bolts.
He thought about those idle months during the strike as he pondered retirement.
"That was on my mind and I thought not yet," he said. "As long as you feel the way you feel, not yet."
Holding a paper cup of coffee and dressed in a creme linen jacket, navy slacks and a blue-and-white checked shirt, the fiercely private Scully told a gathering of media that he was embarrassed by the attention.
"This is the last thing that I wanted," he said. "I was hoping and I think the Dodgers were it would be a little line in the note sheet before the game and that would be the end of it."
Fellow Hall of Famer Marty Brennaman, in his 37th season with the Reds and 46th overall, was set to announce Sunday's game for Cincinnati in a booth down the hall from Scully's.
"There's never been a better broadcaster in our profession than Vinny, and there never will be. He represents our fraternity better than anybody because he's without ego, he's nice to everybody and he's always got a smile on his face," Brennaman said.
"We're all known as play-by-play guys. Vinny's not a play-by-play guy. Vinny's a storyteller."
Indeed, Scully spun a story about himself as a 25-year-old who became the youngest person to ever broadcast the World Series in 1953. Before Game 1, he ate a breakfast of orange juice, eggs, bacon and toast at home with his parents and sister.
"I was as calm as I could be and then I went upstairs and threw everything up," he said. "But when I got to the ballpark it was familiar and it was the same sounds and the same smells and the same players, then I calmed down. I've been keeping my breakfast in very well since."
Former Dodger and current team broadcaster Rick Monday heard about Scully's return on the radio as he was driving to the stadium.
"It was a lot like being a kid in a neighborhood and you're kicking on the door asking Vinny's wife Sandy: 'Can Vinny come out and play again?'" he said. "And we're all delighted that he's going to come out and play next year. In my life, Vin Scully has always been Dodger baseball."
It's the same for generations of Angelenos for whom Scully's famously soothing voice has defined summer in the city.
"I'm as thrilled as our fans that Vin will be returning," team owner Frank McCourt said in a statement. "He is not only the greatest broadcaster of all time, but also a wonderful friend."
Manager Joe Torre, who is mulling his own future after this season, was glad to hear the news.
"I'm happy for the Dodgers and happy for Vinny that he wants to keep doing it," he said. "He looks great and sounds great, too."
Former Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda, who turns 83 next month, tweeted his appreciation: "I love you Vin. Thank God we have you for another year. The Dodgers and MLB wouldn't be the same without you."
Scully began his broadcasting career in 1950, and since then has gone on to call three perfect games, 19 no-hitters, 25 World Series and 12 All-Star games. He was behind the microphone for Kirk Gibson's Game 1 homer in the 1988 World Series and Hank Aaron's record-setting 715th home run.
He has said his most memorable moment was in 1955 when he called the Dodgers' first and only World Series championship in Brooklyn. A year later, he called Don Larsen's perfect game in the World Series, and has said it is the greatest individual performance he has seen.
Scully shared the booth with Hall of Famer Red Barber and Connie Desmond in his first three years with the Dodgers.
Asked what Barber would think of his decision, he replied, "He'd probably say, 'Vinny, do you love it?' and I'd say, 'Red, I really love it.' And then he'd say, 'Then go with it,' and here I am going with it."
-- Beth Harris
Financial records show Pirates win while losing
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Don't feel too sorry for the cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh Pirates. Losing has been profitable.
The Pirates made nearly $29.4 million in 2007 and 2008, according to team financial documents, years that were part of a streak of futility that has now reached 18 straight losing seasons. The team's ownership also paid its partners $20.4 million in 2008.
The documents offer a rare peek inside a team that made money by getting slightly less than half its income (about $70 million) from MLB sources — including revenue sharing, network TV, major league merchandise sales and MLB's website. The team also held down costs, keeping player salaries near the bottom of the National League, shedding pricier talent and hoping that untested prospects would blossom.
The club's earnings were included in nearly 40 pages of statements that the Pirates submitted to Major League Baseball and were recently obtained by The Associated Press. Team officials briefed local reporters on portions of the material Sunday. The AP wasn't invited to the session, which owner Bob Nutting said was "aimed at the recent leak."
"The numbers indicate why people are suspecting they're taking money from baseball and keeping it — they don't spend it on the players," said David Berri, president of the North American Association of Sports Economists and the author of two books detailing the relationship between finances and winning. "Teams have a choice. They can seek to maximize winning, what the Yankees do, or you can be the Pirates and make as much money as you can in your market. The Pirates aren't trying to win."
