Dunn finds consistency, keeps nailing ball into gaps

By Hal McCoy

Dayton Daily News

CHICAGO | Adam Dunn hit a home run Monday night that cleared Wrigley Field's ivy-covered brick wall, cleared the bleachers, cleared Sheffield Avenue and crash-landed on the stoop of a brownstone apartment.

A resident, leaving the building, picked up the baseball and dutifully winged it back into Wrigley as if the game couldn't continue without the same ball.

The distance, just short of a Lake Michigan splashdown, isn't what made Dunn feel good. It is the fact the baseball left the park in right-center.

"I'm not pulling the ball, and that's good," he said. "I'm hitting the ball up the gaps, left-center and right-field. That means I'm staying with the pitches, not pulling off or rolling my hands over."

It isn't just the fact that Dunn has six homers (tied for the NL lead after a blast Tuesday night), or that he has eight doubles, one off the league lead, or that he has a .750 slugging percentage, best, by far, in the majors.

It is the fact he is hitting .304 and that he has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games (.420 with seven doubles and three homers) going into Tuesday's game.

"I haven't changed my appr-oach," he said. "I'm finally getting four consistent at-bats a game. I was getting two at-bats where I felt good and two where I didn't. Now, I'm feeling good all four at-bats."

Manager Dave Miley has given Dunn a couple of days off this month, something Dunn doesn't like, but understands.

"I like days off when we don't play, but I don't like to sit when we play," he said. "But I know our situation with four outfielders, the situation that puts (Miley) in. He is handling the situation as well as he can, really doing a great job."

Freel sits

Despite a seven-game hitting streak during which he is hitting .370, Ryan Freel found himself on the bench Tuesday.

Instead of Freel at second base, D'Angelo Jimenez was at second and leading off, even though he was hitting .159 his last 14 games.

"Just an attempt to get Jimenez jump-started," Miley said. "I don't want to sit D'Angelo too long. And as hard as Freel plays, I can't keep him in there every day.

"And with a day game (today, on the heels of a night game) I'll probably have Felipe Lopez in the lineup at shortstop."

The Ramon Report

Injured pitcher Ramon Ortiz (strained groin) was sent to Class A Sarasota to make a rehabilitation start Tuesday, ducking Class AAA Louisville because of projected bad weather.

And in Sarasota ... it rained.

Rain delayed the scheduled start for two hours, and Ortiz warmed up twice before finally pitching against the Tampa Yankees. He threw three innings — 58 pitches, 41 strikes — and gave up four runs (three earned) and seven hits, walking none and striking out three. One hit was a home run, one was a blooper and two were infield hits.

If all goes well, he'll throw on the side Thursday in Milwaukee, then slip back into the rotation.

Working man Wilson

If Paul Wilson isn't the hardest-working pitcher in America, he is tied for first.

On Monday, he threw 92 pitches on a chilly night at Wrigley Field. Tuesday afternoon at 3:05, five hours before the game, Wilson was running by himself up Addison Street, four blocks away, clad in a soaked T-shirt and black shorts.

"I ran 27 minutes, but it seemed like forever, and I thought my lungs were going to pop out of my chest," said Wilson, fighting flu-like symptoms.

After the run, Wilson and conditioning coach Matt Krause were on a concrete concourse at Wrigley, and Wilson was doing standing jumps.