FRIDAY'S TIDBITS Line of the Day Brian Giles With Sammy Sosa two HRs short of 500, Giles went deep in Pirates' romp vs. Cubs. AB H RBI R 4 3 6 5 Hero of the day Paul Lo Duca stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 10th with the Dodgers' season on the line. One pitch, one swing and one walk-off HR later, L.A. got to entertain postseason dreams for at least one more day. Goat of the day Reds catcher Kelly Stinnett, who made a throwing error with two outs in the 11th, allowing the winning run to score as the Expos beat Cincinnati 4-3. Injuries Red Sox OF Cliff Floyd left the game against the Devil Rays in the second inning with a bruised left ankle after getting hit by a pitch. Cardinals RF J.D. Drew was removed after being hit in the ribs by a pitch in the sixth inning against the Brewers. Trainer Barry Weinberg said Drew has bruised ribs. Coming in, he had homered in three straight games. Padres RHP Brett Tomko was scratched for the second straight night because of a stiff neck. Streak of the day Playoff ready? Andy Pettitte is, winning his fifth straight start for the Yankees in a 6-2 win over the Orioles, who have dropped 10 straight games. Stat of the day Mark Grace hit his 506th career double in the Dodgers' victory over San Diego, tying him with Babe Ruth for 35th on the career list. Another stat of the day John Smoltz earned the save in the Braves' 3-1 win over the Mets in the first game of a doubleheader sweep, giving him an NL-record 54 this season. The last word "They pitched me very well. They haven't made any mistakes.'' -- Sammy Sosa, who hasn't homered in 27 plate appearances and remains stuck on 48 for the year and 498 for the career.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Yankees at Orioles
Baltimore: Cal Ripken attended a ceremony honoring Mike Bordick before Friday night's game. Bordick was recognized for his ongoing records of most consecutive errorless games by a shortstop (107) and most successive errorless chances (528). Ripken was the former AL record-holder. ... OF Jay Gibbons will undergo wrist surgery Monday. Gibbons underwent surgery last year to have the hamate bone removed, but a stitch failed to dissolve and remained in his wrist. He played in pain for much of the season, but still hit 28 homers. ... The Orioles will open the 2003 season against Cleveland on March 31 and play host to Sammy Sosa and the Chicago Cubs in June, according to the schedule released Friday. ... 2b Jerry Hairston (strained groin) wants to play, but manager Mike Hargrove will likely sit his leadoff hitter for the final three games.

Devil Rays at Red Sox
Tampa Bay: Tampa Bay finishes the season with a seven game road trip, marking the first time the team has finished on the road since its inaugural season. ... Randy Winn needs two hits to break the club record for most hits in a season. Quinton McCracken holds the record with 179 hits in 1998. ... When Travis Phelps hit Cliff Floyd in the second inning it became the 92nd batter a Devil Ray pitcher hit this season, one shy of the major league record set by the Red Sox last season. Boston: Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe and John Burkett own a collective winning percentage of .726, the best percentage by three pitchers on an AL staff this season. ... Nomar Garciaparra has 56 doubles and needs one more to tie Carlos Delgado for sixth place on the AL single-season doubles list. Earl Webb holds the club record with 67 in 1931. That's also the major league record. ... Manny Ramirez finished the season hitting .360 (80-222) on the road. His batting average on the road leads the AL. He is the first Red Sox player to hit .330 or better on the road since Garciaparra batted .370 in 2000.

