Will Venable at bat.
Footage from the 2007 Arizona Fall League.
Young to miss Philadelphia start.
MLB.com is reporting that Chris Young flew to San Diego today to see a specialist about the tightness he is experiencing in his lower back. Young has been scratched from Sunday's scheduled start in Philadelphia.
Mets 7 Padres 6.
A cold night had a bitter end.
Luis Castillo's single up the middle capped a two run Mets rally off of San Diego Padres closer Trevor Hoffman in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving New York their fourth straight victory, 7-6.
Hoffman threw just 11 pitches and retired only one batter he faced - Mike DiFelice - who sacrificed Lasting Milledge to second base after the Mets' right fielder led off the final frame with a single to left.
San Diego had scored a run of their own in the top of the inning off Mets closer Billy Wagner, providing the Padres with a short-lived 6-5 lead.
Before these dramatics, former Princeton basketball center Chris Young pitched five difficult innings, battling the elements, a previously undisclosed injury and a red-hot Carlos Beltran.
On a misty, wet August night with temperatures nose-diving into the 50s, in front of a one-third full Shea Stadium, Young struggled to find the strike zone early. Luis Castillo walked on five pitches with one out in the first, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved over to third on a balk when Young lost the ball out of his throwing hand as he began his windup.
Carlos Beltran sliced Young's 1-0 offering the opposite way and over the left field wall for Beltran's third home run in as many consecutive at-bats. The 375-foot shot was the fifth home run Young has allowed this year and the 26th round tripper of Beltran's season.
In his first at bat, leading off the top of the third, Young watched three pitches go past without taking his bat off his shoulder before singling hard to left center. Young came around to score on Milton Bradley's single to right. The Padres would leave the bases loaded and San Diego trailed 2-1 heading into the bottom of the third.
Mets starter John Maine equaled Young's plate appearance, singling softly to left past short on a 0-2 pitch. Maine moved to second when Young walked Luis Castillo on four pitches and Beltran struck for a second time with two outs, a laser beam of a double to right which made the score 4-1 Mets.
While his speed wasn't where he wanted it to be, Young's control improved as the game wore on.
Moises Alou hit a broken bat single to left leading off the fourth, but Young retired the next three Mets, striking out Mike DiFelice and John Maine to end the inning.
To start bottom of the fifth, Jose Reyes was fooled by an 0-2 curveball for a strikeout. Castillo popped out to short and David Wright flew out to right fielder Brian Giles in foul territory. Young was through five innings using just 64 pitches.
With the steady drizzle that had fallen since morning finally over, San Diego put up two runs in the top of the sixth. Mike Cameron lead off with a loud home run to left, his 16th of the year. Josh Bard doubled into the right field corner with two outs and Marcus Giles, pinch hitting for Chris Young, tripled Bard home when Alou misjudged a sinking line drive in left. This sent John Maine to the showers, 118 pitches after his night began.
In his office after the game, Manager Bud Black revealed Young left with "lower back tightness" after the fifth inning. This tightness is believed to be related to Young's sprained left oblique muscle that sent him to the disabled list in July. Young said his back began to give him problems after his start versus St. Louis on August 9th.
The Padres moved in front for the first time with two runs in the seventh. Mike Cameron doubled home Adrian Gonzalez to take Young off the hook for the loss and Khalil Greene put San Diego up 5-4 with a single to center.
Carlos Beltran tied the score in the bottom of the eighth with an opposite-field single off Heath Bell for his fifth RBI.
A frustrated Young spoke briefly following the game about this new injury and the effect it has had on his velocity. Young admitted that instead of throwing pitches in the 88-91 mph range, he has been only reaching 84-88 on the radar gun with his fastball and his pitches have been lacking life. "My body's not letting me go 100%," Young said.
Young's back will be reevaluated later this week. His status for Sunday's scheduled start in Philadelphia is undetermined.
Chris Young, All-Star.
America has voted, and Chris Young has been elected to the 2007 National League All-Star Team!
Young received over 4.5 million votes, the most of any Final Vote candidate in the five years fans have decided the final slot on the All-Star roster. Congratulations to Chris on this well-deserved honor.
The All-Star game is Tuesday night in San Francisco.
Vote for Chris Young!
For the second straight year, Chris Young needs your vote to make this year's Major League Baseball All-Star team. While Chris Young was not named by manager Tony La Russa as one of the first 31 members of the 2007 National League All-Star Team (despite again having better numbers across the board than other starting pitchers selected), he was named one of five finalists for the 2007 NL Final Vote.
Since 2002 fans at mlb.com have decided the final member of each league's roster through Final Vote. Young is up against four other pitchers for the 32nd slot on the senior circuit roster.
You can vote for Chris Young via text message or Internet. You can vote from right now until 6:00 pm ET on Thursday.
There appears to be no limit on how many times you can vote. Why vote just once?
Here is all you have to do...
1. Go here.
2. Click on "Cast Your Final Vote."
3. Select Chris Young.
4. Repeat as often as you can between now and Thursday at 6:00 pm ET.
5. Tell other people who might vote for Chris Young.
Chris Young snubbed.
