Sunday, September 21, 2008

Just when the AL West champion Angels were returning to health, 16-game winner Joe Saunders was hospitalized Friday night with a kidney stone.

The left-hander is still scheduled to start Tuesday night at Seattle.

"Right now [making the next start] is a little bit of a question," Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. "We'll see how he comes out of it. He was doubled over last night and had to go to the hospital."

PETTITTE GETS NOD: Andy Pettitte has pitched some of the most important games at Yankee Stadium over the past 14 years, so it's fitting that he'll start for New York in what shapes up as the ballpark's grand finale.

How will this assignment stack up with all those playoff and World Series appearances in pinstripes?

"It's going to be right there, it really is," Pettitte said yesterday. "The Yankees wanting me to pitch that last game, that means an awful lot to me. I'm just extremely excited to be able to do it and it's just going to be a special night for me."

Barring an incredible charge to the postseason, New York will be playing its final game at the 85-year-old ballpark before a sellout crowd and a national television audience. The Yankees are on target to move next season into a $1.3 billion palace rising across the street.

TWO RANGERS EJECTED: Second baseman Ramón Vázquez and Manager Ron Washington were ejected in the seventh inning of Texas's game last night against the Los Angeles Angels for arguing a called third strike against Rangers SS German Duran.

Duran struck out on three pitches by Angels RHP Justin Speier, and Vázquez began yelling at home plate umpire Tom Hallion from the dugout. Vázquez had fanned swinging as a pinch hitter in the sixth, with the first two strikes called on borderline pitches.

Hallion ejected Vázquez, who sprinted from the dugout to protest. Washington also ran onto the field to restrain Vázquez, but Washington began arguing with Hallion and was tossed for the fifth time this season.

-- From News Services