Athletics at Rangers
Oakland: A day after the Athletics finally clinched the AL West title, SS Miguel Tejada wasn't in the starting lineup for the first time this season. Even though he was 4-for-5 in Thursday's clinching win at Seattle, Tejada is just 16-of-69 (.232) over his last 17 games. 3B Eric Chavez also got a night off after 142 starts. ... The A's have 100 wins in a season for the 10th time -- five in Philadelphia and five in Oakland. Oakland is also the 18th team to win 100 games in consecutive seasons. The last was the 1997-99 Atlanta Braves. The A's last consecutive 100-win seasons were in 1929-31, when the team was in Philadelphia. Texas: RF Juan Gonzalez has already left Texas for the offseason. Gonzalez's locker in the Rangers clubhouse has already been cleaned out, and is now occupied by rookie 1B Jason Hart, one of the team's September callups. Gonzalez has been on the disabled list since July 31 with a strained ligament in his right thumb. He also missed six weeks early in the season with the same injury. Gonzalez played just 70 games, hitting .282 with eight homers and 35 RBI. ... The Rangers released their tentative 2003 schedule Friday. They will begin and end the season with three-game series at Anaheim. NL teams that will travel to Arlington for the first time are the New York Mets and Florida Marlins. Texas also has its home-and-home series with the Astros, June 20-22 in Arlington and June 27-29 in Houston.

Tigers at Blue Jays
Detroit: The Blue Jays honored broadcaster Ernie Harwell before the game by presenting him with a framed picture of both SkyDome and old Exhibition stadium. Part of the inscription on the picture read "Thanks for the memories.'' Harwell, who will work his final game in the radio booth on Sunday, made a brief speech. He talked about some of the great games the Tigers and Blue Jays have played against each other. He mentioned the final week of the 1987 season when the teams battled through seven gripping one-run games before the Tigers edged out the Blue Jays for the AL East crown. ... Manager Luis Pujols, who isn't expected back next season, said he will take the team charter back to Detroit on Sunday and then drive home to Florida. Toronto: Manager Carlos Tosca gave 3B Eric Hinske, CF Vernon Wells and SS Chris Woodward a day off. Tosca wants to play some of the rookies in the final three games. "I'd like to get them some at-bats,'' Tosca said. Jayson Werth played center field and Felipe Lopez played third base. ... Tosca approached 1B Carlos Delgado about a day off, but Delgado didn't want one. ... Hinske has been nominated for Rookie of the Year for the 2002 players choice awards. The award is voted upon by the players.

Royals at Indians
Kansas City: Mike Sweeney, who entered Friday night trailing Boston's Manny Ramirez by .004 in the AL batting race, is bidding to become the first Royal to lead the league in hitting since George Brett (1990). Brett led the league three times (1976, 1980 and '90). Willie Wilson led the league in 1982. ... The Royals have won the season series from Cleveland twice in the past three years. ... 2B Carols Febles entered Friday night batting .393 (12-for-28) since being recalled from Triple-A Omaha on Sept. 6. Cleveland: 1B Jim Thome set the Indians' single-season club record with his 51st homer in the third inning of Friday night's game. Thome's 459-foot shot gave him one more homer than Albert Belle, who hit 50 in 1995. ... DH Ellis Burks extended his hitting streak to 14 games on Friday night. ... Thome reached base for the 53rd straight game and has now scored 100 runs or more in six of the last seven years.

White Sox at Twins
Chicago: Despite the White Sox disappointing season, RF Magglio Ordonez enters the team's final series looking to improve on career numbers in several offensive categories. Ordonez's 38 home runs, 132 RBI, 116 runs scored and 47 doubles are all career highs. ... Since Sept. 1, the White Sox are 15-8 and have led the AL in batting average (.290), home runs (40) and runs scored (153). ... LF Carlos Lee will miss the series to be with his wife, who is expecting a child. Rookie Aaron Rowand started in his place. ... Chicago has won 10 of its last 13 road games after beginning the season 24-41 on the road. Minnesota: LF Jacque Jones, who sprained his ankle on Sept. 17 in Detroit, was back in the starting lineup Friday, batting leadoff. Jones did have two plate appearances Thursday in his first action since the injury. ... The Twins went with their everyday starting lineup, with the exception of Michael Cuddyer in right field. Manager Ron Gardenhire has given the rookie extra playing time in preparation for the playoffs, and Cuddyer has responded by batting .409 in his past seven games. "Cuddyer's been going very well,'' Gardenhire said. "We're trying to get him at-bats and see what happens.'' ... Pitcher Joe Mays faced an important start in his final regular-season tune-up for the playoffs. Mays, who led Minnesota with 17 victories in 2001, missed three months of the season with an elbow injury and has been inconsistent since returning in July. He gave up seven runs in four innings in his last start Sunday against Chicago. ... The Twins are 22-3 in series openers at home. ... A win Friday would also assure that the Twins finished .500 or better in each month of the season. Minnesota hasn't done that since 1969.

