L.A. Lakers at Houston9:30 tonight, ESPN

Series tied 1-1

Say what you will about Lakers

PG Derek Fisher, he’s not usually

accused of being dumb. But, as

former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy

told SN Today, “What Derek Fisher

did in Game 2 was very, very dumb.”

Indeed, Fisher was suspended for

tonight’s Lakers-Rockets Game 3 in

Houston after chucking Rockets PF Luis

Scola in Game 2. After a series of near

fisticuffs and brouhahas broke out in

Game 2, this is one to keep an eye on.

— Sean Deveney

Washington at Pittsburgh7 tonight, Versus

Capitals lead series 2-1

Pittsburgh’s Game 3 overtime

win over Washington shifted the

series momentum to the Penguins.

They’re playing better hockey than

the Capitals and will enjoy home-

ice advantage again tonight.

But for those who are excited

about how Pittsburgh played

Wednesday, Washington coach

Bruce Boudreau offers a subtle

reminder that his Capitals are still

up 2-1 in the series.

“They outplayed us (Wednesday)

for sure, but I’d much rather be

where I am right now than where

they are,” Boudreau said. — Craig Custance

Favre: No thanksBrett Favre reportedly has

decided to stay retired rather

than take a shot with the Vikings.

Ten reasons Favre should stay on

the farm. Page 31

Vikings coach reportedly never

got face-to-face meeting. Page 30

BILL KOSTROUN / AP

NHL PLAYOFFS

NBA PLAYOFFS

MARK AVERY / AP

Johan Franzen, left, had two goals and an assist as the Red Wings beat Anaheim and tied the Western Conference semifinal series 2-2.Page 22

FRIDAY

MAY 8, 2009

SEE A DIFFERENT GAME

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 290

ScoreboardNBA Playoffs Eastern Conference semifinals

Cleveland 105, Atlanta 85

(Cleveland leads series 2-0)

NHL Playoffs Western Conference semifinals

Chicago 2, Vancouver 1, OT

(Series tied 2-2)

Detroit 6, Anaheim 3

(Series tied 2-2)

Baseball American League

Kansas City 3, Seattle 1

Oakland 9, Texas 4

Tampa Bay 8, N.Y. Yankees 6

Baltimore 5, Minnesota 4

Boston 13, Cleveland 3

Chicago White Sox 6, Detroit 0

L.A. Angels 6, Toronto 1

National League

Atlanta 4, Florida 2

St. Louis 5, Pittsburgh 2

San Francisco 8, Colorado 3

San Diego 4, Arizona 3, 10 innings

Cincinnati 6, Milwaukee 5

N.Y. Mets 7, Philadelphia 5

Chicago Cubs 8, Houston 5

Washington 11, L.A. Dodgers 9

MLB > 5 NFL > 30 NBA > 27 NHL > 21 NASCAR > 37 COLLEGE FOOTBALL > 36 COLLEGE BASKETBALL > 35 RECRUITING > 4QUICK LINKS:

You’re out!BY STAN MCNEAL | smcneal@sportingnews.com

Hours after the Los Angeles Dodgers improved to a major-league best 21-8 and broke a 98-year-old major league record for best home

start, their world was rocked. Manny Ramirez, their best player, was suspended 50 games for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

Repercussions will be felt by Ramirez, his team and the sport.

The fallout of Manny’s 50-game sitting streak

More Manny Will Leitch: Fans don’t know

what to think anymore, Page 5

Stan McNeal: Dodgers are still

the team to beat, Page 6

Dodgers react: Ramirez thinks

he let team down, Torre says, Page 10

Big mistakeRamirez said in a statement that he took a doctor-

prescribed drug that “unfortunately” was on the banned list. The New York Daily News reported Ramirez tested positive for a drug known for return-ing testosterone to normal levels after steroid use. Major League Baseball said only that Ramirez was suspended for a violation of its drug policy.

After waiving his right to appeal, Ramirez will be eligible to return July 3.

Baseball’s black eyeA day after one superstar was disciplined,

another blemished superstar, Alex Rodriguez, is expected to return the Yankees’ lineup. And the

list of tarnished reputations that already includes Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens continues to grow.

“I’m not surprised,” former commis-sioner Fay Vincent told Sporting News

Today. “I think the problem has been pervasive for a long, long time.”

Baseball can take solace in one way from Ramirez’s suspension: No one can accuse the game of not punish-ing its superstars.

“MLB is doing its part to get rid of the cheaters,” Padres closer Heath Bell told SN Today. “If you come up positive, they’re going to bang you whether or not you’re a $25 million player.”

Dodgers will miss himThe Dodgers say they “will welcome back” Ramirez

when he is eligible to return. Until then, the club can rely on a still-potent offense that leads the N.L. in runs, a pitching staff anchored by emerging ace Chad Billings-ley, a solid bullpen and a defense that allowed only one unearned run in the team’s first 29 games.

The Dodgers also will benefit from playing in the weak N.L. West—a division they probably would have been favored to win even if they hadn’t re-signed Ramirez.

JEFF

CHI

U / A

P

AUTO RACING8 a.m.SPEED—Formula One, practice for Spanish Grand Prix, at Barcelona, Spain11:30 a.m.SPEED—NASCAR, Sprint Cup, practice for Southern 500, at Darlington, S.C.1:30 p.m.SPEED—NASCAR, Sprint Cup, “Happy Hour Series,” final practice for Southern 500, at Darlington, S.C.3 p.m.SPEED—NASCAR, Nationwide Series, pole qualifying for Diamond Hill Plywood 200, at Darlington, S.C.5 p.m.SPEED—NASCAR, Sprint Cup, pole qualifying for Southern 500, at Darlington, S.C.7:30 p.m.ESPN2—NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Diamond Hill Plywood 200, at Darlington, S.C.

BOXING10 p.m.ESPN2—Middleweights, Brian Vera (16-2-0) vs. Craig McEwan (14-0-0), at Fort Worth, Texas (same-day tape)

GOLF9:30 a.m.TGC—European PGA Tour, Italian Open, second round, at Turin, Italy

1 p.m.TGC—PGA Tour, THE PLAYERS Championship, second round, at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

2 p.m.ESPN2—LPGA, Michelob ULTRA Open, second round, at Williamsburg, Va.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL8 p.m.WGN— Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee

NBABASKETBALL7 p.m.ESPN—Playoffs, conference semifinals, Game 3, Boston at Orlando

9:30 p.m.ESPN—Playoffs, conference semifinals, Game 3, L.A. Lakers at Houston

NHL HOCKEY7 p.m.VERSUS—Playoffs, Eastern Conference semifinals, Game 4, Washington at Pittsburgh

9:30 p.m.VERSUS—Playoffs, Eastern Conference semifinals, Game 4, Boston at Carolina (joined in progress)

NBA

Lakers at Rockets9:30 p.m., ESPN

Physicality has been a big part of the first two games of this series, and now the Lakers will have to play without one of their starters because of it. PG Derek Fisher is suspended from tonight’s game after trying to run through a Luis Scola pick in Game 3. With Fisher’s pen-chant for hitting big shots, that is a big blow for Los Angeles and it puts additional pressure on Kobe Bryant. The only pressure on Houston is to hold the home-court edge it stole with its Game 1 win.

NHL

Capitals at Penguins7 p.m., Versus

Pittsburgh fans finally had an Evgeni Malkin sighting in Game 3, so it’s not surprising to see the Penguins win that contest and hold serve in this hotly contested best-of-7 matchup. The Penguins need to keep peppering Capitals rookie Simeon Varlamov, who has seen 32 more shots than has his counterpart, Marc-Andre Fleury. And despite some morbid comments from one fan, Alex Ovechkin will be part of a Capitals team trying to go up 3-1.

BASEBALL

Cubs at Brewers8 p.m., WGN

The Brewers started slowly, but they’ve gone 12-4 in their past 16 games, getting better than expected starting pitching to complement their potent lineup. During this run, Milwaukee has taken advantage of some lesser teams, so a series against the Cubs is a much better indica-tor of their talent. Dave Bush, who has had four quality outings in his first five starts, faces call-up Randy Wells, who is taking the turn of injured ace Carlos Zambrano.

— Compiled by Roger Kuznia

The Dolphins and minority investor Jimmy Buffett will announce today the renaming of Dolphin Stadium as Land Shark Stadium, after the beer brewed by Anheuser-Busch under a license with the entertainer’s Margaritaville market-ing arm, SportsBusiness Journal’s Terry Lefton reported.

The next Pro Bowl and Super Bowl are scheduled to be played in the facility, but the NFL will not allow the Land Shark name to be used during its jewel events. The facility will revert to being called Dolphin Stadium next January, so, in essence, Land Shark Stadium will be an eight-month naming-rights deal, though sources noted there are other consider-ations in the deal, including Buffet per-formances at the stadium and a possible Margaritaville Lounge in the venue.

Go to game, catch a movieThe Brewers will turn a parking lot at

Miller Park into a drive-in movie theater this summer, erecting a full-size screen, transmitting the movie’s audio to car radios and offering concessions from Klement’s Sausage Haus, the Business Journal of Milwaukee’s Mark Kass reported. On June 5, Anchorman will lead off followed by Jaws. On June 6, The Sandlot kicks off with Major League fol-lowing. The movies for Aug. 7-8 have not been announced.

Quick hits Pepsi’s Amp Energy has launched

Tradin’ Paint, its new Dale Earnhardt Jr.-themed energy drink, SportsBusiness Daily reported. The drink will be avail-able nationwide through the end of the summer in 16-ounce cans that feature the same paint scheme as Earnhardt’s No. 88 Sprint Cup Chevy.

U.S. gold medal-winning gymnast

Shawn Johnson, one of four remaining celebrities on Dancing with the Stars, is the only athlete featured among People magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful People this year, SportsBusiness Daily reported.

IndyCar driver Danica Patrick has more than 2,000 followers on Twitter but has yet to post an update. Wrote the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dave Kall-mann: “Not sure what they’re following.”

Former Arizona State and Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller has filed a class-action lawsuit in Federal Court in Oak-land against Electronic Arts and the NCAA, alleging that athletes’ likenesses are “used in video games without their permission and in violation of NCAA rules,” Bloomberg News reported. An NCAA official said it is confident that no such use has occurred and that it will ultimately be dismissed from the lawsuit.

— SportsBusiness Daily, sportsbusinessdaily.com

— Compiled by Ken Bradley, with wire reports

Dolphin Stadium officially named Land Shark

AMY SANCETTA /AP

Gold-medal gymnast Shawn Johnson got an award from People magazine for her good looks.

Tune In Today OFF THE FIELD

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Rajon Rondo will play Game 3 against the Magic tonight, but folks are still talking about his first-round duel with the Bulls’ Derrick Rose. SN Magazine reveals why Rondo-Rose talk will continue.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 3My Profile

Channing CrowderDolphins linebacker

(What you won’t find on Facebook … even if you are approved as a friend)

Born: Dec. 2, 1983, in State College, Pa.Alma mater: FloridaWhat’s on TV: Family Guy, House, Iron Chef America, Chappelle’s ShowWhat’s in my iPod: Lil Wayne, Trick Daddy, Young Jeezy, Alicia KeysWhat I drive: 2007 Dodge RamFavorite flicks: The Program, Borat, Life, Any Given Sunday, all the Saw movies,

The Princess BrideWhat I’m reading: LT: Over The Edge, by Lawrence Taylor; The BibleBookmarks: None. Don’t own a computer.Superstitions: Don’t split poles; listen to the same play list before every

game; mess with Ronnie Brown before game startsWorst habits: Cussing people out; drinking out of milk cartonOn my office walls: Pictures of my dog named LT—after Lawrence Taylor—

and pictures of my two nieces and two nephews.Love to trade places for a day with … Hugh Hefner. Obvious. First job: Cashier at a Cub Foods, a grocery store in Atlanta. I was 16 years

old. I made $6.15 an hour. Got fired for eating cookies on the job.Favorite meal: Snow crab legsTalent I’d most like to have: Play the piano Favorite athletes to watch in other sports: Chris Paul and Tiger WoodsFavorite city to visit: Miami Favorite team as a kid: Tampa Bay BuccaneersFavorite value in others: HonestyDream date: Alicia KeysMy greatest love: My familyMy hero: My motherMy bucket list: 1. Win a Super Bowl, 2. Go to Pro Bowl, 3. Have 6-plus kids, 4. Get

married, 5. Watch my kids get college degreesMy motto: Clothes optional!

— Jeff D’Alessio

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Shadle Park (Spokane, Wash.) TE Jake Rodgers has committed to Washington State, Rivals.com reported. The 6-6, 245-pounder also reported interest from Stanford, Washington, Oregon and Oregon State, among others. Rodgers is the school’s third commit-ment of the year.

“Washington, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Wyoming and Idaho were interested in Jake,” Shadle Park coach Mark Hester told Rivals.com. “But nobody committed to recruiting him like Washington State did ... He has been down to Washington State to visit several times. There are a number of reasons why Jake liked them. It is close to home, it is an up-and-coming program; they are recruiting him to play tight end, which is what he wants to play in college.”

Michigan QB commitment Devin Gardner—a Sport-ing News Top 100 player—told SN Today that he gained most valuable player honors at a Cincinnati combine last weekend. The 6-4, 200-pound Gardner, from Inkster (Detroit), was electronically timed at 4.57 sec-onds in the 40-yard dash. Nearly 200 athletes attended the combine. Gardner also added that he enjoyed the Michigan spring game, and estimates that he signed between 200 and 300 autographs, which was a new experience for the rising senior.

LSU commitment Brandon Worle told SN Today that he has received a scholarship offer from in-state Geor-gia, but added, “I’m still strong at LSU.” Worle is a 6-1, 240-pound fullback out of LaGrange, Ga. … Also, SN100 RB Giovanni Bernard, out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has received a scholarship offer from Alabama, he told SN Today. He is uncommitted, and has more than 20 offers.

Summitt (Mansfield, Texas) TE Eric Waters has decided to check out other schools and is no longer a solid commitment to Missouri, Scout.com reported. The 6-4, 215-pound tight end also has scholarship offers from Baylor and Kansas.

“They are still on top of my list, but I want to explore other options,” Waters told Scout.com. “They weren’t

happy, but I think they understood. I told them they are still very high on my list.”

IN HOOPS: Bellaire (Houston) SG Sheldon McClellan became the second Texas commitment of the 2011 class, giving the Longhorns his word this week, Rivals.com reported. The 6-5 McClellan also had scholarship offers from Texas A&M, Baylor and Penn State.

“There were a lot of schools on me, but Texas showed me the most interest and I was ready to commit,” McClellan told Rivals.com. “They have a lot of great players and Coach (Rick) Barnes is a great coach. They have a chance to win it next year with Avery Bradley and Jordan Hamilton coming in. So by the time I get there, the team will be set, and I will fit in where they need me, and I’ll be ready to win, too.”

— Brian McLaughlin

RECRUITING DISH

TE prospect Rodgers gives word to Wash. State

Washington State coach Paul Wulff has landed a top prep TE.

TED S. WARREN / AP

MANNY RAMIREZ SUSPENDED

My shock about learning that Manny Ramirez had been suspended lasted about 30 seconds. I don’t mean that in the way most people say it wasn’t “shocking,” as part of an overarching point about how You Can’t Trust Anything In Baseball Any-more. I mean that I was shocked, and then I

wasn’t: The shock was so quick, so fleeting, so dis-posable. The story had progressed to its next phase in less than a minute.

This is how things work now. I spent this last Mon-day with Selena Roberts, author of the new biogra-phy/HORRIBLE SCAN-

DAL OF A BOOK! about Alex Rodriguez, following her around her media tour for a story for New York magazine.

Three months ago, Roberts had broken the story that Alex Rodriguez had tested positive for an anabolic steroid in 2003, and every media organization ran with the story and absolutely buried A-Rod, partic-ularly after his shambling, bewildered con-fessions/press conferences afterwards. But that was two months ago.

Monday, I watched as Roberts and her book were eviscerated, mostly for using the same anonymous sourcing everyone thought worked just fine two months ago. (One particularly loathsome radio host demanded an answer for “trying to ruin A-Rod’s life for your own benefit.”)

Our target no longer was A-Rod; it was Roberts. What had changed in that time? How did we switch so fast? We got tired of A-Rod, we got tired of steroids, we got tired of it all. We just wanted it to go away. We inadvertently set up an A-Rod Redemption Arc. Roberts’ book was inconvenient. It was in the way.

This is going to happen to Manny Ramirez, too. He’ll be disgraced but only for a while. Sure, there will be discussions for years on what his numbers mean, whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame, all the things that make baseball so special

and “pure,” all the things that will never let baseball get out of its own way.

But eventually, we’ll move on to the next outrage. So much has happened so quickly that we keep veering all over the place, unable to settle on a direction before we

have to radically yank the wheel again. It’s Bonds! It’s Palmeiro! It’s A-Rod! It’s Manny! It’s impossible to follow it.

So does Manny’s testing positive mean we overreacted to Bonds? Or were we too kind to him? Do we have to hate Manny

now? Is the game still supposedly ruined? No one knows what to think anymore.

The only rational response is to stop thinking.

(Mind you: There’s the delicious possibil-ity that the defense some close to Manny are using—that Manny took a drug for sex-ual enhancement that, unbeknownst to him, was banned by Major League Baseball —is actually true. A future Hall of Famer, a lovable goofball, a true baseball original … everything he’d ever worked for being felled because he wanted to perform in the bedroom. Could there possibly be a more apt turn for Manny Ramirez’s saga to take?)

Seriously, it’s time to let it go. I’m tired of it, we’re all tired of it. We’ll never really know what happened during the “Steroid Era,” who was using, who wasn’t. Some of you—most of you will be media members—will be driven mad by this fact. Most of you will not. Most of you will recognize that baseball is a sport. It’s entertainment. It’s something that can move us, touch our hearts, inspire us, connect generations. But it’s still just a bunch of guys wearing funny outfits swinging a stick and running around a square.

We find joy in this for myriad reasons. It is meaningful. But it is not everything. And it is not a morality play. When we keep try-ing to make it into one, we get the whiplash we have now, the We Hate A-Rod/We Defend A-Rod, the We Love Manny!/Manny Betrayed Us! nonsense that never, ever seems to end.

This game is really, really fun. And it’s the same game it’s always been. The only people who can take that away from us: us.

— Will Leitch is the author of three books, including God Save the

Fan. He is the founding editor of Deadspin, a contributing editor at

New York magazine and a regular columnist for Sporting News

Magazine. Get more of his opinions at leitch.tumblr.com.

Ramirez sits out, but we keep playing our games

Will LeitchBASEBALL

KATHY WILLENS / AP

As Alex Rodriguez, right, returns from hip surgery and his own admission of banned substance use, Manny Ramirez heads off for a 50-game suspension for using a PED.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 5Baseball

MANNY RAMIREZ SUSPENDED

“This is significant.” That was the assessment of a Dodgers

scout who was in the press box at Busch Stadium when he heard about what the Los Angeles Times first reported Thursday morning: Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez had been suspended for 50 games

for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs and would be out until July 3.

Well, yes, significant it is. That might be an understatement along the lines of saying Manny needs a haircut or that a few baseball players might have used steroids.

But losing their best hitter and the face of the franchise might not be as catastrophic to the Dodgers’ playoff hopes as you would think. If any division leader can weather 50 games without its best hitter, the Dodgers might be that team.

Based on their statement of support Thursday, the Dodgers have no intention of trying to get out of the $45 million contract they gave Manny. He cheated, he got caught. Now hurry back. “We will welcome Manny back upon his return,” the club said in statement. Never mind that the Dodgers’ reputation could be tarnished for promot-ing a proven cheater.

Their season is off to such a great start. They went into Thursday night’s game against the Nationals with a major-league best 21-8 record and a record 13-0 start at home. Even if it is only early May, being 13 games over .500 is a nice cushion in a

division that the Dodgers won last season at only six games over .500.

Even more noteworthy is their competi-tion in the N.L. West. It’s not exactly the best. In fact, even without Manny, the Dodgers still have the best offense in the majors’ weakest-hitting division. Second baseman Orlando Hudson might not keep his average around .340 without Manny hitting behind him. Outfielder Andre Eth-ier probably won’t average nearly an RBI per game without Manny hitting in front of him. But the Dodgers still have a lineup with no real weak links.

With Manny, the Dodgers were leading the N.L. in runs, hits, walks, on-base per-centage and not having to bat in the ninth inning. Without Manny, they still went into Thursday’s game with three players with 20 or more runs scored. The rest of the division had one: Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

Manny’s replacement, Juan Pierre, won’t hit six homers all season—Manny’s total to date—but he has been yearning to play every day. Now that he has a chance, Pierre will do everything he can to make the most of it. In Pierre’s rare starts to date, he has hit ninth to give the Dodgers the Tony La Russa look of two leadoff hitters. For what it’s worth, Pierre also will be an upgrade in the field.

Xavier Paul, 24, was called up to take Manny’s roster spot. Paul is a 6-0, 195-pound, lefthanded-hitting outfielder, and the Dodgers’ scout called him a Shane Vic-torino-type. Paul is considered one of the club’s better outfield prospects with plus power potential, and he was hitting .344

for Class AAA Albuquerque.Although the Dodgers’ pitching has had

trouble keeping up with their offense, the staff—outside of the back of the rotation—has held its own. Chad Billingsley, 5-0 with a 2.21 ERA, is pitching like a legitimate No. 1, and Jonathan Broxton looks like a top-flight closer. The bullpen, a question com-ing in, ranked second in the N.L. with a 3.09 ERA before Thursday’s game. The pitching has been helped by a defense that has allowed only one unearned run in the first 29 games.

The Dodger who will be under the most pressure is manager Joe Torre. He is the one responsible for making sure the team doesn’t come apart in Manny’s absence. With Torre at the helm, there should be few worries. No manager is better at keep-ing pressure off of his players than Torre. No manager is better at keeping his team on even keel. No manager has more expe-rience dealing with such distractions.

After the Dodgers’ homestand ends Sun-day, they will embark on a tough part of their schedule. They will travel to Philadel-phia and Florida before playing host to the Mets and Angels. All those games come before June.

That still leaves 34 games before Manny’s scheduled return for a series at San Diego on July 3. By then, there’s a good chance the Dodgers’ lead might not be the biggest in baseball.

But they still will have Manny for the season’s final three months. Last year, they did OK with him for only the final two months.

smcneal@sportingnews.com

Don’t expect panic move from Manny-less Dodgers

Stan McNealBASEBALL

CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP

Juan Pierre, above, can’t make up for the power production of Manny Ramirez, but he’ll outplay him in left field.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 6Baseball

BY BILL EICHENBERGERbeichenberger@sportingnews.com

NEW YORK—The Yankees were digesting the news of Dodgers out-fielder Manny Ramirez’s 50-game suspension for a failed drug test when manager Joe Girardi made an announcement of his own. Girardi confirmed that Yankees third base-man Alex Rodriguez, who admitted earlier this year that he used ste-roids from 2001-03, would return to the team tonight in Baltimore.

Even for the Yankees, for whom controversy and sudden twists and turns are the norm, this was a jar-ring sequence of events. The elation over Rodriguez’s return from hip surgery was tempered by what Ramirez’s failed test meant to the integrity of their sport.

“It doesn’t look good,” Yankees captain Derek Jeter said of the Ramirez revelation. “It seems like it’s a never-ending thing. That’s what it has seemed like of late. You want to put it behind you, but then you have something like this come up. It’s another black eye. That’s the best way you can put it.”

Jeter said he still is surprised when a player fails a drug test. “Obviously, you’re shocked,” he said. “It’s not like I assume everyone is doing it.”

Yankee outfielder Johnny Damon said the news about Ramirez, his for-mer teammate with the Red Sox, sur-prised and disappointed him—but not as much as the similar news about Rodriguez earlier this year. “I’m not sure that you can be too surprised about anyone anymore,” Damon said. “But the steroid allegations against A-Rod, that was the biggest surprise

to me. Now another one of our great players has gotten in trouble.”

Damon said Rodriguez and Ramirez have something in common that makes their decision to allegedly use performance-enhancing drugs difficult to understand. Both are so hard-working and gifted, Damon said, it is difficult to understand why they’d feel the need to cheat. “Manny was such a talented hitter. He made things look easy. But he did his homework, the videos that he watched, the hard work that he put in on the field and off the field. I didn’t think he needed an edge.”

Yankees first baseman Mark Teix-eira said Ramirez’s suspension is fair warning for every player in baseball. “We have the strict testing. If anyone

is messing around with it now, they are going to get caught,” he said.

Girardi said there should be no confusion about the drug-testing rules and regulations. “It’s talked about the first day of spring train-ing,” he said. “We always say, ‘No matter what you take, you better let one of our doctors or trainers know so that you know it’s safe.’ ’’

Damon said he hopes Ramirez’s failed test won’t tarnish what they accomplished as teammates on the 2004 Red Sox, winning the franchise’s first World Series since 1918. “I would love to know that we went through that season and played fair, that every-thing we won we won the right way. I would love for it to come out that way.’’

But now he can’t be sure.

MANNY RAMIREZ SUSPENDED

MLB drug suspensionsPlayers that have been suspended for violations of the Major League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program since it was established in 2005:

2009May 7—Manny Ramirez, OF, L.A. Dodgers, 50 games, banned substance.March 23—x-Kelvin Pichardo, P, San Francisco, 50 games, performance.Jan. 6—x-Sergio Mitre, P, N.Y. Yankees, 50 games, perfor-mance.Jan. 6—J.C. Romero, P, Philadelphia, 50 games, performance.

2008Nov. 11—x-Henry Owens, P, Florida, 50 games, perfor-mance.May 28—x-Humberto Cota, C, Colorado, 50 games, perfor-mance.April 30—x-Eliezer Alfonzo, C, San Francisco, 50 games, performance.2007Dec. 6—z-Jay Gibbons, OF, Baltimore, 15 days, perfor-mance.Dec. 6—z-Jose Guillen, OF, Kansas City, 15 days, perfor-mance.Nov. 27—Dan Serafini, P, free agent, 50 games, perfor-mance.Oct. 31—Mike Cameron, OF, free agent, 25 games, stimu-lant.Sept. 7—Ryan Jorgensen, C, Cincinnati, 50 games, viola-tion.Aug. 3—Neifi Perez, INF, Detroit, 80 games, stimulant.July 6—Neifi Perez, INF, Detroit, 25 games, stimulant.May 7—Juan Salas, P, Tampa Bay, 50 games, performance.2006Nov. 1—Guillermo Mota, P, free agent, 50 games, perfor-mance.June 12—y-Jason Grimsley, P, Arizona, 50 games, perfor-mance.April 28—x-Yusaku Iriki, P, N.Y. Mets, 50 games, perfor-mance.2005Nov. 2—Matt Lawton, OF, free agent, 10 days, perfor-mance.Oct. 18—Felix Heredia, P, N.Y. Mets, 10 days, performance.Oct. 4—Carlos Almanzar, P, Texas, 10 days, performance.Sept. 7—Mike Morse, INF-OF, Seattle, 10 days, perfor-mance.Aug. 2—Ryan Franklin, P, Seattle, 10 days, performance.Aug. 1—Rafael Palmeiro, INF, Baltimore, 10 days, perfor-mance.July 8—Rafael Betancourt, P, Cleveland, 10 days, perfor-mance.May 2—Juan Rincon, P, Minnesota, 10 days, unavailable.April 26—Jamal Strong, OF, Seattle, 10 days, performance.April 20—Agustin Montero, P, Texas, 10 days, unavailable.April 11—Jorge Piedra, OF, Colorado, 10 days, unavailable.April 3—Alex Sanchez, OF, Tampa Bay, 10 days, performance.x-Tested positive while on the 40-man roster.y-Was released by Arizona on June 7; suspension would begin upon his placement to a 40-man roster.z-Eliminated with April 2008 drug agreement between Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association.

It’s like deja vu all over again for Yankees

Manny Ramirez’s drug suspension surprised a number of major league players.

DAVID ZALUBOWSKI / AP

A-Rod to play in Baltimore todayNEW YORK—Alex Rodriguez will

make his season debut for the New York Yankees tonight in Baltimore, joining a team that desperately needs some timely hitting.

The Yankees announced that A-Rod would rejoin the team on Thursday, a few hours after the All-Star third baseman played in his final rehab game in Florida.

He went 0-for-2 with two walks and put in three innings of defense, then took some extra ground balls and batting practice.

“We’re all very encouraged that he’s doing well and we’re all anxious to get him back,” said manager Joe Girardi, who learned of the decision shortly before the Yankees wrapped up a two-game series against Tampa Bay. “We would have taken him back five weeks ago, if we could.”

Rodriguez had surgery March 9 to repair torn cartilage in his right hip, and has recovered more quickly than expected. The Yan-kees had initially set a target date for his return of May 15.

“A lot of us had a hard time wrap-ping our arms around it, that it was actually physically possible, because we hadn’t seen a player come back this quick from that kind of surgery,” Girardi said. “But now that we’re to this point, it’s kind of exciting.”

The three-time A.L. MVP spent much of his rehab assignment facing questions about a biography released this week that suggests he used per-formance-enhancing drugs in high school and also may have taken them after he became a Yankee in 2004.

Rodriguez hasn’t commented about the book.

He admitted earlier this year to taking steroids when he was a

member of the Texas Rangers from 2001-03.

On Thursday, he shook hands and thanked support staff at the Yankees’ minor league complex in Tampa following the intrasquad game.

A-Rod credited Dr. Marc Philip-pon, who operated on the hip, and Dr. Mark Lindsay, a soft-tissue expert who has worked with him daily in Florida, for the success of his rehab program.

“They have worked (hard) with me,” Rodriguez said. “Philippon did a good job with the surgery. I feel blessed.”

His return comes at an oppor-tune time for the Yankees, who have struggled to find key hits. They’re 4-for-32 with runners in scoring position during a four-game slide, and their 13-14 start after a big offseason spending spree already has put some heat on Girardi and G.M. Brian Cashman.

“He adds to the team,” Derek Jeter told Sporting News Today’s Bill Eichenberger. But when he comes back, we have to guard against thinking that now every-thing is fine and dandy because he is back in the lineup. … He is going to help. He would help any team that he’s playing for because of what he is able to do. But it’s not like he’s back now and he’s the savior. Everyone else has to do their job.”

“We need some more produc-tion on the offensive side and Alex is the guy who could do it,” said outfielder Johnny Damon. “I mean, he’s definitely one of the best players around.”

— The Associated Press

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 7Baseball

MANNY RAMIREZ SUSPENDED

NEW YORK—Manny Ramirez joined a growing lineup of All-Stars linked to drugs Thursday, with the dread-locked slugger banished for 50 games by a sport that cannot shake free from scandal.

The Los Angeles Dodgers out-fielder was suspended by Major League Baseball, adding a further stamp to what will forever be known as the Steroids Era.

Ramirez said he did not take steroids and was given medication by a doctor that contained a banned substance. A person familiar with the details of the suspension said Ramirez used the female fertility drug HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin. The person spoke to The Associated Press on con-dition of anonymity because the banned substance wasn’t announced.

HCG is popular among steroid users because it can mitigate the side effects of ending a cycle of the drugs. The body may stop producing testos-terone when users go off steroids, which can cause sperm counts to decrease and testicles to shrink.

Ramirez’s suspension was based not on the test result but rather evi-dence obtained afterward, a second person familiar with the suspension said, speaking on condition of ano-nymity because those details were not released. MLB had concluded the spring test was positive, but the person said the players’ association would have challenged the result because of “testing issues.”

