TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Shohei Ohtani was rocked for seven runs and seven hits over 1 1/3 innings in his second major league spring training start for the Los Angeles Angels, allowing long home runs to Colorado's Ian Desmond and Nolan Arenado that went over the left-field berm on Friday in an 18-6 loss.The 23-year-old Japanese two-way star made his first big league exhibition appearance since Feb. 24, when he pitched 1 1/3 innings against Milwaukee and gave up Keon Broxton's home run leading off the second.Desmond hit a solo homer and Arrenado had a three-run shot. Charlie Blackmon had a two-run single, and DJ LeMahieu a run-scoring infield single.Desmond also hit a solo homer off Tyler Warmoth. Kole Calhoun homered for the Angels and Justin Upton went deep for the third time.ELSEHWERE AROUND THE GRAPEFRUIT AND CACTUS LEAGUESROYALS 12, PADRES 4Mike Moustakas hit a two-run single in his first spring training appearance for Kansas City after rejoining the Royals. Salvador Perez homered twice,... [More]

Clayton Kershaw's second spring training outing went according to plan, save for one poor throw to first.The ace left-hander breezed through two scoreless innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, allowing one hit and walking one during a 7-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Glendale, Arizona. He worked a perfect inning in his spring training debut against Seattle on Sunday."Another step. Another inning," Kershaw said. "Definitely things I can do better, but for the most part I'll take it. It was all right. I made some good pitches when I needed to. I made some bad ones, too. Enough to work on for the next one."Leury Garcia dropped a single into left in the first for Chicago's only hit off Kershaw. Garcia raced all the way to third when Kershaw made a wild throw on a pickoff attempt, but Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia grounded out to end the inning."I just tried to be a little too quick," Kershaw said, looking back on his fielding miscue. "I think I might have, it would have been... [More]

Clayton Kershaw's second spring training outing went according to plan, save for one poor throw to first.The ace left-hander breezed through two scoreless innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, allowing one hit and walking one during a 7-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Glendale, Arizona. He worked a perfect inning in his spring training debut against Seattle on Sunday."Another step. Another inning," Kershaw said. "Definitely things I can do better, but for the most part I'll take it. It was all right. I made some good pitches when I needed to. I made some bad ones, too. Enough to work on for the next one."Leury Garcia dropped a single into left in the first for Chicago's only hit off Kershaw. Garcia raced all the way to third when Kershaw made a wild throw on a pickoff attempt, but Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia grounded out to end the inning."I just tried to be a little too quick," Kershaw said, looking back on his fielding miscue. "I think I might have, it would have been... [More]

Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel will have to wait even longer before playing this season.Gurriel had surgery on his left hand Wednesday and the normal recovery time is six weeks.Opening day for the World Series champions is March 29, when the Astros visit Texas. When Gurriel returns, he will serve a five-game suspension imposed by Major League Baseball for making an inappropriate gesture toward Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish during the World Series.Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said Gurriel's hand was broken before he came to camp. Luhnow said he did not know the original cause of the fracture."It was non-symptomatic until recently and he started to feel something," Luhnow said. "Once you start feeling something, the right course of action is to just remove it because it's a pretty reliable surgery, and we know what the outcome is going to be."The 33-year-old Gurriel hit .299 with 18 homers and 75 RBIs last year in his first full season in the majors. He played in one exhibition... [More]

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Surprised to be traded, Steven Souza Jr. heads to Arizona for what promises to be a key role on a Diamondbacks team that expects to be good.The 28-year-old outfielder knew the Tampa Bay Rays were making some big changes but felt assured by management that he still figured in their plans."As much as people were flying off the shelf, it seemed like I was not going to be one of those people," Souza said Wednesday in a conference call from the airport before boarding a plane to Arizona. "It definitely caught me off-guard a little bit. I was definitely preparing for the role that I had there."Souza came to the Diamondbacks on Tuesday in a three-team trade that sent infielder Brandon Drury from Arizona to the New York Yankees and left-hander Anthony Banda, a top Arizona pitching prospect, to Tampa Bay.Souza batted just .239, but hit 30 homers, drove in 78 runs and walked 84 times, all three career highs.He will wear the same No. 28 that J.D. Martinez wore in his torrid... [More]