Jack Dempsey/AP
Despite statistics that paint a significantly different picture, former Princeton basketball center and San Diego Padres starting pitcher Chris Young was not named to the 2007 National League All-Star team this evening.
Young is in the top three in the National League in nearly every important pitching statistic:
1st in Hits Per Nine Innings (6.42).
1st in Opponent Batting Average (.197).
2nd in Walks/Hits Per Innings Pitched (1.09).
2nd in Slugging (.280).
2nd in On-Base Against (.277).
3rd in ERA (2.14).
His numbers as a starting pitcher are stronger than those of All-Star selections Cole Hamels and John Smoltz. Compare them yourself, then shake your head.
Saturday News:
Chris Young on top of the hill for San Diego tonight at 10:05 pm ET, trying to match Jake Peavy's ace performance from one night previous. The Padres are looking to win their series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Will Venable moves to the six hole for the Missions, going 2-4 with his third stolen base as San Antonio defeats Midland 6-1. Venable was also 1-4 in the Missions' 6-4 loss to Midland on Thursday.
Anyone hear Denver coach Joe Scott in the booth for two innings during the Colorado Rockies game on Thursday?
Tuesday News:
C. Young (4-2) - 6.0 IP 2 H 2 ER 2 BB 8 K 3.29 ERA. 104 pitches, 66 strikes.
Chris Young slowed down the Atlanta Braves for six frames on Monday night and was followed by three near-perfect innings from the Padres bullpen that helped San Diego to a 4-2 victory in the first game of this four game series. Young also walked twice, was hit by a pitch and scored a run. Young was able to stymie Atlanta, something he could not do in 2006.
Braves reliever Chad Paronto hit Young on his left leg with a pitch in the sixth, one inning after Young hit Jeff Francoeur. Plate umpire Jim Joyce warned both benches.
"That's just part of the game," Young said. "It's a lot better than hitting one of our position players."
Corpus Christi scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to grab an 8-5 win over San Antonio. Will Venable was 0-4 in the game.
Wednesday News:
C. Young (3-2) - 8.0 IP 3 H 0 ER 3 BB 8 K 3.34 ERA. 106 pitches, 64 strikes.
A superb performance for Chris Young last night, shutting out the Nationals on three hits over eight innings. Young has pitched 15 frames in his home park this season without giving up an earned run.
"I knew I had to be sharp tonight. This is a good hitting team, and I was just trying to execute good pitches," said Young. "I just made enough good pitches. Overall, it's a good win for the guys -- bouncing back from last night."
The Daily Princetonian has an article about Will Venable's success in the minor leagues, and Venable backed up his press with two more hits and two runs scored as San Antonio used a nine run sixth inning to defeat Frisco 14-6.
Sunday News:
Around the newswire today...
Tune to ESPN tonight at 8:05 pm ET as Chris Young takes the mound in Los Angeles for the San Diego Padres. In this evening's game versus the Dodgers Young will be attempting to become the first pitcher to make 26 road starts in a row without a loss.
"Had I lost one of those starts between now and then, we wouldn't be talking about it," Young said. "I really attribute a lot of it to luck. I've had a lot of games where I pitched poorly and came [out] with a no-decision or even a win."
In Texas, Will Venable went 2-3 in a 10-3 Missions victory to raise his average to .360 on the season.
1981 Penn / Princeton playoff.
The final few seconds of Princeton's 54-40 playoff win over Penn to claim the Ivy League's NCAA tournament spot.
Is that an off-the-backboard alley oop at the final buzzer?!
Princeton (54): Melville 3-6 7-9 13, Robinson 7-10 0-0 14, Simkus 5-7 1-3 11, Mills 2-6 2-3 6, Ryan 3-3 4-7 10, Christel 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 20-32 14-22 54.
Pennsylvania (40): Lardner 3-9 0-0 6, Brown 4-6 0-4 8, Noon 3-6 1-2 7, Reynolds 0-2 0-0 0, Hall 5-11 1-1 11, May 0-0 0-0 0, Little 0-4 2-2 2, Oliphant 1-2 0-0 2, Ross 0-0 0-0 0, McCaffrey 1-2 0-0 2, Rawlings 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 18-43 4-9 40.
Halftime: Princeton, 24-13. Fouls: Princeton 13, Pennsylvania 24. Fouled Out: Little, McCaffrey. Rebounds: Princeton 13 (Simkus & Ryan 4), Pennsylvania 30 (Brown & Little 9). Assists: Princeton 12 (Ryan 5), Pennsylvania 12 (McCaffrey 5). Turnovers: Princeton 12, Pennsylvania 21. Attendance: 4,000.
Chris Young blogs from Japan.
Chris Young is keeping a daily blog about his trip to the Pacific Rim for the Japan All-Star Series. You can follow his adventures here. Young will most likely start for the Major League Baseball All-Stars on either 11/7 in Osaka or 11/8 in Fukuoka. Both games start at 4:00 am ET.
The second half of 2006 has been a period of strong Japan/Princeton basketball synergy, with Mason Rocca's visit for the FIBA World Basketball Championships, Coach Thompson's trip as part of "Operation Hardwood III," Chris Young's journey and my parents' vacation all happening in the last three months.
