Prince Fielder's got to be having regrets...
Arizona Diamondbacks slugger Justin Upton really has shown Fielder the error of his ways in the last few games. Fielder dissed Upton by naming somebody else to his National League home-run-derby team for All-Star festivities at Chase Field here. The derby is Monday night, the day before the big game.
Fielder, the NL captain for the event, decided to put the St Louis Cardinals' Matt Holliday on the team, despite Holiday's having 13 home runs to Upton's 15. The Brewers' Rickie Weeks also made Fielder's cut with the same number of round-trippers as Upton. Fielder has 22 homers.
Not only did Upton, the Diamondbacks' lone member of the NL All-Star team, hit a towering homer against Fielders' Brewers in a win in Cheeseland the other day, he hit another game winner last night to seal the deal against the mighty (47-42) St. Louis Cardinals on a rainy night in Missouri.
The game was marred by two rain delays, the second of which lasted almost an hour in the sixth inning.
Right after it was over, Upton launched his two-run, 406-foot dinger into the left-field bleachers, giving the D-backs a 4-1 lead over the NL Central-leading (tied with Fielder's Brewcrew) Cardinals, and that's the way it stayed.
Starting pitcher Joe Saunders held the Cardinals to one hit during five innings of work, walking four. Manager Kirk Gibson pulled him after the second rain delay, apparently feeling Saunders, who kept throwing all during the delay, might be stiff.
We don't want to jinx them, but the D-backs have been kind of mighty themselves. They've been 33-20 since early May,and are 48-41 overall. After the muddy win against the Cards, they are two games behind the NL-West-leading San Francisco Giants.
They play the Cardinals again tonight in St. Louis. The starter for the D-Backs is Ian Kennedy, who narrowly missed an All-Star bid (8-3, 3.38 ERA). The game starts at 5:15 and can be seen on Fox Sports Net.
