St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols sets major league assists record

Pujols

ST. LOUIS -- Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals has set the major league record for assists by a first baseman, getting his 185th of the year in the regular-season finale loss against Milwaukee.

Pujols topped the record set by Boston's Bill Buckner in 1985, flipping to pitcher Joel Pineiro covering the bag on Jody Gerut's groundout leading off the fifth. He earlier eclipsed the National League record of 180 assists by Mark Grace of the Cubs in 1990.

Pujols, a Gold Glove winner in 2006, received a long standing ovation after the Cardinals announced the achievement on a scoreboard. He tipped his cap twice while the Brewers' Ryan Braun stepped out of the batter's box to allow Pujols his due.

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Bronson Arroyo of Cincinnati Reds decides against surgery on wrist

CINCINNATI -- Reds right-hander Bronson Arroyo has decided against surgery on his right wrist for the carpal tunnel syndrome that has nagged him for years but improved this season when he gave up playing the guitar.

"I'm going to wait it out for another year," Arroyo said Sunday. "I feel too good throwing the ball now."

Arroyo

He led the Reds with 15 wins this season and had a 3.84 ERA that was best in the rotation. Arroyo pitched a team-high 220 1/3 innings despite the problem, which flared up during spring training.

Arroyo gave up playing the guitar during the season, and the weakness in his hand subsided. He plans to resume playing during the offseason, then give it up again when next season approaches.

"I'm going to try to make it through another year without doing guitar," he said.

The 32-year-old pitcher loves to play guitar and sing. He plans to play at the Reds' winter festival again, but doesn't have any other appearances scheduled at this time. Usually, he makes several in the offseason.

Arroyo has one more season left on his contract, which was extended before the 2007 season. He'll get a base salary of $11 million next year, then could become a free agent, which figured in his decision to put off risky surgery on the wrist. The contract includes a club option for 2011 at $13 million, but the Reds could buy it out for $2 million.

Arroyo's wrist problems came at the start of a Reds season that was scuttled by injuries. Manager Dusty Baker gave him extra rest during spring training to treat the problem bothering his pitching hand. He avoided the disabled list and got better as the season went along.

Nineteen Reds spent time on the disabled list, including the other four starting pitchers -- Aaron Harang, Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto and Micah Owings. Every starting position player except second baseman Brandon Phillips went on the disabled list at some point.

The Reds completed their ninth straight losing season on Sunday, their longest such slump in a half-century.

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Mystery surrounds cut, bruise on face of Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera

DETROIT -- Tigers star Miguel Cabrera says he's focusing only on the final scheduled game of the season when asked about a bruise and cut on his left cheek.

Cabrera

Cabrera declined to say Sunday why his face took the brunt of something between Friday and Saturday's games against the Chicago White Sox.

Detroit general manager Dave Dombrowski discussed the matter with Cabrera, adding it was a personal situation and he couldn't discuss it further publicly.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland says he did not know anything about the reason for Cabrera's injury, saying it was his job to focus on players on the field.

Detroit started Sunday in a first-place tie with the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central. If they finished the day tied, Minnesota would host a tiebreaker on Tuesday.

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New York Yankees put Joba Chamberlain in bullpen for finale, maybe 1st round of playoffs too

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain is scheduled to work in relief Sunday and appears headed to the bullpen for the first round of the playoffs.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Saturday that Chamberlain will pitch an inning or face a couple batters in the regular-season finale against Tampa Bay. Girardi said Chamberlain is "in the mix" for a bullpen spot for the opening round.

"I think it can give you a better idea of what you're going to get," Girardi said. "We'd use him as we saw fit. From day to day it could change."

Chamberlain went 9-6 with a 4.78 ERA in 31 starts. His workload was limited and he wound pitching in 156 1-3 innings.

The right-hander made his major league-debut in 2007 as the setup man for closer Mariano Rivera, posting an 0.38 ERA over 19 games. Chamberlain started last season in the bullpen before joining the rotation on June 3.

"It's not something new, so I have plan on what I need to do to get ready because I've done it before," Chamberlain said. "That's the advantage that I have. Just come to the ballpark, have the idea you're probably going to pitch in a game and go from there."

When asked if Sunday might be an audition for the postseason, Chamberlain said, "There's always somebody wanting to take your job, and that's the great part of this team, we push each other so much."

"That's something I look forward to," he said.

The Yankees will likely need just three starters for the divisional series. CC Sabathia will start the opener for the AL East champions. Andy Pettitte and A.J. Burnett will pitch the next two games, although it hasn't been determined in which order.

Girardi said the first-round opponent will be one factor in the Game 2 and 3 starter. The earliest the team will find its opposition will be Sunday because Detroit and Minnesota, one of which will face the Yankees, remain in a tight race for the AL Central championship.

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CC Sabathia goes for 20th win for New York Yankees on Friday night

NEW YORK -- Three days before his first spring training start for the New York Yankees, CC Sabathia already was having a big man's impact on those buttoned-down pinstripes.

Having just joined the Yankees as a free agent during the offseason, the left-hander made the trek from the team's camp in Tampa, Fla., over to Orlando, taking Joba Chamberlain and Chien-Ming Wang along to watch the Magic beat the Phoenix Suns and Shaquille O'Neal.

Sabathia

His contribution to the Yankees can't be overstated, bigger than his size 15 spikes and size 42 baseball pants.

"I think what he's done off the field has been really beneficial for our team," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "I think he's been one of those guys that has helped the clubhouse, I do, because of his fun-loving nature."

