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52-minute bee delay is all the buzz in San Diego
It was the kind of late-inning buzz that none of the players had experienced before.
The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 7-2, yesterday, but only after waiting out a 52-minute delay in the top of the ninth inning caused when a swarm of bees took over leftfield at Petco Park.
"It's how this year's going - bizarre things," said Houston's Geoff Blum, who hit a three-run homer and finished with four RBI. "You think you've seen it all in baseball and you're going to see something new."
The drama began with Houston leading, 6-1, with two outs in the top of the ninth. San Diego's Kyle Blanks started walking in from leftfield, trying to get shortstop Everth Cabrera to call time. It ended when a beekeeper obliterated a ball of bees that followed a queen bee under a ballgirl's jacket that was slung over the back of a chair down the leftfield line.
"I kind of saw one or two floating around my head," said Blanks, who is allergic to bees. "Then I turned around and there was a wall."
The game was halted at 3:09 p.m. Five minutes later, both teams were cleared from the field.
The beekeeper arrived at 3:56, quickly did his job to applause from the fans that remained, and the game resumed 5 minutes later.
The swarm first appeared along the warning track. Later, fans were cleared out of several sections down the leftfield line as the bees swarmed around the chair.
Head groundskeeper Luke Yoder thinks they were regular honey bees.
In other games:
* At Pittsburgh, Ryan Church singled in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning, and the New York Mets beat the Pirates, 9-8, after overcoming a five-run deficit and then wasting a ninth-inning lead.
* At Cincinnati, Joey Votto turned a tough pitch into a two-out single with the bases loaded in the 10th inning, sending the Reds to a 3-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, who lost for the 10th time in 12 games.
* At St. Louis, Todd Wellemeyer (7-7) allowed two runs and seven hits in 7 1/3 innings and the Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-2.
* At Chicago, Derrek Lee hit a grand slam and a three-run homer for a career-high seven RBI, and the Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-5.
Noteworthy
* Lefthander Neal Cotts, who pitched in 19 games this season for the Chicago Cubs before being sent to the minors on May 27, underwent Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery.
* The Pirates signed three teenage Taiwan high school players on the first day of the international free-agent signing period: a pair of 18-year-olds, outfielder Ping-Hung Chi and righthander Sheng-Cin Hong; and 17-year-old first baseman/pitcher Chih-Wei Hsu. All three players will begin their professional careers at the Australia Baseball Academy.
* The St. Louis Cardinals gave a $3.1 million signing bonus to 16-year-old outfielder Wagner Mateo, from the Dominican Republic. He is considered to be among the top amateur free agents from Latin America. *