Ranked 17th on the career home run list with 533, Ramirez became the most prominent baseball player to be penalized for drugs. His ban came three months after Alex Rodri-guez admitted using steroids, and at

a time when Barry Bonds is under federal indictment and Roger Clem-ens is accused of lying to Congress about his own alleged steroid use.

No matter which way baseball turns, the legitimacy of many of its recent home run and pitching records are being questioned. Slug-gers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa have been tainted by steroid allegations, Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for a banned drug and Jose Canseco said he used them.

In every case, players once believed to be locks for the Hall of Fame may now be locked out.

“You can’t have arguably the great-est pitcher of our era, arguably the two greatest players of our era and now another very, very good player be under this cloud of suspicion and not feel like it has ruined it for everybody,” Atlanta star Chipper Jones said.

“But what are you going to do? You can’t be born in a different era. It is the Steroid Era,” he said.

And that prompted yet another apology from another ballplayer. The 36-year-old Ramirez told the Dodgers and fans he was sorry for “this whole situation.”

“Recently, I saw a physician for a per-sonal health issue. He gave me a medi-cation, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me,” Ramirez said in a statement issued by the players’ union.

“Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons.”

While Ramirez had little to say,

Canseco was quick to explain why someone might use HCG.

“It could be that a player used it because he used steroids and went cold-turkey and needed HCG to get his levels back to normal. I had to use it when I quit steroids cold-turkey,” said Canseco, who pleaded guilty last November to a misdemeanor of try-ing to bring HCG across the Mexican border into the United States illegally, told the AP. “I had to go to a doctor to get it and get my levels back.”

Because MLB imposed the sus-pension, the Dodgers cannot fur-ther discipline Ramirez.

“We share the disappointment felt by our fans, our players, and every member of our organization,” Dodgers chief executive officer Jamie McCourt said in a statement. “We will welcome

Manny back upon his return.”Ramirez was not mentioned in the

Mitchell Report in December 2007, MLB’s official report on drug use, and there had not been whispers that he was among the sport’s juiced players.

Rodriguez and Ramirez are the two highest-paid players in the majors. With this suspension, six of the top 17 home run hitters in history now have been covered by the cloud of performance-enhancing drugs.

“It’s kind of shocking that he got caught up in anything, honestly. Manny likes to play stupid, but he’s a pretty bright guy. And he’s defi-nitely aware of a lot of things that he tries to act like he’s completely oblivious to,” said Cincinnati pitcher Bronson Arroyo, Ramirez’s former Boston teammate.

Baseball added HCG to its list of banned substances last year. HCG is prescribed to stimulate female fertility and testosterone production in men and to treat delayed puberty in boys.

Reaction to Ramirez’s ban came swiftly, from major league club-houses to the White House.

“It’s a tragedy. It’s a shame. My sense is, it’s a great embarrassment on Major League Baseball,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

The penalty left the best team in the majors without its driving force and free spirit for nearly one-third of the season. Ramirez’s suspension began Thursday. Barring any post-ponements, he will be able to return to the Dodgers for the July 3 game at San Diego. Ramirez will lose $7,650,273 of his $25 million salary.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig couldn’t comment on the suspen-sion because of provisions of the management-union drug agree-ment, spokesman Rich Levin said.

Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, and the players’ association had gath-ered materials for a possible appeal to an arbitrator, but Ramirez decided not to file one because he didn’t want to risk missing signifi-cant time in the second half of the season, the person familiar with details of the suspension said. The union said merely that he waived his right to contest the suspension.

Ramirez is batting .348 with six home runs and 20 RBIs through the first 27 games of the season.

Losing Ramirez to suspension could be a huge blow financially for the Dodgers. The slugger has been single-handedly responsible for increasing attendance, merchandise sales and interest in the team, in addi-tion to helping it win the NL West after his late-season arrival in 2008.

Los Angeles even renamed a sec-tion of seats in left field at Dodger Stadium “Mannywood” in his honor. Hours after the suspension, the team removed a reference to those seats from its website.

In his statement, Ramirez addressed Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt, and manager Joe Torre.

“I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organi-zation, and to the Dodger fans,” Ramirez said. “LA is a special place to me, and I know everybody is dis-appointed. So am I. I’m sorry about this whole situation.”

— The Associated Press

Ramirez banished, but claims he didn’t take steroids

MARK J. TERRILL / AP

Hours after Manny Ramirez’s suspension, the Dodgers removed from their website a reference to the left-field seats called ‘Mannywood.’

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 8Baseball

MANNY RAMIREZ SUSPENDED

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was talking to reporters before Thursday’s game against Pittsburgh when a clubhouse attendant stuck his head in and said: “Manny Ramirez, 50 games.”

“You’re kidding me,” La Russa said.Then he checked the schedule to see

whether the Cardinals would be playing the Los Angeles Dodgers while Ramirez is out.

Reaction ranged from shock to self-interest across baseball and other sports after Major League Baseball suspended the slugger for 50 games for failing a drug test.

The commissioner’s office did not identify the substance; Ramirez said it was not ste-roids but a medication containing a banned substance that a doctor had given him.

“Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility,” he said in a statement released by the players’ union. “L.A. is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I’m sorry about this whole situation.”

At Fenway Park, where Ramirez played through his prime and became Boston’s first World Series MVP, the writer of his autho-rized biography happened to be giving a lunchtime talk when the news broke. “Inno-cent until proven guilty, and I don’t have all the facts,” said Jean Rhodes, the author of Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball’s Most Enigmatic Slugger.

Rhodes painted Ramirez as a quirky crafts-man who gave off an air of apathy but was diligent in his preparations.

That’s the assessment of Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who played with Ramirez on the 2004 team that ended Bos-ton’s 86-year World Series drought.

“I wouldn’t have been surprised if anybody in the game turned up on anything prior to ’04, but since ’04, I feel like the game’s been pretty clean,” Arroyo said.

“It’s kind of shocking that he got caught up in anything, honestly. Manny likes to play stupid, but he’s a pretty bright guy. And he’s

definitely aware of a lot of things that he tries to act like he’s completely oblivious to.”

The Red Sox declined to comment on the specifics of Ramirez’s suspension but added: “We staunchly support Major League Base-ball’s drug policy and commend the efforts associated with that program.”

When the Red Sox clubhouse opened Thursday afternoon, TVs were giving the lat-est developments and few players milled about.

“No comment about Manny,” slugger David Ortiz said, walking past reporters at his locker. “I play for Boston. Manny plays for L.A. Go and ask him.”

In his pregame meeting with the media, manager Terry Francona deflected three attempts for comment on Ramirez. The fourth question was about injuries.

“Bless you,” he told the reporter. “Thank

God we’ve got injuries.”Ramirez’s quirky side made him a fan

favorite for his early years in Boston, and it may have helped him become the Hall of Fame-caliber player who seemed unaffected by strikeouts, home runs and paychecks alike. But his uncaring attitude eventually wore thin on his teammates, and he was shipped to Los Angeles last summer.

He batted .396 with the Dodgers with 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 53 games and helped propel them to the playoffs.

“He’s a main cog, and he’s not going to be in play for a while,” Rockies manager Clint Hur-dle said. “We’ll see how that ball club handles that adversity. Can they win without him? I’m sure they feel confident that they can. But I know they’re a different team without him in the lineup.”

— The Associated Press

What they’re sayingReaction to Manny Ramirez’s 50-game suspension:

“I think the fans come to the game, whatever sport it is and they want their team to win. I don’t think they’re thinking about those things. ... I think they’re interested in their team winning. In any sport, not just baseball. So quote me on that. It’s not just baseball. When fans go to the park and they’re cheering for their team, they’re not standing up there in the seventh inning, in my opinion, thinking about whether a guy did something. I don’t believe that happens.”

— Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland

“In terms of high-profile cases, this shows baseball is getting more serious in terms of the testing program and that’s a good thing. ... Also, it is regrettable that the sport does not identify substances involved in positive cases. Baseball needs to be transparent.”

— WADA director general David Howman

“I hope you never hear me be accusational toward anybody because I know for a fact that some of these things with guys being suspended at the major league or minor league level are innocent as it gets. Of course, some of them are not, but I’m not the judge in this case.”

— Royals manager Trey Hillman

“When he was young, I definitely don’t think he was on steroids. ... In some ways I’m sad about it because I had him when

he was young. He’s a great talent. I look at Manny Ramirez like my son. I’ll wait to see exactly what it’s all about.”

— Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who

managed and coached Ramirez in the

minors and from 1994-2000 with the

Cleveland Indians

“Obviously it hurts me deeply. No. 1, I’m a huge fan, that’s for sure. So I think it’s just sad news for the game, no doubt about it. It’s just something that, you know, when I had Sega Genesis I used to be him. It’s just one of those things. What can we say? It’s definitely bad news, bad news—and bad news is never welcome.”

— Major league home run leader

Carlos Pena of the Tampa Bay Rays

“This is something regrettable because Manny is one of my favorite players and I thought his numbers, his average, his home runs and RBIs where clean.”

— Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal

“It’s unfortunate for the game when you have big names being suspended or being punished, but I hope people realize we’re doing all we can as players and as a sport in general to make sure we’re clean.”

— San Diego Padres pitcher Jake Peavy

“It’s too bad. He’s one of the star players. Nothing surprises me anymore. Unfortunate.”

— Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox

Slugger’s sanction shakes, shocks fellow MLBers

‘You’re kidding me,’ was Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa’s reaction when told of Manny Ramirez’s 50-game suspension.

CHARLES KRUPA / AP

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 9Baseball

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Washington 11, L.A. Dodgers 9

Nats score 10 runs in final 3 frames

Mannywood rocked by suspensionLOS ANGELES—A few months ago, during the

deadlocked negotiations between dread-locked slugger Manny Ramirez and the Los Angeles Dodgers, catcher Russell Martin boldly insisted the team could win without him if necessary.

Now, the Dodgers will get a chance to prove it.

Mannywood was rocked Thursday when the All-Star outfielder was suspended for 50 games for using a banned drug.

“Do I still think we can win without him? I think he makes us a better team when he’s with us, but without him we still have a good team and we’re still capable of winning us some ballgames,” Martin said before Thurs-day night’s loss to Washington.

“He’s one of the best hitters of all time, so it’s definitely going to be tough. But what can you do? You’ve just got to move on and keep plugging away. You have to take it either as a challenge, and that’s what we’re going to do,” he added.

Even before the first pitch of the game, Ramirez’s penalty had a noticeable effect. The Manny-style dreadlock hats that had been on sale at the concession stands at Chavez Ravine on Wednesday night had been pulled off at least one shelf. Other Manny-related memo-rabilia was missing, too.

The Dodgers said there may have been a misunderstanding with the Ramirez mer-chandise, but that it still was for sale. But more than one vendor said they were instructed not to sell any Manny merchan-dise until further notice.

Los Angeles manager Joe Torre said he called Ramirez and that the 36-year-old star called him back.

“He feels very badly. Right now he’s trying to gather his thoughts,” Torre said. “The worst thing I think a person can be is a disap-pointment to somebody else, and Manny feels like a disappointment,” Torre said.

Juan Pierre will replace Ramirez in left field, but he isn’t enjoying the circumstances surrounding his chance to play regularly

again.“I’ll pray for him and his family that they

get through this all OK, and I wish the best for them. That’s all I got,” Pierre said.

The defending N.L. West champions hold a 5½-game lead on San Francisco after Thurs-day’s loss to Washington. Ramirez is eligible to return July 3.

“It’s not like an injury, where we’re playing a guessing game wondering when he’s going to be coming back. We know we’re getting him back on a certain date,” said right fielder Andre Ethier, who started in Ramirez’s No. 3 spot in the order against Washington.

“But we’re not going to be looking forward to that date and saying if we just hold on until then, we’ll be all right. We’re going to keep going out there charging ahead and playing the game the way we’ve been doing the last

couple of weeks here. We have enough depth, talent and confidence to keep moving on here.”

Ramirez is batting .348 with six home runs and 20 RBIs through the first 27 games of the season. Acquired from Boston last July, his big bat propelled the Dodgers to the division title.

“Manny’s not in our lineup, so we can’t be concerned about Manny right now,” third-base coach Larry Bowa said. “There are 25 guys on the roster, and that’s what we’re wor-ried about right now. Hopefully when Manny comes hack, we’re still playing good baseball and he can contribute. But we’ve got some good players here. He hasn’t won all 21 games by himself.”

Ramirez ranks 17th all-time with 533 home runs. His carefree attitude made him popular with many local fans, and there was evidence all over the city how much the image-con-scious Dodgers were marketing him.

At the corner of Figueroa Street and 8th Street, for example, is an above-ground park-ing garage with a gigantic sign, big as life, with “MANNYWOOD” covering one entire side of the structure.

His presence loomed equally large in the lineup. With him leading the way, the Dodg-ers set a major league record with its 13th straight home win from the start of the sea-son Wednesday night.

“This is a team. This is not the ‘Los Angeles Mannys,’” said injured first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who played with Ramirez in Boston and won a World Series together in 2004.

“You can’t change what’s happened. And it doesn’t change the way I feel about him as a person, as a teammate and as a player. We’re a family in here, and one of our family members is not with us,” he added. “But we’re a really good team here, and Manny’s a big part of our team. But as far as the team goes, this is a tre-mendous opportunity for us to prove to people that we’re not just Manny and 24 other guys.”

— The Associated Press

Despite Manny Ramirez’s suspension for using a banned drug, at least one fan showed his support of Ramirez.

HECTOR MATA / AP

Nationals 11, Dodgers 9

Washington AB R H BI BB SO Avg.C.Guzman ss 6 0 2 1 0 1 .392N.Johnson 1b 6 2 3 3 0 2 .330Zimmerman 3b 5 2 2 0 1 1 .336Dunn rf 5 0 2 3 0 2 .290Beimel p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---K.Wells p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Dukes cf 5 0 1 1 0 0 .292Willingham lf 4 2 2 1 1 0 .171Flores c 4 1 2 0 1 1 .301A.Hernandez 2b 4 3 3 0 1 0 .328Zimmermann p 2 0 0 0 0 1 .000b-W.Harris ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .182Villone p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---c-Kearns ph-rf 2 1 1 2 0 1 .258Totals 44 11 18 11 4 9

Los Angeles AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Furcal ss 5 0 0 0 0 3 .252Hudson 2b 4 2 1 0 1 1 .339Ethier rf 5 1 1 0 0 1 .312Loney 1b 5 2 2 1 0 0 .282Martin c 3 2 2 1 2 0 .255Kemp cf 5 1 3 5 0 1 .290Blake 3b-lf 5 1 3 1 0 0 .245Wolf p 1 0 0 1 0 0 .143a-Paul ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000Troncoso p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000Ohman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000Wade p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000Leach p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Mota p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---d-Loretta ph-3b 0 0 0 0 1 0 .375Pierre lf 4 0 2 0 0 0 .371Ja.McDonald p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000Totals 38 9 14 9 4 6

Washington 000 001 361 — 11 18 1Los Angeles 600 000 012 — 9 14 0

a-grounded into a double play for Wolf in the 6th. b-grounded out for Zimmermann in the 7th. c-doubled for Villone in the 8th. d-walked for Mota in the 8th.E: Zimmerman (4). LOB: Washington 10, Los Angeles 7. 2B: C.Guzman (5), N.Johnson (4), Dunn (4), Willingham (2), Kearns (4), Blake (4). 3B: Blake (1). HR: Willingham (2), off Wolf; Kemp (4), off Zimmermann. RBIs: C.Guzman (7), N.Johnson 3 (11), Dunn 3 (23), Dukes (19), Willingham (4), Kearns 2 (15), Loney (21), Martin (14), Kemp 5 (22), Blake (16), Wolf (2). SB: Pierre (2). CS: C.Guzman (1), Pierre (1). SF: Wolf. Runners left in scoring position: Washington 5 (Zimmermann, A.Hernandez, Zimmerman, Dukes, Flores); Los Angeles 5 (Furcal, Paul, Pierre 2, Blake). DP: Wash-ington 1 (C.Guzman, A.Hernandez, N.Johnson); Los Angeles 1 (Martin, Martin, Hudson, Martin).

Washington IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAZimmermann 6 6 6 6 3 4 95 5.48Villone W, 1-0 1 1 0 0 0 0 11 0.00Beimel 1 3 1 1 1 1 40 1.93K.Wells 1 4 2 2 0 1 20 3.60Los Angeles IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAWolf 6 5 1 1 2 5 109 3.59Troncoso 2⁄3 3 3 3 0 0 16 2.37Ohman 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 5.00Wade L, 0-2 BS, 2-2 2⁄3 3 4 4 1 1 31 6.23Leach 0 2 2 2 1 0 8 18.00Mota 2⁄3 1 0 0 0 1 7 6.35Ja.McDonald 1 3 1 1 0 2 24 7.71

Ohman pitched to 1 batter in the 7th. Leach pitched to 3 batters in the 8th. Inherited runners-scored: Ohman 2-2, Wade 1-0, Leach 2-2, Mota 2-1. IBB: off Leach (Zimmerman). WP: Troncoso. Umpires: Home, Angel Campos; First, Brian Runge; Second, Bill Miller; Third, Derryl Cousins. T: 3:35. A: 37,074 (56,000).

LOS ANGELES—Nick Johnson and Adam Dunn each had three RBIs, and the Washington Nationals rallied for 10 runs in the final three innings Thursday night to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-9 on the first day of Manny Ramir-ez’s 50-game drug suspension.

Josh Willingham homered for the Nationals, who had lost their previous 10 games at Dodger Stadium. Ryan Zimmerman was 2-for-4, extend-ing the longest hitting streak in the majors this season to 25 games.

Matt Kemp hit his third career grand slam to highlight a six-run first inning for the defending N.L. West champion Dodgers, who lost at Chavez Ravine for the first time this season after setting a modern major league record Wednes-day night with a 13-0 start at home.

Ramirez was penalized for violating baseball’s performance-enhancing drug policy. He will lose $7,650,273 of his $25 million salary. Barring any postponements, Ramirez will be able to return to the lineup on July 3 at San Diego.

Dodgers lefthander Randy Wolf allowed five hits over six innings and left with a 6-1 lead after 109 pitches. But manager Joe Torre’s usually reliable bullpen faltered.

Cristian Guzman began the rally with a run-scoring groundout in the seventh off Ramon Trancoso, and Will Ohman surrendered Dunn’s two-run double two batters later.

The Nats loaded the bases with none out in the eighth against Cory Wade (0-2). The righthander gave up a two-run double to Austin Kearns, who batted for reliever Ron Villone (1-0). One out later, Johnson greeted rookie Brent Leach with another two-run double for an 8-6 lead, and the pesky Nats capped the rally with RBI singles by Dunn and Elijah Dukes.

Torre held a closed-door meeting with his players and coaches before batting practice to discuss how they will deal with losing Ramirez.

— The Associated Press

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 10Baseball

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 11Baseball

The Diamondbacks fired Bob Melvin on Thursday, hoping a new manager will be able to get the most out of their talented core of young players.

The Diamondbacks said they will select Melvin’s replacement at a Chase Field news conference today.

SI.com reported that Arizona will name former MLB catcher A.J. Hinch, who served as VP of player develop-ment, as manager. Melvin’s firing comes after a disappointing 12-17 start by the Diamondbacks.

Melvin, who went 337-340 in four-plus seasons, had one year left on a contract he received after being named the 2007 NL Manager of the Year. Hitting coach Rick Schu also was fired, and pitching coach Bryan Price resigned.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland announced Thursday that Dontrelle Willis will return to the rotation Wednesday night in Minnesota.

Willis, who has been on the dis-abled list with an anxiety disorder since the end of spring training, hasn’t won a game in the majors since Sept. 25, 2007, with the Florida Marlins. Willis has made four reha-bilitation starts in the minor leagues. Leyland also said he was encouraged about the progress of righthander Jeremy Bonderman, who’s rehabbing in extended spring training.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the world champion Phillies are concerned with P Brett Myers’ loca-tion. When asked whether Myers has been missing his spots too often, pitching coach Rich Dubee told the newspaper, “A lot of misses? I’d say there are way too many, yeah.”

Myers, who is 2-2 with a 5.35 ERA in six starts this season, has issued 15 walks and allowed 10 homers in 37 innings. In addition to Myers’ loca-tion problems, there is also come concern about a decrease in velocity from last season. In his start Tues-day, he averaged 88-89 mph, com-pared to 90-93 mph late last season, according to the newspaper.

The Cardinals placed OF Rick Ankiel on the 15-day disabled list, ret-roactive to Tuesday. Ankiel crashed headfirst into the outfield wall while making a catch Monday, and though he was carted off the field and spent the night in the hospital, he suffered only a bruised shoulder and some overall soreness.

According to the Houston Chronicle, X-rays on the right index finger of Astros P Roy Oswalt con-firmed the team’s initial diagnosis. Oswalt, who injured the finger in Tuesday’s start, has a bone bruise but no fractures. He expects to start Sunday against San Diego. In other Astros news, the Houston Chronicle reported 3B Aaron Boone, who had open-heart surgery before the sea-son, visited the clubhouse earlier this week. Boone hasn’t ruled out a return this season.

Cubs OF Milton Bradley is await-ing word from Major League Base-ball about the appeal of his two-game suspension. Bradley was ejected April 16 for arguing balls

and strikes, and there was alleged contact (hats touching) between Bradley and home plate umpire Larry Vanover during the argument. Bradley told the Chicago Sun-Times, “You need a video forensic expert to find any possible contact.”

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, White Sox P Jose Contreras “has been put on notice.” Contreras, who will start tonight against Texas, is 0-4 with an 8.31 ERA in five starts this season.

Mariners manager Don Waka-matsu told The Seattle Times that he has “reached his threshold” with struggling P Carlos Silva. In the next couple of days, Wakamatsu plans to speak with general manager Jack Zduriencik about the situation. Silva was 4-15 with a 6.46 ERA in 28 starts last season and is 1-3 with an 8.48 ERA in six starts this season.

Minor League Baseball atten-dance for the month of April was down less than one percent from the same period last year, despite the economy and a later than usual start to the season, SportsBusiness Journal’s Eric Fisher reported. Six of the 11 full-season affiliated leagues showed year-over-year attendance growth, led by a 23.1 percent spike in the Class A Florida State League.

Former Phillies manager Danny Ozark, who led Philadelphia to three consecutive N.L. East titles in the 1970s, died Thursday. He was 85.

THE LAUNCHING PADWhat to expect in the major leagues today

We meet again ... alreadyJust over one month into the season, the Rays and Red Sox are ready to

match up for the third time. Tonight, they’re back at Fenway Park, where the Rays took two of three during the opening series of the 2009 season. Last weekend, Tampa Bay won three of four games played at Tropicana Field. For Boston, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Lowell, Jason Bay, Jason Varitek and David Ortiz are hitting a combined .176 (21-119) with three homers and nine RBIs vs. the Rays this season. By comparison, Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria is hitting .419 (13-for-31) with four homers and 15 RBIs against Boston in 2009.

Will Hamels end the hex?It ended so well for Phillies ace Cole Hamels in 2008. He posted a 4-0

record and a 1.80 ERA in five postseason starts, en route to NLCS and World Series MVP honors and a world championship. Then came the elbow prob-lems in spring training, the line drive off his shoulder in his third start and the sprained ankle in his fourth start. Perhaps he should pitch with body armor on tonight against the Braves. If Hamels’ luck is going to turn around, how-ever, facing Atlanta might be just what he needs. He went 3-1 with a 2.36 ERA in five starts against the Braves in 2008, the most wins he had vs. any opponent in the regular season.

One and DunnThe Diamondbacks rank at or near the bottom of the league in just about

every key offensive category, so the last thing their disgruntled fans want to see is Adam Dunn on the field in an opposing uniform. Dunn had eight hom-ers and 26 RBIs after being traded to the D-backs late last season, and he will return to Chase Field this weekend as a member of the last-place Nationals.

— Chris Bahr

INSIDE DISH

D-backs dump Melvin after poor start

GENE J. PUSKAR / AP

Phillies starter Brett Myers has already walked 15 batters in just 37 innings.

CHRIS O’MEARA / AP

Of Evan Longoria’s 35 RBIs this season, 15 have come against Boston.

SPORTINGNEWSTODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 12Baseball

MORE COVERAGE Get everything you need to

dominate your fantasy league at sportingnews.com/fantasy/baseball

Fantasy Focus Start ’em, Sit ’em

Start ’em Brandon Inge, 3B/C, Tigers. Inge is

13-for-33 (.394) with three homers against Indians ace Cliff Lee.

Jose Lopez, 2B, Mariners. Lopez’s bat has heated up in recent weeks, and he is 9-for-18 in his career against Minnesota’s Scott Baker.

J.D. Drew, OF, Red Sox. As long as he is healthy, Drew is a good start against James Shields. He is 8-for-20 with a homer against Tampa’s ace.

Sit ’em Yunel Escobar/Kelly Johnson, Braves.

Atlanta’s middle infield duo is a combined 4-for-28 (.143) against Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels.

Aubrey Huff, 3B/OF, Orioles. Huff has struggled (7-for-28, six strikeouts) in his career against Yankees lefthander CC Sabathia.

Cliff Lee, SP, Indians. Lee wasn’t sharp in his outing against the Tigers on Sunday, and he had a 5.09 ERA and 1.42 WHIP against Detroit in his stellar Cy Young campaign in 2008.

— Brad Pinkerton

LEAGUE LEADERSBatting Average

Runs

RBIs

Doubles

Triples

Home Runs

Stolen Bases

Pitching (3 decisions)

Strikeouts

Saves

A.L.

Player Team

Longoria Tampa Bay 14

Callaspo Kansas City 13

Polanco Detroit 12

MYoung Texas 12

Four tied 11

N.L.

Player Team

FSanchez Pittsburgh 13

Kotchman Atlanta 11

Zimmerman Washington 11

MCameron Milwaukee 10

Hudson Los Angeles 10

Tejada Houston 10

Votto Cincinnati 10

A.L.

Player Team

Greinke Kansas City 54

Verlander Detroit 45

FHernandez Seattle 45

Halladay Toronto 44

Lester Boston 43

Bedard Seattle 39

Two tied 36

N.L.

Player Team

Santana New York 54

Peavy San Diego 52

Haren Arizona 51

Lincecum San Francisco 50

JVazquez Atlanta 50

Billingsley Los Angeles 42

Harden Chicago 41

A.L.

Player Team

FFrancisco Texas 9

Fuentes Los Angeles 7

Papelbon Boston 7

Soria Kansas City 7

Jenks Chicago 6

Rodney Detroit 6

Five tied 5

N.L.

Player Team

FrRodriguez New York 9

Franklin St. Louis 9

Cordero Cincinnati 8

Bell San Diego 8

Broxton Los Angeles 8

Qualls Arizona 7

BWilson San Francisco 6

A.L.

Player Team

Longoria Tampa Bay 38

CPena Tampa Bay 30

Bay Boston 29

Lind Toronto 29

Markakis Baltimore 29

AHill Toronto 28

Lowell Boston 26.

N.L.

Player Team

Pujols St. Louis 32

Cantu Florida 30

Ethier Los Angeles 27

BMolina San Francisco 27

Braun Milwaukee 24

Fielder Milwaukee 24

Ludwick St. Louis 24

A.L.

Player Team

Markakis Baltimore 31

Scutaro Toronto 31

AdJones Baltimore 30

Pedroia Boston 27

Bay Boston 26

AHill Toronto 25

Longoria Tampa Bay 24.

N.L.

Player Team

Pujols St. Louis 29

ASoriano Chicago 27

Hudson Los Angeles 25

Hart Milwaukee 24

Victorino Philadelphia 24

Ethier Los Angeles 23

Five tied 22

A.L.

Player Team

Youkilis Boston .393

VMartinez Cleveland .391

MiCabrera Detroit .390

Longoria Tampa Bay .368

AHill Toronto .362

Callaspo Kansas City .359

Markakis Baltimore .355

N.L.

Player Team

Beltran New York .382

Votto Cincinnati .370

Pujols St. Louis .356

Helton Colorado .355

MRamirez Los Angeles .348

Ibanez Philadelphia .343

Hudson Los Angeles .339

A.L.

Player Team

CPena Tampa Bay 13

Longoria Tampa Bay 10

Granderson Detroit 9

Kinsler Texas 9

Five tied 8

N.L.

Player Team

Pujols St. Louis 11

AdGonzalez San Diego 9

ASoriano Chicago 9

Bruce Cincinnati 8

Cantu Florida 8

Ibanez Philadelphia 8

Utley Philadelphia 8

A.L.

Player Team

Crawford Tampa Bay 20

Ellsbury Boston 15

Abreu Los Angeles 12

Figgins Los Angeles 12

Kinsler Texas 7

Span Minnesota 7

BUpton Tampa Bay 7

N.L.

Player Team

Fowler Colorado 9

Bourn Houston 8

Burriss San Francisco 8

Kemp Los Angeles 7

Morgan Pittsburgh 7

JosReyes New York 7

Three tied 6

A.L.

Player Team

Greinke Kansas City 6-0 1.000

Buehrle Chicago 5-0 1.000

Richmond Toronto 4-0 1.000

Frasor Toronto 4-0 1.000

ABailey Oakland 3-0 1.000

Bannister Kansas City 3-0 1.000

N.L.

Player Team

Billingsley Los Angeles 5-0 1.000

Meredith San Diego 4-0 1.000

Pelfrey New York 4-0 1.000

Martis Washington 3-0 1.000

Broxton Los Angeles 3-0 1.000

DiFelice Milwaukee 3-0 1.000

A.L.

Player Team

Crisp Kansas City 4

Andrus Texas 2

Bloomquist Kansas City 2

JBuck Kansas City 2

Crosby Oakland 2

Cuddyer Minnesota 2

Fields Chicago 2

N.L.