Club executives vehemently disagreed with that assessment. Yet the numbers show Pittsburgh hasn't spent as much as its opponents — and hasn't won.
By 2010, the Pirates had baseball's lowest opening-day payroll — $34.9 million or just $2 million more than in 1992, the club's last winning season. The Pirates run of consecutive losing seasons is now the worst in the history of major American pro sports teams. They lost their 83rd game of the year Saturday to the Mets.
Pirates officials say they are trying to field a competitive team, and that there is nothing nefarious in the team's financial dealings. MLB backs them up, saying Pittsburgh has complied with the rules for revenue sharing, which are supposed to help less well off clubs compete with likes of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
Still, Pittsburgh fans have long complained that the club's various owners have been more interested in profits than performance, and top sports economists who reviewed highlights of the team's statements wondered if it now makes more money losing than it could by winning.
"If they won and were forced to increase their payroll from $34 million to $75 million or $80 million ... how profitable would they be?" Berri said. "There's a ceiling in terms of gate revenues."
Economist Roger Noll, a Stanford University economist, said: "Probably the Pirates would be less profitable if they tried to improve the team substantially."
Pirates president Frank Coonelly said the team spends its revenue-sharing money in several ways designed to create a winner: scouting; amateur draft choices; a new Dominican Republic academy that cost more than $5 million; player development; and, an expensive new computer system used in player evaluation.
According to the documents, the Pirates spent $23.2 million in 2008 and $21.2 million in 2007 for player development, in line with other clubs.
The Pirates' strategy of building with prospects rather than with proven players was illustrated this month when they paid nearly $12 million for amateur draft picks, putting them at or near the top of baseball, and raising their draft expenditures to $31 million for the past three years.
They also spent another $2.6 million for 16-year-old Mexican pitching prospect Luis Heredia, the highest price they've paid for an international prospect. General manager Neal Huntington, who was hired three years ago, said the team has a plan for the future and is in the middle of executing it.
Coonelly said in an interview with the AP last week that Pittsburgh, one of baseball's smaller markets, still will need help after it climbs in the standings.
"Even when we're winning, we will be a revenue-sharing recipient ... and in much better position to generate revenue and, depending on how we control other expenses, to generate additional income," he said. "But you can win without an $80 million payroll. We're seeing it this year."
Indeed, San Diego had the second-lowest opening day payroll and the Padres are leading the NL West. Tampa Bay went to the World Series in 2008 with a relatively low budget.
Revenue-sharing funds come from each team's local revenues — every team is charged 34 percent — and are redistributed among the lower-revenue teams. The only stipulation is that the money should be spent on making the team competitive. There is no set amount for payroll.
"The Pirates have fully complied with the Basic Agreement requirements for the use of revenue-sharing proceeds," Rob Manfred, MLB's executive vice president for labor relations, told the AP in an e-mail. The Basic Agreement is the labor contract between the MLB's 30 clubs and the players union.
The Pirates issued a statement Sunday, saying it was wrong for the financial statements to have been released to the AP.
"Someone with access to the Club's financial statements has breached his/her fiduciary obligation to the Club by providing a copy of the Club's audited financial statements for the 2007 and 2008 seasons to the Associated Press," the statement read. "The Club is a private company that has no obligation to publicly report its financial results and, like most private companies, has consistently declined to do so."
The statement also said "the revenues generated by the club are being reinvested back into the club in both long-term and short-term investments needed to completely overhaul and rebuild this baseball team."
"The Club has paid no dividends to its partners. Moreover, while it is quite common for a Chairman of the Board of Directors of a partnership to draw a salary, (owner since 2007) Bob Nutting has never received any salary."
Apart from the financial statements, the AP obtained a check stub of a payment made from a Pirates account to settle a bill with Seven Springs ski resort, which is owned by the Nutting family. The check bore a Pirates logo, which at first look suggests a financial transaction between the two operations, but the team says it came from a since-closed joint advertising account.
"I can tell you for certain there has not been a dime that has left the Pirates organization to fund any other business of any of the partners of the Pirates," Coonelly said.
The $20.4 million payment to partners two years ago wasn't for dividends, Coonelly said, but to cover the owners' taxes on the Pirates' profits and to pay a partner who loaned the team money seven years ago when the Pirates' credit was so bad it couldn't obtain bank financing. While such tax payments are common in a partnership, they're unavailable to the common investor.
Coonelly, previously an attorney for MLB, defended the Pirates' right to make a profit, but said he would not stay with the team if he suspected any Pirates funds were being channeled to ownership.