Mariners at Angels
Seattle: Manager Lou Piniella served the one-game suspension he received for his base-tossing tantrum in a game last week. Bench coach John McLaren ran the team against the Angels in Piniella's absence. ... RF Ichiro Suzuki will be playing on a team of major league All-Stars who will participate in a seven-game, four-city barnstorming series in Japan Nov. 9-17 after three days of workouts in Los Angeles. Suzuki played against the barnstorming All-Stars in 1996 and 1998 during his nine-year career with the Orix Blue Wave. ... Even though there's nothing left at stake for the Mariners following Anaheim's clinching of the AL wild card berth on Thursday, 2B Bret Boone started despite a sore heel that has plagued him for several days. "I just feel like I started the season with them and I'm going to finish it with them,'' Boone said. Anaheim: The Angels, who open the ALDS on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, are scheduled to work out there on Monday at 4 p.m. But manager Mike Scioscia said Friday that the team won't work out anywhere -- including Shea Stadium -- if the Yankees need their ballpark for a possible makeup game to determine whether they or Oakland would finish with the AL's best record. "At this point in the season, a workout would be just to get a little of the jet lag out,'' Scioscia said. "These guys could probably benefit as much from not having a workout. So if we don't get access to Yankee Stadium, we won't have a workout.'' ... Before Friday night's game at Edison Field, Scioscia presented LF Garret Anderson with the Gene Autry Trophy as the team's MVP for 2002. Anderson, the Angels' only All-Star representative, entered the game needing one home run to become the second player in club history to bat at least .300 with 30 homers and 100 RBI in a season. ... One day after clinching the wild card, the Angels rested five regulars -- RF Tim Salmon, SS David Eckstein, CF Darin Erstad, C Bengie Molina and 1B Scott Spiezio. Anderson was in the starting lineup as the DH. ... The Angels entered Friday knowing they had to sweep the three-game series with Seattle to finish with 100 victories for the first time in club history. "Winning 100 would be great, but winning the playoffs is what it's all about and that's what we're concentrating on,'' Spiezio said. "Our main goal right now is to keep everybody healthy, but you also want everybody feeling good going into the playoffs.''

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pirates at Cubs
Pittsburgh: The Pirates' victory means they won't lose 90 games. They are 72-87 with two more to play, and they'll win at least 10 more games than last season. "We're a better team than we were a year ago,'' Brian Giles said as his teammates sipped champagne to celebrate the milestone. "We're not good enough, but we're better.'' ... The Pirates had a season-high 19 hits, three better than their previous mark. Every starter reached base at least once, including pitcher Salomon Torres, who singled in the sixth. ... Torres won his first game since Sept. 3. "I had pretty good stuff today,'' he said. "I pitched strong, and maybe that was one of the problems in the second and third inning.'' The Cubs scored two of their three runs in those innings, and also loaded the bases in the second. But Torres worked himself out of that jam. ... The Pirates have won their last four games played on Friday. They're 18-8 overall this season on Fridays. Chicago: The Cubs have lost 95 games, their fourth 90-loss season in the last six years. "You can see it in everybody's face that they're stunned and shocked we're losing like this,'' pitcher Pat Mahomes said. "We're finding a way to lose, whether it's 1-0 or getting whipped like we did today.'' ... Sammy Sosa might be struggling at the plate as he tries to reach 500 homers this season, but interim manager Bruce Kimm sees a lot to admire. "From now until the day I die, I'll remember a lot of things about Sammy Sosa. But I'll especially remember that when the season was lost, Sammy Sosa was out there diving for a ball down the right-field line and jumping against the wall,'' Kimm said. "That's the way you'd hope your players would approach it. He's out there to get those two home runs, but he's also out there to play the game.'' ... LF Moises Alou missed his third straight game with a sore calf. His replacement, Roosevelt Brown, went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.

