The Florida Gators' Riley Cooper comes up with a second quarter pass reception against Alabama on Dec. 6, 2008 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. AL DIAZ / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

GAINESVILLE University of Florida wide receiver Riley Cooper is returning for his senior season of college football.

For the past month, Cooper had been torn between returning to UF for the fall semester or quitting school to pursue a career in professional baseball. In June, Cooper was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 25th round of the 2009 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Cooper played in a collegiate baseball league in Texas this summer but is now back in Gainesville.

“It was a tough decision — one of the hardest I’ve ever had to make,” Cooper said in a statement released by the University of Florida. “We have something special going on in Gainesville and I want to be a part of that.”

On Tuesday, Cooper’s father, Larry Cooper, told The Miami Herald that his son has agreed “in principle” to a contract with the Texas Rangers, allowing his son to play college football in 2009. A spokesman for the Rangers said Tuesday in an e-mail that Cooper has not signed with the Rangers and that “there is nothing to report.”

Players drafted by a major-league team must sign by midnight on Aug. 17.

“We aren’t sure when he’s going to sign and we’ll just leave it at that,” Larry Cooper said. “We’re just ecstatic that Riley is returning for his senior season of football with the Florida Gators.”

Cooper played football and baseball for Florida last year, but if he signs with the Rangers, he will no longer be able to play collegiate baseball, according to the NCAA’s rules on amateurism. Cooper still can play college football if he signs with the Rangers.

As a baseball player, Cooper batted .247 for the Gators last season with two home runs. He started 25 games but did not finish the season with the team. This summer, he batted .182 in 13 games for the McKinney Marshals of the Texas Collegiate League.

Cooper is much more accomplished as a college football player. He is the Gators’ most experienced wide receiver and an excellent downfield blocker in the Gators’ spread-option offense. Last season, Cooper made key plays in both the Southeastern Conference championship and the BCS National Championship.

The football team begins fall practice Thursday and Cooper is expected to participate, although he missed the Gators’ entire summer conditioning program and did not participate in spring practice. Cooper is the Gators’ only returning receiver who started in the BCS National Championship. UF defeated Oklahoma 24-14.

“We are excited to have Riley back as part of our 2009 team,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said in a statement. “He will be counted on heavily to be one of our go-to receivers. I’ve said numerous times during the offseason that we need someone to step up with the departure of [receivers] Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy.

“We haven’t had someone step up yet and Riley can certainly be someone that does.”

EARLY ENROLLMENT

Stephen Alli, a high school receiver who was originally expected to sign with the Gators in 2010, has graduated high school a year early and has been accepted by the University of Florida’s admissions office, a football team spokesman told The Miami Herald on Tuesday.

Alli, a 6-5 receiver who played for Andover (N.H) Proctor Academy last season, is scheduled to arrive in Florida on Wednesday. A native of Toronto, Alli could begin practicing with the Gators this week after his high school transcripts pass through the NCAA Clearinghouse.
Sourced via The Miami Herald

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For the first time in days, the Yankee bats didn’t need to wait until the end of the game to take care of business.

Following three dramatic last-at-bat wins in three days, the Yankees handled the Twins the old-fashioned way Monday night. Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez went deep in a six-run first inning, Andy Pettitte gave his team a workmanlike effort and the bullpen – working without Mariano Rivera – closed it out, finishing a four-game sweep of Minnesota with a 7-6 victory at the Stadium.

Teixeira homered twice and drove in four runs, pacing the 13-hit attack as the Yanks won their sixth straight game and eighth in the last 10.

Pettitte gave up four runs on 12 hits in 6-2/3 innings, but he worked out of trouble one inning after another in picking up his fourth win. Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez and Phil Coke finished up, with Coke retiring the red-hot Justin Morneau in the eighth in the biggest out of the night.

The Yankees (21-17) are a season-high four games over .500, pulling within one game of the second-place Red Sox in the AL East. They remain 4-1/2 games behind first-place Toronto.