"I would not have left the commissioner's office if I wasn't convinced that Bob Nutting was committed to putting a winning product on the field," he said. "I would not have left the commissioner's office and I wouldn't remain at the Pirates if the Pirates were simply generating resources to fund other businesses."
Still, fans and critics ask how a team that won five World Series from 1909-1979 and nine division titles from 1969-92 can be so bad.
"I think it's very important for smaller markets teams to be careful about spending payroll, but there's a reason to be skeptical and cynical about what's going on (in Pittsburgh)," Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College economist, said.
To cut payroll, the Pirates have shed former All-Stars Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez, Nate McLouth and Jack Wilson in trades, along with nearly every other player who was arbitration eligible — or close to it — or free agency: Tom Gorzelanny, Ian Snell, John Grabow, Xavier Nady, Adam LaRoche, Damaso Marte, Nyjer Morgan, Ronny Paulino and Sean Burnett.
They also dealt slugger Jose Bautista to Toronto for a backup catcher who has since left their system, and cut NL All-Star closer Matt Capps without getting anything in return because he sought a $500,000 raise.
The team says it needs money to have the flexibility to make better investments going forward.
So while fans wait for $6 million draft pick Jameson Taillon and $2 million draft pick Stetson Allie to develop — both right-handers throw nearly 100 mph — they're not exactly flocking to PNC Park.
The gem of a stadium opened in 2001 at a cost of $262 million, with the Pirates covering $44 million, after the team long lobbied for a baseball-only venue that would maximize revenues. Attendance peaked during the inaugural season at 2.4 million, but declined to a low of about 1.6 million last year. During the two years covered by the documents, gate receipts (more than $66 million) barely were enough to cover the expenses for ballpark and game operations, public relations, marketing and administration costs, much less payroll.
Still, the club is profitable, taking in $15,008,032 in 2007 and $14,408,249 in 2008. Coonelly said Sunday the Pirates made $5.4 million in 2009.
-- Alan Robinson
Nationals' Strasburg set for MRI exam
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Stephen Strasburg's right arm has the Nationals on edge again.
Washington general manager Mike Rizzo said the team will wait for results of an MRI exam on Strasburg before deciding what to do with their injured ace right-hander.
Strasburg strained a tendon in his right forearm in Saturday night's start against the Phillies. Rizzo said he went through his normal post-start workout Sunday that included some light tossing, and he hopes to have the MRI results by the end of Sunday.
Manager Jim Riggleman said it was "probably safe to say" Strasburg would miss his next start. Rizzo wasn't so definite and insisted there would be no decision until the MRI exam was done.
"The doctor might say, 'Don't pick up the ball,'" Riggleman said. "The doctor might say, 'Hey, this looks fine.' This is typical pitching stuff, go get 'em. But I doubt it."
Rizzo called any reports that the Nationals had already decided to shut down Strasburg for the season "inaccurate." The GM said Strasburg told him he had this type of injury in college and pitched through it.
Strasburg changed into street clothes before Sunday's game and left for his exam in Washington without talking to reporters.
He's 5-3 with a 2.91 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 68 innings.
"I think he's a little dispirited right now," Riggleman said.
Strasburg was making his third start since returning from a stint on the disabled list with inflammation in the back of his right shoulder.
He grimaced and shook his right arm after a pitch to Dominic Brown and was removed without any warmup tosses
Strasburg was in control until he got hurt, striking out six in 4 1-3 innings while allowing two hits and a run.
The Nationals will surely be cautious with Strasburg. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft, he was scratched minutes before his scheduled start against Atlanta on July 28 and was diagnosed with inflammation in his right shoulder. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list the next day.
"The fact that it's not in the same place as the last one might indicate, hopefully, that it's not some chronic thing in one part of his arm," Riggleman said.
-- Dan Gelston
Cody Ross awarded to Giants
MIAMI (AP) — Fading from the playoff race, the Florida Marlins began their latest paring of payroll Sunday when starting outfielder Cody Ross was awarded to the San Francisco Giants on a waiver claim.
Ross will give the Giants more depth for the final weeks of the playoff race. The Marlins will begin looking toward next year, and they plan to recall Cameron Maybin on Tuesday from Triple-A New Orleans for a late-season tryout in center field.
"Our playoff hopes have dimmed a bit, and we have to be realistic about that," Florida president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said. "You can characterize it as whatever you want — a white flag, or anything like that. We're realistic about where we are."
The move came shortly after the Marlins lost to Houston 2-1 to slip to 62-61.