Braves at Mets
Atlanta: Although manager Bobby Cox won't make it official, Greg Maddux is expected to start the postseason opener Wednesday at Turner Field, followed by Kevin Millwood on Thursday. Tom Glavine, scheduled to throw about two innings Saturday against the Mets, is likely to start Game 3 a week later at the ballpark of the wild-card winner. ... Jason Marquis is to pitch Sunday against the Mets. Cox isn't sure who would pitch Monday if the Braves have to make up an earlier tie against San Francisco, but Albie Lopez is a possibility. New York: Mike Piazza said it was easier to take the disappointment of a losing season than postseason elimination. "It was a slow-death kind of thing the last month or so,'' he said. "It's not like down to the wire, you put your heart and soul into one game ... it hits you in the gut. I'm not saying it eases the pain, at all. It's easier to put behind you when the season's over. ... To me, there's no difference between second place and last place. Second place to me means there's no redeeming quality.'' Piazza will not be attending the postseason games up in the Bronx. "Go to Yankee Stadium? That's funny, I'm not going to be sitting next to P-Diddy. I'm not going to be sitting there with my fur coat on -- that's not me.'' Piazza took a mixed view to his season. "I try to find some positive in the wreckage. There were times when I felt I've swung the bat as well as I ever have and times when I've swung as bad as I ever have.''

Brewers at Cardinals
Milwaukee: Jose Hernandez, one strikeout from tying the major league record set by Bobby Bonds in 1970, was not in the lineup for the second straight game. ... Richie Sexson entered the final weekend needing one home run for his fourth straight 30-homer season. ... The Brewers had 94 stolen bases this season, their best since joining the NL in 1998, but none in the last 12 games. ... LHP Glendon Rusch, who beat the Cardinals with a four-hit shutout June 25 in St. Louis, pitches Saturday. St. Louis: 3B Scott Rolen, who agreed to a $90 million, eight-year contract extension, entered the final weekend with 31 homers and 108 RBI -- one home run and two RBI shy of his 1998 career highs. ... Before the game the Cardinals honored their Class-A affiliate, the Midwest League champion Peoria Chiefs. The team is managed by Danny Sheaffer, a former Cardinals catcher. ... Either Andy Benes or Jamey Wright will pitch in the regular-season finale Sunday.

Phillies at Marlins
Philadelphia: Former All-Star Greg Luzinski will be a guest announcer for the team's season-ending telecast Sunday. Each Sunday game has featured a third-inning guest appearance as a tribute to longtime Phillies announcer Harry Kalas. Kalas was a 2002 recipient of the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award. Florida: OF Tim Raines will officially announce his retirement Saturday. Raines, 42, played the final season of his 21-year major league career with the Marlins, used mainly as a pinch-hitter and reserve. ... The Marlins' 4-2 record in their final road trip of the season was the team's only winning trip since the All-Star break. The Marlins won two of three games at Montreal and NL East champion Atlanta.

Reds at Expos
Cincinnati: Neither team took batting practice before the game. ... 3B Aaron Boone played his 160th game of the season. Boone, who has made 140 starts at third base and 13 at shortstop, could become the first Reds player to appear in 162 games since Dave Parker in 1986. ... LF Adam Dunn's 128 walks are four shy of Joe Morgan's team record set in 1975. ... Cincinnati has struck out 1,158 times, just 14 off the team record set last year. Three Reds have at least 100 strikeouts: Dunn (167), C Jason LaRue (117) and Boone (111). Montreal: RF Vladimir Guerrero was one homer short of a 40 homer-40 steal season going into the final three-game series of the season. Guerrero, who has a career-high 40 stolen bases -- is 1-for-6 with four walks since hitting his 39th homer Tuesday. ... After using RHP Zach Day -- who was originally scheduled to start Sunday -- in Thursday's win over Florida, manager Frank Robinson said he would give RHP Tim Drew his first career start in the season finale. Day struck out five in three hitless innings for his first career save.

