DALLAS — The Los Angeles Dodgers are nearing a deal with pitcher Aaron Harang and have agreed to a $6 million, two-year contract with utilityman Jerry Hairston Jr.

Harang, a 32-year-old right-hander, was 14-7 with a 3.64 ERA last season, his first with the San Diego Padres. He made $3.5 million, and the Padres paid $500,000 to void a $5 million player option he had exercised.

In a big league career that has included stops in Oakland (2002-03) and Cincinnati (2003-10), Harang is 95-94 with a 4.25 ERA.

Hairston hit .274 with one homer and seven RBIs this year to help the Milwaukee Brewers reach the NL championship series. He gets $2.25 million next year and $3.75 million in 2013.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

DALLAS (AP)—The Los Angeles Dodgers are nearing a deal with pitcher Aaron
Harang(notes) and have agreed to a $6 million, two-year contract with utilityman Jerry
Hairston Jr.(notes)

Harang, a 32-year-old right-hander, was 14-7 with a 3.64 ERA last season,
his first with the San Diego Padres. He made $3.5 million, and the Padres paid
$500,000 to void a $5 million player option he had exercised.

In a big league career that has included stops in Oakland (2002-03) and
Cincinnati (2003-10), Harang is 95-94 with a 4.25 ERA.

Hairston hit .274 with one homer and seven RBIs this year to help the
Milwaukee Brewers reach the NL championship series. He gets $2.25 million next
year and $3.75 million in 2013.

Ryan Ludwick thought Ian Desmond made a great play. Desmond didn’t think so at all.
The not-so-great play was a grounder Ludwick hit up the middle that scored the winning run for the San Diego Padres as the Washington Nationals lost their ninth of 11 games, 5-4 to San Diego.
With Drew Storen (4-2) on the mound, Jorge Cantu doubled with one out. After Jason Bartlett grounded to third, Ludwick’s grounder hit off Desmond’s glove, and his throw home was not in time to beat Cantu.
“I knew it was in. I didn’t think he was going to get to it. I thought he did a great job getting a glove on it,” Ludwick said.
Desmond respectfully disagreed.
“I don’t really know why it was great. The guy scored — and we lost the game. It wasn’t very great to me,” Desmond said.
“This isn’t going to cut it.”
The Nationals scored a franchise-record 17 runs against Baltimore on May 20, and since then they’ve gone 1-7 and scored more than four runs just once. Their batting average is a horrifying .229 — second-worst in baseball — and they dropped two of three to the only team with a worse average — .227.
“It’s unbelievable. We have to do something different,” Desmond said.
“There’s no other word to say besides frustrating. I don’t know what’s going on. We’ve got to find what’s in ourselves. We’ve got to do something.”
Washington was just 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
“We had some good luck and we just couldn’t take advantage of it,” manager Jim Riggleman said.
It was the first time San Diego scored more than three runs in 11 games.
Luke Gregerson (2-1), the third Padres pitcher, pitched two scoreless innings for the win. Heath Bell worked the ninth for his 12th save in 13 chances.
The first two games of the series featured little offense. Both games ended 2-1, with each team winning one. On Sunday, the teams, which combined for 19 hits in the first two games, had 21.
“I trust our hitters. It’s not like they’re having bad at-bats,” Storen said.
Washington was led by Jayson Werth with three hits. Only Michael Morse, who had two hits — including the game-ending homer on Friday — had multiple hits for the Nationals in any of the weekend’s games.
“It’s not luck. We’re not unlucky. We’ve got runners in scoring position, and we can’t score,” Desmond said.
“It starts with me. I left runners in scoring position. I’ve got to do something different. We all have to do something different.”
In the first, Washington leadoff batter Roger Bernadina reached on an error by Hawpe at first. He stole second and advanced to third on Desmond’s bunt single. Werth singled to right to score Bernadina and Desmond scored on Laynce Nix’s sacrifice fly.
Yunesky Maya, recalled earlier Sunday by the Nationals, allowed just one hit in his first three innings.
In the fourth,the Padres scored when Bartlett led off with a double and scored on Ludwick’s single.
In the fifth, they scored three runs. Logan Forsythe led off with a single, pitcher Moseley bunted him to second, and with two out, Bartlett and Ludwick walked to load the bases. Hawpe singled to score Forsythe and Bartlett. After Slaten replaced Maya, Ludwick scored on Headley’s double.
Maya who is winless in six career starts, pitched 4 2-3 innings, allowing four runs and six hits. He walked two and struck out three.
The Nationals made it 4-3 in the fifth on Rick Ankiel’s single off Moseley and Bernadina’s RBI double.
Moseley pitched five innings, allowing three runs — two earned. He walked one and struck out one.
In the sixth, Washington tied the score at 4 on Morse’s fielders choice that scored Werth.
NOTES: Washington 3B Jerry Hairston was suspended one game and fined for “aggressive actions” toward umpire Ed Hickox on Friday night. Hairston, who was celebrating his 35th birthday on Sunday, is appealing the suspension. … Maya was the sixth starting pitcher used by the Nationals this season. The Nationals are the last major league team to need a sixth starter.

WASHINGTON (AP)—Washington Nationals third baseman Jerry Hairston was
suspended one game and fined an undisclosed amount Sunday for making contact
with umpire Ed Hickox during a game against the San Diego Padres.

Major League Baseball cited Hairston’s “aggressive actions” during the
bottom of the seventh inning of Friday night’s game in announcing the
discipline. Hairston is appealing the decision and was in the lineup for the
conclusion of the Nationals’ series against the Padres on Sunday.

