2012 » om their plans. He did so by playing out the first halves of

PHOENIX -- Anthony DeSclafani and Scott Schebler had a night to remember Saturday.Arizona had one to forget.DeSclafani threw his first career shutout, one of the 26 in the major leagues this season, and Schebler had his first two-homer game while getting a career-high five RBI and tying a career high with three hits on Saturday night in the Cincinnati Reds 13-0 victory over the Diamondbacks.Arizonas silver lining was reliever Vicente Campos, who gave up three runs (two earned) in 5 2/3 innings of long relief in his major league debut. He almost single-handedly saved the Diamondbacks bullpen for the final game of the series on Sunday.Cincinnati right-hander Homer Bailey (2-2, 5.73 ERA) will oppose Arizona right-hander Archie Bradley (4-8, 5.06) in the rubber game.Bailey will make his sixth start of the season after missing the first half recovering from Tommy John surgery, and he has beaten every team in the National League in his career except the Diamondbacks. Bradley has given up 21 earned runs and 36 hits in 23 innings in his five August starts.Both Bailey and Bradley will have an exceptionally hard act to follow.DeSclafani was that good. He gave up four hits, all singles, struck out a season-high nine and walked one. Helped by two double plays, he faced only three batters above the minimum and needed only 108 pitches.Clayton Kershaw (three), Johnny Cueto (two) and Corey Kluber (two) are the only major leaguers with more than one shutout this year.Its definitely an accomplishment, for sure, De Sclafani said. I think every pitcher always wants to throw a complete game shutout, and I am very fortunate to have thrown one. Im definitely going to enjoy it.I was kind of focused the entire game. You start creeping up there, seventh, eighth. Then the ninth inning. You dont want to beat around the bush. Just attack. I got that last out and I didnt realize it happened because I was so locked in.Schebler had two of the Reds five homers. He had a two-run homer in the first inning and a three-run homer to cap a five-run second, all the runs scoring with two outs, to give DeSlcafani a manageable cushion.Kind of a crazy day, Schebler said. Disco obviously threw the heck out of the ball.DeSclafani dropped his ERA to 2.92. He missed the first nine weeks of the season with a strained oblique.Hes a pitcher, in every sense of the word, Cincinnati manager Bryan Price said. I think he gets it. I think hes a part of the foundation of what can be a really good starting rotation. Hes been phenomenal.Campos, who was recalled from Triple-A Reno on Thursday, helped keep an overworked Arizona bullpen somewhat fresh for Sundays game. The only damage against him came on two solo homers.He gave us a chance to win the series tomorrow, Arizona manager Chip Hale said. Without his outing, we would have had to use everybody out of the bullpen, and it probably would be a tough game tomorrow to deal with us. He used all his pitches mixed his pitches.Campos, who was acquired from the Yankees for RHP Tyler Clippard at the trade deadline, was 1-2 with four starts at Double-A Mobile before being recalled Thursday. He was 10-5 with a 3.26 ERA at four minor league levels this season, three with the Yankees.The Reds Joey Votto, meanwhile, got closer to becoming the first player since 2010 to hit .400 in back-to-back months. Votto was 2-for-4 with a double and his 21st homer of the season to raise his batting average to .422 in August. He hit .419 in July. The last player to have consecutive .400 months was Texas Josh Hamilton, who did it in June and July of 2010.Votto is batting .444 with 34 RBI in 39 games since the All-Star break.Custom Chiefs T-shirts . John Tavares, Thomas Vanek and Kyle Okposo were also being counted on to slow down sizzling Rangers forward Rick Nash. That plan didnt go so well early. Wholesale Custom Chiefs Shirts . The 25-year-old Japanese star has officially been posted by his club team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles. http://www.customchiefsjersey.com/ . It was hard for Luck to pull off another comeback, or even get into the end zone, while standing on the sideline. Rivers threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to rookie Keenan Allen and Nick Novak kicked four field goals to give the Chargers a 19-9 victory against the Colts on Monday night. Custom Mecole Hardman Jersey . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. Cheap Chiefs Jerseys . Emery skated the length of the ice and fought an unwilling Holtby during the third period of the Flyers 7-0 loss Friday night in Philadelphia. He was given 29 penalty minutes, including a game misconduct. But Emery did not face even a disciplinary hearing with NHL senior vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan because rules 46.Five-day Tests might be under debate right now, but the last two times before this Test that two seasoned Bengal players played Eden Gardens Tests together five-day Tests werent yet the norm. In 1952-53, when Pankaj Roy and Kohkhan Sen played against Pakistan, there used to be four-day Tests in India. In 1969-70, when Ambar Roy and Subrata Guha played together, India were playing six-day Tests. Forty-seven years later, when Wriddhiman Saha and Mohammed Shami came to bat together, India were still some way from their desired total of 325-330. The two added 35 runs in entertaining fashion to take India to 316 and deflate New Zealands spirits, but this potentially match-sealing partnership between two Bengal players at the home of cricket in Bengal was witnessed by a disappointingly small Saturday crowd.There are reasons for the small turnout. This is festival season and end of the month both at the same time. Salaries are running out, and the newer ones are being saved for Puja shopping, when everyone must have at least new clothes. The two Bengal players dont draw the same emotion from the locals those earlier ones did. Shami migrated to Bengal from Uttar Pradesh only after he was well into his development as a cricketer. Like many folk from UP and Bihar, he did so for employment. And Saha, to quote a local, is not glamaraas enough. The biggest cheer during this Test so far has been for Sourav Ganguly, now the Cricket Association of Bengal president, as he spoke at a lunch-time discussion on day one. Saha cant match the pull of the last Bengal superstar or the charisma of Indias last Test wicketkeeper, but the few that turned up saw their unglamorous wicketkeeper do a job for his team. He does the job by being inconspicuous behind the stumps, and with vital and timely contributions in front.When Saha came in to bat on day one, memories of Kanpur - when he had become part of a collapse that was arrested by Ravindra Jadeja in the end - would have been fresh. When Saha came out to bat here, India had lost three wickets for 13 runs. More importantly, these three wickets had fallen in the lead-up to the new ball becoming available. Trent Boult was ready. Matt Henry was ready. This was a pitch different from the one in Kanpur, where there was no bounce on offer for the quicks. Here there was bounce, some seam, and India were going at well under three an over. India needed to arrest this collapse badly because a scorre 220-230 in the first innings hardly puts any pressure on the team batting second.dddddddddddd And the collapse had to be arrested without getting bogged down, because the new ball might do tricks and New Zealand could have gone flat out with just 10 overs to stumps.Saha attacked dextrously, hitting a six in the last over before the new ball. The shot was selected perfectly. He got one too full from Jeetan Patel and wristily lofted it over cow corner. In Kanpur Saha had been caught inside the line of a Boult delivery, but that didnt put him off his game plan. Saha likes to stay beside the line of the ball and score through the off side. He did that to two Boult deliveries before stumps to end the day with 14 off 22.Still, having lost R Ashwin to a questionable umpiring call just before stumps, Saha had it all to do on the second morning against the new ball. He continued to bat enterprisingly, punishing errors, running hard, and then farming the strike with his Bengal team-mate, the last man Shami. Along the way, he wore one in approximately the same place as he did during his St Lucia hundred. Just like St Lucia he batted with a swollen forearm, but that clearly didnt take away the punch from his shots.Towards the end Saha, in the company of Shami, had frustrated New Zealand enough to make them veer from their plans. He did so by playing out the first halves of overs, and then hitting boundaries when the field came up. One such was an inside-out beauty to clear long-off and bring up his fifty. As the dressing room applauded, he reacted - not with flashy celebrations, but a thumbs up. He had had a job, he had done it. But he shouldnt always have to do so.The good news for the team is that the lower order is no longer a pushover. Since the start of the England tour of 2014, around the time this lower order came to its own, Indias last four wickets have averaged 23.16, behind only England and Australia. The bad news is, Indias top six wickets have averaged only 38.94 over this period, which is in the bottom half of the Test-playing nations. It shouldnt always be Saha risking injuries to rescue India. It shouldnt always be Ashwin showing the specialist batsmen how to defend. It shouldnt always be Ravindra Jadeja wielding his bat like a sword. The lower order might be due a failure. ' ' '