The Twins jumped on Pettitte with one out in the first, as Brendan Harris doubled and Joe Mauer singled him in, advancing to second on Melky Cabrera’s wild throw home. Morneau followed with another base hit, scoring Mauer to give Minnesota starter Glen Perkins a quick 2-0 lead.

Instead of waiting for the late innings to mount their comeback, the Yankees pounced on Perkins. Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon singled to start the inning, setting up Teixeira’s three-run blast to left. In 10 games since A-Rod’s return from the DL, Teixeira is hitting .342 (13-for-38) with five home runs and 13 RBI.

A-Rod extended the lead with a solo shot to left, marking the fifth time this season the Yankees hit back-to-back home runs. After Nick Swisher drove a ball to the warning track for the first out, Robinson Cano doubled and Cabrera singled him in, making it 5-0. A passed ball moved Cabrera to second, setting up Francisco Cervelli’s RBI single up the middle, knocking Perkins out of the game after he gave up six runs in two-thirds of an inning.

Pettitte worked out of trouble in the second, putting two men on base with one out before getting a pair of groundouts, including a spectacular play by Cano at second. The Twins put another runner in scoring position in the third on Morneau’s one-out double, but Pettitte sat down the next two batters, preserving the four-run lead.

Michael Cuddyer led off the fourth with a homer over the visitors’ bullpen in left-center, cutting the lead to 6-3. Carlos Gomez followed with a single, but Pettitte got some help to get out of the inning, as Cervelli threw out Nick Punto trying to steal second and Ramiro Pena made a stellar barehanded play on Denard Span’s slow roller to third, throwing out the speedy leadoff man to end the frame.

Pettitte gave up two more hits in the fifth, once again catching a break to help him get out of the jam. With runners at the corners and one out, Joe Crede hit a comebacker, the ball drilling Pettitte in the glove. Pettitte picked it up and headed to third, where he caught Harris in a rundown, eventually throwing to Pena, who tagged the runner out.

After cutting the lead to 6-4 in the sixth on Span’s RBI single, the Twins threatened against Pettitte again in the seventh, putting runners at first and second with one out. Joe Girardi called in Jose Veras to face Cuddyer, who walked to load the bases. Veras, who could be in danger of being designated for assignment when Brian Bruney is activated from the disabled list today, got Gomez to fly out to center, stranding all three runners.

Teixeira gave the Yankees a little more breathing room with a homer to lead off the bottom of the seventh. It was Teixeira’s second two-homer game of the year, matching his feat from May 4 against the Red Sox when he also went deep from both sides of the plate.

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SAN FRANCISCO, May 13 — Here was the moment Ryan Zimmerman said he would gladly accept in exchange for his 30-game hitting streak.

In the seventh inning, with the Nationals rallying and Zimmerman still hitless, Giants Manager Bruce Bochy chose to intentionally walk the 24-year-old third baseman. The move backfired: Elijah Dukes drove in two runs with a broken-bat single, the key hit in the Nationals’ 6-3 win over San Francisco.

Zimmerman’s streak — just the seventh of 30 or more games this decade — quietly ended here Wednesday afternoon. Zimmerman went 0 for 3 with two walks, failing to hit the ball out of the infield. In his final at-bat in the ninth inning, he grounded into a force play, then stood stoically at first as the crowd at AT&T Park rose to give him a standing ovation.

“I’ll tell you, it makes you appreciate how much 56 really is,” he said afterward, laughing.

Zimmerman was still a month’s worth of games from Joe DiMaggio’s steroids-impervious record, which has stood since 1941. But the chase had reverberated throughout baseball and, in some ways, diverted attention from the Nationals’ appalling start. Moments after the game, ESPN broadcast the end of the streak as its lead story, and several players looked up at the clubhouse television to watch.

“He put us on the map a little bit with what he did,” Nationals Manager Manny Acta said.