Player Team

Bourn Houston 3

Kemp Los Angeles 3

Victorino Philadelphia 3

15 tied 2

GUS RUELAS / AP

Detroit’s Brandon Inge

American League StandingsEast W L Pct GB WCGB L10 Str Home AwayToronto 20 11 .645 — — 6-4 L-1 11-4 9-7Boston 18 11 .621 1 — 5-5 W-1 11-3 7-8Tampa Bay 14 16 .467 5½ 4½ 6-4 W-3 6-7 8-9New York 13 15 .464 5½ 4½ 4-6 L-5 6-7 7-8Baltimore 12 17 .414 7 6 3-7 W-2 9-8 3-9

Central W L Pct GB WCGB L10 Str Home AwayKansas City 18 11 .621 — — 8-2 W-6 11-6 7-5Detroit 14 13 .519 3 3 5-5 L-1 8-5 6-8Chicago 13 14 .481 4 4 4-6 W-1 7-6 6-8Minnesota 13 16 .448 5 5 4-6 L-3 9-8 4-8Cleveland 11 18 .379 7 7 4-6 L-1 5-7 6-11

West W L Pct GB WCGB L10 Str Home AwayTexas 15 13 .536 — — 7-3 L-1 8-6 7-7Seattle 15 14 .517 ½ 3 3-7 L-4 7-7 8-7Los Angeles 13 14 .481 1½ 4 7-3 W-1 7-7 6-7Oakland 10 16 .385 4 6½ 4-6 W-1 5-8 5-8

National League StandingsEast W L Pct GB WCGB L10 Str Home AwayPhiladelphia 14 12 .538 — — 6-4 L-2 6-8 8-4New York 14 13 .519 ½ 1½ 6-4 W-4 8-6 6-7Florida 15 14 .517 ½ 1½ 4-6 L-3 6-7 9-7Atlanta 13 15 .464 2 3 4-6 W-2 5-9 8-6Washington 8 18 .308 6 7 5-5 W-1 5-7 3-11

Central W L Pct GB WCGB L10 Str Home AwaySt. Louis 19 10 .655 — — 6-4 W-2 12-5 7-5Chicago 16 12 .571 2½ — 7-3 W-2 8-6 8-6Milwaukee 16 13 .552 3 ½ 7-3 L-1 7-6 9-7Cincinnati 15 13 .536 3½ 1 5-5 W-1 5-8 10-5Pittsburgh 12 16 .429 6½ 4 1-9 L-5 7-7 5-9Houston 11 17 .393 7½ 5 5-5 L-3 5-10 6-7

West W L Pct GB WCGB L10 Str Home AwayLos Angeles 21 9 .700 — — 8-2 L-1 13-1 8-8San Francisco 14 13 .519 5½ 1½ 6-4 W-1 10-4 4-9San Diego 13 16 .448 7½ 3½ 3-7 W-1 8-6 5-10Arizona 12 17 .414 8½ 4½ 4-6 L-1 8-10 4-7Colorado 11 16 .407 8½ 4½ 5-5 L-1 5-6 6-10

z-first game was a win

Pitching Matchups Today’s Games (All times Eastern)

American League The Line

N.Y. Yankees (Sabathia 1-3) at Baltimore (Guthrie 2-2), 7:05 p.m. NY -160 at Bal +150

Detroit (Verlander 2-2) at Cleveland (Cl.Lee 1-4), 7:05 p.m. at Cle -135 Det +125

Tampa Bay (J.Shields 3-2) at Boston (Penny 2-1), 7:10 p.m. TB -115 at Bos +105

Seattle (Jakubauskas 1-3) at Minnesota (S.Baker 0-4), 8:10 p.m. at Min -145 Sea +135

Texas (Harrison 2-2) at Chicago White Sox (Contreras 0-4), 8:11 p.m. at Chi -120 Tex +110

Toronto (Richmond 4-0) at Oakland (Outman 0-0), 10:05 p.m. Tor -115 at Oak +105

Kansas City (Meche 2-2) at L.A. Angels (Palmer 2-0), 10:05 p.m. at LA -105 KC -105

National League The Line

Atlanta (Jo-.Reyes 0-1) at Philadelphia (Hamels 0-2), 7:05 p.m. at Phil-180 Atl +170

Pittsburgh (Karstens 1-1) at N.Y. Mets (Niese 0-0), 7:10 p.m. at NY -175 Pit +165

St. Louis (Pineiro 4-1) at Cincinnati (Cueto 2-1), 7:10 p.m. at Cin -130 STL +120

San Diego (Gaudin 0-1) at Houston (W.Rodriguez 2-2), 8:05 p.m. at Hou -180 SD +170

Chicago Cubs (R.Wells 0-0) at Milwaukee (Bush 1-0), 8:05 p.m. at Mil -120 Chi +110

Florida (Nolasco 1-3) at Colorado (Hammel 0-0), 9:10 p.m. at Col -130 Flo +120

Washington (Martis 3-0) at Arizona (Y.Petit 0-2), 9:40 p.m. at Ari -140 Was +130

San Francisco (Zito 0-2) at L.A. Dodgers (Billingsley 5-0), 10:10 p.m. at LA -210 SF +190

Carlos Beltran, who is flirting with the .400 mark a month into the season, is off to a red-hot start. The Mets’ center fielder told Sporting News Today’s Bill Eichenberger and other reporters that he hasn’t been happier or healthier since signing with the Mets as a free agent before the 2005 season.

Q: What is it like for you right now being on this

kind of roll?

A: I feel good at the plate. I’m seeing the ball good, and

good things are happening. ... This has been the best start of my career.

Q: How much longer do you have to go before you

start noticing that you’re flirting with a .400 batting average?

A: Because I feel so good at the plate and I’m seeing the ball

so good, I’m not even thinking about that. My job right now is just to take advantage of how I feel, and that is all that is in my mind. Hitting .400, that is something that is almost impossible. But at the same time, who knows? You never know.

Q: So you don’t keep up with your personal

stats?

A: I don’t get caught up in that because when you do, you

forget about what we are here for. This is not about me personally. This is about the team. There are going to be days when I go 0-for-4, but I help the team win by making a good defensive play. That is all that matters.

Q: Is there anything you have done differently

that has contributed to your fast start?

A: I’ve been able to go to the batting cage every day,

which has helped a great deal. As a hitter, for you to hit a curveball, you have to be perfect. If you are a little bit under, you are going to hit a fly ball, and if you get a little bit on top, you are going to hit a grounder. So you have to let the pitch get deep, then you square that ball, and that’s what I’m doing. I’ve been going in the cage every single day trying to hit at least 50 curveballs.

Q: What about your approach at the plate?

Has that changed?

A: In the past years, I always have been a pull hitter. But

this year, I feel like I can use the whole field more. ... I’m not think-ing of going to left field, center field, right field. ... I’m not commit-ting myself to go anywhere. I’m just seeing the ball, and if it’s outside, I just go with the pitch. If it’s inside, I pull the ball.

Q: Are you concerned that you haven’t hit more

home runs?

A: Being honest, I don’t care a lot about home runs. I care

most about hitting for high average because I know if I hit for high average, I’m going to be on base more. And I’m going to score a lot of runs. Home runs, they will come.

Q: What else has helped you?

A: I’m not thinking of mechan-ics or anything like that.

And when you don’t have any of that in your head, you have a better chance of seeing the ball and recognizing the pitch.

Q: As a switch hitter, is it hard to keep a streak

like this going since you have to maintain your swings from both sides of the plate?

A: It is hard because I have to take the same amount of

swings from one side as the other. Lately, I haven’t faced a lot of lefties, so I’m working and trying to get that feeling I have from the left side on the right side.

Q: Are you as healthy as you’ve ever been a

month into the season?

A: This has been the first year here (New York) that I’ve

been completely healthy. My first year I pulled my quad, my second year a quad again, third year a little bit of hamstring, last year both knees. But at the same time, I feel that even through those injuries I battled and found a way to have good years.

Q: Has health been a big factor in your fast start?

A: It feels great because you don’t go to the batter’s box

thinking about finding a comfort-able position. Nothing hurts, so you don’t have to worry about anything.

Q&A with ... Mets OF Carlos Beltran

‘This has been the first year here that I’ve been completely healthy’

KATHY WILLENS / AP

No longer battling through injuries like he has in the past, Carlos Beltran said he’s off to the best start of his career.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 13Baseball

NATIONAL LEAGUE

N.Y. Mets 7, Philadelphia 5Mets 7, Phillies 5

Philadelphia AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Rollins ss 5 1 1 0 0 0 .211Victorino cf 4 1 1 0 0 0 .304Utley 2b 4 0 0 0 0 0 .318Howard 1b 4 1 2 2 0 0 .291Werth rf 4 2 4 2 0 0 .284Ibanez lf 4 0 1 1 0 0 .343Feliz 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .311Ruiz c 3 0 0 0 0 0 .185b-Cairo ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .077Moyer p 0 0 0 0 1 0 .125Happ p 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000a-Dobbs ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .136Condrey p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Taschner p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000c-Stairs ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 .267Totals 35 5 10 5 2 0

New York AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Jos.Reyes ss 5 1 1 1 0 2 .246Castillo 2b 4 1 0 0 1 0 .309Beltran cf 4 1 1 2 0 0 .382Delgado 1b 3 2 2 0 0 0 .272D.Wright 3b 3 2 3 2 1 0 .314Sheffield rf 3 0 0 0 1 0 .158Feliciano p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Fr.Rodriguez p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Tatis lf 4 0 1 0 0 0 .324R.Castro c 4 0 2 2 0 1 .3041-Santos pr-c 0 0 0 0 0 0 .258Pelfrey p 3 0 0 0 0 0 .100Church rf 1 0 0 0 0 1 .265Totals 34 7 10 7 3 4

Philadelphia 100 101 020 — 5 10 0New York 412 000 00x — 7 10 1

a-flied out for Happ in the 7th. b-grounded out for Ruiz in the 9th. c-walked for Taschner in the 9th. 1-ran for R.Castro in the 8th. E: Jos.Reyes (3). LOB: Philadelphia 5, New York 7. 2B: Howard (6), Werth (8), Delgado (5), R.Castro (3). HR: Howard (6), off Pelfrey; Werth (5), off Feliciano; Beltran (5), off Moyer; D.Wright (3), off Moyer; Jos.Reyes (2), off Moyer. RBIs: Howard 2 (22), Werth 2 (19), Ibanez (22), Jos.Reyes (9), Beltran 2 (20), D.Wright 2 (15), R.Castro 2 (8). SB: Werth (3), Castillo (1). Run-ners left in scoring position: Philadelphia 3 (Ibanez, Feliz, Rollins); New York 4 (Jos.Reyes 2, Sheffield, Castillo). DP: New York 2 (D.Wright, Castillo, Delgado), (Castillo, Jos.Reyes, Delgado).

Philadelphia IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAMoyer L, 3-2 2 1⁄3 7 7 7 2 1 69 7.26Happ 3 2⁄3 2 0 0 0 2 47 2.84Condrey 1 1 0 0 1 0 16 1.69Taschner 1 0 0 0 0 1 13 4.38New York IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAPelfrey W, 4-0 7 8 3 3 1 0 105 5.46Feliciano 1 2 2 0 0 0 22 3.75Fr.Rodriguez S, 9-9 1 0 0 0 1 0 18 1.32

Condrey pitched to 1 batter in the 8th. Inherited runners-scored: Happ 2-0, Taschner 1-0. HBP: by Moyer (Delgado). WP: Taschner. Umpires: Home, Angel Hernandez; First, Bill Welke; Second, Tim Welke; Third, Scott Barry. T: 2:53. A: 37,295 (41,800).

Mets’ early offensive effort suits Pelfrey just fineNEW YORK—Carlos Beltran and the

New York Mets made Mike Pelfrey’s job easy with a sudden power surge at expansive Citi Field.

Beltran and David Wright each hit a two-run homer in the first inning, and New York beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-5 on Thursday night for its fourth consecutive victory.

Jose Reyes added a solo shot in the second off an ineffective Jamie Moyer as the Mets again gave Pel-frey the offensive aid Johan Santana has lacked all season.

“He doesn’t need the run support,” Pelfrey said with a smile. “Hope-fully, they keep it up. It’s a lot easier to pitch with the cushion.”

Pelfrey (4-0) beat the rival Phillies for the second time this month, his only wins in 10 May decisions dur-ing his career. Ramon Castro had a two-run double, Wright went 3-for-3 with a walk and the Mets made Moyer look his age by turning their spacious new ballpark into a band box for one night.

Still, manager Jerry Manuel was infuriated with first-base umpire Bill Welke all evening. Manuel came out to argue three times with Welke—twice over calls that appeared as though they should have gone New York’s way.

Manuel finally was ejected by Welke in the eighth following an obstruction call on Reyes that let Shane Victorino slip out of a run-down. Welke said Manuel “brushed” his hat with the bill of his own cap as he screamed in the umpire’s face.

“We’ll have to report on that,” said

crew chief Tim Welke, Bill’s brother.

Later in the inning, Jayson Werth hit a two-run homer off Pedro Feli-ciano to cut it to 7-5.

Francisco Rodriguez saved his fourth game in four days, getting three outs to improve to 9-for-9 this season. With a runner on, he retired Jimmy Rollins on a popup to end it.

“You knew they got a guy who’s a great closer,” Victorino said. “But it doesn’t change our approach. We feel we can come back against anybody.”

Werth had four hits and Ryan Howard drove a solo homer over the 415-foot sign in right-center for the Phillies, swept in the two-game series during their first visit to Citi Field. Santana beat them 1-0 on Wednesday night.

Howard also had an RBI double in the first before the Mets roughed up Moyer (3-2), who was trying for his 250th win.

Manuel stacked eight righthanded hitters against the 46-year-old lefty and they jumped all over his soft tosses from the start. Beltran hit his third homer in four games, Carlos Delgado followed with a double and Wright drove a 1-2 pitch over the center-field fence.

“I think David is turning the cor-ner,” Manuel said. “When you hit a ball out of center field in this park, it means you’re doing a lot of things right.”

It was only the second homer hit between the power alleys in 14 games at Citi Field. Howard’s sixth-

inning shot made it three.“I think this ballpark, you know

it’s big. But if you hit it good, it’s going to go out. You can’t let the high fences intimidate you,” Beltran said.

Beltran and Wright also teamed up for two-run homers in the sixth inning of Monday night’s 6-4 win at Atlanta.

Castro’s two-run double off the base of the center-field fence made it 7-1, chasing Moyer with one out in the third.

“I didn’t like the way I threw tonight,” Moyer said. “I’ll probably go back and look at something from two or three years ago. Something positive.”

The Mets (14-13) have scored 36 runs in Pelfrey’s five starts, 24 more than they’ve managed in Santana’s six outings.

“Baseball is crazy,” Reyes said, laughing.

— The Associated Press

David Wright follows through on a two-run home run against Philadelphia in the first inning, one of three hits for the Mets 3B.

JULIE JACOBSON/ AP

Q&A with Mets’ Carlos Beltran, Page 13

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 14Baseball

NATIONAL LEAGUECubs 8, Astros 5

Chicago AB R H BI BB SO Avg.A.Soriano lf 5 2 2 3 0 0 .276Theriot ss 4 2 2 0 1 1 .312Fukudome cf-rf 4 2 1 0 1 0 .298Ar.Ramirez 3b 4 1 3 1 1 0 .369Fox p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Gregg p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Hoffpauir 1b 4 0 2 1 1 0 .313Bradley rf 4 0 1 1 0 2 .143Gathright cf 1 0 1 0 0 0 .214Fontenot 2b-3b 3 0 0 2 1 1 .247Soto c 5 0 1 0 0 1 .162Lilly p 3 0 0 0 0 1 .154Heilman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Marmol p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---c-Miles ph-2b 1 1 1 0 0 0 .215Totals 38 8 14 8 5 6

Houston AB R H BI BB SO Avg.K.Matsui 2b 3 1 0 1 1 0 .264Tejada ss 5 1 4 2 0 0 .308Berkman 1b 5 0 0 0 0 4 .184Ca.Lee lf 3 0 1 0 1 1 .295Pence rf 4 0 1 0 0 1 .308Michaels cf 2 1 0 0 2 0 .261I.Rodriguez c 4 1 1 1 0 2 .247Keppinger 3b 4 0 0 1 0 0 .333R.Ortiz p 1 0 0 0 0 1 .143Byrdak p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---a-Blum ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 .268Sampson p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000b-Bourn ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 .296W.Wright p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---F.Paulino p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .167Arias p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---d-Erstad ph 1 1 1 0 0 0 .179Totals 34 5 8 5 4 11

Chicago 102 100 004 — 8 14 1Houston 200 000 003 — 5 8 1

a-struck out for Byrdak in the 4th. b-struck out for Sampson in the 7th. c-singled for Marmol in the 9th. d-tripled for Arias in the 9th. E: Ar.Ramirez (1), Berkman (2). LOB: Chicago 9, Houston 7. 2B: Theriot (4), Hoffpauir (4), Tejada 2 (10). 3B: I.Rodriguez (1), Erstad (1). HR: A.Soriano (8), off Byrdak; A.Soriano (9), off F.Paulino; Tejada (1), off Lilly. RBIs: A.Soriano 3 (17), Ar.Ramirez (16), Hoffpauir (9), Bradley (3), Fontenot 2 (17), K.Matsui (12), Tejada 2 (10), I.Rodriguez (12), Keppinger (3). SB: Michaels (1). SF: Fontenot, K.Matsui. Runners left in scoring position: Chicago 7 (Bradley, A.Soriano, Soto 5); Houston 5 (Michaels, Pence 2, Blum, K.Matsui). DP: Chicago 1 (Lilly, Fontenot, Hoffpauir); Houston 2 (Keppinger, K.Matsui, Berkman), (Keppinger, K.Matsui, Berkman).

Chicago IP H R ER BB SO NP ERALilly W, 4-2 6 4 2 2 3 5 88 3.11Heilman H, 4 1 0 0 0 0 2 17 4.15Marmol H, 8 1 1 0 0 0 3 14 4.50Fox 1⁄3 2 3 3 1 0 17 81.00Gregg 2⁄3 1 0 0 0 1 9 4.40Houston IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAR.Ortiz L, 2-1 2 1⁄3 6 3 3 3 1 57 5.91Byrdak 1 2⁄3 1 1 1 0 1 26 2.31Sampson 3 0 0 0 0 1 33 1.89W.Wright 2⁄3 2 0 0 0 2 15 6.97F.Paulino 2⁄3 5 4 4 2 1 43 5.23Arias 2⁄3 0 0 0 0 0 4 3.86

Inherited runners-scored: Gregg 1-1, Byrdak 3-1, F.Paulino 2-0, Arias 3-0. Umpires: Home, Adrian Johnson; First, Marvin Hudson; Second, John Hirschbeck; Third, Wally Bell. T: 3:17. A: 28,625 (40,976).

Reds 6, Brewers 5

Milwaukee AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Weeks 2b 4 1 1 0 0 2 .271Hart rf 4 1 0 0 0 1 .273Braun lf 4 2 2 0 0 1 .327Fielder 1b 3 1 3 2 1 0 .280M.Cameron cf 4 0 0 2 0 1 .293Hardy ss 4 0 1 1 0 2 .211Hall 3b 1 0 0 0 1 1 .289McClung p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---a-Duffy ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .095DiFelice p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Stetter p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Julio p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000c-B.Nelson ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000Kendall c 4 0 0 0 0 2 .205Looper p 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000Counsell 3b 2 0 0 0 1 0 .327Totals 33 5 7 5 3 10

Cincinnati AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Taveras cf 4 1 1 1 1 0 .263Hairston Jr. 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 .190Bruce rf 3 2 1 1 1 0 .269R.Hernandez 1b 3 0 2 0 0 0 .280L.Nix lf 3 1 1 1 0 1 .351A.Rosales 3b 3 0 0 0 0 0 .214Hanigan c 3 0 0 1 0 0 .320Janish ss 3 1 2 0 1 0 .375Owings p 3 1 1 1 0 0 .294Masset p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Rhodes p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---b-Dickerson ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .213Cordero p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Totals 30 6 9 5 3 2

Milwaukee 000 302 000 — 5 7 0Cincinnati 102 210 00x — 6 9 1

a-flied out for McClung in the 6th. b-flied out for Rhodes in the 8th. c-flied out for Julio in the 9th. E: Hairston Jr. (2). LOB: Milwaukee 4, Cincinnati 7. 2B: Fielder (6), Hardy (3), L.Nix (7), Janish (2). 3B: Owings (1). HR: Bruce (8), off Looper; Taveras (1), off Looper. RBIs: Fielder 2 (24), M.Cameron 2 (18), Hardy (16), Taveras (3), Bruce (16), L.Nix (5), Hanigan (1), Owings (3). S: A.Rosales. SF: L.Nix, Hanigan. Runners left in scoring position: Milwaukee 3 (Hall, Duffy, Hart); Cincinnati 3 (Owings, R.Hernandez, Taveras). DP: Cincinnati 2 (Janish, Hairston Jr., R.Hernandez), (Janish, Hairston Jr., R.Hernandez).

Milwaukee IP H R ER BB SO NP ERALooper L, 2-2 3 1⁄3 8 5 5 2 2 75 4.18McClung 1 2⁄3 1 1 1 0 0 23 3.45DiFelice 1 0 0 0 0 0 12 1.32Stetter 1 0 0 0 0 0 16 3.48Julio 1 0 0 0 1 0 17 5.73Cincinnati IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAOwings W, 2-3 6 7 5 4 1 4 100 5.08Masset H, 1 1 1⁄3 0 0 0 1 3 22 1.46Rhodes H, 5 2⁄3 0 0 0 1 2 14 0.00Cordero S, 8-8 1 0 0 0 0 1 7 2.25

Inherited runners-scored: McClung 2-0. HBP: by Stetter (R.Hernandez). WP: Looper, Julio, Masset. Umpires: Home, Greg Gibson; First, Andy Fletcher; Second, Ted Barrett; Third, Tim Timmons. T: 2:55. A: 14,724 (42,319).

Cincinnati 6, Milwaukee 5 Chicago Cubs 8,Houston 5

Cubs’ Soriano homers twiceOwings provides lift for ailing Reds

HOUSTON—Alfonso Soriano wasn’t happy with his one-hit, three-strikeout performance in the Chicago Cubs’ first game against the Houston Astros.

He made up for it in the sec-ond game of the short series.

Soriano homered twice to lead the Cubs to an 8-5 victory over the Astros on Thursday night. He hit a solo home run in the fourth and a two-run shot in the ninth.

“Yesterday I had a bad day, so I wanted to come back and have a better game,” Soriano said.

Four of his nine home runs this season have come against the Astros and he is hitting .320 with five RBIs in five games against Houston.

Mike Fontenot had two RBIs and Milton Bradley, Micah Hoffpauir and Aramis Ramirez all drove in a run as the Cubs swept the mini series from their N.L.-Central foe.

The win was Chicago’s sixth in the last seven games.

“Our team is getting together now,” Soriano said. “We’re feeling more like a team. We’re pitching better and hitting at the same time.”

Cubs starter Ted Lilly (4-2) allowed four hits and two runs with five strikeouts in six innings to extend his winning streak against the Astros to five games.

— The Associated Press

CINCINNATI—Micah Owings helped the ailing Cincinnati Reds feel a little better.

The righthander pitched six innings and had a tiebreaking triple Thursday night, leading Cincinnati’s flu-stricken lineup to a 6-5 victory over the Milwau-kee Brewers and a split of their two-game series.

The Reds needed everything they could get from Owings (2-3), their fifth starter and occasional pinch hitter. The lineup was missing two starters with the flu, and the pitching staff was so worn out that shortstop Paul Janish worked the ninth inning of Milwaukee’s 15-3 win on Thursday night.

“Micah gave us all he had,” manager Dusty Baker said. “We tried to stay with him as long as we could. Our bullpen was upside-down. Heck, our lineup was upside-down, too. All of the guys came through big-time. This was a big win.”

Owings’ run-scoring triple off Braden Looper (2-2) helped him turn a 6-5 lead over to the bullpen. Francisco Cordero retired the three batters he faced in the ninth, remaining perfect in eight save chances.

Jay Bruce and Willy Taveras also had solo homers off Looper, who lasted only 3 1/3 innings, his shortest appearance of the season.

“The whole outing—frustrating is put-ting it a nice way,” Looper said. “I just didn’t have it today. I kept trying and kept trying, and wasn’t able to get the ball down.”

Milwaukee won three of four on its brief trip to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. The Brewers have won 12 of their last 16 games overall, allowing them to head home feeling good.

“We’re playing great,” manager Ken

Macha said. “All kinds of things hap-pened in that game, so you probably could sit in here and talk about this game for an hour about all the little things here or there that could have made a differ-ence in the game.”

Baker went through three different lineups before the game, trying to keep on top of his team’s multiplying illnesses and injuries. Janish had a sore shoulder after his impromptu pitching perfor-mance the previous night and needed a day off.

Baker had to rework the lineup during batting practice after first baseman Joey

Votto came down with the flu. He totally overhauled it after second baseman Brandon Phillips also got sick a little while later, forcing Janish into the lineup at shortstop. The Reds already were missing shortstop Alex Gonzalez, side-lined by pulled muscles in his right side.

What little was left of the lineup was just enough to get a win. Owings pulled it through.

The Reds turned double plays behind him in the second and third innings to escape threats and allow Owings to set-tle in.

— The Associated Press

AL BEHRMAN / AP

Micah Owings helped the Reds to victory with his pitching (six innings) and hitting (RBI triple).

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 15Baseball

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Cardinals 5, Pirates 2

Pittsburgh AB R H BI BB SO Avg.McLouth cf 3 0 1 1 1 1 .289Delw.Young 2b 4 0 0 0 0 0 .333Monroe lf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .235Hinske 1b 4 0 0 0 0 0 .229Moss rf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .195An.LaRoche 3b 2 1 0 0 2 0 .250R.Diaz c 3 1 2 1 0 0 .385Bixler ss 3 0 0 0 0 3 .167Ohlendorf p 2 0 1 0 0 0 .077a-R.Vazquez ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 .160Meek p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Totals 30 2 4 2 3 7

St. Louis AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Schumaker 2b-lf 3 2 3 0 1 0 .289Rasmus cf 4 1 1 0 0 1 .257Pujols 1b 2 1 0 1 0 0 .356Ludwick rf 3 0 0 1 0 1 .284Duncan lf 3 0 0 1 0 2 .275Barden 3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 .306K.Greene ss 3 0 1 1 1 0 .222Thurston 3b-2b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .278LaRue c 4 1 2 1 0 1 .438Wellemeyer p 3 0 0 0 0 2 .182T.Miller p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Boyer p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---b-Robinson ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000Franklin p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Totals 30 5 8 5 2 7

Pittsburgh 000 010 100 — 2 4 1St. Louis 100 040 00x — 5 8 0

a-struck out for Ohlendorf in the 7th. b-grounded out for Boyer in the 8th. E: An.LaRoche (4). LOB: Pittsburgh 4, St. Louis 7. 2B: McLouth (2), LaRue (1). 3B: Schu-maker (1). HR: R.Diaz (1), off Wellemeyer; LaRue (1), off Ohlendorf. RBIs: McLouth (18), R.Diaz (3), Pujols (32), Ludwick (24), Duncan (19), K.Greene (11), LaRue (1). CS: Schumaker (1). SF: Pujols, Duncan. Runners left in scoring position: Pittsburgh 2 (Delw.Young 2); St. Louis 4 (Thurston 2, Robinson 2). GIDP: Delw.Young. DP: St. Louis 1 (Wellemeyer, K.Greene, Pujols).

Pittsburgh IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAOhlendorf L, 3-3 6 7 5 5 1 5 84 4.14Meek 2 1 0 0 1 2 38 2.08St. Louis IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAWellemeyer W, 3-2 7 4 2 2 3 4 97 4.75T.Miller H, 1 2⁄3 0 0 0 0 1 7 4.32Boyer H, 1 1⁄3 0 0 0 1 0 16 11.37Franklin S, 9-9 1 0 0 0 0 1 9 0.00

HBP: by Ohlendorf (Pujols, Ludwick). Umpires: Home, Chad Fairchild; First, Jim Wolf; Second, Brian O’Nora; Third, Fieldin Culbreth. T: 2:30. A: 41,928 (43,975).

Braves 4, Marlins 2

Atlanta AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Infante 3b 5 0 1 0 0 0 .349Escobar ss 4 1 1 0 0 2 .300G.Anderson lf 3 0 0 0 1 1 .167Kotchman 1b 4 1 3 2 0 1 .313Francoeur rf 4 0 1 0 0 1 .286K.Johnson 2b 4 1 2 0 0 0 .232D.Ross c 4 1 2 2 0 1 .298Schafer cf 4 0 2 0 0 0 .239Jurrjens p 3 0 0 0 0 3 .083R.Soriano p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---c-Norton ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .105M.Gonzalez p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Totals 36 4 12 4 1 9

Florida AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Bonifacio 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .250Maybin cf 3 0 0 0 0 1 .202b-Helms ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 .2731-Carroll pr-cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .118Ha.Ramirez ss 4 2 2 2 0 1 .303Cantu 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 .312Hermida lf 3 0 0 0 1 0 .242Uggla 2b 4 0 0 0 0 1 .190C.Ross rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .221Calero p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---R.Paulino c 1 0 0 0 1 0 .289a-Jo.Baker ph-c 1 0 0 0 0 0 .280A.Sanchez p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000Badenhop p 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000Pinto p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Gload rf 1 0 1 0 0 0 .237Totals 29 2 4 2 3 5

Atlanta 021 010 000 — 4 12 0Florida 100 001 000 — 2 4 1

a-lined out for R.Paulino in the 8th. b-walked for May-bin in the 8th. c-grounded out for R.Soriano in the 9th. 1-ran for Helms in the 8th. E: Jo.Baker (2). LOB: Atlanta 6, Florida 4. 2B: Kotchman (11). HR: D.Ross (3), off A.Sanchez; Kotchman (1), off A.Sanchez; Ha.Ramirez 2 (5), off Jurrjens 2. RBIs: Kotchman 2 (6), D.Ross 2 (9), Ha.Ramirez 2 (15). SB: K.Johnson (1). CS: Francoeur (1), Bonifacio (2). S: A.Sanchez. Runners left in scoring position: Atlanta 3 (Francoeur 2, D.Ross); Florida 2 (Maybin, Ha.Ramirez). DP: Florida 2 (Badenhop, Ha.Ramirez, Cantu), (Carroll, Carroll, Jo.Baker).

Atlanta IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAJurrjens W, 3-2 7 3 2 2 2 4 102 2.01R.Soriano H, 5 1 1 0 0 1 1 28 1.29M.Gonzalez S, 5-6 1 0 0 0 0 0 13 3.86Florida IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAA.Sanchez L, 1-4 4 2⁄3 7 4 4 1 3 71 5.79Badenhop 2 2 0 0 0 3 26 4.00Pinto 1 2 0 0 0 2 18 1.32Calero 1 1⁄3 1 0 0 0 1 10 1.76

Inherited runners-scored: Badenhop 1-0, Pinto 1-0, Calero 1-0. Umpires: Home, Laz Diaz; First, Chuck Meriwether; Second, Eric Cooper; Third, Mike Reilly. T: 2:46. A: 17,759 (38,560).

St. Louis 5, Pittsburgh 2 Atlanta 4, Florida 2

Jurrjens gets help from offenseFlawless Franklin notches ninth saveMIAMI—Jair Jurrjens enjoyed

the rare luxury of pitching with a lead. And it turns out he’s good at it.

Saddled with poor run sup-port in previous starts, Jurrjens benefited from two home runs by his Atlanta Braves team-mates and pitched seven innings Thursday to beat the slumping Florida Marlins 4-2.

“To have the lead was awe-some,” Jurrjens said. “Every time my team scored, I was able to shut them out the next inning.”

Casey Kotchman homered and hit an RBI double for the Braves, who scored four runs in Jurrjens’ previous four out-ings. David Ross hit a two-run homer to help Atlanta complete a two-game sweep.

Marlins righthander Anibal Sanchez (1-4) allowed both homers and four runs in 4 2/3 innings before leaving the game because of discomfort in his pitching shoulder. Sanchez underwent surgery on the shoulder in June 2007 and returned last July.

“He was in pain,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “You always think worse-case sce-nario, but I don’t know.”

Sanchez was to undergo X-rays and an MRI exam.

Florida extended a club-record streak of 20 consecutive games without a win by a start-ing pitcher. During that span the starters are 0-10.

— The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS—Considering the St. Louis Cardinals entered the season without a full-time closer, the ninth inning has been in very secure hands.

Ryan Franklin had a 1-2-3 finish for the second straight game in Thursday’s 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. He’s 9-for-9 after taking over when rookie Jason Motte struggled at the start of the year, and hasn’t allowed a run in 13 1/3 innings.

“I’d say that’s the hardest job in base-ball,” manager Tony La Russa said. “You’ve just got to keep him fresh, because when he’s fresh he’s got it all working.”

Todd Wellemeyer threw seven innings of four-hit ball and Jason LaRue hit a go-ahead homer in the fifth for the Cardinals, who won two straight against the Pirates after opening a four-game homestand with two losses against the Philadelphia Phillies. Skip Schumaker had three hits and scored twice.

“For us to bounce back the way we did, I think it shows a lot about the char-acter of this team,” LaRue said. “There’s no quit.”

The 36-year-old Franklin had 17 saves in 25 chances last year, stepping in when Jason Isringhausen was twice demoted from the closer role.

