His ninth-inning grand slam couldn't have been bigger for the San Diego Padres on Thursday night in Houston.
Amarista's first major league home run capped a six-run rally in the ninth inning off Houston closer Brett Myers and lifted the Padres to a 7-3 win over the Astros.
The victory ended a streak of 119 straight losses by the Padres when they trailed after eight innings.
Amarista, 23, laughed when asked if people should be surprised that he can hit a home run.
"I play hard and I don't know what they think," he said through a translator. "I just like to play ball hard."
Padres manager Bud Black said: "Even though he's slight of stature, he takes a rip. He got a pitch sort of middle in, and he turned on it. He's always ready to hit."
Dodgers: Los Angeles has committed $42 million to a 21-year-old Cuban defector who hasn't played organized baseball in more than a year, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The team has agreed with outfielder Yasiel Puig on a seven-year contract, the newspaper said. It's believed to be the most lucrative contract ever awarded to a Cuban amateur.
The deal is pending the results of a physical examination and the approval of Major League Baseball.
Mariners: Center fielder Franklin Gutierrez left Thursday night's game against Boston after an errant pickoff attempt hit him on the right side of his face.
Gutierrez immediately fell to the ground and was face down for several minutes before being helped back to the clubhouse. Gutierrez has missed most of this season with chest and foot injuries.
Diamondbacks: Right-hander Daniel Hudson believes he has a full tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow but won't declare his season is over until he gets a second opinion from Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles on Friday.
"It was a shock," he said in a conference call with reporters on Thursday. "It's something nobody wants to hear. Probably the worst news you can get."
Hudson said that he has "a significant tear in there, it looks like."
  • Trevor Bauer strained his groin in his major league debut for Arizona and had to leave after pitching the first four innings.
    "I had my good stuff for the first two innings," Bauer said. "I was locating the ball well, and my breaking ball had a good bite to it, but when the third inning came along, my control went everywhere. It was like a tale of two pitchers."
    Bauer, the No. 3 overall draft pick in 2011, did not receive a decision. He was called up from Triple-A Reno earlier in the day.
    Costly error: A California man has pleaded guilty in a New York court to trying to sell for $200,000 a 19th-century baseball glove he falsely claimed belonged to Babe Ruth.
    Irving Scheib entered the plea to a count of wire fraud in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday.
    The government says the Bonsall, Calif., resident bought the glove on eBay for $750 in January. It says he then claimed the late "Father Knows Best" actor Robert Young had gotten the glove.
    The government says Scheib is married to one of the actor's granddaughters.
    Prosecutors say Scheib was caught after an investigator posed as a New York buyer. The 50-year-old Scheib faces up to 20 years in prison on Oct. 30.
    Dykstra to plead guilty: Former New York Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra has agreed to plead guilty to three counts stemming from a bankruptcy fraud case in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
    Dykstra will plead guilty to one count each of bankruptcy fraud, concealment of assets and money laundering, said a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. Dykstra faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
    Dykstra, who bought a mansion once owned by hockey star Wayne Gretzky, filed for bankruptcy three years ago, claiming he owed more than $31 million and had only $50,000 in assets.
    AP