Zimmerman had said that he would happily trade the streak for a win, and that’s pretty much how it went down. After another horror show the night before, the Nationals (11-21) hinted at something of a future as they finished an eventful West Coast swing 4-4. Right-hander Shairon Martis, 22, is now 5-0 as he throttled his former team on two hits in seven innings. First baseman Nick Johnson had four hits and two RBI — his seventh RBI in the past two games — and Kip Wells even registered a save.

Throughout the streak, Zimmerman had seemed a man apart, calmly and rhythmically stroking hits while his club went up in flames. In the end, though, it was his streak that was a sidelight: Zimmerman played almost no role Wednesday in the Nationals’ offense, which scored 49 runs during the eight-game trip.

The at-bat that will be remembered came in the seventh, with the Nationals leading 2-0 and runners at first and second. It had been rare that Zimmerman made it this interesting; he extended his streak on his first at-bat in 14 of the 30 games, and on the second at-bat in nine games.

Left-hander Barry Zito, looking much tougher than last year, had gotten Zimmerman to ground into a double play in the first inning. In the third, he battled Zimmerman over a 10-pitch at-bat and then walked him.

This time, his first pitch was in the dirt. It one-hopped catcher Steve Holm and dribbled to the backstop. Both runners moved up. Bochy was thus left with a decision over whether to pitch to Zimmerman or walk him intentionally to create a force.

Bochy decided to walk him, drawing a smattering of boos from the fans who were aware what was going on. “Once the wild pitch happened, we had no choice,” Bochy said. “You are behind on the count and you have the hottest hitter in baseball up there. You are just trying to limit the damage.”

Neither Zimmerman nor Acta seemed bothered by the move.

“No way, it’s the game,” Zimmerman said. “They’re trying to win the game, not cater to my hitting streak.”

Acta said: “I understood what Bruce did totally. You have to do it in that situation. I would have done it myself.”

Bochy brought in right-hander Merkin Valdez to face Josh Willingham. Willingham scorched a line drive to third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who speared it above his head with the white of the ball still showing.

After that, however, Dukes shattered his bat by looping a base hit into center field, scoring two more runs.

“I told you every day that I’d rather win than continue the streak,” Zimmerman said. He acknowledged that he was disappointed to see it go. Then he added: “It would have sucked a lot more if we had lost.”

“I’m not relieved it’s over, because I’d like to have done it as long as I can,” he said. “But it will be nice to kind of go back to your routine and not be worried about every hit.”

Sourced via washingtonpost.com

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BOSTON — When it came right down to it, Jonathan Papelbon only had one option left in what could have been a dire situation for a lot of closers.

Runners were at the corners with nobody out, and all the Rays needed was a sacrifice fly, a soft grounder to the right side or any kind of hit. But Papelbon put his foot down on the proverbial clutch and brought his fastball to the highest gear he has. And the Rays went down in succession. Three straight whiffs ended a thrilling, 4-3 win for the Red Sox on Sunday night at Fenway Park.

“Pap really turned into Pap,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona.

Carlos Pena was the first to go down. After Papelbon fell behind him 3-1, he finished him with a 96-mph heater for strike two and then 95 for the first out. On strike three, Jason Bartlett stole second. Now, the Rays knew that a single could not only tie it, but put them ahead.

Papelbon wasn’t having any of it. He blew a 95-mph pitch past B.J. Upton to end that four-pitch at-bat. Now, Papelbon’s options opened up again. He no longer needed a strikeout. Any kind of out would do it. But he delivered the K anyway, reaching back for a 96-mph fastball that Carl Crawford swung right through, handing the Red Sox the rubber match of the three-game series.

“I basically put myself in a situation where I had to go into punchout mode,” said Papelbon. “That’s not always the situation I want to be putting myself in, but it is what it is. I always know that that gear is there. It’s just, when do I need to bring it out?”

This was the perfect time. The Red Sox had just gone ahead in the bottom of the eighth to break what had been a 3-3 tie.

