The Dodgers, with a five-run ninth-inning rally at Chase Field, beat the Diamondbacks, 6-5, and move into a flat-footed tie (48-50) with Arizona for first place in the National League West. Andre Ethier has the key hit in the comeback victory, a go-ahead triple off the center-field wall, as D-Back closer Brandon Lyon, pitching in his third consecutive game, couldn’t hold a three-run lead.

2008 – Confusion erupts in a New York-Penn League game between the Staten Island Yankees and Brooklyn Cyclones. Switch-hitting Brooklyn DH Ralph Henriquez Jr. steps to the plate from the right side against Pat Venditte, the minor leagues’ first ambidextrous pitcher of the century. Henriquez then decides he will hit left-handed and Venditte promptly switches his glove to the right hand. Henriquez again calls time and switches sides. The shuffle continues several times before the umpires and managers decide that the batter must declare first from which side he will bat and that players can only switch once per at-bat. Venditte, throwing from the right side, winds up whiffing Henriquez on four pitches.

2008 – Back from the All-Star break, the Brewers get a complete game win from C.C. Sabathia – just as they did in their last game before the break. Sabathia becomes the first hurler since Wilbur Wood in 1975 to get complete game wins in consecutive games without his team playing a contest in between. Wood accomplished the feat under similar circumstances.

Recently released Richie Sexson signs with the Yankees. The Bronx Bombers are hoping the former Mariners’ first baseman, who has the lowest batting average in the major leagues, hitting just .218 overall but .344 against lefties, can add a potent bat when the club faces southpaws.

In the last concert hosted at Shea Stadium, Billy Joel gets a little help from his friends as Paul McCartney joins him on stage and sings “I Saw Her Standing There,” to a tremendous ovation from the sold-out crowd of 55,000 stunned fans. ‘Sir Paul’ tells the crowd the Beatles had a ‘blast’ playing at Shea that night in 1965, the year after the Mets home ballpark opened.

The Phillies trade minor league prospects Adrian Cardenas, Josh Outman, and Matthew Spencer to Oakland for right-hander Joe Blanton. The A’s Opening Day starter, who is currently 5-12 with a 4.96 ERA, is expected to deepen Philadelphia’s rotation.

The Oakland A’s trade struggling Joe Blanton (5-12, 4.96) for prospects Adrian Cardenas and Josh Outman as well as minor leaguer Matt Spencer. Outman is having a productive year in AA and Cardenas is hitting .309 with 16 steals in 16 tries in high A ball.

Lou Gehrig’s wool warm-up jacket, given to Marion and Ray Parker in 1941, friends of the Yankee first baseman and his wife Eleanor, is won with a $325,000 bid at the Hunt Auctions site at the All-Star FanFest at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The heavy team jacket, most likely, is the one he wore to bring out the Yankee lineup card at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium in 1939, on the day his streak of 2,130 consecutive games ended.