“I’ve been playing a long time, so I’ve had some good stretches where I could hit the mitt when I wanted to,” Franklin said. “This is just one of them.”

St. Louis batted around in a four-run fifth that started with LaRue’s first homer of the season. Ross Ohlendorf (3-3) hit Albert Pujols and Ryan Lud-wick in consecutive at-bats, the latter with the bases loaded. Chris Duncan had a sacrifice fly and Khalil Greene

singled in a run.Ohlendorf felt he slowed down too

much in the fifth.“My fastball command wasn’t as good

as it was the rest of the game,” Ohlen-dorf said. “I had a chance to help us end a losing streak and didn’t come through like I needed to.”

La Russa wasn’t pleased that the Car-dinals were hit seven times in the two games, although neither Pujols nor Lud-wick thought Ohlendorf was throwing at them.

“He didn’t know where he was throw-ing it,” Pujols said. “I don’t think he wanted to hit me with Ludwick coming up.”

Ohlendorf, who had won his previous

three starts, hit only two batters in his first five starts over 31 innings. He departed after six innings trailing 5-1, although he singled up the middle in the third for his first major league hit after an 0-for-18 start.

Robinzon Diaz hit his first career homer and Nate McLouth had an RBI single for the Pirates, who have lost nine of 10 while getting shut out three times and scoring two runs twice. Manager John Russell played a lot of reserves and fielded a lineup that entered with seven homers, four fewer than Pujols.

“We changed things up a little, but we still didn’t score any runs,” Russell said.

— The Associated Press

TOM GANNAM / AP

Ryan Franklin, right, has closed the door on all nine of his save opportunities this season.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 16Baseball

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Giants 8, Rockies 3

San Francisco AB R H BI BB SO Avg.F.Lewis lf 4 1 2 1 0 1 .300Affeldt p 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000Howry p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---b-Rowand ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .220J.Miller p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Burriss 2b 5 1 2 0 0 0 .241Sandoval 3b 5 1 0 1 0 0 .300B.Molina c 5 2 3 4 0 0 .310Winn cf 5 0 1 1 0 1 .227Aurilia 1b 5 0 0 0 0 1 .189Uribe ss 4 0 2 0 0 0 .265Schierholtz rf 4 1 1 0 0 0 .281Cain p 2 1 1 0 0 0 .2001-Velez pr-lf 1 1 0 0 0 1 .158Totals 41 8 12 7 0 4

Colorado AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Fowler cf 3 0 0 0 1 3 .259Tulowitzki ss 3 0 0 0 1 2 .198Helton 1b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .355Spilborghs lf 3 1 1 0 1 1 .281Hawpe rf 4 1 1 1 0 1 .321Iannetta c 2 0 0 0 2 0 .194Stewart 3b 3 1 1 2 1 0 .224Barmes 2b 4 0 0 0 0 1 .240Marquis p 2 0 0 0 0 0 .308Belisle p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---a-Murton ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .300Daley p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Rusch p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .400Totals 29 3 4 3 6 8

San Francisco 014 000 201 — 8 12 0Colorado 000 000 102 — 3 4 3

a-grounded out for Belisle in the 7th. b-flied out for Howry in the 9th. 1-ran for Cain in the 7th. E: Marquis 2 (2), Tulowitzki (2). LOB: San Francisco 7, Colorado 5. HR: B.Molina 2 (7), off Marquis 2; Hawpe (4), off Affeldt; Stewart (4), off J.Miller. RBIs: F.Lewis (2), Sandoval (9), B.Molina 4 (27), Winn (10), Hawpe (18), Stewart 2 (13). S: Cain. Runners left in scoring position: San Francisco 4 (B.Molina, Winn 2, Aurilia); Colorado 2 (Hawpe, Stewart). DP: San Francisco 2 (Aurilia, Uribe, Cain), (Uribe, Aurilia).

San Francisco IP H R ER BB SO NP ERACain W, 3-1 6 1 0 0 5 7 107 2.61Affeldt 1 1 1 1 1 0 23 3.65Howry 1 0 0 0 0 1 15 3.97J.Miller 1 2 2 2 0 0 23 3.18Colorado IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAMarquis L, 4-2 6 8 7 5 0 2 87 3.92Belisle 1 1 0 0 0 0 22 8.18Daley 1 1 0 0 0 1 17 1.80Rusch 1 2 1 0 0 1 23 5.02

Marquis pitched to 3 batters in the 7th. Inherited runners-scored: Belisle 2-1. Umpires: Home, Gerry Davis; First, Brian Gorman; Second, C.B. Bucknor; Third, Mike Everitt. T: 2:56. A: 23,453 (50,449).

Padres 4, Diamondbacks 3, 10 innings

Arizona AB R H BI BB SO Avg.F.Lopez 2b 3 0 0 1 1 1 .303Ojeda ss 3 0 0 0 1 0 .305J.Upton rf 4 1 2 0 1 1 .294Reynolds 3b 5 0 0 0 0 4 .255Whitesell 1b 4 0 0 0 1 0 .000C.Jackson lf 3 0 1 0 1 1 .191Byrnes cf 3 0 0 1 0 1 .139Snyder c 3 1 1 0 1 1 .204Haren p 3 1 1 1 0 1 .176J.Gutierrez p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Schoeneweis p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---c-Tracy ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .221Vasquez p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Totals 32 3 5 3 6 10

San Diego AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Giles rf 5 1 1 0 0 0 .164E.Gonzalez 2b 5 0 1 1 0 2 .189Meredith p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Hairston lf 5 0 2 1 0 0 .348Ad.Gonzalez 1b 5 0 1 0 0 2 .308Gerut cf 5 0 1 0 0 2 .221Kouzmanoff 3b 5 2 3 0 0 0 .239Hundley c 4 0 2 1 1 0 .254C.Burke ss 4 0 1 0 1 1 .190C.Young p 1 1 0 0 1 1 .214a-L.Rodriguez ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 .231Moreno p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Gregerson p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---b-Headley ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 .253Bell p 0 0 0 0 0 0 ---Eckstein 2b 1 0 1 1 0 0 .257Totals 40 4 13 4 5 8

Arizona 002 001 000 0 —3 5 0San Diego 000 021 000 1 —4 13 1One out when winning run scored. a-walked for C.Young in the 6th. b-walked for Gregerson in the 8th. c-grounded out for Schoeneweis in the 9th. E: C.Burke (2). LOB: Arizona 8, San Diego 13. 2B: J.Upton (5), C.Jackson (4), Haren (2), Kouzmanoff (5), Hundley (4), C.Burke (2). RBIs: F.Lopez (7), Byrnes (7), Haren (3), E.Gonzalez (5), Hairston (16), Hundley (8), Eckstein (7). SB: J.Upton (2). S: Ojeda. SF: F.Lopez, Byrnes. Runners left in scoring position: Arizona 5 (Byrnes, Whitesell 2, Haren 2); San Diego 6 (E.Gonzalez 2, Ad.Gonzalez, Giles 3). GIDP: Ad.Gonzalez. DP: Arizona 1 (F.Lopez, Ojeda, Whitesell).

Arizona IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAHaren 6 8 3 3 2 4 94 1.84J.Gutierrez 1 2⁄3 2 0 0 0 2 24 2.70Schoeneweis 1⁄3 0 0 0 1 0 9 2.16Vasquez L, 0-1 1 1⁄3 3 1 1 2 2 32 3.68San Diego IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAC.Young 6 5 3 3 4 6 98 4.76Moreno 1⁄3 0 0 0 2 0 12 4.70Gregerson 1 2⁄3 0 0 0 0 2 22 4.50Bell 1 0 0 0 0 1 16 0.00Meredith W, 4-0 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 3.72Inherited runners-scored: Schoeneweis 2-0, Greger-son 2-0. IBB: off C.Young (Snyder). Umpires: Home, Ed Rapuano; First, Paul Schrieber; Second, Paul Nauert; Third, Joe West. T: 3:20. A: 18,921 (42,691).

NATIONAL LEAGUE

San Diego 4, Arizona 3, 10 inningsSan Francisco 8, Colorado 3

Eckstein’s line drive ends itMolina finally solves Marquis

SAN DIEGO—The San Diego Padres will take any win these days, even if they have to work extra to get it.

David Eckstein singled in the winning run with one out in the 10th inning and San Diego beat the Arizona Diamond-backs 4-3 on Thursday.

It was the second time in three games the Padres won in 10 innings, and just their fourth win in 17 games.

“It’s really big for this club,” Eckstein said. “Hopefully one day we’ll win a game where it’s not as close and as much pres-sure, but that seems like the only way we know how to win right now.

“This club has showed a lot of heart, especially in the tough times that we’ve been going through. We’ve just got to keep pushing forward.”

Eckstein, who entered the game for defensive purposes in the top of the inning, lined a shot just past first baseman Josh Whitesell to bring in Kevin Kouzmanoff.

Kouzmanoff started the win-ning rally with a one-out double to left-center off Esmerling Vasquez (0-1), his third straight hit. Nick Hundley and Chris Burke, who was with Arizona last year, walked to load the bases and bring up Eckstein.

Cla Meredith (4-0) pitched a perfect 10th to earn the win on Thursday.

— The Associated Press

DENVER—If not for a sudden gust of wind, Bengie Molina could’ve had a three-homer afternoon.

Not that he’s quibbling with two.Behind Molina’s big day at the plate

and Matt Cain’s six innings of one-hit ball, the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 8-3 on Thursday.

By showing a little patience, Molina finally solved Jason Marquis.

The Giants catcher was hitless in 13 career plate appearances against Mar-quis before lining a solo homer to left-center in the second and crushing a two-run shot to right the following inning.

It was Molina’s sixth multihomer game and first since July 22 against Washington.

“The only thing I did different was I let the ball travel to me,” Molina said. “I was just trying to stay back as long as I could.”

Molina nearly had another homer in the fifth, but the wind held the ball up and allowed Dexter Fowler to track it down in deep center.

“I actually hit the third one better than I hit the other two,” he said.

Molina finished with three hits and four RBIs, driving in another run on a bases-loaded, check-swing groundout. On that particular play in the seventh, Molina didn’t even run toward first, fig-uring he would be called back because he said the ball bounced up and hit him in the hand.

When plate umpire Gerry Davis said nothing, Molina gladly accepted the RBI as Eugenio Velez raced home on the short chopper to the third-base side.

“It kind of got me by surprise that nobody said anything on that play,”

Molina said. “I wasn’t arguing, I was just saying ‘It hit my hand’ and I walked away.”

Cain (3-1) fought his control early, then settled down.

— The Associated Press

DAVID ZALUBOWSKI / AP

Bengie Molina had the sixth multihomer game of his career Thursday, and his first since July 22.

Diamondbacks fire Melvin as manager, Page 11

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 17Baseball

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Rays 8, Yankees 6

Tampa Bay AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Bartlett ss 4 1 1 1 1 2 .340Crawford lf 5 2 2 1 0 0 .306Longoria 3b 5 3 3 3 0 1 .368C.Pena 1b 4 1 1 1 1 2 .266Burrell dh 5 0 2 1 0 0 .240Zobrist rf 4 1 2 1 0 0 .279Kapler cf 4 0 1 0 0 0 .214Iwamura 2b 4 0 1 0 0 2 .284Navarro c 4 0 0 0 0 1 .187Totals 39 8 13 8 2 8

New York AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Jeter ss 4 1 2 0 1 1 .275Damon lf 5 1 4 4 0 0 .314Teixeira 1b 5 0 0 0 0 1 .198H.Matsui dh 4 1 1 1 0 0 .287Cano 2b 5 0 0 0 0 1 .319Swisher rf 4 0 0 0 1 1 .267Me.Cabrera cf 2 1 1 0 2 0 .333R.Pena 3b 3 1 1 0 1 0 .279J.Molina c 2 1 1 1 0 0 .273Cervelli c 2 0 0 0 0 1 .000Totals 36 6 10 6 5 5

Tampa Bay 202 001 102 — 8 13 0New York 000 310 020 — 6 10 0

LOB: Tampa Bay 6, New York 9. 2B: Jeter (6), Damon (5), J.Molina (2). HR: Bartlett (4), off Pettitte; C.Pena (13), off Pettitte; Longoria (9), off Pettitte; Zobrist (5), off Pettitte; Crawford (1), off Ma.Rivera; Longoria (10), off Ma.Rivera; H.Matsui (3), off Cormier; Damon (7), off Wheeler. RBIs: Bartlett (11), Crawford (13), Longoria 3 (38), C.Pena (30), Burrell (13), Zobrist (11), Damon 4 (19), H.Matsui (12), J.Molina (6). SB: Zobrist (2), Kapler (2), Me.Cabrera (3). Runners left in scoring position: Tampa Bay 3 (Navarro 2, Zobrist); New York 5 (Cano 3, J.Molina, Teixeira). DP: Tampa Bay 1 (Bartlett, Iwamura, C.Pena); New York 1 (Pettitte, Cano, Teixeira).

Tampa Bay IP H R ER BB SO NP ERANiemann 3 1⁄3 3 2 2 4 0 78 5.65Cormier 1 2⁄3 4 2 2 0 1 29 2.91Howell H, 2 2 1 0 0 1 3 33 3.65Wheeler BS, 1-1 1 2 2 2 0 0 8 7.84Shouse W, 1-0 H, 3 2⁄3 0 0 0 0 0 4 3.38J.Nelson S, 1-1 1⁄3 0 0 0 0 1 4 3.38New York IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAPettitte 6 9 5 5 1 5 115 4.38Veras 2 2 1 1 1 2 35 7.20Ma.Rivera L, 0-1 2⁄3 2 2 2 0 1 24 3.97D.Robertson 1⁄3 0 0 0 0 0 2 3.86

Inherited runners-scored: Cormier 2-2. HBP: by Niemann (H.Matsui). WP: Niemann. Umpires: Home, Dale Scott; First, Jerry Meals; Second, Mike DiMuro; Third, James Hoye. T: 3:27. A: 43,769 (52,325).

Red Sox 13, Indians 3

Cleveland AB R H BI BB SO Avg.B.Francisco cf 3 0 1 0 0 0 .253A.Cabrera ss 4 0 1 1 0 1 .330V.Martinez c 2 0 0 0 2 0 .391DeRosa 3b 3 0 0 0 0 1 .250Barfield 2b 1 1 1 0 0 0 1.000Dellucci lf 3 0 0 0 0 1 .350Garko 1b 3 0 1 1 1 0 .294Peralta dh 4 0 1 0 0 1 .210LaPorta rf 3 1 1 0 1 0 .154Valbuena 2b-3b 4 1 1 0 0 0 .167Totals 30 3 7 2 4 4

Boston AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Lugo dh 5 3 3 0 0 0 .350Pedroia 2b 4 2 2 3 1 0 .316Bay lf 5 2 2 4 0 0 .316Lowell 3b 3 1 0 0 1 0 .292Baldelli cf 4 1 1 2 0 1 .235J.Drew rf 3 1 0 0 1 1 .250J.Bailey 1b 4 1 2 2 0 0 .167N.Green ss 4 1 2 0 0 0 .278Kottaras c 4 1 1 2 0 1 .160Totals 36 13 13 13 3 3

Cleveland 000 02 0 010 — 3 7 0Boston 100 00(12) 00x — 13 13 0

LOB: Cleveland 8, Boston 2. 2B: Garko (4), Valbuena (1), Bay (6), J.Bailey (1), N.Green (7). 3B: Lugo (1). HR: Bay (8), off Herges. RBIs: A.Cabrera (15), Garko (11), Pedroia 3 (11), Bay 4 (29), Baldelli 2 (3), J.Bailey 2 (6), Kottaras 2 (3). SB: A.Cabrera (5). SF: A.Cabrera. Run-ners left in scoring position: Cleveland 4 (Peralta 3, DeRosa); Boston 2 (N.Green, Kottaras). DP: Cleveland 1 (A.Cabrera, Valbuena, Garko); Boston 2 (Lowell, Pedroia, J.Bailey), (N.Green, Pedroia, J.Bailey).

Cleveland IP H R ER BB SO NP ERASowers L, 0-1 5 7 7 7 3 1 86 12.60Kobayashi 0 5 5 5 0 0 12 8.38Herges 2 1 1 1 0 2 31 4.50J.Lewis 1 0 0 0 0 0 9 5.52Boston IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAWakefield W, 4-1 6 4 2 2 4 3 101 2.93Delcarmen 1 1 0 0 0 1 15 0.59Ja.Lopez 1 2 1 1 0 0 14 10.24Saito 1 0 0 0 0 0 11 4.09

Sowers pitched to 6 batters in the 6th. Kobayashi pitched to 5 batters in the 6th. Inherited runners-scored: Kobayashi 3-3, Herges 2-2. IBB: off Sowers (Lowell). HBP: by Wakefield (Dellucci, B.Francisco), by Saito (B.Francisco). WP: Wakefield. PB: V.Martinez, Kottaras. Umpires: Home, Tim Tschida; First, Bob Davidson; Second, Jeff Nelson; Third, Mark Carlson. T: 2:35. A: 37,541 (37,373).

Boston 13, Cleveland 3 Tampa Bay 8, N.Y. Yankees 6

Rays go back-to-back vs. RiveraRed Sox score 12 in sixth ... before first outNEW YORK—Carl Crawford hit

the kind of home run that’s becoming common at Yankee Stadium, a late shot that doomed New York to defeat.

Then for good measure, Evan Longoria belted one off Mariano Rivera that’s never been hit.

Crawford and Longoria con-nected on back-to-back homers in the ninth inning off the All-Star closer, the first time it’s hap-pened in Rivera’s career, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat New York 8-6 on Thursday night for the Yankees’ fifth consecutive loss.

“In that situation, you’re really just hoping to get a runner on and advance him,” said Longo-ria, who had two of Tampa Bay’s six homers. “We just got him.”

Rivera (0-1) had not given up consecutive homers in 862 games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He’s given up four home runs this season, matching his total for each of the last two.

“I thought they were good pitches, especially to Crawford, but he put good wood on the ball,” said Rivera, who admitted that his velocity isn’t back to nor-mal after having shoulder sur-gery last year. “The one to Longoria caught a little more of the plate.”

Johnny Damon hit a tying, two-run homer in the eighth for New York—one of two Yankees home runs. There have been 47 homers hit at the new Yankee Stadium, 32 of them to right.

— The Associated Press

BOSTON—The Red Sox rounded the bases at a rapid rate and broke an 84-year-old A.L. record.

Twelve batters came up and all 12 scored before Boston made its first out more than a half hour into the bottom of the sixth inning of a 13-3 win over the Cleveland Indians on Thursday night.

“It gets kind of crowded at the helmet rack,” Jeff Bailey said. “I know that every-body wants to get up there.”

Boston broke the AL record of 11 runs in an inning before making an out and tied the modern major league mark of 12. It accomplished the feat without three injured regulars—Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz and Jacoby Ellsbury.

They were replaced by Bailey and Rocco Baldelli, who each drove in two runs in the inning, and Julio Lugo, who began it with a single, his third hit of the game.

“It was pretty sweet, especially with a makeshift squad out there,” said Bailey, who was recalled from the minors on April 22.

Baldelli’s two-run double gave Boston a 4-2 lead, Jason Bay hit a three-run homer and an RBI double and three other batters had two-run hits in the sixth when the Red Sox obliterated a 2-1 deficit.

“You’ve got to give Rocco credit,” Cleve-land’s Ryan Garko said. “That at-bat changed the game.”

Boston had nine hits and three walks in the inning before Matt Herges retired Mike Lowell on a grounder to third, draw-ing cheers from the crowd. Then he struck out Baldelli and got J.D. Drew on a grounder to second.

“I think Mike Lowell got mad because he was the first one who made an out. It was a little funny,” Lugo said.

The inning turned a one-run deficit for

Tim Wakefield into a 13-2 lead. He allowed two runs to score in the fifth on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Asdrubal Cabrera and won his fourth straight.

“I feel very confident. I’ve been getting deep into games,” Wakefield said. “That’s my job here as the fourth or fifth starter.”

Jeremy Sowers (0-1) gave up one run on four hits through five innings. But he left the game after allowing the first six bat-ters to reach base in the sixth.

The Red Sox tied the mark for games since 1900 set by the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 24, 1953. The Dodgers had 12 runs in the eighth inning of a 16-2 win at Phila-delphia, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

The previous A.L. record was set by the Detroit Tigers, who scored 11 runs in the sixth inning in a 19-1 win at the New York

Yankees on June 17, 1925.After Lugo’s leadoff single in the sixth,

Dustin Pedroia walked and Bay doubled in the tying run. Lowell was walked inten-tionally and Baldelli singled in two runs. Drew then walked and Masa Kobayashi replaced Sowers.

But Kobayashi did even worse. He allowed hits to all five batters he faced. Bailey doubled in two runs before Nick Green’s infield single loaded the bases. George Kottaras then doubled home two more. Lugo’s single reloaded the bases and Pedroia singled in two runs, making it 10-3 and chasing Kobayashi.

Then Bay, on a 3-1 pitch from Herges, hit his eighth homer of the season to right-center field.

— The Associated Press

CHARLES KRUPA / AP

Cleveland and LF David Dellucci weren’t in much of a mood to check out the scoreboard after the sixth.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 18Baseball

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Angels 6, Blue Jays 1

Toronto AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Scutaro ss 4 0 0 0 0 1 .261A.Hill 2b 4 1 1 1 0 1 .362Rios rf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .256V.Wells cf 3 0 1 0 0 1 .277Lind dh 3 0 1 0 0 0 .336Rolen 3b 3 0 0 0 0 1 .308Overbay 1b 3 0 0 0 0 0 .241Barajas c 3 0 0 0 0 2 .322Snider lf 3 0 0 0 0 1 .238Totals 30 1 3 1 0 8

Los Angeles AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Figgins 3b 4 2 3 0 0 0 .280M.Izturis ss 3 0 2 2 0 0 .277Abreu rf 4 0 0 0 0 0 .330Hunter cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .313K.Morales 1b 4 2 2 1 0 1 .276Napoli dh 4 2 2 2 0 0 .328J.Rivera lf 4 0 1 1 0 1 .280Kendrick 2b 3 0 0 0 0 1 .245Mathis c 3 0 0 0 0 1 .237Totals 33 6 10 6 0 5

Toronto 000 100 000 — 1 3 2Los Angeles 021 002 10x — 6 10 0

E: Barajas 2 (4). LOB: Toronto 2, Los Angeles 4. 2B: V.Wells (9), Figgins (4), Napoli (6). HR: A.Hill (8), off Jer.Weaver; Napoli (5), off R.Ray; K.Morales (5), off R.Ray. RBIs: A.Hill (28), M.Izturis 2 (10), K.Morales (17), Napoli 2 (13), J.Rivera (8). SB: Figgins 2 (12), Abreu (12). SF: M.Izturis. Runners left in scoring position: Toronto 1 (Overbay); Los Angeles 2 (Hunter, M.Izturis).

Toronto IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAR.Ray L, 0-1 6 1⁄3 10 6 5 0 4 95 6.00B.Murphy 1 2⁄3 0 0 0 0 1 14 1.93Los Angeles IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAJer.Weaver W, 3-1 9 3 1 1 0 8 103 2.66

Inherited runners-scored: B.Murphy 1-0. Umpires: Home, Casey Moser; First, Rob Drake; Second, Paul Emmel; Third, Bill Hohn. T: 2:06. A: 41,007 (45,257).

L.A. Angels 6, Toronto 1

Jays can’t rattle WeaverANAHEIM—The only time Los

Angeles Angels pitcher Jered Weaver looked rattled was late in Thursday night’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays when the home crowd reacted to a hockey score on the video board.

Otherwise, the lanky right-hander had total focus on the job at hand.

Weaver allowed three hits in his first career complete game, and the Angels cruised to a 6-1 victory over the Blue Jays.

“We had (Lyle) Overbay in there getting ready to lock it in and the crowd goes crazy,” Weaver said. “I had to step off a little bit.”

The distraction hardly regis-tered. The Blue Jays entered with a major league-leading .297 bat-ting average only to get tied up by Weaver, who retired 18 of the last 19 batters and finished with 103 pitches. Weaver’s only mis-take was a home run to Aaron Hill in the fourth.

“The Blue Jays had been swinging the bats exceptionally and for him to come in there and hold them to a run and go the distance, it was pretty impres-sive,” Angels catcher Jeff Mathis said.

Toronto lost for just the second time in seven games, while Los Angeles won for the fourth time in five.

The victory for Weaver (3-1) came one day after the Blue Jays embarrassed the Angels in a 13-1 victory, getting 15 hits.

— The Associated Press

Orioles 5, Twins 4

Minnesota AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Span cf-lf 5 2 2 0 0 1 .309Tolbert 2b 4 0 2 0 0 0 .286Mauer c 4 0 3 1 1 1 .476Morneau 1b 3 0 0 1 1 0 .310Kubel dh 4 1 1 0 0 1 .313Crede 3b 4 1 2 0 0 0 .232Cuddyer rf 4 0 1 1 0 0 .260Delm.Young lf 4 0 3 1 0 0 .2881-Gomez pr-cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .224Punto ss 4 0 0 0 0 1 .190Totals 36 4 14 4 2 4

Baltimore AB R H BI BB SO Avg.B.Roberts 2b 4 0 0 0 0 0 .294Ad.Jones cf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .346Markakis rf 3 1 0 0 0 0 .355Mora 3b 4 2 2 1 0 0 .245Huff dh 2 2 1 2 2 0 .274Wigginton 1b 4 0 1 0 0 1 .208Montanez lf 4 0 1 1 0 0 .185Zaun c 3 0 3 0 0 0 .192C.Izturis ss 3 0 1 1 0 0 .250Totals 31 5 9 5 2 2

Minnesota 011 001 100 — 4 14 0Baltimore 022 000 01x — 5 9 1

1-ran for Delm.Young in the 8th. E: C.Ray (1). LOB: Min-nesota 9, Baltimore 5. 2B: Crede (6). HR: Mora (2), off Perkins; Huff (4), off Perkins. RBIs: Mauer (4), Morneau (22), Cuddyer (14), Delm.Young (13), Mora (11), Huff 2 (25), Montanez (3), C.Izturis (10). CS: Delm.Young (2). S: Tolbert. SF: Morneau. Runners left in scoring position: Minnesota 2 (Kubel, Crede); Baltimore 1 (B.Roberts). GIDP: Cuddyer, Delm.Young, C.Izturis. DP: Minnesota 1 (Punto, Tolbert, Morneau); Baltimore 2 (Mora, B.Roberts, Wigginton), (Bergesen, B.Roberts, Wigginton).

Minnesota IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAPerkins 6 5 4 4 2 2 101 3.73Guerrier 1 1 0 0 0 0 15 3.45Mijares L, 0-1 1 3 1 1 0 0 18 1.59Baltimore IP H R ER BB SO NP ERABergesen 6 11 3 3 1 3 88 4.98C.Ray BS, 1-1 2⁄3 2 1 1 0 0 11 8.00Walker 1⁄3 0 0 0 0 0 2 1.80Ji.Johnson W, 2-0 1 1 0 0 0 0 17 2.25Sherrill S, 5-7 1 0 0 0 1 1 23 4.26

Inherited runners-scored: Walker 1-0. HBP: by Perkins (Markakis). Umpires: Home, Randy Marsh; First, Mike Winters; Second, Lance Barksdale; Third, Brian Knight. T: 2:47. A: 11,399 (48,290).

Baltimore 5, Minnesota 4

Unlikely cast paces OriolesBALTIMORE—A .154 hitter drove

in the go-ahead run, the slump-ing third baseman homered and scored twice, and the struggling closer sealed the vic-tory with a solid inning of work.

Relying on an unlikely cast of stars, the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Minnesota Twins 5-4 Thursday night for a two-game sweep.

“A lot of guys that have been scuffling a little bit came through,” said manager Dave Trembley, who hadn’t seen his team win two in a row since April 13-14 at Texas.

Lou Montanez singled in the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning after taking a .154 bat-ting average to the plate. The single scored Melvin Mora, who came in hitting .222 but homered in his first at-bat to end a 2-for-24 skid.

Montanez’s hit set the stage for George Sherrill, who got three outs for his fifth save in seven tries. After blowing two save opportunities in the span of a week, Sherrill was in dan-ger of losing his job.

But he was in control against the Twins. After getting two quick outs, he walked Joe Mauer before retiring Justin Morneau on a lazy fly to left.

“It felt real good,” Sherrill said. “It was good to come out and show command. It felt really good coming out of my hand.”

— The Associated Press

White Sox 6, Tigers 0

Detroit AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Granderson cf 4 0 1 0 0 0 .259Polanco 2b 4 0 2 0 0 0 .273Thomas rf 3 0 0 0 1 2 .429Mi.Cabrera 1b 4 0 0 0 0 0 .390Ordonez dh 3 0 0 0 1 2 .225Laird c 3 0 0 0 0 0 .236Inge 3b 3 0 0 0 0 1 .278Raburn lf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .063Everett ss 3 0 0 0 0 2 .259Totals 30 0 3 0 2 7

Chicago AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Getz 2b 2 1 1 0 2 0 .294Fields 3b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .250Quentin lf 4 0 0 0 0 0 .242Thome dh 3 1 0 0 1 0 .205Dye rf 4 1 1 1 0 1 .290Konerko 1b 4 1 2 2 0 0 .310Pierzynski c 4 1 1 2 0 0 .313J.Nix ss 3 1 1 1 0 1 .400Podsednik cf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .273Totals 31 6 6 6 3 4

Detroit 000 000 000 — 0 3 1Chicago 500 100 00x — 6 6 0

E: Everett (4). LOB: Detroit 5, Chicago 4. 2B: Polanco (12), Getz (5), Konerko 2 (9). HR: Pierzynski (4), off Galarraga; J.Nix (1), off Galarraga. RBIs: Dye (16), Konerko 2 (20), Pierzynski 2 (9), J.Nix (2). Runners left in scoring position: Detroit 3 (Laird 2, Ordonez); Chicago 2 (Quentin, J.Nix).

Detroit IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAGalarraga L, 3-2 6 6 6 6 2 3 85 4.08Perry 2 0 0 0 1 1 25 2.92Chicago IP H R ER BB SO NP ERABuehrle W, 5-0 8 1 0 0 2 5 110 2.61Jenks 1 2 0 0 0 2 26 1.80

Umpires: Home, Chris Guccione; First, Chris Tiller; Second, Jerry Layne; Third, Tony Randazzo. T: 2:02. A: 27,475 (40,615).

Chicago White Sox 6, Detroit 0

Buehrle flirts with perfection again

CHICAGO—The driving rainstorm that postponed Wednes-day’s Detroit-Chicago game gave Mark Buehrle an extra day of rest and he took full advantage. Or did he?

“Nah,” he said, smiling, “I think I would have thrown a no-hitter if I had pitched (Wednesday).”

As it is, the White Sox lefthander came pretty close to duplicating—or even improving upon—the no-hitter he threw in 2007. Buehrle retired the first 19 batters Thurs-day night before Placido Polanco’s double ended his bid for a perfect game.

That was the only hit Buehrle allowed in eight innings as he led Chicago to a 6-0 victory over the Tigers, who were shut out for the first time this season.

Buehrle’s dominance had a familiar look to Tigers catcher Gerald Laird, who was playing for Texas on April 18, 2007, when Buehrle threw his no-hitter.

“He had similar stuff,” said Laird, who made the final out for the Rangers that day. “He was back and forth, cut-ters in, keeping you off balance, getting a lot of ground-balls and guys having a lot of bad swings.

“I was thinking ... ‘Darn, I’m going to be in the lineup twice if this happens.’”