PHOENIX (AP) — There isn't a lot new to the Arizona Diamondbacks this spring, with a couple of notable exceptions.J.D. Martinez won't be in the outfield and the Diamondbacks need a closer.Still, there should be plenty of optimism when the team reports to the Scottsdale, Arizona, training facility, with the entire rotation and pretty much every position player returning from the team that won 93 games, earned the top NL Wild Card spot and beat Colorado in the Wild Card game before being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS.The glaring omission from last year's team is Martinez, who probably slugged his way well out of the Diamondbacks' price range with his half-season in Arizona following a trade with Detroit. Martinez is among the many free agents yet to sign a deal.Torey Lovullo, named National League manager of the year for his work in his first season in Arizona, has to determine who his team's closer will be. Fernando Rodney is gone, and an intriguing possibility is for the... [More]

PHOENIX (AP) — There isn't a lot new to the Arizona Diamondbacks this spring, with a couple of notable exceptions.J.D. Martinez won't be in the outfield and the Diamondbacks need a closer.Still, there should be plenty of optimism when the team reports to the Scottsdale, Arizona, training facility, with the entire rotation and pretty much every position player returning from the team that won 93 games, earned the top NL Wild Card spot and beat Colorado in the Wild Card game before being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS.The glaring omission from last year's team is Martinez, who probably slugged his way well out of the Diamondbacks' price range with his half-season in Arizona following a trade with Detroit. Martinez is among the many free agents yet to sign a deal.Lovullo, named National League manager of the year for his work in his first season in Arizona, has to determine who his team's closer will be. Fernando Rodney is gone, and an intriguing possibility is for the team's... [More]

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Kevin Towers was baseball's version of a gunslinger, a seat-of-the-pants, throwback kind of guy who did whatever it took to make the San Diego Padres competitive, almost always with a limited payroll.A former first-round draft pick who blew out his elbow and never pitched in the major leagues, Towers advanced through the Padres' organization and spent 14 years as general manager, a tenure that included four NL West titles and an appearance in the 1998 World Series.Known around baseball simply as KT, Towers died Tuesday morning from complications of .cancer, with his wife, Kelley, at his side. He was 56.Towers was diagnosed with a rare form of thyroid cancer a little more than a year ago.Friend and former agent Barry Axelrod said Towers was admitted to a hospital with fluid on his lungs a few days ago, and friends and family thought he would be able to go home Tuesday."I loved Kevin Towers," said Larry Lucchino, who as Padres chief executive promoted Towers to GM in November... [More]

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Kevin Towers, whose 14-year tenure as general manager of the San Diego Padres included an appearance in the 1998 World Series, has died from complications of cancer. He was 56.Friend and former agent Barry Axelrod said Towers died Tuesday at a hospital. Towers' wife, Kelley, was at his side.Towers was diagnosed with a rare form of thyroid cancer a little more than a year ago.Axelrod said Towers was admitted to a hospital with fluid on his lungs a few days ago, and friends and family members thought he would be able to go home TuesdayAs he spoke last week about being elected to the Hall of Fame, former Padres closer Trevor Hoffman grew emotional when he mentioned Towers' influence on his career.Towers also was general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks for four seasons, including 2011, when they won the NL West title in a 29-game turnaround from their last-place finish the previous year."We lost an important member of our family and someone I personally love dearly," Diamondbacks... [More]

1B Paul Goldschmidt homered in the second game of the NL Division Series, his only hit in 11 at-bats in the series. He finished the regular season in an 0-for-17 skid before going 2-for-5 with a homer in the wild-card victory over Colorado on Wednesday. "I just think he was maybe trying too hard," manager Torey Lovullo said. "The swings were good, just didn't have great results. He had some big home runs in some big moments, but you expect so much from Paul because he is the face of the Arizona Diamondbacks."

