Bay belts home run in sixth straight game
Jason Bay homered in a sixth consecutive game Sunday, the first Pittsburgh Pirates player to accomplish the feat since Dale Long homered in a record eight in a row in 1956.
Bay hit an 0-1 pitch from Houston’s Fernando Nieve into the center-field bullpen area in the fourth inning, his 10th homer in as many games. Two of those were multihomer games. The last two major leaguers to hit 10 homers in 10 games were Sammy Sosa (August 2002) and Shawn Green (May 2002).
Bay and Houston’s Morgan Ensberg (April 15-21) are the only N.L. players to homer in six consecutive games this season. Texas’ Kevin Mench homered in seven consecutive games from April 21-28, one short of the major league record set by Long and later matched by Don Mattingly (1987) and Ken Griffey Jr. (1993).
Bay played in college at North Idaho and Gonzaga.
Right place, right time
A fan waiting in line for a hot dog got something extra – and it wasn’t mustard and sauerkraut: It was home run ball No. 715 by Barry Bonds.
Andrew Morbitzer was waiting in a concession line Sunday when the souvenir of a lifetime plopped into his hands.
For several moments, Bonds’ milestone ball appeared to be beyond anyone’s reach. It sat lodged on an elevated platform in center field, then trickled off the roof.
Morbitzer, a 38-year-old San Francisco resident, caught the ball and was quickly ushered away by security for a postgame press conference after the Giants’ 6-3 loss to Colorado.
•The broadcast went dead at the worst of all moments, and thousands of Bay Area fans listening on radio missed Barry Bonds’ 715th homer.
They could not hear the radio account because the microphone of play-by-play announcer Dave Fleming stopped working at precisely the wrong time.
Fleming had begun the call at the beginning of Bonds’ fourth-inning at-bat before his hand-held mike quit during the broadcast on the Giants’ flagship station, KNBR.
“Three-and-two. Finley runs. The payoff pitch, a swing and a drive to deep cen …” — that’s all Northern California listeners got to hear.
“We apologize to the listeners on the radio,” Giants executive vice president Larry Baer said. “We’re as surprised as any of the fans listening. We have no idea what happened. Normally you have two calls of record — television and radio. Duane Kuiper made a great call on FOX Sports Net and that will be the call of record, the call that goes to the Hall of Fame.”
Clearing the bases
The Rockies placed second baseman Luis Gonzalez on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation in both wrists. The move is retroactive to Saturday. The Rockies recalled outfielder Ryan Spilborghs from Triple-A Colorado Springs to take his place. … Backup catcher Rob Bowen was activated from the 15-day DL by the Padres, who optioned outfielder Paul McAnulty to Triple-A Portland. … The Athletics recalled right-hander Matt Roney from Triple-A Sacramento and sent down right-hander Santiago Casilla. … Coco Crisp returned to the Red Sox lineup after missing 42 games with a broken finger. Outfielder Wily Mo Pena (injured left writst) replaced him on the DL.