The White Sox are 6-0 in Buehrle’s starts—and 7-14 in games started by all others.

— The Associated Press

White Sox P Mark Buehrle gave up one hit over eight innings.

CHARLES REX ARBOGAST / AP

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 19Baseball

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Athletics 9, Rangers 4

Texas AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Kinsler 2b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .325Vizquel 2b 1 0 1 1 0 0 .429Andrus ss 5 0 0 0 0 1 .259M.Young 3b 5 0 2 0 0 0 .336Blalock dh 4 0 0 0 0 1 .245Byrd cf 3 0 2 0 0 0 .330Golson cf 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000N.Cruz rf 4 1 0 0 0 1 .295Dav.Murphy lf 4 1 1 1 0 0 .174C.Davis 1b 4 2 2 1 0 1 .211Saltalamacchia c 4 0 2 1 0 0 .276Totals 39 4 11 4 0 5

Oakland AB R H BI BB SO Avg.O.Cabrera ss 5 0 0 0 0 1 .229K.Suzuki c 5 2 3 0 0 0 .327Giambi 1b 3 2 1 0 1 2 .209G.Petit 2b 1 0 0 0 0 0 .250Holliday lf 2 2 1 3 2 0 .233Cust dh 4 1 1 4 0 1 .297R.Sweeney cf 4 1 2 0 0 1 .259Crosby 2b-1b 4 1 3 1 0 0 .259T.Buck rf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .185Hannahan 3b 3 0 1 1 1 1 .143Totals 35 9 12 9 4 7

Texas 000 010 003 — 4 11 1Oakland 000 540 00x — 9 12 1

E: Andrus (7), O.Cabrera (3). LOB: Texas 8, Oakland 6. 2B: Kinsler (9), Vizquel (2), M.Young 2 (12), Byrd 2 (11), Dav.Murphy (2), Crosby 2 (3), Hannahan (1). HR: C.Davis (7), off Cahill; Cust (4), off McCarthy; Holliday (4), off Benson. RBIs: Vizquel (3), Dav.Murphy (6), C.Davis (14), Saltalamacchia (13), Holliday 3 (20), Cust 4 (14), Crosby (8), Hannahan (2). Runners left in scoring position: Texas 8 (Blalock 3, C.Davis, N.Cruz, Byrd, M.Young 2); Oakland 4 (O.Cabrera, Hannahan 2, Cust). DP: Texas 1 (Andrus, Kinsler, C.Davis).

Texas IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAMcCarthy L, 3-1 4 7 7 7 3 4 81 6.10Benson 3 5 2 2 1 3 58 8.36Guardado 1 0 0 0 0 0 11 8.53Oakland IP H R ER BB SO NP ERACahill W, 1-2 7 5 1 1 0 4 97 3.82K.Cameron 1 2 0 0 0 0 25 1.80Ziegler 1⁄3 4 3 2 0 1 12 3.09A.Bailey 2⁄3 0 0 0 0 0 7 1.40

McCarthy pitched to 2 batters in the 5th. Inherited runners-scored: Benson 2-2, A.Bailey 2-0. Umpires: Home, Larry Vanover; First, Sam Holbrook; Second, Dan Iassogna; Third, Charlie Reliford. T: 2:33. A: 13,702 (35,067).

Royals 3, Mariners 1

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg.I.Suzuki rf 4 0 3 0 1 0 .316F.Gutierrez cf 4 0 0 0 0 2 .287Jo.Lopez 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 .269Branyan 1b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .302Beltre 3b 3 0 1 0 0 0 .207Griffey Jr. dh 4 1 2 0 0 0 .214Balentien lf 3 0 1 0 1 0 .341Ro.Johnson c 3 0 0 0 0 3 .204a-M.Sweeney ph 1 0 1 1 0 0 .2812-En.Chavez pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 .281Cedeno ss 3 0 0 0 0 3 .138b-Y.Betancourt ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 .284Totals 33 1 9 1 3 11

Kansas City AB R H BI BB SO Avg.Crisp cf 3 2 1 0 0 1 .238DeJesus lf 3 0 1 0 0 1 .250Teahen 3b 3 0 0 0 1 0 .298J.Guillen rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .2911-Maier pr-rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .231Butler 1b 4 0 2 1 0 0 .286Jacobs dh 3 0 0 0 0 1 .255Bloomquist 2b 3 1 1 0 0 1 .377Olivo c 2 0 1 0 0 1 .222Aviles ss 3 0 1 1 0 0 .211Totals 27 3 7 2 1 5

Seattle 000 000 001 — 1 9 1Kansas City 001 010 01x — 3 7 1

a-singled for Ro.Johnson in the 9th. b-walked for Cedeno in the 9th. 1-ran for J.Guillen in the 8th. 2-ran for M.Sweeney in the 9th. E: Cedeno (1), Aviles (4). LOB: Seattle 9, Kansas City 5. 2B: I.Suzuki (2), Balentien (3), Crisp (8), DeJesus (5). RBIs: M.Sweeney (7), Butler (12), Aviles (8). SB: I.Suzuki (5), Crisp (5). S: DeJesus, Olivo. Runners left in scoring position: Seattle 6 (Beltre, Jo.Lopez, Branyan, Ro.Johnson, I.Suzuki 2); Kansas City 2 (J.Guillen, DeJesus). DP: Seattle 1 (Jo.Lopez, Branyan); Kansas City 4 (Aviles, Bloomquist, Butler), (Butler, Butler, Aviles), (Teahen, Bloomquist, Butler), (Aviles, Butler).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERAWashburn L, 3-2 7 6 2 1 0 5 95 2.68White 1 1 1 1 1 0 13 1.46Kansas City IP H R ER BB SO NP ERABannister W, 3-0 6 5 0 0 1 7 105 1.48Mahay H, 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 12 4.66J.Cruz H, 4 1 1 0 0 0 2 22 2.03Soria S, 7-7 1 2 1 1 2 1 29 2.08

IBB: off White (Teahen). HBP: by White (Crisp, J.Guillen), by Mahay (Beltre). Umpires: Home, Todd Tichenor; First, Tom Hallion; Second, Jerry Crawford; Third, Phil Cuzzi. T: 2:33. A: 32,714 (38,177).

Oakland 9, Texas 4Kansas City 3, Seattle 1

Cahill backed by HRs from Cust, Holliday

Bannister settles in after first inningOAKLAND—Jack Cust was

excused for missing most of Trevor Cahill’s first major league win.

While Cahill and the Athlet-ics were in the field, Oakland’s designated hitter was in the video room. It paid off when he hit a grand slam that helped the A’s beat the Texas Rangers 9-4.

“I know it kind of stinks but I did see some of his strikeouts,” Cust said.

Matt Holliday added a three-run shot and Bobby Crosby had three hits to help Oakland snap a four-game losing streak. Jack Hannahan doubled home a run and Kurt Suzuki added three hits in the A’s highest-scoring game this season.

“He’s got to do that to get ready for what he did,” Cahill said. “It’s what I do before a game.”

The grand slam helped Cahill (1-2) enjoy his outing even more.

“I was a little more aggres-sive after that,” said Cahill, who had his brother and girlfriend among the 13,702 in atten-dance. “A lead like that is nice and lets you relax.”

Cahill, who entered the game tied for the A.L. lead for walks, did not issue a free pass while striking out four.

“No walks is definitely a huge step for me,” Cahill said.

— The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY—Brian Bannister felt fine warming up in the bullpen. On the field, something just wasn’t right and he was in a jam right off the bat.

Once he worked out the kinks, the righthander was as good as he’s been all season.

Bannister worked six scoreless innings to outpitch Jarrod Washburn and the Kansas City Royals extended their winning streak to six games with a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday.

Bannister was in trouble right away, laboring through a 27-pitch first inning. Facing runners on the corners with one out, he struck out Russell Branyan and got Adrian Beltre to line out, setting up one of his best outings of the season.

“I just made some pitches when I had to,” Bannister said. “Getting through that inning knowing I didn’t have my best location really helped me the rest of the game.”

The Royals turned four double plays in front of 32,714 screeching fans—it was School Day at The K—and over-came some shaky moments from closer Joakim Soria to earn their eighth win in nine games overall. They have won six straight against Seattle for the first time since 1989 and swept a home series against two teams for the first time since 2003.

The Mariners have lost four straight and eight of 11 overall thanks to a fail-ing offense. Ichiro Suzuki had three hits and Ken Griffey Jr. had a pair. The rest of the Mariners weren’t so good, combining for four hits and 11 strikeouts.

Seattle, the A.L.’s third-worst scoring team, has just eight runs in its last four

games. It has scored one run or less in eight games this season.

“It’s a shame—Washburn pitched well,” Mariners manager Don Waka-matsu said.

A day after pounding out 17 hits in a 9-1 win over the Mariners, the Royals managed just seven hits and had to scrap for all of their runs.

That’s all they needed the way Ban-nister (3-0) was pitching.

He settled in after the shaky start, finishing with seven strikeouts, getting out of jams with double-play balls in the second, fourth and sixth innings. Bannister allowed five hits and walked one in his fourth start since being called up from Triple-A Omaha on April 21.

“I would put that right up there with one of the top three starts that we’ve seen this season,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

Ron Mahay and Juan Cruz each threw a scoreless inning before Soria made it interesting in his first outing since Sunday.

Kansas City’s closer, who’s been bothered by a sore shoulder, gave up two hits, including Mike Sweeney’s run-scoring single, and walked two to load the bases with two outs.

With the Kauffman Stadium crowd getting antsy, Soria finally closed out his seventh save by getting Suzuki to bounce into a fielder’s choice.

— The Associated Press

CHARLIE RIEDEL / AP

Willie Bloomquist, top, and the Royals now have won six straight and eight of their last nine.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 20Baseball

PITTSBURGH—The series between the Capi-tals and Penguins has been hyped around the stars and they’ve delivered. Of the 17 goals scored so far, 10 have been scored by Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin or Evgeni Malkin.

With the series about to pick up pace with back-to-back games, the team that gets offensive contributions from outside the big three could seize the momentum.

“Absolutely, that’s the biggest key,” said Washing-ton center Nicklas Back-strom, who scored his first goal of the playoffs Wednes-day night. “Secondary scor-

ing is real important. Pittsburgh is focused on our first two lines. If we get secondary scoring, it’ll be great. It’s real important.”

As exciting as this series has been, there are still a number of players who can elevate their offensive game.

Penguins forwards Jordan Staal, Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz all are looking for their first goals of the playoffs.

As for the Capitals, Alexander Semin has been held without a goal after scoring five against the Rangers in the first round. Mike Green, Washington’s offensively gifted defen-seman, is also looking for his first against Pittsburgh.

“That’s how you win in the playoffs, you have all the lines contribute offensively,” Dupuis said. “(Malkin and Crosby) are taking the big load right now, obviously most of it. We’re happy they’re doing it, but some guys have to step up.”

Back-to-back challengesWashington general manager George McPhee

was blunt when offering his assessment of play-ing back-to-back games in the playoffs.

Pittsburgh and Washington play Game 4 tonight and Game 5 in Washington on Saturday.

“You don’t want to play back-to-back in the playoffs. Neither team wanted it,” McPhee

said Thursday.But both teams got it, and the challenges

the scheduling presents is another test one of these teams will need to pass.

“It’s a lot of hockey in a short period of

time,” said Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma. “There’s not a lot of time to refocus and re-energize and you have to let go of the game and get right back on the horse.”

It could mean an adjustment in how each team distributes ice time, with coaches bal-ancing the desire to win tonight with keeping players fresh enough for the quick turn the following day. All three games have been tight, so there’s also the threat of overtime complicating things even more.

“The obvious one is fatigue,” Crosby said. “You play back-to-back games, it’s wearing. During the season, it’s a bit of a factor some-times. In the playoffs, it’s intense, emotional games and you have to turn the page quickly.”

It comes down to depth, and Dupuis said he believes the Penguins are the deeper of the two teams, which would give them an advantage.

“I think we are,” he said. “This is where depth becomes a factor.”

The other goalieSimeon Varlamov, Washington’s rookie

goalie, has earned much of the praise heaped on the goaltenders in this series, but Pitts-burgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury bounced back from an early fluke goal to play a strong game for the Penguins on Wednesday.

Compared to Varlamov, Fleury is a playoff veteran, but this is still only his third trip to the postseason.

He said his growing playoff experience helped him shake off the early goal to Alex Ovechkin on Wednesday.

“It was important for me to forget about it and move on, make some saves and get in the game,” Fleury said. “I think maybe I have more experience, I know what to expect a little bit more—on the ice and off the ice. It’s something you have to go through to learn about it.”

ccustance@sportingnews.com

Pressure’s onPittsburgh forward Evgeni

Malkin was drawing heat for his lack of offensive production before Wednesday’s dominant performance.

“Yeah, he turned it up for sure,” teammate Sidney Crosby said. “It was a big game. Great players want to step up in these games and he did that. For the past few days, he’s taken a lot of criticism and prob-ably not all of it for good reason. He’s taken it upon himself to raise his game.”

With Malkin clicking, the attention now turns to others who need to raise their offensive game. Here’s five:

1. Mike Green, Capitals: Green has only two shots on

goal against Pittsburgh and has yet to score.

2. Jordan Staal, Penguins: Staal does play a defensive role

for the Penguins, but they could certainly use the occasional goal from him.

3. Alexander Semin, Capitals: He scored five goals against the

Rangers and is still looking for his sixth. He’s a minus-2 in Round 2.

4. Chris Kunitz, Penguins: With Sidney Crosby setting him

up, we’d expect Kunitz to have a playoff goal by now.

5. Brooks Laich, Capitals: A 23-goal scorer during the

regular season, Laich is due to get his first against Pittsburgh.

EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

Back-to-back contests will test depth of the Pens, Caps

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / AP

Chris Kunitz is one of several Pens wings who have been blanked this postseason.

Craig CustanceHOCKEY

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 21NHL

WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

Detroit 6, Anaheim 3

New line pays off for Red WingsANAHEIM—Johan Franzen and Mar-

ian Hossa gave the Detroit Red Wings all they offense they needed on a new line with center Valtteri Filppula.

Franzen and Hossa each scored twice to help the Detroit beat the Anaheim Ducks 6-3 on Thursday night, tying the Western Conference semifinal series at 2.

After Franzen—dubbed “The Mule” by his teammates—scored two first-period goals, Hossa broke a 2-2 tie with goals in a 3:05 span of the second period.

Franzen added an assist, and Filp-pula had two assists.

Mikael Samuelsson also scored, Henrik Zetterberg added an empty-netter to help the Stanley Cup cham-pion Red Wings regain momentum in the series.

“We got our goals a little bit easier, we played with high tempo,” Fran-zen said. “We need things like that to break down that goalie, so we did a great job tonight.”

Game 5 is Sunday in Detroit, and Game 6 is Tuesday night in Anaheim.

The Red Wings may have found an effective scoring trio just at the right time.

“For whatever reason, we seemed to get a spark from that line,” said Detroit coach Mike Babcock, who decided to give the new combination a shot in the first period. “I figured it was time to change things up.”

The early returns were highly favorable.

While Chris Osgood was making

25 saves for Detroit, the Red Wings were able to chase Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller after Samuelsson’s goal early in the third.

Hiller, who had made 59 saves in the Ducks’ 4-3 triple-overtime win in Game 2 and 45 saves in a 2-1 vic-tory in Game 3, allowed five goals on 33 shots before being replaced by Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

“They just outplayed us,” Hiller said. “It was probably our worst playoff game we have played so far.”

Corey Perry had two goals and an assist for Anaheim. Scott Nieder-mayer also scored, and Ryan Getzlaf had two assists.

The Ducks certainly got the start they were looking for.

Perry took a feed from Chris Pronger and swiftly moved down the right wing before whisking a slap shot inside the far post just 42 sec-onds after the opening faceoff.

Anaheim continued to control play, building a 5-1 shot advantage before the Red Wings got on track.

Franzen tied it, beating Hiller with a quick wrist shot from the high slot off a drop pass from Filppula.

“The first goal was a goal that should have never gone into the net,” Ducks coach Randy Carlye said. “We weren’t just good enough as a team and goaltending is part of the team and that’s the bottom line. We weren’t good enough.”

Franzen scored his second goal by deflecting in Niklas Kronwall’s point shot with 36 seconds remaining in the first to make it 2-1.

Franzen has shown a significant

ability to raise his game in the postseason.

During the Red Wings’ champion-ship run last year, the 29-year-old Swede scored 12 goals in his first 12 playoff games before sustaining a concussion against Dallas. After missing six games, he scored a goal in the Cup finals.

— The Associated Press

Detroit 2 2 2 — 6Anaheim 1 1 1 — 3

First Period: 1, Anaheim, Perry 5 (Pronger), :42. 2, Detroit, Franzen 5 (Filppula, Ericsson), 11:49. 3, Detroit, Franzen 6 (Kronwall), 19:24. Penalties: Pronger, Ana (holding), 8:55.Second Period: 4, Anaheim, Perry 6 (Getzlaf), 11:03. 5, Detroit, Hossa 3 (Franzen), 16:02. 6, Detroit, Hossa 4 (Lidstrom, Filppula), 19:04 (pp). Penalties: Detroit bench, served by Hudler (too many men), 1:22; Beauchemin, Ana (hooking), 1:53; Filppula, Det (slash-ing), 6:17; Perry, Ana (tripping), 6:23; Beauchemin, Ana (interfer-ence), 18:23.Third Period: 7, Detroit, Samuelsson 2 (Maltby), 2:46. 8, Anaheim, S.Niedermayer 3 (Perry, Getzlaf), 10:03 (pp). 9, Detroit, Zetterberg 5 (Lebda), 17:27 (en). Penalties: Brown, Ana (roughing), 6:20; Helm, Det (tripping), 9:51; Kopecky, Det, major (fighting), 11:09; Beauchemin, Ana, major (fighting), 11:09.Shots on Goal: Detroit 11-20-9: 40. Anaheim 9-13-6: 28.Power-play opportunities: Detroit 1 of 5; Anaheim 1 of 3.Goalies: Detroit, Osgood 6-2-0 (28 shots-25 saves). Anaheim, Hiller 6-4-0 (33-28), Giguere (2:46 third, 6-6).A: 17,601 (17,174). T: 2:31.Referees: Paul Devorski, Dennis LaRue. Linesmen: Greg Devorski, Lonnie Cameron.

Series glance (Series tied 2-2)

May 1: Detroit 3, Anaheim 2

May 3: Anaheim 4, Detroit 3, 3OT

May 5: Anaheim 2. Detroit 1

Thursday: Detroit 6, Anaheim 3

Sunday: Anaheim at Detroit, 5 p.m.

Tuesday: Detroit at Anaheim, TBD

Thursday, May 14: Anaheim at

Detroit, TBD, if necessary

MARK AVERY / AP

Detroit D Brad Stuart, left, holds back Anaheim’s Mike Brown as Red Wings G Chris Osgood reaches for the rebound in the second period.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 22NHL

WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALSChicago 2, Vancouver 1, OT

Blackhawks finally get to Luongo, even seriesCHICAGO—Andrew Ladd had

perfect position. When the puck came flying off teammate Dave Bolland’s stick from far away, Ladd was right in front of Van-couver goalie Roberto Luongo to tip it in.

Ladd’s goal less than three minutes into overtime Thursday night capped a remarkable 2-1 comeback victory for the Chicago Blackhawks and tied the Western Conference semifinal series at 2.

“Bolland has great patience with the puck,” Ladd said. “He turned around, saw my stick and got it to the right spot. We’ve got a little momentum here and can take it back to Vancouver.”

Game 5 is Saturday night in Vancouver, and the Canucks will have to regroup after losing a game they nearly had sealed up. Chicago’s Martin Havlat tied it at 1 with 2:44 left in regulation after Luongo had been unflappable most of the night.

“We were a couple of minutes away from winning this game,” Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. “It happened. We’ve got to deal with it and get ready for the next game.”

After the Canucks had two point-blank shots to score, but were turned away by Nikolai Khabibulin, Bolland chased down the puck along the boards at the other end. He fired a shot from beyond the right circle and Ladd knocked it in at 2:52 of overtime.

“It was a shot from the half wall. Ladd was right in front of me,” said Luongo, who finished with 26 saves. “It was coming fast from the outside of the net. I extended my leg and he tipped it in the five-hole, so it was a good play by him.”

Havlat’s tying goal came on a wrist shot from between the circles after Ladd had worked the puck free from the boards and shoveled it in his direction.

“I had 1-on-1 against the goalie and Ladd gave me a great pass. I had a lot of time and I haven’t had that in this series,” Havlat said. “We kept fighting until the last second and it paid off. We were patient.”

In the closing seconds of regu-lation, Bolland had a breakaway before Vancouver’s Alexander Edler caught up to him, hit his stick from behind and then forced him away from the net. Bolland went down on the play and the crowd at the United Center screamed for a penalty with 8.2 seconds to go.

Darcy Hordichuk took a pass from a spinning Rick Rypien to score his first playoff goal mid-way through the second period to put the Canucks up 1-0—the fourth straight game Vancouver opened the scoring.

And Luongo again appeared too tough for the Blackhawks to crack. After allowing eight goals in the two games at Vancouver,

Luongo gave up just one in Game 3 and looked on his way to a shut-out before Havlat tied it.

“A huge comeback for us. We’re right back in the series now,” Chi-cago coach Joel Quenneville said. “It looked grim, but the enthusi-asm was in the right places.”

After Chicago’s Jonathan Toews had his shot blocked, Ryp-ien scooped up the puck and raced to the other end against Blackhawks defenseman Matt Walker. Just before reaching the circles, Rypien made his nifty spin move to evade Walker and then passed to Hordichuk, who beat Khabibulin on the stick side for the 1-0 lead.

The score came shortly after Luongo made a spectacular stop on a rebound attempt by Chica-go’s Troy Brouwer. After the Canucks went ahead and with each team down a man, Luongo made a sprawling pad save to deny Patrick Sharp.

Chicago came out with strong early rush and Luongo had five saves in the first six minutes, including another nice pad stop of Toews’ point-blank attempt just as a power play was expiring.

The Blackhawks mustered an 8-4 shots-on-goal advantage but were blanked in the opening period for the fourth straight game.

Khabibulin finished with 14 saves.

— The Associated Press Troy Brouwer, right, and the Blackhawks have some momentum heading back to Vancouver for Game 5.

NAM Y. HUH / AP

Series glance(Series tied 2-2)

April 30: Vancouver 5,

Chicago 3

May 2: Chicago 6,

Vancouver 3

May 5: Vancouver 3,

Chicago 1

Thursday: Chicago 2,

Vancouver 1, OT

Saturday: Chicago at

Vancouver, 10:30 p.m.,

Versus

Monday: Vancouver at

Chicago, 9 p.m., Versus

Thursday, May 14: Chicago

at Vancouver, TBD, if

necessary

Vancouver 0 1 0 0 — 1Chicago 0 0 1 1 — 2

First Period: None. Penalties: Bieksa, Van (interfer-ence), 3:20; Brouwer, Chi (boarding), 10:01.Second Period: 1, Vancouver, Hordichuk 1 (Rypien, R.Johnson), 8:32. Penalties: Mitchell, Van (roughing), 9:01; Ladd, Chi (roughing), 9:01; O’Brien, Van (slashing), 16:39; Bieksa, Van (roughing), 17:52; Havlat, Chi (rough-ing), 17:52.Third Period: 2, Chicago, Havlat 4 (Ladd, Bolland), 17:16. Penalties: Hordichuk, Van (diving), 6:54; Eager, Chi (roughing), 6:54.First Overtime: 3, Chicago, Ladd 2 (Bolland, Havlat), 2:52. Penalties: None.Shots on Goal: Vancouver 4-6-4-1: 15. Chicago 8-9-7-4: 28.Power-play opportunities: Vancouver 0 of 1; Chicago 0 of 2.Goalies: Vancouver, Luongo 6-2-0 (28 shots-26 saves). Chicago, Khabibulin 6-4-0 (15-14).A: 22,682 (20,500). T: 2:43.Referees: Kelly Sutherland, Marc Joannette. Linesmen: Derek Amell, Pierre Racicot.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 23NHL

WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

Havlat’s tying goal restores Chicago mojoCHICAGO—The overtime goal gets the

glory, of course. Andrew Ladd’s tip-in off Dave Bolland’s blue-line slapper will lead the Blackhawks’ marketing campaigns and stick in the highlight videos. It gave the home team a 2-1

overtime win Thurs-day night, and it evened this punch-counterpunch best-of-seven series at two games apiece.

But the score that saved Chicago came about a half hour earlier. This game-tying tally provided

CPR for its season, re-kindled hope among the playoff’s youngest roster, and sent a frustrated United Center sellout crowd into a towel-waving frenzy.

The details will be simple for all Hawks fans to remember: Martin Havlat, Chicago’s leading scorer this postseason, snagged a desperation pass from Ladd inside the faceoff cir-cle to the left of Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo. He skated to the slot, flipped a wrist shot as he took a bump from Willie Mitchell and, with 2:44 remaining, tumbled into Blackhawks’ lore.

“We tied it up there, and we came back out with confidence,” Bolland said. “We had an extra boost.”

Never this season had the Black-hawks needed such a boost. The league’s surprise team reached the playoffs with a what-the-heck attitude and zero buzz. But a six-game win over Calgary in the first round, and a split of two games on the Canucks’ home

ice in the second transformed expecta-tions. What-the-heck morphed into why-not and became let’s-win-us-a-Stanley Cup.

But Vancouver dominated Game 3 and, despite a woeful offensive night, carried a 1-0 lead into the final three minutes of Game 4 regulation.

Shoulders slouched on the Black-hawks’ bench, and the fans’ loudest moments came at the end of the national anthem. Chicago seemed des-tined to fall behind 3-1, a virtual death sentence against the steady Canucks.

Then Havlat swooped in, beat Luongo short side and shook up this

series. His goal only tied the game, but it won all the energy, all the momen-tum, all the mojo needed to resurrect the Hawks.

“We gave ourselves lives again,” Chicago captain Jonathan Toews said.

Ask San Jose and New Jersey about the importance of having life in mid-May. Chicago showed its beating heart the rest of the night, nearly winning it on a Bolland breakaway in the final 20 seconds of the third. He’d surface again on his first shift of overtime, set-ting up Ladd’s game-winner at 2:52 of sudden death.

And so this series heads back north of the border as one big wash. Four games, and still no clue which team will move on to the Western Confer-ence finals—and which will start sum-mer vacation next week.

Here’s the certainty: One team heads back to Vancouver wondering how it doesn’t have a stranglehold on the series. And the other flies there ener-gized by Havlat’s goal and giddy about sitting square with the favored Canucks.

“There’s a lot of skill, a lot of speed and a lot of excitement,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said of his team. “And they believe in each other.”

As Game 4’s first 57 minutes ticked away, so did some of that belief. But Chicago got its groove back here Thursday night. Thanks to Havlat—which led to Ladd—more than 22,000 fans left the United Center believing in their team again. They’ll be back here for Game 6 Monday, hoping this new life lasts a few games longer.

dcurtis@sportingnews.com

Martin Havlat (24), who tied the game with less than three minutes left, is embraced by teammates.NAM Y. HUH / AP

NOTEBOOK

Low-octane Canucks muster just 15 shots

The Vancouver Canucks said again Thursday night that they prefer a slower-paced, heavy-hitting series to a wide-out set of goalfests. But their hesitation to create scoring chances ranked as the key reason why this series stands even today.

The Canucks mustered just 15 shots in the 2-1 overtime loss, rarely testing Chicago’s defense. After taking a 1-0 lead in the middle period, they exited attack mode and never looked on the brink of going another goal ahead.

“We maybe sat back a little too much,” winger Alex Bur-rows said. “We had that one goal lead and we wanted to pro-tect it.”

The Canucks went without a shot for the first seven min-utes of the game and the first five minutes of the third period. The statistics failed to move coach Alain Vigneault, who insisted his team won’t sprint with the younger, quicker Blackhawks.

“We can’t go chance for chance with this team,” he said. “They’re just too skilled.”

For starters Again, Chicago mustered little early offense Thursday

night. And again, the Canucks scored the first goal on Darcy Hordichuk’s wrist shot midway through the second period. But the Blackhawks seemed pleased with their start, which at least left them room to rally at night’s end.

“We came out the way we wanted to,” said Andrew Ladd, who also finished the game the way he wanted with the OT goal. “We had lots of energy and stayed out of the box.”

The Blackhawks have allowed the first goal in each of the four games in this series—and eight times in their 10 playoff games so far. Coach Joel Quenneville has stressed strong starts throughout the playoffs but seems resigned to having a bunch of comeback kids.

“We’re accustomed to it,” he said. “But it’s not healthy. And it’s not the right way to success.”

A playoff breakthroughHordichuk’s goal was his first in a 15-game NHL playoff

career. He said his last postseason scores came during a 2001 run with Orlando of the International Hockey League. “It’s nice to have that feeling again,” he said.

— Dave Curtis

Chicago 2, Vancouver 1, OT

Dave CurtisHOCKEY

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 24NHL

Playoff glance

CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS(Best-of-7)

All Times ET

EASTERN CONFERENCEBoston vs. Carolina(Carolina leads series 2-1)

May 1: Boston 4, Carolina 1

May 3: Carolina 3, Boston 0

May 5: Carolina 3, Boston 2, OT

Today: Boston at Carolina, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday: Carolina at Boston, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday: Boston at Carolina, 7 p.m., if necessary

Thursday, May 14: Carolina at Boston, TBD, if necessary

Washington vs. Pittsburgh(Washington leads series 2-1)

May 2: Washington 3, Pittsburgh 2

May 4: Washington 4, Pittsburgh 3

May 6: Pittsburgh 3, Washington 2, OT

Today: Washington at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.

Saturday: Pittsburgh at Washington, 7 p.m.

Monday: Washington at Pittsburgh, TBD, if necessary

Wednesday: Pittsburgh at Washington, 7 p.m., if necessary

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Detroit vs. Anaheim(Series tied 2-2)

May 1: Detroit 3, Anaheim 2

May 3: Anaheim 4, Detroit 3, 3OT

May 5: Anaheim 2, Detroit 1

Thursday: Detroit 6, Anaheim 3

Sunday: Anaheim at Detroit, 5 p.m., if necessary

Tuesday: Detroit at Anaheim, TBD, if necessary

Thursday, May 14: Anaheim at Detroit, TBD, if necessary

Vancouver vs. Chicago(Series tied 2-2)

April 30: Vancouver 5, Chicago 3

May 2: Chicago 6, Vancouver 3

May 5: Vancouver 3, Chicago 1

Thursday: Chicago 2, Vancouver 1, OT

Saturday: Chicago at Vancouver, 10:30 p.m.

Monday,: Vancouver at Chicago, 9 p.m.

Thursday, May 14: Chicago at Vancouver, TBD, if necessary

Today’s gamesAll Times ETEastern Conference semifinals(Best-of-7)

Washington at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m., Versus

Boston at Carolina, 7:30 p.m., Versus (joined in progress)

Betting linesToday

FAVORITE LINE UNDERDOG LINE

at Pittsburgh ..........-180 ................Washington ........+160

Boston ....................-130 ................at Carolina ...........+110

Hurricanes have a flair for the dramatic RALEIGH, N.C.—Carolina’s improbable

playoff run has been fueled by dramatic finishes and unlikely heroes. But while the Hurricanes’ dramatic flair has taken the hockey world by surprise, Carolina players consider it business as usual.