Hairston said he asked Hickox for time, and he thought the umpire granted
it. When San Diego’s Clayton Richard(notes) delivered, Hairston hurriedly swung, flied
out to center and began arguing with Hickox.

Moments later, Hickox ejected him.

“I don’t know why he ejected me,” Hairston said. “I didn’t push him or
shove him in any way—and the video clearly shows that.”

Hairston and Richard were teammates with San Diego last year. Hairston says
that Richard habitually pitches before hitters are set in the batter’s box.

“I asked for time out earlier—and he gave it to me. I don’t think he
recalled that,” Hairston said. “He didn’t try and bait me or anything. I just
wanted him to get help. He felt he didn’t need it and he ejected me.”

Hickox was umpiring second base Sunday. MLB said he would not be available
to comment while Hairston’s appeal is pending.

(Sports Network) – Cuban-born righty Yunesky Maya makes his 2011 debut this
afternoon when the Washington Nationals host the San Diego Padres in the
finale of a three-game series at Nationals Park.

Now 29 years old, Maya reached the majors for the first time with the
Nationals in 2010, making five starts and losing three decisions. He pitched a
combined 28 innings for Washington, allowing 30 hits and 17 earned runs while
walking 11 batters and striking out 12.

The 5-foot-11, 170-pounder climbed the ranks in the minors in 2010, pitching
from Class A to Triple-A while going 1-2 with a 3.38 earned run average across
21 1/3 innings in five starts.

Maya, who has never faced the Padres, was 1-4 at Triple-A Syracuse this season
through nine starts while allowing 47 hits and striking out 45 batters in 59
1/3 innings.

On Saturday, San Diego’s Blake Tekotte had the first two hits of his major
league career, belting an RBI triple and adding a double to lead the Padres to
a 2-1 victory.

Tim Stauffer (1-3) threw a solid seven innings, picking up the win while
giving up only one run on four hits while fanning four hitters and walking
four.

Heath Bell nailed down his 11th save of the year.

Chase Headley added two hits and Kyle Phillips chipped in with an RBI single
to give San Diego just its third victory in its last 11 games.

Laynce Nix belted his seventh home run of the season and Jerry Hairston Jr.
added two hits for Washington, which had its momentum halted from Friday’s
dramatic ninth inning walk-off win.

Jordan Zimmermann (2-6) threw six strong innings, giving up two runs on five
hits while striking out four and walking one to absorb the loss.

For the Padres, righty Dustin Moseley makes his 11th start of the season in
search of his second win.

Moseley, though, has gone at least six innings seven times and allowed three
runs or less eight times – yet has managed just one win against six losses for
the last-place Padres.

San Diego is just 2-8 in games he’s pitched.

The 29-year-old got a hard-luck no-decision in his most recent start on May 23
against St. Louis, allowing just a run on five hits in seven innings of the
Padres’ 2-1 loss.

San Diego has been shut out four times with him on the mound and has scored
two runs or less in three other starts.

He has never faced the Nationals.

The Padres and Nationals split six meetings a season ago.

The Sports Network

CBSSports.com wire reports
May 28, 2011

WASHINGTON — Tim Stauffer pitched seven innings for his first win of the season, Blake Tekotte had the first two hits of his major league career and the San Diego Padres beat the Washington Nationals 2-1 on Saturday in a matchup of baseball’s weakest-hitting teams.

Stauffer (1-3) limited the Nationals to four hits and a run — a seventh-inning homer by Laynce Nix. He struck out four and walked four.

Mike Adams, who threw one pitch on Friday night — Michael Morse’s game-ending homer — pitched a scoreless eighth and Heath Bell worked the ninth for his 11th save.

San Diego had lost six of its previous seven.

The Padres, who came in with a .226 average — two points lower than the Nationals — scored three or fewer runs for the 11th straight game. The last time they did that was July 9-21, 1976.

Stauffer quickly found himself in trouble. With one out in the first, he walked three straight Nationals to load the bases. On his first pitch to Morse, Friday’s hero grounded into an inning-ending double play.

The Nationals, who have lost of eight of 10, had just two singles through six innings until Nix’s home run. It was his seventh.

The Padres scored twice in the fourth off Jordan Zimmermann (2-6). With one out, Chase Headley singled and scored on a triple by Tekotte that hit off right fielder Jayson Werth’s glove. Playing in just his third major league game, Tekotte also doubled in the second inning and scored on Kyle Phillips’ single. Phillips hit broke an 0-for-14 skid.

Zimmermann hasn’t won in his last four starts, though he hasn’t pitched badly. Last Sunday, he was sailing through six innings, allowing just one hit, but gave up a decisive two-run home run to Baltimore’s Vladimir Guerrero in the second inning.

He gave up five hits, allowed two runs, walked one and struck out four.

Notes

Nix’s homer was just the fourth allowed by Stauffer in 11 starts. … The Nationals recalled RHP Collin Balester from Triple-A Syracuse. He is expected to be sent down to make room for Sunday’s starter, likely RHP Yunesky Maya, who would also be recalled from Syracuse. Maya would replace LHP Tom Gorzelanny, who was put on the DL with an inflamed left elbow. Gorzelanny said he expected to pitch when he’s eligible. “It feels like a shin splint in my elbow,” he said. … The Padres had two players with their first big league hits. 2B Logan Forsythe singled in the ninth and nearly had his first RBI, but Headley was thrown out at the plate by Nix.