With David Ortiz, believe it or not, still looking for his first home run of the season, the slugger played the role of setup man this time. Big Papi led off the inning by lofting a double off the Green Monster. Ortiz scooted to third on a wild pitch and there was still nobody out.

Then, the Red Sox simply had the right man at the plate in Jason Bay, and the red-hot left fielder delivered again, lofting a Monster double of his own against Dan Wheeler that put the Red Sox ahead for good.

Bay leads the Majors with 11 RBIs in “close and late” situations.

“There’s hitting and then there’s hitting when it counts,” said Bay. “Don’t expect me to do it every time, but in those situations, you want to come through. Wanting and doing are two different things, but it’s definitely a little more gratifying, yeah.”

For Ortiz, there was also plenty of gratification. The star slugger is hitting .224, and his homerless stretch has now reached 116 at-bats. Maybe this was the big hit that will get Big Papi going.

“I think I’ve been working on my swing this year more than ever,” Ortiz said. “Sometimes when you don’t see the results that you expect, it’s a little frustrating. But this is a game that nobody says is going to be easy. It’s a long season. You have to keep on fighting and the results will come.”

Ace Josh Beckett went six innings and allowed six hits and three runs, walking three and striking out five. Beckett took a no-decision. Ramon Ramirez (3-0, 0.55 ERA) got the win, recording just one out.

The Rays (15-18) got one in the top of the first, as speedster Crawford roared home all the way from first on a Pat Burrell single that was lined off the Green Monster.

But back came the Red Sox, as Bay started a second-inning rally with a double. Bay moved to third on a flyout to right by Mike Lowell and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by J.D. Drew.

The Red Sox (20-12) had some cause for concern to start the top of the fourth, when second baseman Dustin Pedroia exited the game with a strained right groin. However, the injury isn’t believed to be serious and Pedroia should be back in the lineup on Wednesday night in Anaheim, Boston’s second game on the upcoming West Coast swing.

In the fifth, Boston rallied with nobody on and two outs. Jeff Bailey hammered a double off the wall in center. Jason Varitek followed by lining an RBI double to left to give the Red Sox the lead. Nick Green made it a 3-1 game when his wind-blown popup fell for a hit in short right.

For the Red Sox, it was nice to finally be able to do at least a little something against Matt Garza, who had owned Boston in his previous six starts.

“I thought we swung the bats good,” said Pedroia. “A lot of hard-hit balls. The last few starts he had against us, there weren’t really any hard-hit balls, so hopefully that means we’re turning the corner on facing him. But he’s got great stuff and he’s going to be good for a long time.”

But Tampa Bay would chip away against Beckett. An RBI single by Crawford in the fifth cut Boston’s lead to one. Bartlett lofted a sacrifice fly to right in the sixth to tie it.

Finally though, the Red Sox had the last laugh against a Rays team that had beaten them in six straight series, including the 2008 American League Championship Series.

They needed Papelbon’s high-wire act to finish the job.

“I take my chances with Pap,” said Ortiz. “He knows how to get it done. He’s unbelievable.”

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Earlier this month, Alex Rodriguez pledged to keep his focus on baseball and nothing else. Thursday, he lived up to that promise.

After playing in his first rehab game since having hip surgery on March 9, A-Rod brushed off questions about Thursday’s Daily News’ story that cited excerpts from Selena Roberts’ upcoming book, “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez,” which is scheduled to be released on Monday.

The book alleges that A-Rod used performance-enhancing drugs after 2003, and cites a former high school teammate who said Rodriguez was on steroids while at Westminster Christian High in Miami.

“I’m not going there,” Rodriguez said not once, but twice. “I’m just so excited to be back on the field and playing baseball. My team’s won two games (in Detroit). Hopefully I can come back and help them win some more.”

