Rays/MLB

A's second baseman breaks finger

By TIMES WIRES
Published October 5, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS - Athletics second baseman Mark Ellis broke his right index finger during his at-bat in the ninth inning Wednesday.

X-rays revealed the fracture. His status will be updated today at the team's workout in Oakland.

Ellis was swinging at a pitch from Joe Nathan when the ball hit him in the hand. He waved his hand and appeared to be in pain while trainers looked him over. He finished the at-bat by striking out looking.

"I asked him how he was doing. He said, 'Get somebody ready for defense,' " manager Ken Macha said. "That's probably not a good sign."

BOILING OVER: Oakland outfielder Milton Bradley found himself in hot water, or more accurately hot coffee, after a mishap in the dugout.

Television cameras caught Bradley being separated from a coach in the fourth inning after accidentally spilling some coffee on starter Esteban Loaiza.

"It was an accident. Milton Bradley came into the dugout, threw his batting gloves up, hit the coffee and it landed on me," Loaiza said. "It's baseball.

"Like I always said, 'You never know what's going to happen in the game. You never know what's going to happen in the dugout.' "

Bradley didn't speak about the matter, but Macha said he wasn't worried.

"There is a tremendous amount of intensity on our bench," he said. "I have no problem with any of that."

JOHNSON READY: Randy Johnson threw a bullpen session, and Yankees manager Joe Torre said the left-hander is set to start Game 3 in Detroit on Friday night.

Johnson has a herniated disc in his back that required an epidural shot Friday. He threw in the outfield grass Saturday and had a bullpen session the next day.

Torre said he threw 30-35 pitches about eight hours before Game 2.

"Everything seemed fine," Torre said. "He's ready to go."

[Last modified October 5, 2006, 02:26:50]