Notebook: Hudson hits for cycle
Orlando Hudson grinned like a Little Leaguer as he held up a keepsake ball with his rare accomplishment written in black ink on it.
Hudson impressed fans of his new team by hitting for the cycle, Andre Ethier drove in four runs with a pair of homers and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Randy Johnson and the San Francisco Giants 11-1 to win their home opener on Monday.
“Dodger fans can’t expect this every day,” said Hudson, who agreed to a free-agent deal in February after three seasons in Arizona. “The cycle is very hard. First of all, getting a hit is hard.”
Hudson completed the majors’ first cycle since Sept. 1, 2008, with a sixth-inning triple off Brandon Medders. He slid into third ahead of a throw by right fielder Randy Winn, got up and pointed to the sky.
“It’s a heck of a day. I didn’t know I had the cycle going on.”
“It’s a great accomplishment and shows the rarity of it,” Juan Ethier said.
Hudson singled in the first, homered in the third and doubled in the fourth – all off Johnson – and became the first Dodger since Wes Parker on May 7, 1970, and the ninth in franchise history to complete the cycle.
Glaus, GM meet
St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak met with Troy Glaus to discuss a report that the third baseman had told authorities he used steroids in 2003 and 2004 to help him recover from right shoulder injuries.
“I told him that, from St. Louis’ standpoint, this is something that happened in the past, and we understand it’s been handled with Major League Baseball, and we’ll leave it at that,” Mozeliak said before the Cardinals played Arizona at Chase Field.
Attendance down
Major League Baseball averaged 31,111 fans for its first 93 games of the season, down 4.5 percent from the 2008 final average of 32,539 that the commissioner’s office announced at the end of the season.
Attendance is usually weakest in April and September, when cold weather causes a drop for some teams in the Northeast and Midwest.
Bail raised
A judge in Fullerton, Calif., increased bail to $2 million for the 22-year-old man charged in the traffic collision death of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two other people.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Roger B. Robbins continued Andrew Gallo’s arraignment until June 8.
A-Rod at work
Alex Rodriguez resumed drills on the baseball field Monday five weeks after hip surgery and hopes to return as “good as new.”
The New York Yankees third baseman hit 36 balls off a tee and took 42 swings during a soft-toss hitting session. He also fielded 40 grounders and did light running at the team’s minor league complex.
The Yankees don’t expect the three-time A.L. MVP to rejoin the team until about May 15. Rodriguez has been optimistic about returning sooner and said the next three to four days will be important in deciding when he can play in a minor league rehab game.