When the questions kept coming, Rodriguez asserted once more, “I’m not going there,” and walked away from the group of reporters that had gathered to watch him in his first game action since early March. The subject was also ignored inside the Yankees clubhouse, where Rodriguez’s teammates shied away from commenting on the emerging details of the book. Manager Joe Girardi said it sounded like “a lot of ‘He said, she said’ stuff,” adding that as far as he’s concerned, the book release shouldn’t be much of a distraction for Rodriguez or the Yankees.

“We’re going to move on. Alex has talked about how he’s going to move on, so to me, the focus about Alex Rodriguez is that he had eight at-bats today,” Girardi said. “We’re moving on.

“There’s an easy way for players not to make it a distraction. All they have to say is, ‘I have no comment.’ They’ve been down this road before. Things come up in Yankeeland that people want to talk about and players don’t necessarily want to talk about. They do have practice with these things. I’ll watch to make sure it’s not a distraction, but I don’t see it being a distraction.”

The Yankee third baseman will certainly face a multitude of questions regarding Roberts’ book, but if any player in the game is equipped to handle that situation, it’s Rodriguez. “Alex is used to being under a microscope every day, anyway,” Girardi said. “He’s been playing that way for a long time, so you don’t expect this time to be any different when he comes back just because he’s been on the DL.”

At least on the field it was a positive day for A-Rod, who went 1-for-6 with two walks and a home run in an intrasquad game at the Yankees’ minor league complex in Tampa. Both before and after his appearance, Rodriguez took batting practice on an adjacent field. He did conditioning work in the outfield following the intrasquad game, and also worked out inside the complex.

“It’s been a long time,” said Rodriguez, who could rejoin the Yankees within a week. “It feels good to be in the (batter’s) box and see some professional pitching. It just feels good to actually execute the swing and track some pitches.”

Even though he was hitless through his first five appearances Thursday, Rodriguez still ran out each play – strikeouts and walks included – albeit at half-speed. He mentioned afterward that running the bases at 100% and “making some good turns” were on the list of things to perfect, but that the biggest hurdle he’ll have to clear will be sliding in game situations.

“Sliding, I think I have the most reservations about,” he said. “But everything else, we’re on schedule.”

Rodriguez is scheduled to DH again in an extended spring game today, and he could be back at third base as early as tomorrow.

“He feels great, he’s in a good place and he’s excited to get back,” said Girardi, who spoke with Rodriguez after Thursday’s game. “He’s finally getting to do what he loves to do. This has probably seemed like forever for Al from the last time he played a game until today.”

Sourced via nydailynews.com

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The plate beckoned. Jacoby Ellsbury, creeping farther off third base as Andy Pettitte delivered his second pitch to J.D. Drew, saw the situation clearly. The pitcher was throwing from the windup, the lefthander’s back to third base, the third baseman playing off the bag, the bases loaded.

So on the next pitch, Ellsbury was three-quarters of the way down the line before Pettitte noticed him, the pitch coming as fast as he could throw it to catcher Jorge Posada. Ellsbury was coming, too, then sliding, head-first after a brief stumble, as Drew stood watching. Posada’s tag was futile.

“I was actually like, ‘Does everyone realize? I don’t know how many 9-0 homestands you guys have been a part of, but I know I haven’t been a part of many,’ ” said Bay, the veteran of years with the Pirates. “It doesn’t really surprise me. It doesn’t seem as if we’re on this improbable roll. Just we’re going out there, we’re winning ballgames, doing the things we should do to win.”

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BOSTON — As far as doubleheaders go, it would be hard for a team to have a more satisfying go of it than the Red Sox did on Wednesday.

If you are going to be at the ballpark for an entire day, why not win both games, get two quality starts, and have a balanced offensive attack throughout?

The sizzling Red Sox, who have now won seven in a row, capped a fruitful marathon of baseball with a 7-3 victory over the Twins. This, after Tim Wakefield and the homer-happy bats cruised to a 10-1 romp in a rain-shortened, seven-inning matinee.

