Rays/MLB

Kansas City prospect returns to majors after long absence

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 20, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Zack Greinke, once considered a top Kansas City prospect, was recalled from Double A on Tuesday and will be used as a reliever.

Greinke was 8-11 with a 3.77 ERA in 2004 then went 5-17 with a 5.80 ERA last season. He left the team for personal reasons during spring training and started the season on the 60-day disabled list. After being activated June 21, he joined Wichita.

"He had a lot of really good starts down there," manager Buddy Bell said.

Greinke was 8-3 with a 4.34 ERA, including 4-1 with a 2.44 ERA in his last seven starts.

"I didn't like it up here last time," he said. "But I think I will now."

Cardinals closer out for season

MILWAUKEE - St. Louis said closer Jason Isringhausen will have season-ending surgery on his left hip Thursday. Isringhausen went 4-8 with a 3.55 ERA and 33 saves this season. He last pitched Sept. 6, when he blew his career-high 10th save. Manager Tony La Russa said he will replace Isringhausen with a combination of Braden Looper, formerly a closer for the Marlins and Mets, and rookie Adam Wainwright.

BRAVES: Third baseman Chipper Jones was activated from the disabled list. He had been out since Sept. 4 with a strained left oblique.

RED SOX: Outfielder Manny Ramirez will be scheduled for another examination of his sore left knee that could help determine if he will be able to play again this season.

YANKEES: Rightfielder Gary Sheffield was activated from DL, and closer Mariano Rivera threw a bullpen session and said he hopes to return this weekend. With the recently acquired Bobby Abreu in rightfield, manager Joe Torre said Sheffield, who had wrist surgery June 13, will start playing first after the East is clinched. Rivera, out since Aug. 31 with a muscle strain near his right elbow, is scheduled to throw off a mound today.

negro league great hospitalized: Ex-Negro Leagues star Buck O'Neil has been hospitalized since the weekend because of exhaustion. O'Neil, 94, entered a Kansas City hospital Sunday so doctors could conduct tests, said Bob Kendrick, marketing director of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. It is the second time O'Neil has been admitted since he was hospitalized Aug. 5 for the same ailment.

JUMPING FAN: A fan who jumped from the upper deck at Yankee Stadium onto the netting behind home plate was sentenced to three years of probation and banned for life from the park. Scott Harper, 19, of Armonk, N.Y., pleaded guilty in August to reckless endangerment after dropping about 40 feet onto the large net, which stops foul balls from flying back into the stands, Aug. 10, 2005. He told friends he was sitting with he was going to test whether the net would hold his weight and then jumped, police said.

[Last modified September 20, 2006, 01:54:19]