That attitude has helped them snatch home-ice advantage from the No. 1 seeded Boston Bruins, who face a must-win Game 4 tonight or the prospect of falling into a deep hole. “It’s been going on here for a long time,” Hurricanes cap-tain Rod Brind’Amour said. “It doesn’t seem to be just lately, and I don’t know if there’s any reason for it, other than the fact that we’re pretty level-headed. We don’t get too rattled in big situations. It’s not that big a deal. We just seem to be able to go play, whether it’s overtime or whether it’s the first period.”

Brind’Amour should know—he was a centerpiece during the Hurricanes’ march to the Stanley Cup in 2006, a run fueled by late rallies and dominant third periods. Back in the playoffs for the first time since that improbable postseason, they’ve come up with another set of fan-tastic finishes.

Defenseman Tim Gleason, who hadn’t scored all season, fired a slap shot that clicked off a New Jersey player’s skate and beat Martin Brodeur in over-time of Game 2 in a first-round win over the Devils.

Forward Jussi Jokinen broke a tie with less than one second remaining in Game 4 against the Devils when a shot deflected off his skate past Brodeur for a game-winner.

Jokinen and center Eric Staal both scored goals in the final 80 seconds of Game 7 to help the Hurricanes rally past New Jersey again.

And Jokinen struck again Tuesday night in Game 3 against Boston, tapping a rebound into an open net at 2:48 of overtime to beat the Bruins, 3-2, and give

Carolina a 2-1 series lead. Jokinen says you can chalk up the team’s string of timely goals to the snowball effect.

“When you get the first one ... we were able to come back, we were down in the third period and we got a couple of goals and got a win,” Jokinen said. “It gives you so much confidence going forward, and your team knows you can come back from behind and win some games. I think it’s been step-by-step. You believe (in) yourself, you believe your team is going to (score) a goal.”

The Bruins, meanwhile, are desperately trying to rediscover the rhythm that car-ried them to five straight wins—including a first-round sweep of the Montreal Cana-diens—to open the postseason.

But after losing two straight games to the Hurricanes, coach Claude Julien took a different approach—he gave his play-ers a day off to refocus.

“We’re not in trouble. We’re in a series that’s a hard-fought series,” Julien said. “What we have to do, probably, is get our game going in the right direction, which means our commitment to outworking the other team and our commitment to making better decisions on the ice.”

—The Associated Press

BILL KOSTROUN / AP

Jussi Jokinen, right, has been involved in three of the Hurricanes’ frenzied finishes.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 25NHL

Team Canada was too much for little Latvia to handle Thursday in quarterfinal action at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Bern, Switzer-land. Dan Hamhuis had a goal and an assist as the Canadians advanced to the final four with a 4-2 vic-tory that sets up a semifinal battle against Sweden, a 3-1 winner Thursday over the Czech Republic.

Dany Heatley, Steven Stamkos and Matthew Lombardi also scored for Canada, while Guntis Galvins and Herberts Vasiljevs scored for Latvia.

The tiny Baltic country is still seeking its first appearance in the semifinals and its first win over Canada at the world event. This game, however, did include a few small victories.

Latvia became the first team to score short-handed against the Canadians and the first to keep them off the scoreboard in the opening 20 minutes.

They also got within a goal in the final period when Vasiljevs beat goalie Chris Mason at 1:27. But Lombardi ended any hope of a miracle win when he scored for Canada less than two minutes later.

An NHL official said the league has been in control of the Phoenix Coyotes since Novem-ber and is asking a federal judge to throw out the team’s bankruptcy filing.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes signed documents giving con-trol of the team to the league. Daly said the doc-uments specifically prohibit Moyes from taking the franchise into bankruptcy.

“We are filing a motion basically asking the judge to confirm that the league is in control of the club,” Daly said, “and at that point we’ll be able to dismiss all the claims in bankruptcy.”

Daly spoke Thursday after a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on the franchise’s filing for Chapter 11 reorganization. Judge Redfield Baum set a hearing for May 19 to deal with the league claims.

According to The Globe and Mail, represen-tatives of BlackBerry CEO Jim Balsillie—the man reportedly trying to buy and move the Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario—met Thursday with Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger to discuss a

Copps Coliseum deal. Eisenberger says the city is only interested in

a long-term agreement in exchange for exclu-sive hockey use of the arena. He says the arena needs upgrades, including private boxes, that would cost about $100 million. He said it would be up to Balsillie to finance the repairs.

Balsillie reportedly has said he’s prepared to spend up to $160 million to revamp Copps.

The Boston Bruins probably will be with-out D Andrew Ference for Game 4 of their semifi-nal series tonight against Carolina, according to the Boston Herald.

Ference, who missed the final eight days of the regular season and then the Montreal series with a lower-body injury, had to leave Game 3 with what appeared to be either a new lower-body injury or a aggravation of the old one.

Early in the second period, Ference was checked hard by the Hurricanes’ Scott Walker. He got up slowly and skated gingerly to the bench. At

the next stoppage, he went to the locker room and returned later in the second. He did not return, however, for the third period or overtime.

D Erik Karlsson, Ottawa’s first-round pick in the 2008 entry draft, has signed an entry-level contract with the Senators.

The 18-year-old Karlsson recently completed his second season with the Frolunda HC Indi-ans of the Swedish Elite League, recording five goals and five assists in 45 games.

The Versus network got a 1.2 national rat-ing and averaged 1,206,855 total viewers for its Pittsburgh-Washington Game 2 telecast on Monday at Washington’s Verizon Center. The game in which Sidney Crosby of the Penguins and Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals both recorded hat tricks was the network’s highest-rated and most-watched conference semifinal game ever, and the highest-rated and most-watched sec-ond-round game on cable since 2002.

Ovechkin target of death threat

PITTSBURGH—Pittsburgh police and the NHL’s security office spent much of Thursday investigating a death threat posted on a fan message board against Washington star Alex Ovech-kin, according to ESPN.com.

Police say they’ve traced an Inter-net threat to a 17-year-old boy.

Pittsburgh Lt. Kevin Kraus says the boy lives in Chambersburg, Pa., which is about 125 miles east-south-east of Pittsburgh.

Kraus says state police have talked to the boy, but no charges were immediately filed.

The threat was immediately for-warded by the Penguins to local police, the NHL and the Capitals.

“We were notified of the message and immediately turned over all information to the authorities,” the Penguins said in a statement.

The ESPN report said that

officials do not believe Ovechkin was in any serious danger, and he was aware of the threat. He has been escorted by police during his stay in Pittsburgh.

“We are aware of it. NHL security was contacted and worked with local law enforcement in handling the matter,” NHL spokesman Frank Brown told ESPN Thursday.

The death threat was first reported by Pittsburgh TV station WPXI.

“We became aware of an inap-propriate comment on a message board and referred it to appropriate authorities,” the Capitals said in a statement. “We appreciate their diligence and have every confidence in our club’s safety.”

Ovechkin, who scored a league-high 56 goals in the regular season, has five in the first three games of the semifinal series against Pittsburgh.

The Capitals and Penguins will play Game 4 in Pittsburgh tonight with the series shifting Saturday to Washington.

— With wire reports

INSIDE DISH

Canada, Sweden advance in World Championships

GENE J. PUSKAR / AP

Police are investigating a threat made against Alex Ovechkin on an Internet message board.

MATTHEW MANOR / AP

Derek Roy (9) and Canada are in the final four of the IIHF World Hockey Championships after a 4-2 win over Latvia.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 26NHL

EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

Cleveland 105, Atlanta 85

Cavaliers roll againas Johnson is hurt

CLEVELAND—From his corner cubi-cle in Cleveland’s locker room, LeB-ron James kept his eyes riveted on the flat-screen TV. He wanted to see every replay.

There was his no-look pass to Wally Szczerbiak. There was his reverse dunk in the final seconds of the first quarter. And then there was his majestic, step-back 3-pointer to beat the halftime horn, a shot he admired before playfully swinging his arms back and forth.

Seeing it on tape for the first time, James smiled, stood and repeated his arm-swinging gesture.

It’s all easy. Maybe too easy.James scored 27 points, ending

the first and second quarters with last-second baskets, and Mo Wil-liams added 15 points as the untested Cavaliers overpowered the Atlanta Hawks 105-85 on Thursday night to open a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal.

“I’m having fun,” James said. “I’m having a ball.”

Now a perfect 6-0 in the postsea-son, the Cavaliers tied a league record by winning their sixth con-secutive playoff game by double digits. The only other team to do it was the 2004 Indiana Pacers. Cleveland also matched the 1986 Los Angeles Lakers by winning three straight games by at least 20 points in a postseason.

“I don’t want to say I’m sur-prised,” James said of Cleveland’s playoff dominance. “We’re just a

really good team. We’re really con-fident and we believe in each other.”

Maurice Evans scored 16 points and Mike Bibby had 11 for the Hawks, who were missing center Al Horford and forward Marvin Williams because of injuries. If that wasn’t bad enough, leading scorer Joe Johnson rolled his right ankle in the third quarter and did not return.

X-rays were negative, but Johnson wore a walking boot as he and his teammates went to their bus before heading home for Game 3 on Saturday.

“I can’t see me not playing,” John-son said. “I don’t want to let this opportunity go by. We’re down 0-2. I want to be out there for my team-mates. Hopefully in 48 hours it will feel a lot better.”

While the rest of the NBA exchanges elbows, flagrant fouls and menacing stares in the playoffs, the Cavaliers are looking for a fight.

So far, they can’t find one.Just like Game 1, this was easy for

the Cavs.Named MVP earlier this week,

James’ 3-pointer at the end of the half opened a 24-point lead that swelled to 36 in the third. James and the Cavaliers starters spent the entire fourth quarter lounging on the bench as Atlanta’s reserves out-played the Cavs’ backups in 12 min-utes of garbage time.

The series switches to Philips

Arena, where the Hawks went 31-10 during the regular season and beat Cleveland once. That was on Dec. 13, when the Cavaliers were just finding out how good they were and the Hawks were at full strength.

Atlanta coach Mike Woodson refused to use injuries as an excuse.

“We’re just not playing well right now and they are playing at a high level,” he said. “We got a chance to go home, regroup, play in front of our fans and see what we’re made of.”

Atlanta’s Josh Smith was held to eight points on 2 of 13 shooting and

the Hawks shot only 35 percent.“This loss is embarrassing,” said

Smith, who also was slapped with a technical.

Cleveland improved to 43-2 at home, 32-5 since the All-Star break, and is playing its best ball.

The Cavs blew through Detroit in four games and barely have broken a sweat against the Hawks, who haven’t figured out how to slow James—or any of his teammates—and have struggled to score.

On the 20th anniversary of Michael Jordan’s jumper—known around here as “The Shot”—over

Craig Ehlo that beat the Cavaliers in the 1989 playoffs, James gave Cleve-land fans a shot to remember.

Taking an inbounds pass with 5.4 seconds left, James dribbled into the frontcourt, pulled up on Hawks guard Mario West and drilled a 36-footer to make it 59-35. As 20,000-plus fans erupted, James stood still, relishing the moment.

“I can say, yes, it was demoraliz-ing (to the Hawks) because of where I shot the ball,” James said. “We carried that momentum into the second half.”

— The Associated Press

The Hawks’ chances of beating the Cavs took a big blow when Joe Johnson, center, injured his right ankle in Game 2. He left in a walking boot.

MARK DUNCAN / AP

Series glance(Cleveland leads series 2-0)

May 5: Cleveland 99, Atlanta 72Thursday: Cleveland 105, Atlanta 85Saturday: Cleveland at Atlanta, 8 p.m., ABCMonday: Cleveland at Atlanta, 7 p.m., TNTWednesday: Atlanta at Cleveland, 8 p.m., if necessaryFriday, May 15: Cleveland at Atlanta, TBA, if necessaryMonday, May 18: Atlanta at Cleveland, 8 p.m., if necessary

Atlanta 17 18 20 30 — 85Cleveland 26 33 26 20 — 105

ATLANTA Min FG FT Reb A PF PTSEvans 33:12 7-12 1-1 3-3 4 3 16JosSmith 22:02 2-13 4-4 1-1 3 4 8Pachulia 35:01 2-6 3-4 5-12 0 1 7Bibby 29:58 3-8 3-3 0-1 1 4 11Johnson 30:16 5-15 0-2 3-3 1 0 10Murray 27:16 2-5 3-4 0-1 3 1 8Jones 21:47 0-3 2-2 2-3 0 4 2MWest 6:29 0-2 1-2 0-1 0 0 1Hunter 11:03 1-2 0-0 3-5 0 1 2Gardner 15:32 4-11 1-1 0-2 2 3 12Law 7:24 3-6 1-1 1-2 3 1 8Totals 240:00 29-83 19-24 18-34 17 22 85

Percentages: FG .349, FT .792. 3-Point Goals: 8-17, .471 (Gardner 3-5, Bibby 2-4, Evans 1-2, Law 1-2, Murray 1-2, Johnson 0-2). Team Rebounds: 7. Team Turnovers: 14 (22 PTS). Blocked Shots: 4 (Hunter, Murray, Pachulia, Jos.Smith). Turnovers: 13 (Johnson 3, Murray 3, Pachulia 3, Jos.Smith 2, Bibby, Jones). Steals: 9 (Johnson 2, Bibby, Evans, Gardner, Hunter, Murray, Pachulia, Jos.Smith). Tech-nical Fouls: Coach Woodson, 3:13 second; Jos.Smith, 8:15 third.

CLEVELAND Min FG FT Reb A PF PTSJames 31:10 9-14 6-12 0-3 5 1 27Varejao 28:38 6-9 0-0 4-8 2 2 12Ilgauskas 26:45 3-6 0-0 2-7 2 3 6M Williams 32:24 5-11 2-3 3-5 5 2 15DWest 28:26 5-10 4-4 0-3 2 1 14J Smith 19:23 0-1 4-4 0-3 0 2 4Gibson 14:00 0-3 4-4 0-0 1 2 4Wallace 6:56 0-0 0-0 0-4 1 1 0Szczerbiak 21:03 7-9 3-3 1-3 0 4 17Pavlovic 17:23 2-5 0-0 0-3 1 2 4Jackson 12:00 1-2 0-0 0-4 0 1 2Kinsey 1:52 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0Totals 240:00 38-71 23-30 10-43 19 22 105

Percentages: FG .535, FT .767. 3-Point Goals: 6-19, .316 (James 3-5, M. Williams 3-8, Ilgauskas 0-1, D.West 0-1, Gibson 0-2, Pavlovic 0-2). Team Rebounds: 15. Team Turnovers: 18 (22 PTS). Blocked Shots: 11 (Varejao 4, Ilgauskas 2, J. Smith 2, James, Szczerbiak, Wal-lace). Turnovers: 17 (D.West 4, Szczerbiak 3, Ilgauskas 2, Varejao 2, M. Williams 2, Jackson, Kinsey, Pavlovic, J. Smith). Steals: 7 (James 4, Varejao 2, Gibson). Technical Fouls: M. Williams, 7:26 second.

A: 20,562 (20,562). T: 2:35. Officials: Dan Crawford, Derrick Stafford, Violet Palmer.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 27NBA

LOS ANGELES—Ron Artest thinks Kobe Bryant should have been tossed from Wednesday night’s Game 2. Why? Because Bryant elbowed him in the throat as he was boxing out Art-est for a rebound, and Artest felt it was intentional. If it was, that probably

would mean Bry-ant had eyes in the back of his head, or, at least, that he has extraordi-narily precise elbow-aim. Art-est’s throat is about five inches by two inches. To be able place one’s elbow

in that small a space while looking in the other direction and getting pushed in the back … well, that is talent.

But Artest thought that when Bryant’s elbow found his throat in the fourth quarter last night, it was intentional. So Artest did some-thing silly. He ran the length of the floor to inform Bryant that he would not stand for such actions.

“I understand it’s the playoffs,” Artest said. “I remember back home in the neighborhood there were games like that. One time, one of my friends, he was playing bas-ketball and they were winning the game. It was so competitive, they broke off a piece of leg from a table and they threw it and it went right through his heart and he died right on the court. So I’m accustomed playing basketball really rough.”

Hmm. OK. Just so we’re clear here—Bryant’s elbow caught Art-est in the throat, and replays show (to me, at least) it was inadvertent. Bryant did not throw an elbow that pierced Artest’s throat. He did not

break off any table legs or impale Artest. It was two guys getting tangled up, and then it was Artest losing his cool, menacing Bryant right in front of referee Joey Craw-ford (the last guy you want to dare to give you a technical foul).

It was a dumb act on Artest’s part, and part of a series of dumb acts by players throughout the postseason, whether it’s Rajon Rondo flinging an opponent into the scorer’s table, Dwight Howard chucking a vicious elbow at Sam Dalembert or Rafer Alston taking a swipe at Eddie House. What’s going on here?

“I think you’re seeing teams playing with championship inten-sity,” former coach and ESPN ana-lyst Jeff Van Gundy told Sporting News Today, “but not with champi-onship poise.”

This has gone beyond a loss of poise, and into the realm of a pattern of dirty, dumb play all over the

league. Even Derek Fisher, a sup-posedly wise veteran, committed a brainless play in Game 2, giving Luis Scola an unnecessary hip check that sent Scola sprawling and got Fisher ejected. Fisher explained that he simply misjudged the distance he had on the screen. If that’s the case, why did he lower his shoulder and jam it well into Scola’s sternum? It looked like perfect timing, actually.

The problem seems to be one of punishment. No one’s really afraid of the dean of discipline, Stu Jack-son, anymore. “The NBA has to think long and hard about how it does its discipline,” Van Gundy said. “We’ve seen a change in pen-alties and the league has tried dif-ferent things. But we’re not seeing a change in behavior, and ultimately, that is what the punishment is there for. To change behavior.”

That’s been borne out in these playoffs. But I, for one, don’t want

to see the NBA playoffs decided by who is suspended and who is not suspended. Ideally, we’d watch basketball games played by the players who helped their teams to this point in the first place. Van Gundy agrees, and has some ideas on how to alter things.

“For one thing, I don’t know why, if there is a flagrant foul or a techni-cal foul, why do you have to shoot the free throws to get the points?” Van Gundy said. “Just give them the points. In football, if you get called for holding, it’s 10 yards. They don’t make you complete a pass for it, you just get it. Give one point for a tech-nical, two points for a flagrant and four points for a flagrant-2. You need more punishment like that to change the behavior.”

In other words, the league needs to beef up its in-game penalties as a way to deter stupid, overly physical plays while avoiding turning the playoffs into a suspension-fest. And when suspensions are called for, maybe there’s a way to tinker with how they’re done so that they can be carried out without being devastating to a team’s chances.

Now that we’ve got instant replay in limited form in the NBA, why should refs not be allowed to look at plays to determine which are fla-grant fouls and which are techni-cals? They can look at the replay for flagrant-2 fouls, but not on others. That seems illogical.

Thes are silly quirks in the NBA system of crime and punishment. But, of course, we would not need to be concerned about this if the play-ers involved were not making such silly decisions in the first place.

sdeveney@sportingnews.com

Tougher in-game penalties would end rough play

Though Ron Artest, left, disagreed, Kobe Bryant’s elbow that caught Artest was inadvertent.MATT SAYLES / AP

NEW YORK—The Lakers won’t have Derek Fisher for Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series, but Kobe Bryant will be in the lineup because the elbow he threw at Ron Artest landed just low enough.

Fisher and Orlando’s Rafer Alston were both suspended one game by the NBA on Thursday for separate incidents in playoff games the previous night. The league also assessed Bryant a flagrant foul-1 penalty for elbowing Artest during the second half of the Lakers’ testy victory over the Houston Rockets.

However, Bryant was not sus-pended because the league ruled he elbowed Artest in the chest area. Had it been above the shoulders—and Artest said it was his neck—the Lakers All-Star likely would have been banned from the arena today.

“It’s clear in our rules that we treat elbow contact above the shoulder area differently than we do other parts of the body,” NBA executive vice president of basket-ball operations Stu Jackson said on

a conference call.Contact above the shoulders

wouldn’t have guaranteed a sus-pension, but would have caused Jackson to take a closer look at the review to determine if the elbow was deliberate.

The two suspensions Jackson did hand out were both easy calls.

In the Magic’s 112-94 loss on Wednesday, Boston’s Eddie House was celebrating after making a shot when Alston reached out and slapped him in the back of the head. Each received a technical foul after standing face-to-face for a few sec-onds before referees intervened.

Jackson said Alston would have been tossed if the refs saw the slap.

Later Wednesday night, Fisher was called for a flagrant foul when struck the Rockets’ Luis Scola, who was setting a pick, with his shoul-der and head as the Rockets brought the ball up the court. He was ejected.

Both players will miss games today.

— The Associated Press

Alston, Fisher suspended by NBARafer Alston, left, was suspended for Game 3 because of his head-slap of Eddie House.

WINSLOW TOWNSON / AP

Sean DeveneyPRO BASKETBALL

WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 28NBA

Playoff glanceCONFERENCE SEMIFINALS (Best-of-7), All times ETEASTERN CONFERENCE(Cleveland leads series 2-0)Cleveland vs. AtlantaMay 5: Cleveland 99, Atlanta 72Thursday: Cleveland 105, Atlanta 85Saturday: Cleveland at Atlanta, 8 p.m.Monday: Cleveland at Atlanta, 7 p.m.Wednesday: Atlanta at Cleveland, TBA, if necessaryFriday, May 15: Cleveland at Atlanta, TBA, if necessaryMonday, May 18: Atlanta at Cleveland, 8 p.m., if necessary

Boston vs. Orlando(Series tied 1-1)May 4: Orlando 95, Boston 90May 6: Boston 112, Orlando 94Today: Boston at Orlando, 7 p.m.Sunday: Boston at Orlando, 8 p.m.Tuesday: Orlando at Boston, TBA, if necessaryThursday, May 14: Boston at Orlando, TBA, if necessarySunday, May 17: Orlando at Boston, TBA, if necessary

WESTERN CONFERENCEL.A. Lakers vs. Houston(Series tied 1-1)May 4: Houston 100, L.A. Lakers 92May 6: L.A. Lakers 111,Houston 98Today: L.A. Lakers at Houston, 9:30 p.m.Sunday: L.A. Lakers at Houston, 3:30 p.m.Tuesday: Houston at L.A. Lakers, TBA, if necessaryThursday, May 14: L.A. Lakers at Houston, TBA, if necessarySunday, May 17: Houston at L.A. Lakers, TBA, if necessary

Denver vs. Dallas(Denver leads series 2-0)May 3: Denver 109, Dallas 95May 5: Denver 117, Dallas 105Saturday: Denver at Dallas, 5 p.m.Monday: Denver at Dallas, 9:30 p.m.Wednesday: Dallas at Denver, TBA, if necessaryFriday, May 15: Denver at Dallas, TBA, if necessarySunday, May 17: Dallas at Denver, TBA, if necessary

Today’s gamesAll Times ET

CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS(Best-of-7)

Boston at Orlando, 7 p.m., ESPN

L.A. Lakers at Houston, 9:30 p.m., ESPN

Betting lineToday

FAVORITE .......... LINE ............ O/U .....UNDERDOG

at Orlando ................4½ ................(189) ............. Boston

L.A. Lakers ................1½ ................(195) .......at Houston

INSIDE DISH

The Hornets are sticking with head coach Byron Scott for at least one more season. Team president Hugh Weber says the franchise was disap-pointed by its first-round exit from the playoffs, but that the entire organization shares responsibility. Weber added that Scott has not expressed an interest in leaving and that any interest other teams may have in the coach is “not an issue.” Meanwhile, Hornets executive Chad Shinn, son of owner George Shinn, said the team also sees two-time All-Star F David West as a key part of the team, saying it is “very unlikely” West would be traded. With the Hornets having to pay the luxury tax this summer with their current roster, West is one of the players who had been mentioned in possi-ble trade rumors. He has two years remaining on his contract valued at a combined $17.2 million, according to The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

Down 0-2 in their Western Conference semifinal against the Nuggets, the Mavericks are facing a couple of major distractions. SF Josh Howard sat out practice Thursday because of his sprained right ankle and the sore left one that has both-ered him much of the season. Mean-while, PF Dirk Nowitzki offered no explanation about the arrest of a woman at his home and declined comment when asked about his relationship with Cristal Taylor, who was apprehended on a probation violation and theft of services war-rants Wednesday before the team had returned from Denver. “It’s pretty obvious that I’m going

through a tough time in my per-sonal life right now,” he said. “I’m not at the stage where I can talk about it yet and feel comfortable talking about it.”

With Rafer Alston suspended one game for slapping Eddie House in the back of the head and Jameer Nelson already injured, the Magic are down to 34-year-old Anthony Johnson

and seldom-used Tyronn Lue at point guard for today’s Game 3 against the Celtics. Magic starting SG Court-ney Lee is still questionable as he recovers from a fractured sinus. He began practicing with a mask on Wednesday, but his playing status remains uncertain.

Pacers F Danny Granger has been invited to participate in a USA Bas-ketball training camp this summer, a step toward possibly playing in the 2012 Olympics. Granger, who is in Italy, said Thursday he hasn’t officially accepted the invitation, but he likely will. USA Basketball spokesman Craig Miller says between 20-24 players will participate in the camp, which is expected to take place in late July in Las Vegas. Miller says the camp is for players who haven’t played for the senior national team in the past. Granger averaged 25.8 points per game this season.

Although G Stephon Marbury was involved in a seemingly never-end-ing soap opera with the Knicks, Celtics legend Bill Russell said he’s not surprised Marbury has blended in well in Boston. Russell told the New York Post that he thought Marbury would have a positive effect on the team, as long as he wasn’t “dam-aged psychologically” from his time in New York. Marbury was benched at the beginning of the season and then told to stay away from the team before being bought out and sign-ing with the Celtics on Feb. 27.

The Rockets are going green in an effort to fight a top concern

among sports teams: staph infec-tions. The team will use Excelyte, a new class of microbiocide disinfec-tant, in locker-room areas, becom-ing the first pro sports team to try the so-called “green” alternative to chemical disinfectants, the Houston Business Journal’s Greg Barr reported.

Cavs F LeBron James was named to the NBA’s all-defensive team on Wednesday, but coach Mike Brown said PF Anderson Varejao and SG Delonte West also deserved praise (Varejao did receive some votes from the coaches). “You can’t have the type of defense our team defense is right now without having indi-vidual defenders,” Brown told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. “So it was great to see some guys getting some recognition. We feel like all of our guys want to bring something on that end of the floor.”

Hornets sticking with Scott, say West trade unlikely

ANN HEISENFELT / AP

Byron Scott will be back with New Orleans next season despite this season’s early playoff exit.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 29NBA

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com NFL

EDEN PRAIRIE, MINN.—For Brad Chil-dress, it was just another day at the office. And, for now, Brett Favre is not wearing purple.

The Minnesota Vikings’ dalli-ance with the supposedly retired quarterback didn’t reach the stage of face-to-face, close-the-deal talks Thursday—and maybe they never will.

Yahoo! Sports reported that Favre called Childress sometime Wednesday or early Thursday and told the coach he wants to stay retired. Favre’s longtime agent, Bus Cook, reiterated for the second straight day that his famously fickle client hadn’t changed his plan to stay out of the game.

ESPN and USA Today said Cook told reporters in Mississippi, where Favre lives, that the former MVP was still retired—though the agent added that Favre could always change his mind in the future.

One certainty was Childress spent office hours at work in Minnesota.

After reports the coach was to travel south for discussions with Favre, Twin Cities television station KMSP broadcast video of his early-morning arrival at Winter Park.

The coach’s black sports utility vehicle was still parked at the team’s facility in suburban Minne-apolis into the evening, and through a team spokesman he declined comment to a handful of media across the street.

Yahoo cited an unidentified source close to the team in report-ing that the Vikings won’t sign the 39-year-old quarterback, who

owns many of the NFL’s major passing records.

If that holds true, and Favre doesn’t come back to fill the only glaring hole on an otherwise Super Bowl-ready roster, can the Vikings win under the original plan of hav-ing Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels compete for the quarter-back job?

No problem, said All-Pro defen-sive end Jared Allen.

“Our plan never revolved around him,” Allen told The Associated Press by phone. “He’s obviously a heck of a player. If he wants to stay retired, more power to him. Our offseason goals were never about whether or not we would acquire Brett Favre. Our goals are still the

same: to win the division, make the playoffs and see how far we can go. I think our team has all the confi-dence in the world we can do that.”

Allen, one of the leaders in the Vikings locker room, expressed confidence in the current quarter-backs to do what’s necessary to win.

“You have to understand that we try to stay focused on the goal at hand, and that’s not going to change,” he said.

Favre’s uncertainty about whether to quit pro football after 18 seasons or keep playing has cre-ated the kind of drama usually reserved for one of his perfor-mances with the Vikings’ chief rival, Green Bay.

When Favre reconsidered his first retirement last summer and the Packers wouldn’t let him return, he wanted to be traded to Minnesota. After going to the New York Jets instead, he wore down at the end of last season and said in February he was done for good.

“It’s time to leave,” he told report-ers then.

Several Jets teammates com-plained afterward about Favre’s standoffishness. But after an infor-mal practice Thursday, players took a higher ground when asked the now-annual question about his status.

“This guy’s been the face of the NFL for a long time,” running back Leon Washington said. “If he can still throw that ball and still sling it, he still has the right to do it, in my opinion.”

— The Associated Press

Favre reportedly tells Vikingsthat he doesn’t plan to play

ANN HEISENFELT / AP

Vikings coach Brad Childress, above, reportedly did not meet with Brett Favre.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 31NFL

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POST-DRAFT ANALYSIS.

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Maybe reporters can stop hanging out in Hattiesburg, Miss. Or maybe not, because with Brett Favre, who can ever be sure?

According to a Thursday report by Yahoo! Sports, Favre

is not return-ing to the NFL. The report stated that Favre expressed his desire to remain retired in a phone call to Vikings

coach Brad Childress within the past few days.

Both Favre and Childress remained mum as of Thursday night, so stay tuned for the next development. But with apolo-gies to David Letterman, here are 10 reasons why Favre should stay on his farm and out of harm’s way.

1. Credibility. We have already seen Favre retire once, only to return. If he does it again, the next time Favre yells, “Fire” in a crowded room, nobody will budge.

2. Packers fans. Many Cheeseheads still adore Favre. But that will change if he plays for the Vikings. Imagine how betrayed Packers fans would feel, seeing Favre run out of the tunnel at Lambeau Field in a Vikings uniform. In that scenario, Packers general manager Ted Thompson

would not be viewed as the villain. Favre would.

3. John Madden. No football broadcaster loved Favre more than Madden. It only seems fitting that Madden and Favre should bow out together.

4. Indoor football. Playing in a dome has never been Favre’s thing. His record in the Metrodome is 6-10. If Favre played eight home games at the Metrodome, he might throw 30

interceptions. Just kidding. Maybe only 25.

5. Extra endorsements. Favre looks good in those jeans commercials. But if he retires, he can put on 30 pounds, then get a ton of money from one of those weight loss companies and get back in shape again.

6. Injury. Favre should have no desire to get flattened by James Harrison, Osi Umeny-iora, Lance Briggs, or any

opponent on the Vikings’ schedule. Favre’s consecutive game streak is one of his most impressive achievements, a symbol of his toughness. But sooner or later, he’s going to take the wrong hit in the wrong way from the wrong person. And nobody wants to see that. By all accounts, Favre has escaped football healthy and wealthy enough to thoroughly enjoy the rest of his life. He should keep it that way.

7. Training camp. If Favre returns, the Vikings will want him at training camp, assum-ing he is healthy. Young players don’t enjoy training camp. Older players despise it. Though Childress would certainly take it easy on Favre during two-a-days, why spend another summer in shoulder pads? Favre had the right idea last season, showing up late and missing the dog days. And how bad are preseason games? Even the commissioner wants to shorten the preseason.