“We were able to get some good quality starts, we were able to get some timely hits, especially in that second game,” said Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek. “We played some good defense.”

Right-hander Brad Penny earned the win in Game 2 with a workmanlike performance. After getting shelled in his last start, Penny did what he needed to do in this one, giving up six hits and three runs (two earned) over six innings. He walked one and struck out two to improve to 2-0.

While Penny pitched to contact — much of it hard contact — he was fortunate to give up a lot of well-placed outs. In particular, center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury got himself a workout.

“Yeah, they hit some balls hard,” said Penny. “A couple of them were splitters that didn’t do anything. I think Ellsbury is great. I worked him tonight. He had a lot of action out there.”

All in all, it wasn’t a bad way for Red Sox manager Terry Francona to celebrate his 50th birthday.

“It was a long, good day of baseball,” Francona said.

Not only do the Red Sox go into their off-day feeling good about themselves, but they take momentum with them into the three-game weekend showdown against the Yankees, which opens Friday night at Fenway.

“It was good to get the two wins, get out of here and go have fun tomorrow,” said Kevin Youkilis, who moved across the diamond and played third base in the nightcap. “I think mainly we’re playing good ball. We’re hitting well, we’re pitching well. If we just keep pitching well, we’ll run off these streaks.”

Offensively, the Red Sox got an early jolt when Jeff Bailey belted a three-run homer in the bottom of the second inning. It was the first at-bat of the season for Bailey, who was placed on the roster before Game 1 to replace the injured Rocco Baldelli (left hamstring).

“It’s hard to ask for anything more than that,” said Bailey, who is 30 years old, but has played just 31 games in the Majors. “I didn’t know if it was going to clear the wall, but when it did, I got around the bases pretty quick.”

It was Bailey’s fourth Major League homer, and it came off left-hander Francisco Liriano.

“That’s going to be the way I stick around a little longer, is hitting lefties,” Bailey said. “That’s basically what I’m here for it. It’s a good start.”

Bailey nearly made the Red Sox out of Spring Training, but was the final cut. The player he lost out to — left-handed hitting first baseman/outfielder Chris Carter — was informed after the doubleheader that he is being optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket. The move won’t become official until Thursday or Friday and the Red Sox haven’t said who will replace Carter on the roster.

With the Red Sox facing a glut of lefties early in the season, Carter was used sparingly, going 0-for-5 with four strikeouts.

Though Bailey was the biggest contributor with the bat in Game 2, David Ortiz chipped in with a two-run double. Nick Green followed up his strong showing in Game 1 (two-run homer, RBI double) by smacking a pair of hits in Game 2.

“We’re swinging the bats good,” said Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. “The night game, we didn’t have a lot of hits, but Bails had a three-run bomb and that always helps. Then we kind of had situational hits the rest of the way. We’ve been swinging the bats great. Hopefully, we can continue to get better and keep it going.”

When the Red Sox return to work on Friday, a familiar nemesis will be staring them in the face. But they hardly had time to think about that during Wednesday’s lengthy work day.

“We really don’t get that far ahead,” Francona said. “I know who is coming and we’ve got a day off to prepare. As teams are coming in, you’ve got to pay attention a little bit, see who’s swinging, who’s not, what is going on. Other than that, I guess I just hope we win. I don’t get too caught up. I like playing everybody. It’ll be fun.”

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WASHINGTON — After a two-hour, 10-minute rain delay, rookie right-hander Jordan Zimmermann threw his first big league pitch at 9:15 p.m. ET on Monday. From that point on, he was solid, as the Nationals edged the Braves, 3-2, at Nationals Park.

Zimmermann, the team’s best prospect entering this season, went six innings and gave up two runs on six hits. He threw 72 pitches, 51 of them for strikes.

Zimmermann cruised until the fourth inning, when he gave up a two-run homer to Matt Diaz. But the Nationals came back and were able to get the victory for Zimmermann, starting with the bottom of the fourth inning.