1B Paul Goldschmidt is enjoying the opportunity to play in the playoffs again after a six-year drought. Goldschmidt made his major league debut late in the 2011 season and played in 48 games, then got a chance to play in the NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers. He got into four games and had success, hitting .438 (7-for-16) with two homers and six RBIs. Now 30 years old, Goldschmidt is appreciating the opportunity to play in the postseason a little bit more. "I remember the first year, you don't know any better," he said. "It's just the first two months of the big leagues and all of a sudden you're in the playoffs. But I remember a lot of our veteran guys who had been in the big leagues eight, 10 years and they were like, 'Hey, realize how rare this is, how special this is, try to take it in. I did my best, but you can't really appreciate it until you've gone through the ups and downs like the last five, six years have been." Goldschmidt homered in the first inning Saturday in Game 2 of the NLDS against the Dodgers.

1B Paul Goldschmidt was 2-for-5 with a three-run homer on the seventh pitch of the first inning after entering the game in an 0-for-17 skid. He had been 0-for-11 against Rockies RHP Jon Gray. Asked if the plan was to attack Gray early in the count, "not any more than anyone else," he said. "We were just trying to score. We know how good he is. We didn't really have a different game plan. I was just trying to get the runs in or get on base."

There may not be two American League players who differ more standing side-by-side than the Houston Astros' Jose Altuve and the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge.Altuve is a diminutive 5-foot-6. Judge is a giant at 6-7. But when it comes to the AL Most Valuable Player Award, the difference could be measured in angstroms.The members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America are sending in their votes right now for all of the major 2017 awards. There are some that will be, or should be, unanimous picks.How do you not give Judge the AL Rookie of the Year? Same goes in the National League for Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Both were by far at the top of their classes when all was said and done.Below is our take on the deserving winners in each race. AL MVP isn't the only white-knuckler. In the AL, the Cy Young Award race between Boston's Chris Sale and Cleveland's Corey Kluber is tight, too. In the National League, the MVP, Cy Young and Manager of the Year are all worthy of great... [More]

1B Paul Goldschmidt is not finishing the season strong. He batted .175 (14-for-80) with three home runs in September. The five-time National League All-Star's average has dipped to .299, although he has 36 home runs and 120 RBIs.

1B Paul Goldschmidt has hit safely in 21 of his last 25 games. Goldschmidt is 30-for-89 for a .337 average during the stretch.

1B Paul Goldschmidt provided all the Arizona scoring with a two-run home run in Saturday's 2-0 win over the San Francisco Giants. The homer came off Giants LHP Madison Bumgarner and was Goldschmidt's 18th career hit against the San Francisco ace. Only Colorado Rockies RF Carlos Gonzalez (19) has more career hits against Bumgarner.

1B Paul Goldschmidt was 1-for-4 with a homer on his 30th birthday Sunday, his second game back after missing five with right elbow soreness. "I felt like the extension, the follow through, everything he had been working on pre-injury, I saw the same type of swing," manager Torey Lovullo said. "When he barrels up a ball and hits it a long way like that, you know things are going right." Goldschmidt muscled an RBI single over shortstop in five at-bats in his first game back Saturday.

1B Paul Goldschmidt was 1-for-5 with an RBI single in his return to the lineup after missing five games because of right elbow soreness that required a cortisone shot. The Diamondbacks do not foresee any issues as they enter the stretch run. "Paul's been ready," manager Torey Lovullo said. "He passed all the functional texting that we wanted him to pass, so we feel confident knowing that he is going to be OK."

1B Paul Goldschmidt (right elbow) was held out of the lineup for the fifth straight game, although he went through extensive pregame work including batting practice. Manager Torey Lovullo said that after speaking to Goldschmidt before the game, the plan was to use him as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning if the situation arose. That decision was a positive indicator that Goldschmidt might return to the lineup Saturday. "Much improved," Lovullo said. "Today is the best day. Today is better than yesterday. Goldschmidt was given an MRI and a cortisone shot Monday. The MRI showed no structural damage. "Nobody knows how it happened," Lovullo said. "I just think it is the wear and tear of a long season."

1B Paul Goldschmidt did not play again Wednesday after reporting soreness in his right elbow. Goldschmidt had an MRI exam and a cortisone shot in the elbow Tuesday in Arizona, but no structural damage was found and he was diagnosed with inflammation. Manager Torey Lovullo is optimistic that Goldschmidt can play this weekend at home against San Diego.