Major League Baseball ToDay

Mark Teixeira and Vladimir Guerrero were at it again on Sunday against the Twins, combining for five hits and two RBIs, but the biggest hit of the game came from an unexpected source.

Gary Matthews Jr., who didn’t even start the game and replaced Garret Anderson in the second inning because of a left knee injury, was called upon.

But Matthews didn’t disappoint, as the switch-hitter drove in what proved to be the winning run on a triple in the eighth inning to help lead the Angels to a come-from-behind 5-3 win over the Twins.

Matthews entered having just three at-bats in the Angels’ previous 11 games but proved to be the hero Sunday by getting the winning hit.

Matthews, though, laced a 2-2 fastball down the right-field line to score Guerrero while legging out a triple, much to the delight of the 40 thousand plus fans, with their Anaheim Angels merchandise on, at Angel Stadium. He later scored on Juan Rivera’s sacrifice fly to give the Angels a two-run cushion.

“This team has played so well, the last thing I want to do is take away what we’re trying to accomplish on the field,” Matthews said. “You let your personal feelings and your situation take a backseat because we’re having such a tremendous year as a team.”

The Angels added another run in the seventh before Teixeira was back to his heroics in the eighth, when he opened the inning with a double. He then scored the tying run on a rare triple by Guerrero that bounced off the center-field wall.

Carlos Zambrano has come out of games because he’s thrown too many pitches, because he’s given up too many runs, and even because of cramps caused by either too much time on the computer or dehydration.

However, on Thursday, the problem was a cracked molar.

“I’ve been out to the mound many times to check pitchers’ injuries,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of a visit in the fifth inning, “but never for a cracked molar. We needed a dentist.”

Zambrano spit out the tooth and stayed in the game. He didn’t need much help as he almost single-handedly beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2. The right-hander hit his fourth home run, and gave up one run over seven innings for the win, ending his three-game winless streak. On Friday, he’ll get his tooth fixed.

It was just another “Cubby occurrence,” a phenomenon Piniella has discovered in his nearly two years in Chicago, whether referring to the Cubs players or fans in the stands with Chicago Cubs merchandise.

“That was a first for me and a first for the umpires,” Piniella said.

The Cubs had not been worried about Zambrano’s oral hygiene lately, just his pitching mechanics. He was winless in three August starts, and had been rushing his delivery. Against the Reds, he was back in sync, and the Cubs were able to win their seventh straight series.