8. Ticket requests. Joining the Vikings would put another dreaded responsibility on Favre’s plate—ticket requests. People stop hassling players for tickets once they retire. And I don’t know a retired player who misses doling out tickets.

9. The generation gap. Favre has to feel older every time he looks around an NFL locker room. Teammates young enough to be his son, listening to music he has never heard of. Who needs it?

10. Critics. Whenever Favre throws interceptions, he is second-guessed. I’m guessing that when Favre tends to his land on Sunday, nobody critiques his job the next day.

Maybe none of these reasons will convince Favre to stay retired. But make up your mind already. The longer this drama plays out, the harder it is to take seriously.cliftonbrown@sportingnews.com

E-I-E-I-Whoa! Ten reasons Favre should stay on the farm

Clifton BrownPRO FOOTBALL

DEAN DUPREY / AP

Another waffle on retirement would damage Brett Favre’s credibility, according to SN’s Clifton Brown.

32FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com NFL

It’s a new era at offensive tackle. As the longtime dominators—Walter Jones and Orlando Pace—begin the inevitable slide because of age and injury, the young guys are stepping up and standing out. Ryan Clady, new Eagle Jason Peters, Joe Thomas and Michael Roos are blind-side protectors you’ll be hearing much about the next few years. Although the youth transformation is at hand, our old-school thinking won’t allow us to put rookies in the top 20. They have to show us something first.

Here are the top 20 offensive tackles, the first in a series of positional rankings by RealScouts:

1. Ryan Clady, Broncos. An extremely athletic left tackle who gave up just 1½

sacks as a rookie last year, he has great feet and the ability to run-block at the second level and mirror ends in pass protection.

2. Walter Jones, Seahawks. He’s still a premier player who doesn’t need help

against any pass rusher. Age and injury will put him on the descent in the next few years, but he’s still a top technician for now.

3. Jason Peters, Eagles. Peters got some bad advice on his contract issues last year

in Buffalo. As a result, he missed a lot of practice time and it showed in his play. Now that he has a long-term deal in Philly, all that is behind him and he can focus on returning to the form that made him one of the top young linemen in the league.

4. Joe Thomas, Browns. Thomas has all the physical tools you could ask for in a

left tackle. He’s an excellent pass blocker and impressive at getting to the linebacker level in the run game. He has added strength and is still improving.

5. Michael Roos, Titans. The Titans gave up just 12 sacks last season and rushed

for almost 140 yards per game. You don’t do that without a cornerstone player on the left side. He’s a big, strong, physical left

tackle and one of the most underrated players in the league.

6. Jordan Gross, Panthers. Athletic and versatile, Gross has the gifts to

remain a top tackle for many more years. Smartly, the Panthers paid him hand-somely to keep him off the free-agent market.

7. Jammal Brown, Saints. An impressive pass blocker with quick feet and good

balance, he makes excellent use of his hands. Look for his run blocking to get

more attention this year if New Orleans puts more emphasis on the run, as expected.

8. Jake Long, Dolphins. He’s another cornerstone type who combines good

size with nice strength and a physical style. He can be a dominating run blocker, which is important when you’re working for Bill Parcells. His pass blocking improved last year but still needs work.

9. Orlando Pace, Bears. You can talk about his age and injuries, but in 14 games

last season he was among the league leaders in fewest sacks allowed. His run blocking may not be what it once was, but he’s still a solid pass blocker who will do a good job protecting Jay Cutler’s blind side.

10. Chris Samuels, Redskins. Injuries in recent seasons have forced some

changes in the Redskins’ line, but one thing is sure: They will run behind Samuels, who is excellent in space and can reach the second level. He still has the feet to pass-block effectively.

11. Chad Clifton, Packers. Clifton is a tough, hard-nosed, blue-collar type of

player who relies on instincts and competi-tiveness to get the job done.

12. Flozell Adams, Cowboys. Adams is aging but still has tremendous size

and strength. Though the Cowboys struggled in pass protection last year, there’s reason to believe a healthy Tony Romo and improved balance on offense will spark a return to form for Flozell the Hotel.

13. Bryant McKinnie, Vikings. McKinnie is an outstanding run blocker and a

big, powerful athlete. The Vikings run behind him almost constantly, and he’s an above-average pass blocker who rarely needs help.

14. Jared Gaither, Ravens. Gaither is a mountain (6-9, 350) who excelled,

particularly as a run blocker, in his first year as a starter. If the Ravens had any apprehen-sion about the retirement of Jonathan Ogden, it’s now a thing of the past.

15. David Diehl, Giants. A true guard, Diehl stepped in at left tackle and

quietly has provided consistent play. He is

smart, tough, competitive and extremely durable. He has started every regular season and postseason game of his career.

16. Matt Light, Patriots. Light doesn’t have great physical skills, but in the

Patriots’ mold, he is smart, tough, and competitive. As a result, he’s an effective player who plays with good leverage and gets the job done without much fanfare.

17. Eric Winston, Texans. Winston has quietly emerged as a very solid right

tackle. He has good size, long arms and good initial quickness—and he has learned how to play with leverage. He has ben-efited from playing under respected line coach Alex Gibbs.

18. Marcus McNeill, Chargers. He’s not a dominant run blocker but is a very

good athlete who takes good angles and is effective getting out on linebackers. Neck and back issues are a concern, but it’s important to note he has missed just two games over the past three years.

19. Vernon Carey, Dolphins. The addition of Long allowed Carey to move back to

his natural position on the right side. He played well last season and earned a new contract. He’s durable and efficient and uses his size to play with power.

20. Sam Baker, Falcons. Before a back injury sidelined him last year,

Baker was well on his way to proving himself worthy of his surprising selection in the first round. He displays the combi-nation of strength and athleticism that will allow him to thrive in the Falcons’ run-first offense.

— RealScouts, a team of pro football scouts, analyzes NFL players,

coaches and teams exclusively for Sporting News Today.

For more, visit sportingnews.com.

Scouts’ view

Offensive tackle rankings: Young anchors awash in potential

DAVID ZALUBOWSKI / AP

Ryan Clady is entering just his second NFL season, but SN scouts say he’s the best offensive tackle in the league.

33FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com NFL

NFL minicamp scheduleA listing of upcoming NFL minicamps (all include rookies and veterans unless otherwise noted):

Atlanta—Today-SundayBaltimore—Today-SundayBuffalo—June 9-11Cincinnati—June 18-20Cleveland—May 19-21 (voluntary); May 26-28 (vol-untary); June 11-13Dallas—June 16-18Denver—June 12-14Detroit—June 23-25 (voluntary)Green Bay—June 23-25Houston—June 15-17Indianapolis—June 5-7Kansas City—Today-Sunday (rookies); June 5-7Miami—June 12-14 Minnesota—May 29-31New England—June 10-12New Orleans—Today-Sunday (rookies); June 5-7N.Y. Giants—Today-Sunday (rookies); June 16-18N. Y. Jets—June 9-11Oakland—Today-SundaySt. Louis—June 5-7San Francisco—June 5-7Seattle—June 10-12Tampa Bay—June 16-18

Note: Teams are allowed to have rookie minicamps separate from the full-squad minicamp, and teams with first-year head coaches are allowed to add up to two voluntary minicamps.

INSIDE DISH

The agent for free-agent WR Mar-vin Harrison told NFL.com that his client has no plans to retire and expects to play this season. Dis-missing a report from Sports Illus-trated’s Peter King, Harrison claimed a knee injury is no longer limiting his speed and effectiveness.

“I played in 15 games last year and a playoff game, and I intend to play again this season,” agent Tom Condon said Harrison told him Thursday. Although there hasn’t been much interest in Harrison to this point, Condon said he expects his client to sign with a team close to the time that training camps open.

The weight-loss efforts of newly dedicated Titans RB LenDale White were evident when he joined his teammates for minicamp prac-tices this week.

“He is smaller. He has lost a lot of weight—you can tell,” speedy back-field mate Chris Johnson told The Ten-nessean. “He knows and everyone else knows a smaller LenDale is a better LenDale.”

White showed up this March about 20 pounds lighter than his weight of last last offseason: 258 pounds. A pep talk from coach Jeff Fisher helped him change his atti-tude. White, a 2006 second-round pick whose contract expires at the end of the year, hopes to play well enough to earn a hefty deal for 2010 and beyond.

“I don’t feel like I was the best player I could be in the past,” White told The Tennessean. “I took time off,

too much time off. I’m not saying I wasn’t working because I was. But I don’t think I pushed myself as hard as I could. But this is now … and I haven’t felt this way about football in a long time.”

Like White, the Patriots’ Lau-rence Maroney is entering his fourth season and knows he is running out of chances to show that he can be a durable and very productive runner.

“I feel like this has to be my year. There’s no other way around it,” Maroney told the Boston Herald. “This is the year I really have to prove to the fans, to the coaches, to the world I can be this running back, I can be the guy for (Bill) Belichick and the Patriots.”

To help Maroney hold up—and

perhaps motivate him—the Patri-ots brought in former Jaguars RB Fred Taylor to share the load. Maroney has one more year on his contract than White, but if he continues to struggle, there is a possibility the Patriots will trade or release him before the ’10 season.

Chargers OLB Shawne Merriman continues to rehab his injured knee and is on track to be ready for Week 1. He also isn’t worried about his impending free-agent status in 2010 and the potential of being franchise-tagged or becoming a free agent.

“All that stuff to me is garbage,” Merriman said. “Whatever hap-pens is going to happen. If that’s the case, I’m going to make the best of it, period.”

The Browns are still shopping WR Braylon Edwards. The Plain Dealer reported Edwards already missed the team’s voluntary offseason con-ditioning program and could also skip minicamps slated for later this month.

If Edwards is dealt, newly pro-moted wide receivers coach George McDonald will have to deal with a lack of speed at the position. The group includes a mix of two aging possession types (David Patten, Mike Furrey) and two big rookies (Brian Robiskie, Mohamed Massaqoui).

Patriots third-round pick Tyrone McKenzie will miss the season with a torn ACL in his right knee. The outside linebacker from South Florida sustained the

injury during rookie minicamp on Saturday. With the trade of long-time starter Mike Vrabel to Kansas City in February, the Patriots drafted McKenzie to provide depth.

Jets CB Darrelle Revis told the New York Daily News the Browns and Patriots are interested in sign-ing his friend and former team-mate, CB Ty Law. Reports also have New England interested in bring-ing back SS Rodney Harrison and sign-ing DE Jason Taylor.

Jets WR Jerricho Cotchery, cur-rently No. 1 on the team’s depth chart at the position, wouldn’t mind a demotion if it meant New York could sign former Giant Plaxico Burress. “I would welcome him,” Cotchery told Newsday. “I know a lot of guys would welcome him because they know what kind of player he is.”

According to The Indianapolis Star, offensive coordinator Tom Moore is strongly considering join-ing line coach Howard Mudd in retire-ment. If Moore calls it quits, wide receivers coach Clyde Christensen would be considered to replace him. Assistant line coach Pete Met-zelaars is the leading candidate to replace Mudd.

Bears RB Matt Forte was busy and very effective as a rookie last season, but decreasing his work-load may be key to avoiding a sophomore slump. Offensive coordinator Ron Turner told the Chicago Sun-Times Forte should

get more rest in Year 2. He was involved in 84 percent of Chica-go’s offensive plays last season.

Former Lions president and CEO Matt Millen is returning to tele-vision full-time, joining ESPN’s pro and college football coverage as a game and studio analyst. Millen previously worked as a color com-mentator for both CBS and FOX after his 12-year career as an NFL linebacker.

The Times-Picayune reported the agent for CB Mike McKenzie says his client has been medically cleared after recovering from an injury to his kneecap. The Saints released the 33-year-old corner on March 19 but have some interest in re-signing him for depth.

The Bengals acquired RB Brian Leonard from the Rams in exchange for journeyman DT Orien Harris. Leonard, a 2007 second-round pick, saw significant action as a rookie backup to Steven Jackson before injuries cost him 14 games last season.

Free-agent LB Napoleon Harris vis-ited the Steelers on Thursday. Accord-ing to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Harris could be signed to back up James Farrior and new starter Lawrence Timmons inside. The team released starting ILB Larry Foote this week.

Former Cardinals CB Rod Hood will soon visit the Bengals, a source told ProFootballTalk.com. Hood, 27, started 30 games for Arizona

the past two years.

Veteran WRs Jerry Porter, Kelley Washington, D.J. Hackett and Tab Perry will try out for the Ravens at the team’s minicamp this weekend, The Baltimore Sun reports. The Ravens are looking for size; each receiver stands at least 6-2.

Cowboys K Nick Folk is recover-

ing from surgery to repair a torn cartilage in his hip. Folk, a Pro Bowl selection as a rookie in 2007, should resume light kicking in about eight weeks. He should be able to handle full kicking work in 12 weeks, around the start of training camp.

Harrison’s agent dismisses retirement report

MARK HUMPHREY / AP

LenDale White is in much better shape, Titans teammates say.

34FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com NFL

Remaining free agents A quick look at the remaining NFL free agents by position

(R-restricted free agent, F-franchise tagged player):

OFFENSE

Quarterbacks—Brooks Bollinger, Dallas; Ken Dorsey,

Cleveland; Gus Frerotte, Minnesota; Charlie Frye, Seattle; Drew

Henson, Detroit; Quinn Gray, Kansas City; Trent Green, St. Louis;

Rex Grossman, Chicago; Brad Johnson, Dallas; J.P. Losman, Buf-

falo; Jamie Martin, San Francisco; Craig Nall, Houston; Marques

Tuiasosopo, Oakland; Anthony Wright, NY Giants.

Running backs—Darian Barnes, New Orleans; Tatum Bell,

Denver; Brian Calhoun, Detroit; Jesse Chatman, NY Jets; P.J.

Daniels, Baltimore; Reuben Droughns, NY Giants; Warrick Dunn,

Tampa Bay; DeShaun Foster, San Francisco; Samkon Gado, St.

Louis; Nick Goings, Carolina; Ahman Green, Houston; Andre Hall,

Denver; Kay-Jay Harris, NY Giants; Maurice Hicks, Minnesota;

Edgerrin James, Arizona; Rudi Johnson, Detroit; Deuce McAllis-

ter, New Orleans; Travis Minor, St. Louis; Lorenzo Neal, Baltimore;

Montell Owens (R), Jacksonville; Chris Perry, Cincinnati; Andrew

Pinnock, Denver; Michael Pittman, Denver; P.J. Pope, Denver;

Gary Russell, Cincinnati; Cecil Sapp, Houston; Aaron Stecker, New

Orleans; Selvin Young, Denver.

Wide receivers—Drew Bennett, St. Louis; Troy Bergeron,

Atlanta; Shaun Bodiford, Green Bay; Marty Booker, Chicago;

Drew Carter, Oakland; Jason Carter; Carolina; Keary Colbert,

Detroit; Jayson Foster, Denver; Malcom Floyd (R), San Diego;

D.J. Hackett, Carolina; Dante Hall, St. Louis; Marvin Harrison,

Indianapolis; Ike Hilliard, Tampa Bay; Darrell Jackson, Denver;

Nate Jackson, Denver; Matt Jones, Jacksonville; Joe Jurevicius,

Cleveland; Ashley Lelie, Oakland; Brandon Lloyd, Chicago;

Dane Looker, St. Louis; Ruvell Martin (R), Green Bay; Anthony

Mix, Tampa Bay; Ben Obomanu (R), Seattle; Tab Perry, Miami;

Jerry Porter, Jacksonville; Kevin Robinson, Kansas City; Koren

Robinson, Seattle; Edell Shepherd, Denver; Travis Taylor, Detroit;

Amani Toomer, NY Giants; Kelley Washington, New England;

Todd Watkins (R), Oakland; Harry Williams, Houston; Reggie

Williams, Jacksonville; Wallace Wright (R), NY Jets.

Tight ends—Courtney Anderson, Houston; Adam Bergen,

Denver; Mark Bruener, Houston; Scott Chandler, San Diego;

Owen Daniels (R), Houston; Michael Gaines, Detroit; Nate

Lawrie, Cincinnati; Michael Merritt, Kansas City; Chad Mustard,

Denver; Leonard Pope (R), Arizona; Jeff Robinson, Seattle; Derek

Schouman (R), Buffalo; Stephen Spach (R), Arizona; Daniel

Wilcox, Baltimore; Kris Wilson, San Diego.

Offensive tackles—Tyson Clabo (R), Atlanta; Anthony Davis,

St. Louis; Jon Dunn, Detroit; Wayne Gandy, Atlanta; Kwame

Harris, Oakland; Jonas Jennings, San Francisco; Levi Jones,

Cincinnati; James Marten (R), Oakland; Fred Miller, Chicago; Rob

Petitti, St. Louis; Jon Runyan, Philadelphia; Ephraim Salaam,

Houston; Charles Spencer, Jacksonville; Barry Stokes, New

England; Mark Tauscher, Green Bay; Mark Wilson (R), Oakland;

Eric Young, Cleveland.

Guards—Lennie Friedman, Cleveland; Adrian Jones, Kansas

City; Pete Kendall, Washington; Matt Lentz, Detroit; Terrence

Metcalf, Chicago; Edwin Mulitalo, Detroit; Chris Naeole,

Jacksonville; Tutan Reyes, Jacksonville; Grey Ruegamer, NY

Giants; Kendall Simmons, Pittsburgh; Rob Sims (R), Seattle;

Jason Whittle, Buffalo.

Centers—Brennen Carvalho, Green Bay; Jean-Philippe Darche,

Kansas City; Melvin Fowler, Buffalo; Matt Lehr, New Orleans;

Andy McCollum, Detroit; Jeremy Newberry, San Diego; Scott

Peters, Arizona; Bryan Pittman, Houston; Cory Withrow, St.

Louis.

DEFENSE

Defensive ends—Kevin Carter, Tampa Bay; Earl Cochran,

Houston; Sean Conover, NY Jets; Nick Eason, Pittsburgh; Kalimba

Edwards, Oakland; Ebenezer Ekuban, Denver; John Engelberger,

Denver; Simon Fraser, Atlanta; Roderick Green, San Francisco;

Jason Hunter, Green Bay; Travis LaBoy, Arizona; Jayme Mitchell,

Minnesota; Jerome McDougle, NY Giants; Julius Peppers (F),

Carolina; Jason Taylor, Washington; Anthony Weaver, Houston;

James Wyche, Jacksonville.

Defensive tackles—Kenderick Allen, Minnesota; Gary

Gibson (R), Carolina; La’Roi Glover, St. Louis; Vonnie Holliday,

Miami; Antwan Lake, New Orleans; Anthony Montgomery

(R), Washington; Langston Moore, Detroit; Kindal Moorehead,

Atlanta; Dewayne Robertson, Denver; Orpheus Roye, Pittsburgh;

Montavious Stanley (R), New Orleans; Hollis Thomas, New

Orleans; Josh Thomas, Indianapolis; John Thornton, Cincinnati;

Darwin Walker, Carolina; Gabe Watson (R), Arizona; Ellis Wyms,

Minnesota; Brian Young, New Orleans; Jeff Zgonina, Houston.

Linebackers—Rufus Alexander, Indianapolis; Jason Babin,

Kansas City; Rocky Boiman, Kansas City; Derrick Brooks, Tampa

Bay; Khary Campbell, Washington; Anthony Cannon, Detroit;

Dan Cody, Baltimore; Rosevelt Colvin, New England; Donte’

Curry, Carolina; Donnie Edwards, Kansas City; Keith Ellison (R),

Buffalo; Troy Evans, New Orleans; Gilbert Gardner, Chicago; Curtis

Gatewood, Kansas City; Morlon Greenwood, Houston; Marques

Harris, San Diego; Napoleon Harris, Minnesota; Abdul Hodge (R),

Cincinnati; Mike Humpal, Pittsburgh; Brad Kassell, NY Jets; Jason

Kyle, Carolina; Teddy Lehman, Buffalo; Paris Lenon, Detroit;

Wesly Mallard, Seattle; Jim Maxwell, Cincinnati; Willie McGinest,

Cleveland; Marques Murrell (R), NY Jets; Ryan Nece, Detroit;

Shantee Orr, Cleveland; Antwan Peek, Cleveland; Carlos Polk,

Dallas; Junior Seau, New England; Matt Sinclair, Washington;

Gary Stills, St. Louis; Terrell Suggs (F), Baltimore; Dontarrious

Thomas, Minnesota; Marcus Washington, Washington; Nate

Webster, Denver.

Cornerbacks—David Barrett, NY Jets; Dre’ Bly, Denver; Fakhir

Brown, St. Louis; Terry Cousin, Cleveland; Jason Craft, St. Louis;

Travis Fisher, Detroit; Reynaldo Hill, Tennessee; Roderick Hood,

Arizona; William James, Jacksonville; Michael Lehan, New

Orleans; Sam Madison, NY Giants; Ricky Manning Jr., St. Louis;

Derrick Martin (R), Baltimore; Chris McAlister, Baltimore; Mike

McKenzie, New Orleans; R.W. McQuarters, NY Giants; Deltha

O’Neal, New England; Dunta Robinson (F), Houston; Lewis

Sanders, New England; Duane Starks, Jacksonville; Brandon

Sumrall, NY Giants; DeJuan Tribble, San Diego; Jason Webster,

New England; Jimmy Williams, Houston; Stanley Wilson, Detroit.

Safeties—Oshiomogho Atogwe (F), St. Louis; Michael

Boulware, Minnesota; Mike Brown, Chicago; John Busing,

Cincinnati; Oliver Celestin, Kansas City; Corey Chavous, St. Louis;

Keith Davis, Dallas; Will Demps, Houston; Mike Doss, Cincinnati;

Hiram Eugene, Oakland; Mike Green, Washington; Rodney

Harrison, New England; Terrence Holt, New Orleans; Dexter

Jackson, Cincinnati; Sammy Knight, NY Giants; Dawan Landry

(R), Baltimore; Marquand Manuel, Denver; Marlon McCree,

Denver; Lawyer Milloy, Atlanta; Jarrad Page (R), Kansas City;

Pierson Prioleau, Jacksonville; Chris Reis (R), New Orleans;

Dwight Smith, Detroit; George Wilson (R), Buffalo; Cameron

Worrell, Chicago.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kickers—John Carney, NY Giants; Matt Stover, Baltimore.

Punters—Mitch Berger, Pittsburgh; Mike Dragosavich,

Indianapolis; Sam Koch (R), Baltimore; Kyle Larson, Cincinnati;

Ryan Plackemeier, Cincinnati.

To be the future, Young needs to prove himselfNASHVILLE—The Titans keep insist-

ing that Vince Young will be their starting quarterback again some day. He says he’s maturing, work-ing hard and learning the business of the NFL.

Well, he better because time is run-ning out for Young to convince the Titans the 2006 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year is worth keeping around.

The Titans hit the field Wednes-day for their first open session this offseason, and every move Young makes is being watched closely. Kerry Collins is back as the starter with a two-year deal, the Titans signed Patrick Ramsey for 2009 and Young is scheduled to count approximately $14 million against the salary cap in 2010—a lot of money for a backup.

Young, who is under contract for three more seasons, said he is focusing on football and leaving his contract to agent Major Adams and the Titans.

“My job is to be here knowing what’s going on, being attentive, being visible in the locker room, working out and taking care of my responsibilities as quarterback,” said Young, who turns 26 on May 18. “That’s pretty much what I have to do. All the business part, I leave that to the guys upstairs and Major.”

Young was the Titans’ starter until he sprained a knee in the sea-son opener last year just after apparently refusing to return to a game because fans had booed his second interception. The third overall draft pick in 2006 was rele-gated to backing up Collins, a spot cemented when the Titans signed Collins to a new deal in February.

Titans coach Jeff Fisher repeatedly

has called Young the franchise’s future at quarterback. But the coach also wanted Collins back as his starter following an NFL-best 13-3 record in 2008, and that’s what pro-duced a deal featuring $8.5 million in guaranteed money for the veteran.

Young met with Fisher early in the offseason, a meeting the coach described as Young asking what he had to do to start again. Young said he wanted to meet with Fisher to share his thoughts and prove he is maturing.

“I feel like for them to understand you are growing up you must speak your mind and let them know what’s going on,” Young said. “That’s basi-cally what I told him. I don’t want him to give me anything. I just want to come and take care of my responsi-bilities and earn everything. That’s basically what I told him.”

Teammates say Young hasn’t missed a day of the offseason, a change from a year ago when he had returned to Texas to work on finishing his degree. That coincided with the hiring of offensive coordi-nator Mike Heimerdinger, and Young commuted back and forth to work on learning the new offense.

Fisher called Young’s work great this offseason and a non-issue. He looked better throwing Wednesday. When one ball was intercepted, Young tapped his chest, taking blame for the pick.

The key to Young’s further devel-opment? More playing time, which Young will get in the preseason with Tennessee having five games.

“And just a better understand-ing,” Fisher said. “The more reps he gets, the better he’s going to be.”

—The Associated Press Vince Young, above, met with coach Jeff Fisher and asked what it will take to be the starter again.

PAUL SANCYA / AP

To demonstrate how long we’ve been waiting for the NCAA to offi-cially recognize that attempting to draw a charge underneath the basket is as bogus as a Manny Ramirez homer, I searched deep into the repository of DeCourcy’s Greatest

Hits to unearth this line:

Only Manute Bol can defend the basket while standing beneath it.

I wrote those words closer to the beginning of Bol’s NBA career (1985) than the end (a

decade later), so obviously the NCAA’s most significant basketball rules change for the 2009-10 season has been a long time coming.

Henceforth, a help defender—the NCAA rulebook will call such player a “secondary defender”—who sets up underneath the goal and draws con-tact from an attacking player will be guilty of a blocking foul. It’s simple logic, really, because a defender should be actively involved in attempting to defend if he is to be rewarded for being overrun. And only Manute—no, Yao Ming—can defend the basket from directly below.

Until now, there had been an understanding officials should not issue charging fouls when the defender was directly beneath the goal, but it wasn’t codified and there-fore was administered haphazardly. Sometimes it was a charge, some-times a block, and sometimes the ref would do that imperious little hand gesture that screamed, “Get up; I’m not falling for your Brando routine.”

“We’ve really created another abso-lute,” said John Adams, the NCAA’s coordinator of officials. “If you’re a secondary defender and you’re under the basket and you take contact, you’re guilty of a block.”

This change became imperative when the NCAA extended the 3-point line by another foot and forced col-leges across the country to paint a second arc on their courts last sum-mer. The whole idea behind that move was to open up the court so players could drive the ball and make the game less stagnant. Forcing defend-ers to be more judicious about when/where to jump in front of ballhan-dlers will help that directive succeed.

The rules committee did not ask schools to paint a line on the court to designate the no-charge zone. Because it’s defined as extending from the front of the rim to the face of the backboard, it’d be a fairly small area. It seemed unnecessary to put another mark on college courts already as busy as a Jackson Pollock canvas.

Adams said the committee has talked about this for three years and “would not rule out redefining it with an arc if this doesn’t work.”

It appears the rules committee enjoyed one of its most productive meetings in recent years, based on this result and a few other adjust-ments we’ll see next season:

Eliminating free throw shenanigans. If a player is injured while being fouled and cannot attempt free throws, the coach of the opposing team can desig-nate the replacement shooter from among the other four opposing play-ers in the game.

The committee considered adopting

the NBA rule that says a player who can’t shoot can’t return, but worried that would create pressure for an injured player to continue before he was ready. There was talk about allow-ing the opposing coach to choose from all players on the opposing roster, but that left open the possibility of a player deep into a redshirt season being called to make a couple foul shots and blow-ing a year of eligibility.

It’s impressive these contingencies were considered. It shows how thor-ough the rules committee can be.

Stressing the 3-second rule. It’s like those suspense books where the detectives keep saying to each other, “We’re missing something obvious.” It’s possible the answer to cleaning up rough low-post play—another aspect of the game that has vexed the rules committee for decades—is sim-ply to enforce the 3-second rule.

If an offensive player must be mind-ful he can’t take up space in the lane for longer than three seconds, it’s unlikely he’ll engage in a wrestling match with a defender for a spot on the block. He’ll have to be more active, more fluid.

The coaches suggested this at the NABC’s convention during the Final Four in Detroit.

“By unanimous vote, they want three seconds enforced,” Adams said. “They’re going to get it. We’re going to try to get it. I think we always thought we had bigger fish to fry. Maybe we just looked right past the solution.”

Sometimes it takes awhile to get things right. Sometimes it takes 20 years.

But who’s counting?decourcy@sportingnews.com

At last, NCAA rules committee addresses charging issue

Mike DeCourcyCOLLEGE BASKETBALL

PAUL SAKUMA / AP

In this year’s NCAA Tournament, Missouri had Kim English, left, take two free throws for J.T. Tiller, who hurt his right wrist when he was fouled against Marquette. But next year, the opposing coach will pick which player shoots free throws for an injured player.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 35College Basketball

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 36College Basketball / College Football

COLLEGE FOOTBALLCOLLEGE BASKETBALL

INSIDE DISHINSIDE DISH

How will Florida fill Percy Harvin’s running/receiving role this fall?

The plan, coach Urban Meyer says, is for three players to share the responsibilities: sophomore TB Jeff Demps, senior KR Brandon James and true freshman WR Andre Debose.

Meyer says sophomore Chris Rainey and junior Emmanuel Moody will focus on playing tailback.

“I don’t think Rainey can handle it all,” Meyer told reporters before a booster gathering Wednesday night. “We’ll let him concentrate on tailback, him and Moody. We’ll have Demps at tailback and the three spot (at receiver). Demps can handle it all. So, hopefully, can Debose. Brandon James has proven he can. It’s a key spot.”

Harvin caught 40 passes for 644 yards and seven touchdowns last season and ran 70 times for 659 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“That position that we created three years ago with Percy ... we never had it at Utah and other places,” Meyer told reporters. “From people I’ve talked to, that makes your offense that much more difficult to defend. A guy who can run routes and can also run the ball.”

Kentucky senior TE T.C. Drake faces six weeks of recovery after having surgery for a sports hernia, according to a report in the Lexing-ton Herald-Leader.

Drake started eight games last season and had 12 receptions for 204 yards. He is expected to battle seniors Ross Bogue and Maurice Grinter for the No. 1 spot when preseason

camp begins, according to the newspaper.

Bogue finished the spring as the starter at tight end.

Ole Miss junior DT Jerrell Powe should be ready for fall practice after having surgery to repair an injury in his left wrist that both-ered him last season.

“Things went great,” coach Hous-ton Nutt told The Clarion-Ledger.

“We’re just trying to get him some flexibility in there.”

Powe had the wrist heavily taped during spring practice, according to the newspaper. He finished the spring on the second team but also got a lot of snaps with the first unit.

Former Tennessee QB B.J. Cole-man, who left the Vols in April, will enroll at Chattanooga and have three seasons of eligibility left beginning this fall.

Coleman got limited playing time in three games at Tennessee last season as a redshirt freshman.

The NCAA has banned Chatta-nooga from postseason play in 2009 because it failed to meet Aca-demic Progress Rate standards.

A man who was visiting an apartment rented by four Penn State players faces a misdemeanor drug charge.

Ronald Bridges, of Bear, Del., was charged with the controlled sub-stance drug, device and cosmetic act, according to a university police spokesman.

No one was at the apartment April 25 when police were called to break up a party. They confiscated marijuana residue and drug paraphernalia.

A search warrant identified the residents of the apartment as RB Stephfon Green, DT Devon Still, G John-nie Troutman and DE Eric Latimore, according to a report by the Pitts-burgh Post-Gazette.