Padres at Dodgers
San Diego: RHP Adam Eaton pitched against the Dodgers instead of scheduled starter RHP Brett Tomko, who was pushed back for the second straight game because of a stiff neck. "If he comes in OK tomorrow, he'll start,'' pitching coach Greg Booker said. If Tomko (10-10) can't go, RHP Dennis Tankersley (1-3) will probably start Saturday. ... Manager Bruce Bochy said RHP Brandon Villafuerte or LHP Kevin Walker will probably be used in the role of closer. Trevor Hoffman won't pitch again this season due to inflammation in his right shoulder. Neither Villafuerte nor Walker has a save in the majors. ... Hoffman, who has 38 saves in 41 chances, won't get an opportunity to reach 40 for the fifth straight season. "Statistically, anything like that would be nice,'' he said, adding his injury isn't serious. ... Sean Burroughs entered hitting .407 (22-of-54) since being recalled from the minors Sept. 3. ... The Padres came in having been outscored by 142 runs (834 to 692). This will be the first year they've been outscored by 100 or more runs since 1977. Los Angeles: The Dodgers, who entered 90-69, are assured of their most wins since 1991, when they went 93-69. But it's doubtful they'll make the playoffs. "This year, to this point, is a very good year,'' manager Jim Tracy said. "The hollow part, the disappointing part, is knowing that to have a season like that and come up short. It's tough to take.'' ... OF Brian Jordan entered with an NL-leading 27 RBI in September -- tied for the third-best September in club history with Mike Piazza, who drove in 27 runs in 1997. Kal Daniels drove in 31 runs in 1990 and Mike Marshall drove in 30 in 1985. ... The Dodgers will almost certainly set a franchise record for fielding. They entered having committed 90 errors in 159 games. The franchise record for fewest errors is 106 in 1952.

Rockies at Diamondbacks
Colorado: CF Juan Pierre tied his career high with his 46th stolen base Thursday night. Pierre leads the majors in steals and is second on Colorado's career list behind Eric Young, who stole 53 in 1996. ... The Rockies lead the NL with 124 runs scored in the first inning. Cincinnati ranks second with 104. ... RHP Todd Jones needs one more appearance to set the franchise record. His 78 appearances ties the record shared by Mike Myers in 2000 and Chuck McElroy in 1998. ... Todd Helton hit his 39th double Thursday night. He had 54 last year and 50 in 2000. Arizona: Curt Schilling thinks Randy Johnson's strong showing over the last six weeks has earned him the NL Cy Young Award. ... OF Quinton McCracken was out of the lineup after fouling a ball of his left shin twice Thursday night. ... Johnson earned his first career pitching "triple crown'' by leading the NL in wins (24), strikeouts (334) and ERA (2.32). The only other NL pitcher to do it was Dwight Gooden in 1985. The last pitcher to do it was Pedro Martinez for Boston in 1999. ... Arizona tied its club record, set in 1999, with its 52nd home victory Thursday night. ... Arizona came in 8-0 against Colorado this season at Bank One Ballpark.

Astros at Giants
Houston: RHP Octavio Dotel needed just one appearance to tie Juan Agosto (1990) for the franchise record. Dotel had pitched in 81 games. RHP Ricky Stone also has a chance to climb the single-season chart. Stone entered with 76 appearances -- one behind Xavier Hernandez (1992) for fifth place in franchise history. ... RHP Roy Oswalt will go for his 20th victory Sunday in the season finale -- and San Francisco manager Dusty Baker knows it. Baker was rooting for Oswalt to beat Milwaukee on Tuesday night and get his milestone before facing the Giants. San Francisco: Manager Dusty Baker spent the off day Thursday with his son. He didn't start making plans for playoff strategy -- not with a postseason berth still up in the air. "You can't look ahead before you reach your original goal,'' Baker said. "We've got some serious action this weekend.'' ... Barry Bonds is putting the finishing touches on his first batting title -- the first for a Giants player since the franchise moved to San Francisco, and the team's first batting champion in 48 years. ... Bonds needed six walks to become the first player to draw 200 in a season. He has already broken his own record of 177 walks, set last season.