THREE UP
Alex Rodriguez became the first player in major-league history to hit 14 homers in the first 18 games of a season and tied the record for April homers, connecting twice in the Yankees’ loss to the Devil Rays. Rodriguez hit a solo homer off Casey Fossum and a two-run drive off Al Reyes.
Rookie righty Brandon Morrow earned his first major-league win with 3 1/3 innings of one-hit shutout relief as the Mariners beat the Rangers. “He can throw a ball through a brick wall,” manager Mike Hargrove said. Morrow, drafted fifth overall in 2006, featured a fastball clocked at 97 m.p.h.
Jimmy Rollins hit a leadoff homer and fell a double shy of the cycle in the Phillies’ rout of the Astros. Rollins homered, tripled, singled and drove in two runs in his first three at-bats. Needing a double in the seventh to complete the cycle, Rollins lined a single to wrap up a four-hit game.
THREE DOWN
In a 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays, Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell continued his struggles in the field. His error in the second inning was his sixth in 36 chances. He committed just six errors all last season, when he had 462 chances and was second in AL fielding percentage to the A’s Eric Chavez.
Rangers catcher Gerald Laird went 0-for-3 in a 5-4 loss to the Mariners. Laird is 1-for-34 in his last 10 games, and his batting average plunged to .098. Laird has five hits in 51 at-bats. His slugging percentage is .185 for the Rangers, who fell behind the Mariners and are last in the AL West.
The Reds begin a 10-day, three-city, nine-game trip Tuesday night in St. Louis. Before the season ends, the Reds will have gone on six trips of 10 days or longer. Unusual? You bet. The team with the next-highest total of trips lasting 10 or more days is the Yankees, and they have only four.