With right-hander Derek Lowe on the mound, Elijah Dukes singled to right field to drive in Nick Johnson and cut the lead by one. Two batters later, Jesus Flores tied the score with a sacrifice fly to left field to send home Ryan Zimmerman.

Flores then gave Washington the lead two innings later, when he singled to left field to drive in Dukes.

For the first time since last Thursday, against the Phillies, the Nationals preserved a victory, with Kip Wells, Joe Beimel, Garrett Mock and Joel Hanrahan pitching a combined three shutout innings.

The Nationals broke a three-game losing streak and improved their record to 2-10.

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Gary Sheffield hit his 500th home run in dramatic fashion on Friday night, tying the game as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Mets went on to win, 5-4, in the ninth.

But Sheffield’s milestone was significant not only for the exclusive club it allowed him to join and the circumstances in the game. The 40-year-old slugger became just the third player in history to hit home runs before turning 20 years old and after turning 40. The other two are Hall of Famer Ty Cobb and Rusty Staub. Sheffield also joins Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx as the only two players to hit their 500th home runs against their original teams. Foxx hit his in 1940 while playing for the Red Sox against the A’s.

Sheffield, the 25th member of the 500 Home Run Club, also became the first player to reach that plateau in a Mets uniform and to do so while getting his first hit for a new team.

Here’s a look at some of the other significant home runs Sheffield hit on his road to 500.

Home run No. 1
Much like his latest long ball, Sheffield’s first had a significant impact on the game. The 19-year-old rookie shortstop for the Brewers hit his first Major League home run off of Seattle’s Mark Langston in the sixth inning on Sept. 9, 1988, at Milwaukee’s County Stadium. It was his first Major League hit, and it broke up Langston’s bid for a no-hitter. Best of all for the Brewers, it tied the game at 1, and they went on to win, 2-1, in 11 innings.

No. 100
Two teams and nearly six years later, Sheffield reached the century mark as a Marlin. He hit his 100th home run on Aug. 10, 1994, off of the Cardinals’ Omar Olivares at Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium.

No. 200
Three months after the Marlins traded Sheffield to the Dodgers, he was back in Miami on Aug. 20, 1998. He hit No. 200 against Florida’s Rafael Medina.

No. 300
On July 21, 2001, Sheffield and the Dodgers were in Denver to play the Rockies. Home run No. 300 came in the fifth inning off of Denny Neagle to break a 5-5 tie and No. 301 came in the sixth off of Dan Miceli.

No. 400
Sheffield’s 400th home run came after he returned to the American League. Playing for the Yankees in Toronto, Sheff homered off of Mike Nakamura on July 27, 2004.

No. 494
Sheffield has said repeatedly that, other than 500 home runs, the number he focused on during his career was 493 — the total hit by fellow Tampa, Fla., native Fred McGriff. On Sept. 1, 2008, Sheff passed his pal while playing for the Tigers, sending a pitch from the Yankees’ Sidney Ponson over the wall at Comerica Park.

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SEATTLE — Joe Saunders said he wanted “to be there for Nick,” referring to teammate and friend Nick Adenhart, killed in an auto accident on April 9. But he was grateful his family was represented.

With his mother making the drive from Virginia to attend the services for Adenhart on Thursday in Maryland, Saunders took care of business at Safeco Field hours later, snapping the Mariners’ six-game winning streak with a 5-1 Angels victory owing in no small part to a decisive hit by catcher Mike Napoli.

Yielding a run on three hits in seven masterful innings, Saunders performed with the confidence and style of an ace, befitting a 2008 American League All-Star.

“This one is dedicated to Nick and the Hokie nation on the anniversary of the [2007] shootings [at Virginia Tech, his alma mater],” Saunders said. “I couldn’t be there for Nick, but my mom drove a couple of hours to go see Nick’s services.

“We were just getting to be pretty close, Nick and me. We had so much in common, being from the same area, liking the same teams. We were just starting to get a good relationship going. Awful.”

