PITTSBURGH -- Ike Davis made his first home run with the Pittsburgh Pirates a memorable one.
[b]Timothy Fosu-Mensah Jersey[/b] . Davis became the first player to hit grand slams for different teams in the same April, and Neil Walker had a run-scoring single with two outs in the ninth inning as the Pirates twice overcame deficits to beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-5 Monday night. Pittsburgh trailed 2-0 before Davis fourth-inning homer off Mike Leake. Davis hit a game-winning, ninth-inning slam off the Reds J.J. Hoover on April 5 for the New York Mets, who traded him to the Pirates on Friday. According to STATS, no player previously hit slams for different teams in the same April. Davis became just the third to hit slams for different teams against the same opponent in the same year, following Ray Boone in 1953 and Mike Piazza in 1998. "We knew thats what he was capable of doing when we traded for him," Walker said. "As a left-handed hitter in this ballpark, I can envision him hitting more balls over that Clemente Wall in right field. This is just the start." Leake said he made a good pitch and gave credit to Davis, his former college teammate at Arizona State. "I broke his bat and he still hit it out," Leake said. "Thats how strong he is." With nobody out, Davis was just trying not to kill a rally rather than trying to hit a grand slam. "I wanted something up because I know Mike has a good changeup and sinker so I didnt want to ground into a double play," Davis said. "I was just looking for something I could hit into the outfield, either get a sac fly, base hit or, hopefully if I hit it good enough, a homer. I was just trying to get the ball in the air." The Pirates were behind 5-4 before Andrew McCutchens leadoff homer in the eighth against Manny Parra. Walker got the winning hit off Hoover (1-2) after consecutive one-out walks to Russell Martin and Andrew McCutchen followed by Pedro Alvarezs popout. "Its totally on me," Hoover said of the loss. "I hung a curveball on 1-2 count to Walker when I was trying to bury it in the dirt and I left it up a little bit where he could handle it. And you cant walk guys and expect to have good results." Jared Hughes (1-0) pitched a scoreless, two-hit ninth for the win after being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis earlier in the day. "Im in Indianapolis yesterday and in Pittsburgh today getting a win," Hughes said. "Thats pretty cool." Cincinnati had taken a 5-4 lead in the eighth when Brandon Phillips and Todd Frazier singled off Francisco Liriano, Jay Bruce hit an RBI double against Justin Wilson and, after an intentional walk to Ryan Ludwick, Devin Mesoraco hit a run-scoring single. McCutchen and Walker each had three hits for the Pirates, while Mesoraco, Phillps and Frazier had three hits each for Cincinnati. Mesoraco has a hit in all 10 games hes played this season and is batting 541. Liriano gave up five runs -- four earned -- and seven hits in seven-plus innings. Leake allowed eight hits in seven innings. NOTES: Boone, playing for Cleveland and Detroit, hit slams against the St. Louis Browns in 1953. Piazza, playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, hit slams against Arizona. ... Pirates LHP Wandy Rodriguez was placed on the 15-day DL with right knee tendinitis, opening a roster spot for Hughes. ... Reds LHP Aroldis Chapman is tentatively scheduled to throw batting practice Wednesday, the first time he will face hitters since sustaining facial fractures March 19 when he was hit by a line drive during a spring training game. The closer had a 45-pitch bullpen session Sunday. . Cincinnati RHP Johnny Cueto (1-2, 1.50) faces Pittsburgh RHP Edinson Volquez (1-0, 1.71) on Tuesday night.
[b]Chris Smalling Jersey[/b] . Claude Noel will be the man behind the bench when the team hits the ice of the MTS Centre to begin its inaugural season.
[b]Marouane Fellaini Jersey[/b] .C. Lions 35-14, was named the CFLs offensive player of the week Tuesday. Sheets recorded his ninth 100-yard rushing performance of the season to tie the Riders club record.BOSTON - The Blue Jays arrived at Fenway Park on Friday knowing the division-rival Red Sox needed either a win, or a loss by Tampa Bay, to clinch the American League East. Veteran Mark DeRosa sat down with TSN.ca on Friday afternoon to discuss when the Jays season went awry and the changes in the clubhouse culture he envisions for next season. Below is the transcript of the discussion. -- TSN.ca: Weve talked a lot about the hows and the whys of the season and where it went wrong. Lets talk about when. You look back at the final game of that June series here, Jose hit the ball off Uehara to tie the game and then there was the way the ninth inning ended and you guys lost and that turned a potential 3-4 road trip off the win streak into a 2-5 trip and it seemed to zap momentum. Is it possible that a game like that is kind of a trigger for where things went negative or is that an over-simplification? DeROSA: Nah, I mean there are moments you can look to throughout the course of the year. I always go back to the first two weeks of the season. We got off so slow, just put ourselves in such a pessimistic-type attitude where we were expecting things to go wrong. Its just been the tale of many weeks for this team. Its had its moments of playing really great baseball and taking it to some of the best teams and best pitchers in the game and then weve had moments where weve rolled out there and done a lot of things fundamentally wrong and made mental errors that have cost us. I dont want to look back to that game because I think youre referring to the game with Josh Thole at first and theres a situation where I was jammed up with my neck. I think Adam Lind was out of the game with a tight back and Josh Tholes put in a position hes not accustomed to being in. A lot of things contributed to that one day but I just feel like its been a six-month grind where weve seen flashes of doing things really well but not consistently enough to stay in the race. TSN.ca: So based on that answer is it an excuse to say its early? You refer back to early April when the tone was set. You can always recover from a bad two or three week start but looking ahead to next year it sounds like something that you would like to see tidied up? DeROSA: I think not only Gibby, Alex (Anthopoulos), everyone involved would like to see a lot of things tidied up. Myself included. Theres enough blame to go around, no doubt about that. I just think we came out of spring training with such a swagger and such expectations that our balloon got popped real early and we didnt have a stopper at the time to kind of put a tourniquet on the bleeding. (Mark) Buehrle was struggling at the time, (R.A.) Dickey was struggling at the time, we didnt have Ricky (Romero). I mean, there was a lot of things that kind of went into it. The one nice thing, even though its negatively impacted my season because I was brought in at 38 to kind of be a sounding board and hopefully be a nice piece to a championship team, but if there is a silver lining there have been a lot of young guys come up and do some things that have really helped us. Also, theres been some great personal seasons. What Eddie (Edwin Encarnacion) did was magnificent and he did it for five months. Adam (Lind) got hot and was able to protect him but there were times where he had no protection. (He) had a great year. Colby (Rasmus) has had a great year so there have been some bright spots. Obviously the bullpen was fantastic but collectively I feel like if we want to get to where I feel this team wants to get to then there needs to be a different outlook in spring training. TSN.ca: That sounds cultural, a culture change. DeROSA: I think so. Thats just my personal belief. I just feel like, and rightfully so, a lot of us, because of the big trades and the big names and bringing a lot of different guys together, I felt like it might have been detrimental if all of a sudden camp was just so regimented when everybody from different organizations is coming in with different ways of getting ready and preparing for the season. I felt Gibby did the right thing by giving us the leeway to prepare ourselves. I dont think weve earned the right to do that again next year so maybe theyre a little more involved in spring training. You know what? (As a player,) shut up and do your job.
[b]Daley Blind Jersey[/b]. Thats kind of where Im at. Ive never been in this situation, trying to play spoiler or play out the string and I know from my point of view, I love being here, I love being in the big leagues, its a great organization but this aint what its about, trying to stop Boston from celebrating on us. So hopefully these guys, Im sure with their magic number being one, well get a chance to see it and maybe itll digest and maybe it will trigger something. TSN.ca: At spring training next year, does that mean longer hours on the field or is that mean somebody stepping up and saying, hey, theres a way weve got to go about doing this to get ready for March 31, 2014? DeROSA: You cant leave anything to chance. I feel like you earn leeway based on performance and we havent earned that this year. If anything, weve lost that in my eyes. Thats how I was raised. If you do good, you get rewarded. If you do bad, you get punished. That being said, I dont see us getting punished in spring but I think an attention to detail will probably be a big priority. TSN.ca: The Blue Jays and the Toronto Argonauts finalized a deal to extend the Argos lease at Rogers Centre through 2017. Theyve got some opt-outs before that. Ultimately the aim here is for the Argonauts to find a new home and for natural grass to be put in the stadium. There are only two stadiums in the game, Torontos and Tampa Bays, that have artificial turf. Have you ever spoken to players quietly, or friends youve made around the league, whove kept Toronto at a distance in terms of free agent consideration because of the turf? DeROSA: No. But, definitely, its dated now. I think it does more damage. I dont know the scientific studies but I know for me, personally, its done more damage to my body physically than playing on grass. I think, you know, the games evolving to the point where there are some guys who can really murder the ball down your throat on that stuff. I just feel like the game was meant to be played on grass. I understand why it was turfed and I get that but I would like to eventually see, if they can maintain it in there, for it to go to grass. TSN.ca: Being around this team, have you noticed guys have more bumps and bruises than may be typical? Because, Mark, perfect example: the turf has changed since the 80s but the Blue Jays great outfield of Bell, Moseby and Barfield were all out of the game by 33. DeROSA: What I notice, for me, is my lower back and knees. You go on the road for a 10-day stretch and you go back there and you give it two or three days of really pounding on it and you feel it. I mean, some guys might love it, I dont know. I certainly enjoy hitting there. I dont know if the numbers justify that. I dont think they do but I enjoy hitting there. I think its a great ballpark to hit in. The fans have been great, to be honest with you. They really have been great for as much as I feel weve disappointed a lot of people. I think thats the biggest thing for me, and thats what Id like, I want the guys on the team and this is just me speaking freely because I dont know the inner makings of how everyones heads working at a certain time but I would just like everyone to really want to be great, to want to win the AL East and do what it takes to get it done. The talents here, weve got no one to blame but ourselves. Gibbys done a tremendous job not, I dont want to say not losing the team, but not losing himself because of expectations. I know hes taken the brunt of the fury from the fans and the media and I feel like thats been unfair but that being said, I expect there to be a different mindset next year. TSN.ca: Youre talking about being great as a team, not being individually great? DeROSA: Not be satisfied to be in the big leagues. Try to go next level. There are a lot of people who care about what we do off the field. Ive always tried to remember that. Even the days you dont feel like getting out there and grinding it out and doing all the things you need to do to get ready, you owe it to the people that come to the games and the city that supports you. You owe it to them to give it your best. I feel like we have done that but at the same time weve made a lot of juvenile mistakes that have cost us games.
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