Sabathia obviously has made a huge difference on the field, too, in his initial season with New York. He can reach 20 wins for the first time in his career when he makes his final regular-season start Friday night at Tampa Bay.

"Right now, to be honest with you, that's kind of the last thing on my mind. I just want to get ready to pitch on Wednesday," he said, looking ahead to New York's playoff opener next week against Detroit or Minnesota. "I mean, it would be great to win 20. I guess looking back one day, I'll be like, `Oh, it was great. I won 20 games one year.' But it's not like a crazy goal or anything."

He is baseball's Clarence Clemons, cool and collected in large, loose clothes. And he's given the Yankees something they haven't had since Roger Clemens -- a dominant, overpowering ace.

"It seems like he gets stronger and stronger every time out," Yankees captain Derek Jeter said.

Many free agents, especially pitchers, have flopped following their big-money deals, especially after first joining new teams.

Sabathia couldn't exactly glide in under the radar after getting a $161 million, seven-year contract, but he didn't have to endure the brunt of the attention because of a $423.5 million offseason spending spree by the Yankees that also bought them pitcher A.J. Burnett and first baseman Mark Teixeira. In addition, hyperkenetic right fielder Nick Swisher was acquired in a trade, adding not only another bat but loud music to the clubhouse.

"Not just being the only guy coming in this year definitely helped," Sabathia said. "Having those guys to lean on and, you know, those guys going through the same kind of pressured-type situations early in the year."

New York has had a slightly different demeanor this year, starting with Girardi's decision to skip a Feb. 23 workout in favor of a team pool tournament at Tampa's Peabody's Billiards. Sabathia took Alex Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera to a May 28 playoff game between the Magic and Cavaliers in Cleveland.

"I just like to hang out with the guys," Sabathia said. "We're together so much here at the stadium, it's fun to hang out with these guys off the field, go to basketball games, go to movies, go to dinner. ... It's just kind of my personality now and who I am as a baseball player."

Players gravitate to the 29-year-old left-hander. He is 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA, matching his high for wins set when he had the same record for Cleveland two years ago.

Sabathia (227 1/3 innings) is set to become the first Yankees pitcher to throw 230 innings since Andy Pettitte in 1997. While 20 wins hasn't been a concern, he long had hoped to grow into the type of ace a team depends on.

"I wanted to be that guy so much, and it took a toll on me," Sabathia said. "It was really tough, you know, 23 years old, trying to be, you know, trying to be that guy. But you know, now being older and understanding what you need to do to be successful, it's not that big a deal."

Last year, on the final day of the season, the Yankees' Mike Mussina became the oldest pitcher to win 20 games for the first time. Then he retired.

Sabathia has far bigger dreams. He'd like to reverse the 2-3 postseason record he compiled with the Indians and Milwaukee Brewers. He wants to earn a World Series ring.

But Girardi thinks that 20 wins, at some level, is a goal, too.

"I think it's important to him," the manager said. "I think that's a benchmark for a player, a great pitcher."

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Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo denies St. Louis Cardinals' cheating charge

CINCINNATI -- Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo has denied accusations by the St. Louis Cardinals that he used pine tar to get better grips on pitches.

St. Louis manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan both told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the stain on the bill of Arroyo's cap was pine tar that helped him grip balls during a 6-1 victory Wednesday. Cardinals starter John Smoltz found balls slippery and walked five in four innings.

Duncan said umpires assured him balls were properly rubbed. New baseballs are rubbed by clubhouse attendants with a special mud designed to give pitchers a better grip.

Arroyo said the stain on his cap is residue from mud used to rub baseballs at other ballparks.

"It's from playing in every other park where there's so much mud on the balls that that black stuff comes off on young fingers every time," Arroyo said. "I guess [Duncan] said I went to my hat time after time. Yeah, I do 8,000 other twitches. What you want me to do about it? That's how I pitch.

"I guarantee when I pitch against the Cardinals next year, I'll call over and tell Dave Duncan I'm wearing a brand new hat."

Reds manager Dusty Baker said the Cardinals have their own experience with doctored caps.

"If anybody should know, it would be Duncan," Baker said. "I remember they had Julian Tavarez over there. They threw his hat out, remember that? His hat was all messed up. It's not like it's something new."

Tavarez, then with the Cardinals, was suspended for eight days by Major League Baseball in 2004 for applying a foreign substance to balls during a game against Pittsburgh that Aug. 24.

Arroyo (15-13) finished with 12 consecutive starts in which he went at least seven innings while allowing no more than three earned runs. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first Reds pitcher since at least 1900 to put together such a streak and only the fourth overall in the last 20 years, joining Greg Maddux (12 straight for the Cubs in 1992), Randy Johnson (14 for Arizona in 1999) and Curt Schilling (12 for Arizona in 2002).

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San Francisco Giants infielder Freddy Sanchez has surgery on knee

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco Giants second baseman Freddy Sanchez has had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

Sanchez

The operation was performed in San Francisco on Wednesday by team orthopedist Dr. Ken Akizuki.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy said the surgery went as expected and that Sanchez should be ready for spring training

Sanchez, who was acquired by San Francisco in a trade with Pittsburgh on July 30, sustained the non-contact injury in the first inning of the Giants' 5-4 win over the Diamondbacks on Sept. 21. He was helped off the field immediately after Mark Reynolds of the Diamondbacks hit a two-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the inning.

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