Bats

TEMPE, Ariz. — This was not the career trajectory or the route into Tempe Diablo Stadium that Brandon Wood and the Angels had in mind a few years ago. A first-round pick in 2003, rated by Baseball America as the game's third-best prospect in 2006, Wood was handed the Angels' third base job coming out of spring training in 2010 and fumbled it away amid a flurry of strikeouts, popups and weak grounders. Wood was released last April, claimed by Pittsburgh and released after hitting .220 in 99 games for the Pirates.

PHOENIX — Those were quite the exciting games Tuesday, two rowdy Arizona crowds on the edge of their seats and at the top of their lungs in creating a hostile environment for the visiting team from Los Angeles. Beat L.A.? Maybe another year. The NHL's Coyotes? Done, thanks to the Kings. The Diamondbacks? They might be just about done, thanks to the Dodgers, and to an increasingly unlikely cast of characters. "I've got to go clean my hair now," Ivan De Jesus said.

Some of the highs and lows of watching Dodgers-Phillies Game 3: Say Hey "Beat L.A., beat L.A., beat L.A." That's the first thing you heard as TBS began its coverage. Don't Philadelphia fans realize that's a Boston Celtics thing? And Philly fans hate Celtic fans. Say what? Chip Caray, on the play-by-play, said Shane Victorino "Helicopters his way" to the Phillie dugout after a strikeout. It was the second time Caray used "helicopter" as a verb. Weird. Replay this The TBS pitch sequence of Cliff Lee retiring Manny Ramirez in the top of the seventh.

SAN DIEGO - After six seasons in the minor leagues, Jim Eppard finally got the call to the Angels. In his first major league at-bat, on Sept. 8, 1987, he singled - off current Angels broadcaster Mark Gubicza. In his second at-bat, two days later, he singled again. Two hits, two at-bats, each as a pinch-hitter. This Eppard kid might have a pretty good future. Or, as it turned out, he might not. Eppard - who replaced Mickey Hatcher, the Angels' hitting instructor who was let go Tuesday - finished his brief major league career with 139 at-bats.

Truck driver Wang Yonggang has never seen a baseball game or sung "Take Me Out to the Ballgame. " He couldn't explain a sacrifice bunt. But Wang's got a good eye for bats. His is a lightweight aluminum model with a long barrel and a sticky rubber grip. He treasures his Chinese-made club so much that he keeps it tucked under the seat of his rig. "I need it for protection," said Wang, 32, a native of Inner Mongolia who hauls heavy equipment across busy northeast highways stalked by thugs looking to steal loads and siphon fuel.

"Different Like Coco" Elizabeth Matthews Coco Chanel was born poor and skinny in France. Her family lives in a one bedroom home. She loves to be fashionable. Her mother dies when Coco is 12. She is sent to an orphanage. When Coco is in the orphanage, she makes a lot of doll clothes. When Coco is 21, she falls in love with a man named Arthur. He gives her a little shop in Paris. Read this book to find out how Coco Chanel becomes famous. Reviewed by Diana, 12 R.D. White Elementary Glendale "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase" Carolyn Keene This book is about a girl named Nancy Drew.

Runs have been hard to come by for the Red Sox in the American League division series. Although Boston was third in the majors in scoring during the regular season, it took the Red Sox 13 innings to get on the scoreboard against the Angels. And that one, lonely fourth-inning run Friday is all they've gotten in the series. In fact, through two games the Red Sox have just two extra-base hits and as many strikeouts (13) as baserunners. Kevin Youkilis , second in the American League with a .413 on-base percentage during the summer, has been on base once in this series.

The concerns that existed in spring training about whether Andre Ethier would continue to let his temper get the better of him are something of the past. "To me, I think, last year, he let a bad at-bat sort of affect his other at-bats," Manager Joe Torre said. "I don't see that this year." What Torre is seeing from his starting right fielder is increased production. Ethier is hitting .327 with six home runs and 26 runs batted in.

Bats sometimes look like flying rodents with sharp, scary teeth. "In most photos, bats have their mouths open because they're using their sonar, trying to figure out who's in front of them with that camera," says Margaret Griffiths, a biology professor at Illinois Wesleyan University and organizer of a four-day bat summit that starts Wednesday in Salt Lake City.

Torii Hunter did not object to being moved from the cleanup spot, where he has spent most of this season, to the second spot, a slot he hadn't started in since he was a 23-year-old rookie with the Minnesota Twins in 1999. "What's the worst that can happen?" Hunter said Wednesday before the Angels' game against the Tampa Bay Rays. "The last four days were the worst. " The Angels had lost four straight and six of seven games entering Wednesday, scoring 13 runs and hitting .190 with runners in scoring position in the seven games.