Jose Arredondo and Brian Fuentes worked a scoreless inning each in relief after Saunders had done the heavy lifting with yet another superb April performance. He’s now 9-1 in his career in the opening month.

An All-Star selection last yaer after starting the season competing with Ervin Santana for a spot in the rotation, Saunders responded to the guidance of Napoli behind the plate and applauded when Napoli delivered what amounted to a dam-buster as well as a game-breaker.

“Big hit by Nap, huge,” Saunders said, referring to a two-run single through the middle on an 0-2 pitch by reliever Roy Corcoran that opened the gates to a five-run sixth inning.

“Nap came through with the bat and put down all the right numbers for me,” Saunders added. “He put a good swing on a good pitch, and when we got those runs [for a 2-1 lead], I think it took the pressure off some guys. We weren’t really pressing, but we were waiting for that one big hit — and he got it.”

It was a long, emotional day as well for Napoli, who caught Adenhart in the 22-year-old right-hander’s final start, six scoreless innings on April 8 at Angel Stadium against the Athletics.

“It’s been rough,” Napoli said. “We’re just trying to take care of what we have to do right now.”

Right-hander Chris Jakubauskas, making his first Major League start at age 30, matched Saunders before the Angels busted out in the sixth with six singles. They were 4-for-6 with runners in scoring position during the uprising after managing just one hit in 15 of those situations while losing the first two games of the series.

Jakubauskas, an Anaheim-born right-hander making his third Major League appearance, allowed only one man to reach scoring position — Torii Hunter with a two-out double in the fourth — before singles by Chone Figgins and Bobby Abreu had runners at the corners with one out in the sixth.

Corcoran replaced Jakubauskas and was one strike away from escaping a bases-loaded jam when Napoli drove home Figgins and Abreu. Gary Matthews Jr. followed with an RBI single to right center.

When Juan Rivera followed with another single through the middle, his second hit of the night, the Angels had a 4-1 lead. Facing right-hander Mark Lowe, Maicer Izturis worked the count full before singling to right for the fifth run.

“We really needed that as a team,” Izturis said. “I think we all had good at-bats there. Big Mike really came through for us with that hit. It started everything for us.”

Saunders had retired the first nine men he faced before Ichiro Suzuki slapped a historic single leading off the fourth — hit No. 3,086 of his career, including his years in Japan, making him his country’s all-time hit king.

After a single by Endy Chavez and a fly ball, Ichiro scored from third on Adrian Beltre’s groundout.

Saunders escaped a bases-loaded predicament by striking out Wladimir Balentien on a full-count changeup.

“We were focused on staying soft with him, because he’s got some power to all fields and can drive a fastball,” Saunders said. “I just let the changeup go, and he swung through it.

“That was a huge momentum-changer there. If he gets a base hit, it’s a different game.”

Saunders was shaken up making a sprawling throw on what was ruled an infield hit by Chavez in the sixth, but Beltre grounded into a double play to end the inning.

“Joe’s always been a confident kid,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of the 27-year-old native Virginian. “He’s got a lot of faith in what he can do. He trusts his stuff, and he understands that his stuff plays in the Major Leagues.

“I don’t think it’s anything he hasn’t had before. For us to reach our goal, we’re going to need more than one ace. He’s been pitching like one for a while now.”

Scioscia lauded the adjustment made by Napoli, who has more home runs per at-bat than any catcher in history, on the blow that reshaped the game.

“We’ve talked about [struggling with] runners in scoring position, and that’s a huge hit in the ballgame, especially with an 0-2 count,” Scioscia said. “Mike choked it up, shortened [his stroke] a little bit and hit it hard through the middle. That at-bat by Mike … I don’t know if it’s a pressure release, but it had an influence on tonight’s game.”

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu lauded Saunders “for pitching an awfully good game and setting the tone for them” in shutting down his high-flying attack.

Sourced via mlb.com

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