Pedro Ciriaco

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Full Saturday scoreboard with box scores and recaps for all 15 games

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Pedro Ciriaco, Red Sox: Generally speaking, if you see no. 77 on the field, it's spring training. In this case, though, no. 77 had a night to remember in the heat of July. In the finale of the day-night doubleheader against the Yankees, Ciriaco, the 26-year-old rookie who was cut loose by the Pirates this past winter, went 4-for-5 at the plate with a pair of doubles, two RBI, and a stolen base. For the first time in years, the Fenway faithful were chanting "Ped-ro! Ped-ro!"

James McDonald, Pirates: The Pittsburgh ace, in his final start of the first half, dominated the Giants on Saturday. In 7.0 innings, McDonald struck out 10, walked none and gave up only one run on four hits, all singles. Of the 24 batters McDonald faced, 17 either whiffed or grounded out, and his ERA for the season now stands at 2.37. Oh, and not since Jason Schmidt back in 1996 has a Pirate hurler struck out 10 or more without walking a batter.

Andruw Jones, Yankees: In that aforementioned Fenway doubleheader, Jones went a combined 3-for-9, and each of those three hits was a home run. The first two came in the first tilt, and that made for Jones's 43rd career multi-homer game. By the end of the night, Jones had added 65 points to his slugging percentage.

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Matt Moore, Rays: Tampa Bay's gifted rookie left-hander continues to struggle with his control. Against the Indians on Saturday, Moore walked five batters in 4.2 innings, and of his 96 pitches on the day just 54 went for strikes. In the second and third innings, Cleveland hitters rapped him for five doubles. Moore's now walked 50 batters in 99.2 innings this season.

Phillies' 1-2-3 hitters: The team that won 102 games a season ago has dropped to 12 games below .500. The main offender on Saturday was the top of the order. The 1-2-3 hitters in the lineup -- Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Chase Utley -- combined to go 0-for-12 with five strikeouts, zero walks, three runners left on base, and a GIDP. The Phils are now 14.0 games behind the first-place Nationals.

Bruce Chen, Royals: Kansas City mounted a ninth-inning rally against the Tigers on Saturday, but they ultimately came up a run short. That's largely because starter Bruce Chen buried them in the early innings. Chen was staked a 2-0 lead before he even took the mound, but a Prince Fielder homer tied the score in the first. Chen went on to allow six runs on nine hits in just 3.1 innings of work.


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Ryan's return: On Sunday, Cubs ace Ryan Dempster will return to the mound for the first time since suffering a lat strain back in mid June. Demspter boasts a 2.11 ERA on the season, and, so long as he stays healthy, he figures to be one of the most coveted names leading up to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. He'll oppose the Mets' Jon Niese, who's reeled off three straight quality starts. 1:10 pm ET

Timmy time: The back-and-forth (but mostly back) season of Tim Lincecum soldiers on. The two-time Cy Young winner had shown improvement until his last start, when he coughed up a career-high eight runs to the Nationals. Lincecum carries a 2012 road ERA of 8.45 into Pittsburgh, where he'll oppose Comeback-Player-of-the-Year candidate A.J. Burnett. 1:35 pm ET

Roy redux: Roy Oswalt's first three starts as a Ranger have yielded one gem, one rough outing and one disaster. What will start number-four bring? Oswalt faces the Twins on Sunday and will attempt to send the suddenly struggling Rangers into the break on a high note. 7:05 pm ET

Sunday probables for all games

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• Alexei's inspiration: If White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez seems to be playing with a bit more purpose lately, there's a reason: After five long years, the Cuban defector has finally been reunited with his parents. "When I saw them," Ramirez said, "there was just a lot of crying and a lot of hugging. It was a lot of love. It was great." MLB.com notes that Ramirez's parents will live with him in Chicago during the season and with him in Florida during the winter.

• Kerry on 20 Ks: The recently retired Kerry Wood speaks candidly about his legendary 20-strikeout performance back in 1998. Most interestingly, Wood admits he "felt something" in his elbow after the final pitch of the game. [CSNChicago.com]

• For Nick: While Baltimore's Miguel Gonzalez was taming the Angels on Friday night, he had an old teammate on his mind. Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times has the story of how Gonzalez paid tribute to the late Nick Adenhart.

• Introducing "Project 83F": What's Project 83F? It's the whimsical quest of one man, Scott Mortimer, to get every one of his 1983 Fleer baseball cards autographed -- all 660 of them. Mortimer's search has led him to cross paths with the players he watched play back when he was just 12 years old. “Biff Pocoroba — what a great name,” Mortimer said. “You know what he does now? He owns a sausage company.” [New York Times]

• Kemp's open wallet: While it's longstanding tradition for a rehabbing major-leaguer to buy dinner for his minor-league teammates, what Matt Kemp's been doing goes beyond even that. [San Bernardino Sun]

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