Nick Hundley Drives Padres Past Phillies; Alex Rios Helps ChiSox Sweep Mariners

Players of the Day for Sunday, April 22, 2012

American League

Alex Rios

After Philip Humber's perfect game on Saturday, the series finale between the White Sox and Mariners in Seattle was almost certain to be anti-climactic, but Alex Rios did his best to provide some thrills as the Sox swept the series with a 7-4 victory.

Rios went 3-for-4 with a single, double and a triple, driving in three runs. Down 4-2 in the top of the sixth, Rios tripled to center, driving in two runs to tie the game and then scooted home with the go-ahead run on a sac fly by Kosuke Fukudome.

In the eighth, Rios singled home an insurance run and the Sox added another to complete the scoring.

The sweep was helpful to the White Sox in their pursuit of Central-division-leading Detroit, which lost, 3-2, in 10 innings to Texas on a blown call, leaving the Tigers a mere 1/2 hame ahead of Chicago.


National League

The San Diego Padres got some satisfaction winning the final two games of their home series with the Phillies by taking the final two games to earn a split.

Nick Hundley

Winning 5-1 on Saturday, the Padres worked out a 6-1 win on Sunday as Nick Hundley provided almost all of the offense with a triple, home run and a sac fly to drive in four runs, going 2-for-3 for the game.

Hundley's first inning sac fly put the Padres up 2-0, which proved to be more than enough for starter Anthony Bass (1-2) and a trio of Padre relievers.

In the third, Hundley legged out a triple, driving in Chase Headley and scored on Jim Thome's throwing error. Hundley's two-run blast in the fifth inning completed the San Diego scoring. It was his second homer of the season.

Despite winning two straight, the Padres are still languishing in last place in the NL West. After their 3-12 start, winning a pair of home games has upped their record to 5-13, just a little better than the 4-12 Cubs, the 3-12 Royals and the 4-10 Red Sox.