Shortstop Dee Gordon was out of the Dodgers lineup Saturday. He probably won't be in the lineup for the next couple of days, either. Manager Don Mattingly figures that sitting Gordon for a few days could help the 24-year-old leadoff hitter slow down the game mentally and catch his breath. Gordon, who is in his first full season as the everyday shortstop, was the only starting position player to not reach base in a 6-5 victory over theSt. Louis Cardinalson Friday.

One problem with talk about the A's relocating is there is no obvious market for MLB to move into. Charlotte and Las Vegas are possibilities but the most viable is probably Portland. There's less talk about a third New York team with the Mets sorting through financial difficulties ? Miguel Cabrera was expected to be a monster with Prince Fielder behind him but has inexplicably expanded his strike zone. He recently went 17 games in a row without a walk, the longest stretch of his career ?

Mike Scioscia might be perceived as more old school than computer geek, but the Angels manager does study in-depth batting statistics. "Some of the stuff is very good, and it can help you slot and match guys up," Scioscia said. Scioscia moved second baseman Howie Kendrick from second to sixth in the batting order April 30, and the second baseman has batted .333 in the spot since. The oddity of Kendrick's 26-point leap in batting average was that he went without a run batted in from May 3 until Wednesday.

Less than two weeks after being released by the Angels, Bobby Abreu is making his presence felt with the Dodgers. The 38-year-old outfielder entered Tuesday batting .296 (eight for 27) since joining the Dodgers on May 4, with four doubles and four runs batted in. That included a bases-clearing double that helped lead the Dodgers to an 11-5 win over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday. "I feel comfortable at the plate, no problems, and I've been swinging the bat OK," said Abreu, a left-handed batter.

Back when Matt Kemp was hitting the ball the way Josh Hamilton is now, Manager Don Mattingly said the day would come when the Dodgers would have to find new methods to score runs. That day has come and the Dodgers have. Kemp is hitless in the Dodgers' last three games, but the team has won each of them, the latest a 2-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night. The Dodgers improved to a major league-best 22-11, including 14-3 at home, and remained six games in front of the second-place San Francisco Giants in the National League West.

Dodgers first baseman James Loney is off to another slow start. Loney went into Tuesday's game batting .198 and was hitless in his last 13 at-bats. Manager Don Mattingly said that if Loney doesn't start hitting, his playing time could be cut. "To me, we're getting to the point where it's just a production thing," Mattingly said. "You have to throw up some numbers out there somehow, some way. ... We have to find production from him. It's kind of that simple now. " The Dodgers have more lineup flexibility than they did a year ago, when Mattingly had no other viable options at first base outside of Loney.

Reporting from Boston — Angels Manager Mike Scioscia has seen this act before. And he didn't like it very much the first time. But, basically, it goes like this: His Angels pitch really well, don't score much and lose a lot of games. It happened last year, when the Angels put up their worst offensive numbers in nearly two decades and missed the playoffs. And it's happening again this season. After Tuesday's 7-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox, the Angels are on pace to score even fewer runs than last season while leading the American League in strikeouts.

In a situation akin to finding a great new restaurant by being attracted to the satisfied sounds of happy customers, a new study shows that fringe-lipped bats can quickly learn to eat new prey by listening to neighbor bats eat. The bats learn to associate a new frog call with food by listening to "tutor bats" that have already made this association, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology.

The Angels' Albert Pujols ended his career-long home-run drought Sunday, cracking a two-run home run into the Angels bullpen in left field in the fifth inning of Sunday's game with the Toronto Blue Jays at Angel Stadium. The home run came on a 2-2 pitch from Toronto right-hander Drew Hutchison. The crowd, which had booed Pujols when he struck out an inning earlier, came to its feet and gave the slugger a long, loud ovation, but Pujols did not acknowledge that with a curtain call.

Albert Pujols has hit 446 home runs in a career that is certain to end in the Hall of Fame. But it's unlikely many felt better than the one he hit in the fifth inning Sunday at Angel Stadium. Because not only did the two-run shot account for the deciding runs in a 4-3 Angels win over the Toronto Blue Jays, silencing the boos from a fickle crowd of 37,548, but it was also Pujols' first home run as an Angel, ending a career-long drought at 27 games and 110 at-bats. "It's a relief for him. And I'm pretty sure it's a relief for us," teammate Torii Hunter said of a slump that was threatening to consume Pujols and the Angels.