Ross joined the Marlins in 2006 and became a favorite with fans and teammates. The decision by management left second baseman Dan Uggla red-eyed at his locker.
"Do I agree with it? No," Uggla said. "There's a long shot for us to get into this thing, and we're going to need him to do it, but they made their decision.
"Over the last five years, I've grown as close to Cody as I've grown to anybody, even in my own family. Everybody here in this organization and city is going to miss him."
Ross is batting .265 with 11 home runs and 58 RBIs. He has a salary this year of $4.45 million, which was the third-highest for the perennially cost-conscious Marlins, and he'll be eligible for arbitration this winter.
Ross said he had mixed emotions about the move.
"You play your heart out for this organization, and the next thing you know, you're gone," he said. "That's the game. That's the tough part. But there's a bigger plan for me, and I'm excited to get on that team. It is going to be a fun rest of the year for me."
Maybin hit .338 this year in Triple-A with four homers and 23 RBIs in 33 games. He has had several stints with the Marlins over the past three seasons, and this year he's hitting .225 for them with five homers and 19 RBIs in 51 games.
"The past couple of years he has struggled with the club and wasn't able to stick," Beinfest said. "We still think every highly of him. The talent and the tools are there. It is time for him to step up and do it."
-- Steven Wine
Mets trade C Barajas to Dodgers for cash
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Rod Barajas from the New York Mets on Sunday for cash in an effort to bolster their catching corps.
The Dodgers announced the deal before their game against the Cincinnati Reds.
The 34-year-old Barajas, who is from Ontario, Calif., hit .225 with 12 homers and 34 RBIs in 74 games with New York this year. He came off the 15-day disabled list Thursday after being sidelined with a strained left oblique.
He is set to join the team on Tuesday in Milwaukee, where they open a three-game series.
Manager Joe Torre said the team needed a third catcher for September callups, and that Barajas will split time with Brad Ausmus, but likely do most of the catching. Catcher A.J. Ellis will be sent to the minors when Barajas arrives.
Starting catcher Russell Martin went on the disabled list on Aug. 4 with a season-ending hip injury.
Barajas has played for Arizona, Texas, Philadelphia, Toronto and the Mets during his career that began in 1999. He has hit 104 career homers, including a career-high 21 with Texas in 2005.
The Mets called up outfielder Jesus Feliciano from Triple-A Buffalo to take Barajas' roster spot. Feliciano hit .342 with one homer and 26 RBIs in 78 games for Buffalo.
American League
Angels place INF Maicer Izturis on 15-day DL
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Los Angeles Angels placed infielder Maicer Izturis on the 15-day disabled list Sunday with right shoulder inflammation and recalled right-hander Jordan Walden from Triple-A.
Izturis was injured diving for a ball Thursday in Boston and did not play in the Angels' first two games in Minnesota. He missed 45 days during two previous DL stints this year, once with right shoulder inflammation and once with a strained left forearm.
In 56 games, Izturis is hitting .245 with three home runs and 25 RBI.
Walden will be making his major league debut. He began the year at Double-A Arkansas, going 1-1 with a 3.35 ERA in 38 appearances. In six appearances with Triple-A Salt Lake City, Walden posted a 4.05 ERA, allowing three earned runs in 6 2-3 innings.
A's reinstate closer Andrew Bailey from DL
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Oakland Athletics have reinstated All-Star closer Andrew Bailey from the disabled list and optioned right-hander Ross Wolf to the minors.
The team announced the move Sunday.
Bailey had been sidelined with a right intercostal strain. He pitched two-thirds of an inning for Triple-A Sacramento on Friday, allowing two runs and three hits.
The A's used several different relievers at closer while Bailey was out. Jerry Blevins earned his first career save Thursday against Tampa Bay, and Craig Breslow got his third career save Friday.
Wolf had a 2.45 ERA in four games with the A's.
Minor Leagues
Omaha Royals fans can help pick new team name
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Fans of the Omaha Royals can help pick the new team name, which will be unveiled ahead of the move to a new stadium southwest of Omaha.
The Royals will take name suggestions through its website, http://www.oroyals.com, through Sept. 6. Fans can also submit names at the ballpark.
Team officials will review the submissions and put 24 names up for an online vote. The top nine vote-getters will be up for another vote, and the winner will be announced in November.
Team officials have said the city's name will stay in the team name, but Golden Spikes will not be an option for the nickname. That was the name of the Triple A team from 1999 to 2002.
The Royals' now play at Rosenblatt Stadium but are preparing to move to a 6,000-seat ballpark in Sarpy County.