The police spokesman said the case is closed.

Gators will go with rotation at playmaking position

Jeff Demps (2) will try to fill Percy Harvin’s spot.

STEVE MITCHELL / AP

Should Memphis fans be panicking?

New coach Josh Pastner already has endured some tough losses on the recruiting trail since taking over for John Calipari, now at Kentucky.

The Tigers lost another this week, when five-star PG Eric Bledsoe chose Kentucky over Memphis. Five-star PF DeMarcus Cousins and four-star SF Darnell Dodson also followed Calipari to Kentucky from Memphis. Cous-ins had committed to the Tigers, while Dodson had signed with them in the fall but was granted his release when Calipari left.

Pastner, speaking to a packed hotel ballroom of Memphis sup-porters, was upbeat about the pro-gram’s future under his leadership.

‘’The support by the entire com-munity is off the charts, it’s ridicu-lous it’s at such a high level,’’ Pastner told the crowd, according to The Commercial Appeal. ‘’And the support staff within the building ... they’re the best, they are why the University of Memphis’s athletic department is as great as it is. You have to have people like that doing the behind-the-scenes work.’’

One of Arizona’s favorite sons, Damon Stoudamire, gave his approval to the hiring of Sean Miller as the pro-gram’s new coach. Stoudamire, who led Arizona to the 1994 Final Four as a junior and was named a con-sensus All-American as a senior, now is an assistant coach with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.

“It’s a good hire,” he told The

Arizona Republic. “I played against Sean when he was at Pitt. A young guy will energize the program and give it stability that we haven’t had the last couple years. I look forward to the program getting back to the prominence that we’re used to it having.”

Nebraska G Ryan Anderson has no plans of turning pro this sea-son. Then why is he listed among the early entrants in the NBA draft?

“I want to see where I’m at,” Anderson told the Lincoln Journal Star. “It’s kind of, ‘Why not?’ ”

Anderson has not hired an agent and plans to withdraw his name before the June 15 deadline, finish-ing his career at Nebraska. But with the option of returning available, he figured there is no harm in

spending a couple months measur-ing himself against some of the best.

“Hopefully, given the right oppor-tunity, things will happen,” Ander-son told the newspaper. “This is just for me. These players going in, some of them have agents and aren’t going to come back to school. They’re really serious in pursuing it.

“I want to see where I stand against these guys.”

LSU coach Trent Johnson has dismissed freshman F Delwan Gra-ham from the team. In a statement Thursday, Johnson says he is not renewing Graham’s scholarship for next season because of a viola-tion of team rules. He did not pro-vide any further details.

Graham played in 25 games last season and averaged 1.7 points and 1.5 rebounds.

Pastner keeps it positive despite recruiting losses

Memphis coach Josh Pastner, left, has seen a five-star PG and five-star PF flip commitments.LANCE MURPHEY / AP

Kevin Grubb, who had 174 career starts in the Nationwide Series, died Wednesday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot at a motel in Richmond, Va., according to a Henrico County police statement released Thursday.

Grubb, 31, had been suspended twice by NASCAR for vio-lations of its substance abuse policy, once in 2004 and again in 2006. He last drove for Mac Hill Motorsports until he refused to take a drug test following a crash at Richmond, and NASCAR subsequently suspended him again.

His best finish came in the September 1998 race at Dover, where he started on the pole and finished second.

According to the police report, an autopsy revealed Grubb died of the apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. There were no indications of any drug use found inside the room. A toxicology test was performed, and results are expected in about six weeks.

— SceneDaily.com

Atlanta Motor Speedway is suing Pep Boys over a payment dispute on a contract that called for the auto parts chain to pay $3 million for a two-year Sprint Cup Series race sponsorship, according to court documents.

Pep Boys allegedly has stopped making payments for the 2009 race, according to the lawsuit filed April 30 in Georgia Superior Court in Henry County, Ga.

The suit says the deal was worth $1.4 million for the track’s 2008 fall race and $1.6 million for the 2009 fall race. Accord-ing to the complaint, Pep Boys did not make the $800,000 payment due March 1, 2009, and the track is owed $1.6 mil-lion for the 2009 race.

Although the contract states the sponsorship is for “a fall NSCS Event,” SMI said in its complaint that Pep Boys did not object to the 2009 race being moved to Labor Day weekend before it was announced. According to the complaint, Pep Boys sent a letter saying it could terminate the contract because the track breached the agreement since the 2009 fall race is now “during the summer.”

Atlanta Motor Speedway alleges the wording in the con-tract prevents it from being terminated on those grounds.

— Bob Pockrass, SceneDaily.com

Dover International Speedway announced its May 31 Cup

race will be formally called the Autism Speaks 400, presented by Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips & Cheese.

BY BILL MARXbmarx@sportingnews.com

Simply put, it’s Joey Logano’s turn to win tonight’s Nationwide Series race at Darlington Raceway.

Logano drives the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, and the No. 20 has been to victory lane at Darlington in each of the past three seasons. Denny Hamlin won from the pole in 2006 and again in 2007, and Tony Stewart won last year’s race for his first NASCAR win at the famed track.

Unlike when Hamlin and Stewart won, however, Logano is making his first start at Darlington in a national NASCAR series. Hamlin’s first win came in his third start at the track (all Nationwide races) and Stewart’s in his 20th (15 Cup, five Nationwide).

“Going to Darlington for the first time is a little intimidating,” Logano said. “It’s a track whose reputation precedes it. To go there and run well

right out of the box would be an awe-some experience—the place is a beast. It was the one track that I circled on the calendar when I made the move up to the Nationwide Series.”

Darlington’s reputation is such that it has two nicknames—“Lady In Black” and “Track Too Tough To Tame.” It is also known for “award-ing” drivers a Darlington stripe.

“The famous Darlington stripe is always something that’s in the back of your mind,” said Jason Leffler, who is third in the points standings, three points ahead of Logano. “You run so close to the wall there that the chances of rubbing up against it, at least once, are pretty good. Of course, hopefully it’s just a little love tap and not a full out smack that can easily end your night early.”

Although he has yet to experience the track, Logano knows what he is up against.

“I’ve always heard that you have to

‘race the racetrack’ and not worry about the other drivers,” Logano said. “It’s just a unique test of your skill.”

The 11th race of the Sprint Cup season is Saturday night at

Darlington Raceway. Three Sprint Cup experts discuss the “Track Too Tough To Tame.”

INSIDE DISH

Former driver Kevin Grubb found dead

Logano is in the hot car at DarlingtonDiamond Hill Plywood 200at Darlington Raceway

When: Today, 7:30 p.m. ET

TV: ESPN2, 7 p.m. ET

Radio: MRN/Sirius XM Satellite Ch. 128

Track layout: 1.366-mile oval

Race distance: 147 laps / 200.8 miles

2008 winner: Tony Stewart

2008 pole: Carl Edwards

Points leaders: 1. Kyle Busch, 1,414;

2. Carl Edwards, 1,332; 3. Jason Leffler,

1,216; 4. Joey Logano, 1,213; 5. Brad

Keselowski, 1,201; 6. David Ragan,

1,139; 7. Jason Keller, 1,063; 8. Michael

McDowell, 1,021; 9. Scott Lagasse Jr.,

998; 10. Steve Wallace, 967.

for the road 3WADE PAYNE / AP

Joey Logano

JOHN RAOUX / AP

Kevin Harvick likes Darlington for its character and uniqueness to other tracks.

1. Kevin Harvick: “It’s really fast right now, and it’s really narrow. I think you’re running 200

mph down the backstretch at a track that was built for cars to run 100. The history of the track is what makes it so neat, and that’s why everyone likes to go there. It’s not the most recently built ‘cool’ race-track that has lots of room. It’s got character, and it’s hard to pass there. When your car’s right, there are still lots of places to pass.”

2. Drew Blickensderfer, Matt Kenseth’s crew chief: “Darlington is much different

than it used to be. It used to eat tires and be all about tire conservation, but with the new smooth

pavement it is not as much about tires anymore. Both ends of the track are different, so the fast cars will handle well at both ends.”

3. Donnie Wingo, Jamie McMurray’s crew chief: “Darlington is just a track that when

you go there to race, you know that you’re going to scrape the wall at some point over the course of the weekend, but it’s just all about how you end up hitting it. If you hit it good and flat, there usually isn’t much damage besides just cos-metic, but there are very few cars that will leave Darlington this weekend without a stripe on the side.”

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 37NASCAR

Poor putting holds Woods backPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLA.—Ben Crane

plays his best golf when he keeps it simple.

His day began with a drive down PGA Tour Boulevard on the back of his caddie’s moped because his wife had the car. Once he got on the TPC Sawgrass, he kept the ball on land—not easy to do on a course where 89 balls found the water—and then got it into the hole so quickly he needed only 22 putts.

He left the thrills, and the spills, to everyone else Thursday at The Players Championship.

“A lot of people say ‘horses for courses,’ ” Crane said after a 7-under 65 for a one-shot lead. “But for me, it’s just a matter of am I able to keep it sim-ple and just play golf and not worry about too much about other things.”

Tiger Woods worried about his put-ting. He didn’t make one longer than 4 feet on his way to a 1-under 71.

Defending champion Sergio Garcia also had a 71, but there is nothing sim-ple about his game right now. Even with a respectable score, he said he was playing so badly it “makes me want to puke.”

Phil Mickelson fired off three straight birdies, then hit only four greens in regulation the rest of the way for a 73, the first time he failed to break par in the opening round on the TPC Sawgrass in eight years.

“Looked like it was going to be a great round,” Mickelson said. “And then it just kind of went away.”

Crane couldn’t relate.He dropped only two shots—from a

bunker on No. 8 and the rough-covered mounds right of the 14th fairway—and made four birdie putts longer than 20 feet.

“It’s one of those rounds that you just live for when you’re a golfer,” he said. “And I had one today at one of my

favorite courses and tournaments of all time.”

He had a one-shot lead over John Mallinger, Alex Cejka and Richard S. Johnson, with a large group at 67 that included Retief Goosen, David Toms, Camilo Villegas and Scott Verplank, who had two eagles—one of them from 150 yards out on the 15th fairway, another with a putt that seemed about that long on the par-5 second.

That can happen on one of the most exciting courses in golf, where small mistakes can turn into big numbers.

Brian Gay made a small error by try-ing to reach the fourth green from the left rough, coming up short and into the water. He took a drop, dumped it in the water again, finally got on land and three-putted for a quintuple-bogey 9 on his way to an 80, one of five players who failed to break 80.

Or take the group of Steve Lowery, Daniel Chopra and Paul Goydos. They played the par-3 17th in a combined 18 shots, with four balls in the water—and Goydos made a par. Lowery put two in the drink and three-putted for an 8, while Chopra rinsed two and made 7.

Crane opened with consecutive bird-ies starting at No. 10, made the turn in 33, then ran off five birdies in a six-hole stretch along his back nine. The hole looked the same size, but it seemed like a magnet for his ball.

“How often ... from 30 feet do you actually start it there and then the read is correct? And that happened a num-ber of times today,” he said. “You just smile. You’re like, ‘Yeah, this is why I play golf right here.’”

Johnson, who won in Milwaukee last year, had to battle to be low man in his group. He played with Verplank and Johnson Wagner, and they combined for 17 birdies, two eagles and were a collective 14 under.

— The Associated Press

LeaderboardThursdayAt TPC Sawgrass, Players Stadium CoursePonte Vedra Beach, Fla.Purse: $9.5 millionYardage: 7,215; Par: 72 (36-36)

First RoundBen Crane 32-33 — 65 -7John Mallinger 33-33 — 66 -6Richard S. Johnson 34-32 — 66 -6Alex Cejka 34-32 — 66 -6Jonathan Byrd 34-33 — 67 -5Scott Verplank 35-32 — 67 -5Retief Goosen 36-31 — 67 -5David Toms 35-32 — 67 -5Ian Poulter 34-33 — 67 -5Brad Adamonis 35-32 — 67 -5Camilo Villegas 35-32 — 67 -5Bubba Watson 34-33 — 67 -5Jason Dufner 34-33 — 67 -5Jeev M. Singh 35-33 — 68 -4Nick O’Hern 33-35 — 68 -4John Rollins 33-35 — 68 -4Henrik Stenson 35-33 — 68 -4Nick Watney 33-35 — 68 -4Tim Petrovic 35-33 — 68 -4Jim Furyk 36-32 — 68 -4Johnson Wagner 36-33 — 69 -3Mark Wilson 35-34 — 69 -3Fredrik Jacobson 34-36 — 70 -2Ken Duke 35-35 — 70 -2Stewart Cink 35-35 — 70 -2Justin Leonard 34-36 — 70 -2Charley Hoffman 37-33 — 70 -2George McNeill 34-36 — 70 -2Justin Rose 36-34 — 70 -2Billy Mayfair 35-35 — 70 -2Soren Kjeldsen 36-34 — 70 -2John Merrick 35-35 — 70 -2Stephen Ames 38-32 — 70 -2Geoff Ogilvy 35-35 — 70 -2Paul Casey 36-34 — 70 -2Chez Reavie 35-35 — 70 -2Rod Pampling 36-34 — 70 -2Ryan Moore 35-36 — 71 -1Michael Allen 35-36 — 71 -1Martin Laird 37-34 — 71 -1Graeme McDowell 36-35 — 71 -1Ben Curtis 33-38 — 71 -1Tiger Woods 36-35 — 71 -1Vijay Singh 38-33 — 71 -1Sergio Garcia 38-33 — 71 -1Stuart Appleby 34-37 — 71 -1Bo Van Pelt 34-37 — 71 -1Jeff Overton 34-37 — 71 -1Scott Piercy 35-36 — 71 -1Kevin Na 37-34 — 71 -1Brian Davis 36-35 — 71 -1Aaron Baddeley 38-33 — 71 -1Steve Stricker 35-36 — 71 -1Adam Scott 35-36 — 71 -1Michael Letzig 35-36 — 71 -1Martin Kaymer 34-37 — 71 -1Jeff Klauk 34-37 — 71 -1Cliff Kresge 36-36 — 72 EWoody Austin 36-36 — 72 EJoe Ogilvie 35-37 — 72 EJ.B. Holmes 36-36 — 72 EMike Weir 36-36 — 72 EZach Johnson 38-34 — 72 EJohn Senden 36-36 — 72 EJason Bohn 35-37 — 72 ETim Clark 38-34 — 72 EBrett Quigley 37-35 — 72 ECameron Beckman 37-35 — 72 E

Padraig Harrington 36-36 — 72 EDustin Johnson 35-37 — 72 EAngel Cabrera 36-36 — 72 EPat Perez 36-36 — 72 ERyuji Imada 36-36 — 72 EMatt Kuchar 35-37 — 72 ESteve Marino 37-35 — 72 EVaughn Taylor 39-33 — 72 EBriny Baird 37-35 — 72 EEric Axley 34-38 — 72 ERocco Mediate 35-38 — 73 +1Boo Weekley 37-36 — 73 +1Trevor Immelman 38-35 — 73 +1Fred Funk 39-34 — 73 +1Ernie Els 35-38 — 73 +1Y.E. Yang 38-35 — 73 +1Davis Love III 37-36 — 73 +1Charles Howell III 38-35 — 73 +1K.J. Choi 36-37 — 73 +1Dudley Hart 38-35 — 73 +1Steve Elkington 39-34 — 73 +1Nicholas Thompson 36-37 — 73 +1Troy Matteson 38-35 — 73 +1J.J. Henry 35-38 — 73 +1Kevin Sutherland 35-38 — 73 +1Will MacKenzie 35-38 — 73 +1Hunter Mahan 38-35 — 73 +1Robert Allenby 34-39 — 73 +1Phil Mickelson 34-39 — 73 +1Kenny Perry 36-37 — 73 +1Sean O’Hair 36-37 — 73 +1Jerry Kelly 39-34 — 73 +1Anthony Kim 34-39 — 73 +1Jeff Quinney 36-37 — 73 +1Lucas Glover 36-37 — 73 +1Corey Pavin 39-35 — 74 +2Charlie Wi 37-37 — 74 +2Andres Romero 41-33 — 74 +2Luke Donald 39-35 — 74 +2Tommy Armour III 37-37 — 74 +2Thongchai Jaidee 38-36 — 74 +2Rory McIlroy 35-39 — 74 +2Scott McCarron 38-36 — 74 +2Tom Pernice, Jr. 35-39 — 74 +2Ross Fisher 39-35 — 74 +2Greg Kraft 37-37 — 74 +2Carl Pettersson 38-36 — 74 +2Todd Hamilton 34-40 — 74 +2D.J. Trahan 35-39 — 74 +2Kevin Streelman 36-38 — 74 +2Robert Karlsson 38-36 — 74 +2Nathan Green 37-37 — 74 +2Bart Bryant 35-39 — 74 +2Bill Haas 38-36 — 74 +2Tim Herron 39-36 — 75 +3Bob Estes 35-40 — 75 +3Daniel Chopra 34-41 — 75 +3Steve Flesch 38-37 — 75 +3Ryan Palmer 37-38 — 75 +3Chad Campbell 38-37 — 75 +3Parker McLachlin 36-39 — 75 +3Heath Slocum 35-40 — 75 +3Marc Turnesa 41-35 — 76 +4Mathew Goggin 40-36 — 76 +4Webb Simpson 35-41 — 76 +4Matt Bettencourt 38-38 — 76 +4Dean Wilson 39-38 — 77 +5Peter Lonard 37-40 — 77 +5Tim Wilkinson 38-39 — 77 +5Paul Goydos 36-42 — 78 +6Michael Bradley 42-38 — 80 +8Fred Couples 39-41 — 80 +8Brian Gay 41-39 — 80 +8Steve Lowery 38-43 — 81 +9Rory Sabbatini 38-43 — 81 +9D.A. Weibring WDMichael Campbell WD

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLA.— Tiger Woods never had a birdie putt longer than his shadow Thursday morning, giv-ing himself one chance after another in the opening round of The Players Championship.

After six holes, he already was five shots behind.

“I was in position all day to make putts,” he said. “And I just didn’t do it.”

The longest putt he made all day was from 4 feet, that after a towering 7-iron into the par-5 16th hole for an eagle. He two-putted for birdie on the par-5 second, then finished his round with a remarkable pitch from thick grass to 31⁄2 feet for birdie and a 1-under 71.

Woods has never shot better than 70 in the first round at TPC Sawgrass, so this was nothing new.

But the putting was a surprise.“This is probably the highest score

I could have shot today,” he said “And I didn’t get a whole lot of my round. That’s the way it goes.”

The statistics show that he took 31 putts.

What they don’t show is the missed opportunities—seven birdie putts he missed inside 12 feet, including the first four holes.

Frustration began to show on his next hole, the par-4 14th, when he hit a drive so far too the right that it nearly wound up in the water in front of the 12th tee, a pond that is not sup-posed to be in play. He tried to play a fade around the pines, only to pull the shot toward trees and into a bed of flowers. He did well to escape with bogey.

Whatever momentum he tried to build from his eagle didn’t last long. After a tee shot that found dry land on the island green 17th, his 9-foot birdie putt spun 180 degrees around

the cup, and his approach on the 18th was a yard too long and went off the back of the green.

Still, it was the short stick that con-founded him.

“I didn’t hit good putts,” he said. “My speed was off early, then I got my speed down at the end and I kept lipping out putts. I just need to obvi-ously read them better or hit better putts, one of the two.”

— The Associated Press

Tiger Woods missed seven birdie putts inside 12 feet during Thursday’s first round.

J PAT CARTER / AP

PGA Tour glanceThe Players Championship

Site: Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Schedule: Through Sunday.

Course: TPC Sawgrass, Players

Stadium Course (7,215 yards, par

72).

Purse: TBA ($9.5 million in 2008).

Winner’s share: TBA ($1.71 million

in 2008).

TV: Golf Channel (Today, 1-7 p.m., 9

p.m.-midnight) and NBC (Saturday-

Sunday, 2-7 p.m.).

Crane avoids others’ misfortunes

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 38Golf

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BY CHRISTIAN SWEZEYInsideLacrosse.com

The NCAA Tournament kicks off Saturday at noon on ESPN2 with No. 8 seed Johns Hopkins playing host to Brown. It’ll be a whirlwind weekend of four straight games Saturday and four Sunday. Keep an eye on the following players in these win-or-go-home games.

Jordan Burke, Brown, G, Sr. The Bears collapse on opponents near

the crease, willing to give up 12-15-yard outside shots. It has worked because Burke is exceptional against outside shooters.

Kyle Wharton, Johns Hopkins, A, Soph.Wharton (31 goals) varies the location,

delivery and velocity of his shots, and his battle with Burke will be fascinating. It also is telling that, of his 97 shots, only 21 have been saved.

Shane Walterhoefer, North Carolina, F/O, Sr.UMBC has won 43 percent of its

faceoffs. Walterhoefer has won 63 per-cent and has 129 ground balls. His abil-ity to win draws could keep the ball away from UMBC’s potent first midfield (76 goals and 40 assists).

Michael Colleluori, Hofstra, M, Sr.Leads the Pride with 21 assists. He

also is the unquestioned leader and heartbeat of the team; Colleluori’s intan-gibles (and the late-game heroics of sophomore Jay Card) have helped Hofstra win six one-goal games despite starting a freshman goalie.

T im Paul, Navy, A, Jr.The Devils like to pressure the ball all

over the field to force turnovers and key transition. Paul needs to keep posses-sion to let Navy get its personnel on the field, and he must do so despite the close attention of excellent longstick Mike Manley and despite having missed almost five games with an ankle injury.

Grant Catalino, Maryland, A/M, Soph.Could start at midfield after starting

14 games on attack this year. Needs to adapt quickly to his new position.

Scott Rodgers, Notre Dame, G, Jr.Leads the NCAA in save percentage

(66.3 percent) and is second in goals against average (6.08). Has very quick hands but has not seen shooters of Mary-land’s caliber.

Diogo Godoi, Massachusetts, D, Jr.Will defend Princeton sophomore

Jack McBride (34 goals, 7 assists). Godoi must win that matchup and hope that senior goalie Doc Schneider is seeing the ball well from strong shooters like Mark Kovler.

Brian Karalunas, Villanova, LSM, Soph.CAA Defensive Player of the Year

enters the NCAA Tournament with 63 ground balls. No opposing team has scored more than 11 goals against Vil-lanova this year.

Matt Abbott, Syracuse, M, Sr.Turned his game up a notch in the

2008 postseason to help Syracuse win the NCAA title. Must continue to make good decisions in transition. The best game-changing player in lacrosse.

Inside LacrosseInsideLacrosse.com is your online home for lacrosse news. For the magazine, go to shop.insidelacrosse.com/subscribe/

Games to watch(NCAA Tournament seeds in parentheses)Saturday

Brown at (8) Johns Hopkins, noon, ESPN2

UMBC at (6) North Carolina, 2:30, ESPNU

Hofstra at (5) Cornell, 5, ESPNU

Navy at (3) Duke, 7:30, ESPNU

Sunday

Maryland at (7) Notre Dame, noon, ESPNU

Villanova at (1) Virginia, 2:30, ESPNU

UMass at (4) Princeton, 5, ESPNU

Siena at (2) Syracuse, 7:30, ESPNU

10 PLAYERS TO WATCH

Tournament showcases these top talents

LAWRENCE D. HUMPHREY / INSIDE LACROSSE

Jordan Burke, right, and the Bears open NCAA Tournament play Saturday against Johns Hopkins.

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 39

PROVO, UTAH—Murphy Troy had 24 kills to lead USC over defending national cham-pion Penn State 3-1 in the NCAA men’s vol-leyball semifinals Thursday, ending the Nittany Lions’ run of 11 straight wins.

Penn State hadn’t lost a set since March 14 and took a 1-0 lead by winning the opener, but the Trojans won the next three—30-26, 30-26 and 30-24. Austin Zahn clinched it for USC with a kill that was too much for the Nittany Lions to handle, bouncing high into the rafters at BYU’s Smith Fieldhouse as the Trojans stormed the court.

The Trojans (21-10) on Saturday will play UC Irvine (26-5), which swept Ohio State in the late semifinal.

GolfWILLIAMSBURG, VA.—Lorena Ochoa shot a

7-under 64 and took a one-shot lead after the first round of the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill.

Lindsey Wright was one shot behind the world’s top-ranked player after a bogey-free round Thursday on the resort’s soggy and wind-swept 6,315-yard River Course.

Hee-Won Han, Sarah Lee and Minea Blomqvist were another shot back after 66s as 45 players shot better than par.

TURIN, ITALY—Gareth Maybin of North-ern Ireland shot a course record 7-under 64 on Thursday to take a three-shot lead after the first round of the Italian Open.

American John Daly had a 69 despite two closing bogeys on the Royal Park I Roveri course.

TennisROME—Dinara Safina rallied to beat

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 Thursday and reach the Italian Open semi-finals, while Venus Williams breezed past Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 6-2.

Two-time defending champion Jelena Jankovic lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1,

7-6 (3).Kuznetsova will play the sixth-seeded

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who defeated Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 7-6 (5), 6-3 in a sloppy match that saw 13 breaks of serve.

MUNICH—Lleyton Hewitt overcame a slow start to beat Dutch qualifier Thiemo De Bakker 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday and joined fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych in the quar-terfinals of the BMW Open.

Berdych rallied to beat Germany’s Andreas Beck 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4).

In other second-round matches Thurs-day, German wild card Daniel Brands upset Julien Benneteau of France 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6). Potito Starace defeated Italian rival Simone Bolelli 6-4, 7-6 (5) and will next play Brands.

BELGRADE, SERBIA—Second-seeded Ivo Karlovic advanced to the quarterfinals of the Serbia Open after beating Brian Dabul of Argentina 6-4, 7-6 (5) on Thursday.

Karlovic will meet qualifier Italy’s Flavio Cipolla, who eliminated seventh-seeded Frenchman Arnaud Clement 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Cipolla had made it into the second round after eliminating another prominent player, Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, in his first match.

Sixth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia was eliminated by Marcos Daniel of Brazil 6-4, 6-4, while fourth-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi advanced by beating Leon-ardo Mayer of Argentina 6-4, 6-1.

OEIRAS, PORTUGAL—Top-seeded Gilles Simon and James Blake advanced

Thursday to the quarterfinals of the Esto-ril Open.

Simon won eight straight games in defeating Fabio Fognini 6-0, 7-5, and Blake withstood a first-set tiebreaker to win 7-6 (6), 6-2 over Marc Gicquel.

Blake will play on eighth-seeded Florent Serra, who defeated Juan Monaco 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

Simon will meet seventh-seeded Albert Montanes, who defeated Simon Greul 6-2, 6-2.

SoccerOSLO—British media are reporting that

death threats were made against a referee in the Champions League semifinal.

Chelsea players angrily accused Norwe-gian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo of miss-ing several penalty and hand-ball calls in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw against Barcelona, which advanced to the final with a late goal.

London’s Evening Standard newspaper reported death threats were made over the Internet against Ovrebo. Chelsea promised Thursday to take “the strongest action” against any fans found making threats, but said it had received no evidence of any.

— The Associated Press

SPORTING NEWS TODAY www.sportingnews.com FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2009 40Back Page

TRANSACTIONSIN BRIEF

Major League Soccer EASTERN CONFERENCE W L T Pts GF GAD.C. United 3 1 4 13 12 10Toronto FC 3 2 3 12 10 10Chicago 2 0 5 11 13 10Kansas City 3 3 2 11 10 9New England 2 2 2 8 5 11Columbus 0 2 5 5 8 12New York 1 5 2 5 5 10

WESTERN CONFERENCE W L T Pts GF GAChivas USA 6 1 1 19 11 3Seattle FC 4 2 1 13 10 4Colorado 3 2 2 11 10 8Real Salt Lake 3 3 1 10 14 10Houston 2 2 2 8 6 5Los Angeles 1 1 5 8 8 9San Jose 1 4 2 5 7 12FC Dallas 1 5 1 4 7 14NOTE: Three points for victory, one point for tie.

Wednesday’s gamesD.C. United 1, Kansas City 1, tieLos Angeles 2,Real Salt Lake 2, tieToday’s gameSan Jose at New York, 7:30 p.m.Saturday’s gamesKansas City at Columbus, 7 p.m.

Toronto FC at D.C. United, 7:30 p.m.New England at Chicago, 8:30 p.m.FC Dallas at Houston, 9 p.m.Real Salt Lake at Chivas USA, 10:30 p.m.Sunday’s gameLos Angeles at Seattle FC, 3 p.m.

BASEBALL

MLB: Suspended L.A. Dodgers OF Manny Ramirez 50 games for

violating major league baseball’s joint drug prevention and treat-

ment program.

American League

BOSTON RED SOX: Activated OF Rocco Baldelli from the 15-day DL.

Optioned OF Jonathan Van Every to Pawtucket (IL).

CLEVELAND INDIANS: Designated RHP Vinnie Chulk for assignment.

Recalled LHP Jeremy Sowers from Columbus (IL). Sent INF Tony Graf-

fanino outright to Columbus.

National League

ATLANTA BRAVES: Promoted controller Chip Moore to chief financial

officer.

FLORIDA MARLINS: Optioned LHP Graham Taylor to Jacksonville (SL).

Recalled RHP Carlos Martinez from New Orleans (PCL).

LOS ANGELES DODGERS: Recalled OF Xavier Paul from Albuquerque

(AAA).

NEW YORK METS: Placed LHP Oliver Perez on the 15-day DL, retroac-

tive to May 3. Recalled LHP Jonathon Niese from Buffalo (IL).

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS: Placed OF Rick Ankiel on the 15-day DL, retro-

active to May 5. Recalled OF Shane Robinson from Memphis (PCL).

WASHINGTON NATIONALS: Purchased the contract of LHP Ron Villone

from Syracuse (IL). Designated LHP Mike Hinckley for assignment.

American Association

GRAND PRAIRIE AIRHOGS: Released RHP Benny Cepeda.

SIOUX CITY EXPLORERS: Released RHP Christian Miranda.

Golden Baseball League

GBL: Announced the expansion Tijuana Potros will not enter the

league this year, due to the swine flu outbreak.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association

NBA: Suspended Orlando G Rafer Alston and L.A. Lakes G Derek Fisher

for one game each, without pay, for their roles in separate incidents

in games on May 6. Assessed a flagrant foul penalty of L.A. Lakers

G Kobe Bryant for elbowing Houston F Ron Artest in the chest in a

game on May 6.

FOOTBALL

National Football League

CINCINNATI BENGALS: Signed S Roy Williams. Traded DT Orien Harris

to St. Louis for RB Brian Leonard.

WASHINGTON REDSKINS: Signed WR Keith Eloi. Released P Zac

Atterberry.

Canadian Football League

WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS: Signed K Dan Giancola.

HOCKEY

National Hockey League

OTTAWA SENATORS: Signed D Erik Karlsson.

COLLEGE

CENTRAL MICHIGAN: Named Willie Randolph director of men’s and

women’s track and field and cross country.

CHATTANOOGA: Announced sophomore QB B.J. Coleman is transfer-

ring from Tennessee.

ELON: Named Tim Sweeney men’s assistant basketball coach.

GEORGIA SOUTHERN: Named Steve Smith, Chris Kreider and Pershin

Williams men’s assistant basketball coaches.

MARIST: Named Alisa Kresge women’s assistant basketball coach.

MONTANA: Named Freddie Owens men’s assistant basketball coach.

USC, UC Irvine to meet for volleyball title

ALESSANDRA TARANTINO / AP

Dinara Safina, above, is through to the Italian Open semis after defeating Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez Thursday.