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Wednesday MLB— Cubs at Brewers, 5 p.m., ESPN MLB — Giants at Reds, 4 p.m., CSNB MLB — Angels at Athletics, 7 p.m., CSNC Stanley Cup Finals — Blackhawks at Flyers, 5 p.m., NBC Sports 1B Wednesday June 9, 2010 Red Bluff cowgirl Bushnell headed to Junior Nationals Red Bluff’s Chelsey Bushnell will captain a team of eight local cowboys and cowgirls headed June 27 to the world’s largest junior high rodeo in Gallup, N.M. Bushnell, an eighth grader, qualified in breakaway roping and will be joined by Cottonwood barrel racers Emily and Erin Clendenen, McArthur polebender Amy Brown, Granada team roper Dalton Cash, Montague team roper Matthew Jerspersen and Palo Cendra polebender Jessica Stat- ton. Cottonwood’s Cameron Jones will co-captain the team with Bushnell after qualifying in chute dogging. The 6th Annual National Junior High Finals Rodeo will feature more than 1000 contestants from 47 states, Canadian provinces and Australia. Contestants will be vying fore more than $75,000 in prizes and $80,000 in college scholarships as well as the chance to be named a National Cham- pion. Bushnell, the District 1 All-Around Cowgirl and Wrangler All-Team cap- tain has racked up buckles locally. She was the All-Around champion in For- tuna, Montague, Etna and at the Red Bluff Jr. Round-Up. The local cowboys and cowgirls could still use sponsors. If interested in sponsoring the kids call 527-3837 for more information. Cain shuts out Reds CINCINNATI (AP) — Matt Cain knew he was on the hitters’ turf, pitching in a ballpark that would mag- nify any mistake. So, he didn’t make any. Cain pitched a seven-hit- ter for his second shutout of the season, extending his recent run of dominance, and joined in a just-enough offense with a run-scoring single Tuesday night, leading the San Francis- co Giants to a 3-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Cain (5-4) subdued the NL’s most prolific offense — Brandon Phillips had three of Cincinnati’s hits — while going the distance for the third time this season. He has all of the Giants’ complete games. ‘‘When he’s on, he’s as tough as they get,’’ Reds manag- er Dusty Baker said. He’s been on for some time now. Lately, the right-hander has been the best part of one of the majors’ best rotations. Cain has pitched three complete games in his last five starts, allowing only three earned runs in 40 innings. He’s done an exceptional job of avoiding the big mistake — only four homers allowed all season. Facing the NL’s leading lineup in one of the majors’ most Courtesy photo Cottonwood’s Cameron Jones and Red Bluff’s Chelsey Bushnell pose with All-Around belt buckles at the Scotts Valley Pleasure Park Junior Rodeo in Etna. Bryant, Fisher lead Lakers to victory in Game 3 BOSTON (AP) — Kobe Bryant scored 29 points and Derek Fisher added 16 to lead Los Angeles to a 91-84 victo- ry over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night and give the Lakers a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals. Bryant had 25 points after three but did not score for the first 10 min- utes of the fourth quarter. That’s when Fisher took over, adding four key bas- kets after Boston win- nowed a 17-point first- half lead to one point. The Lakers regained home-court advantage they had lost when Boston took Game 2 in Los Angeles. Game 4 is Thursday night in Boston. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum had 10 rebounds apiece for Los Angeles. Ray Allen missed all 13 of his field goal attempts. homer-friendly ballparks, Cain was in control the whole way, handing Cincinnati only its fourth blanking of the sea- son. He pitched only the 13th complete-game shutout in the ballpark’s 8-year history. ‘‘It’s one of those things where you have confidence,’’ Cain said. ‘‘I was working all my pitches, really.’’ Everything is working for him these days. Cain has given up only one run in his last 34 innings, making left-handers look even worse than right-handers. Lefties are only 4 for 58 against him in his last four starts. ‘‘Aw, he’s been on a nice roll here,’’ Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. ‘‘In this ballpark, it’s quite an effort. He’s in a nice zone right now.’’ So are the Giants, who have won 10 of their last 14 games and the first two in their series against the Reds, who lead the NL in homers. Cain knew what he had to do. ‘‘You try to keep the ball down and let your defense do the work, and they did a great job,’’ he said. ‘‘They made at least five great plays behind me.’’ Juan Uribe hit his ninth homer into the upper deck for a 1-0 lead in the fourth off right-hander Sam LeCure (1-2), making his third start in the majors. Slumping Bengie Moli- na and Cain added run-scoring singles in the eighth off Nick Masset. Uribe drove in four runs with two singles Monday night, setting up a 6-5 win in the series opener. His homer on Tues- day left him with a team-high 38 RBIs. ‘‘This guy — you hate to think of where we would be without him,’’ Bochy said. ‘‘Some of the home runs he’s hit have been huge home runs, too. He’s really saved us with his play.’’ Cain took it from there. The Reds ran themselves out of a couple of early chances. Phillips was doubled off first base on a fly ball in the first inning. Scott Rolen was caught in a rundown when he tried to score from third on a grounder in the second inning with the infield drawn in — second baseman Freddy Sanchez fielded Laynce Nix’s grounder cleanly and unloaded his throw home quickly. Cain walked two and struck out five. Strasburg strikes out 14 in MLB debut MCT photo Pau Gasol drives to the basket in front of Rasheed Wallace,Tuesday. 49ers QB Davis working hard to learn playbook SANTA CLARA (AP) — Picture a living room study session between two football players, a thick book of offensive schemes and formations and the NBA Finals as background noise. The quarterback, 49ers second-year pro Nate Davis, has dyslexia and often works for close to 45 minutes at night with housemate and San Fran- cisco wide receiver Dominique Zeigler to mas- ter the system. Davis’ learning disability often causes him to mix up basics like left and right — not a good thing in the football world when sets and block- ing patterns depend on directions. He has a tough time ‘‘getting the play out’’ and actually executing a given call. ‘‘I know what I’m doing out there. It’s just saying the play, that’s my main prob- lem, getting the words out,’’ Davis said. ‘‘I made big progress from last year. I’ve just got to keep on work- ing.’’ Quarterback David Carr, signed to a two-year con- tract in March, has been receiving a significant num- ber of reps during offseason workouts so he can learn the 49ers playbook. That has limited Davis’ chances. Coach Mike Singletary said Monday that Davis isn’t coming along as quickly as the coaches would have hoped. ‘‘He’s coming, not as fast as he would like, not as fast as the coaches would like, but he’s coming,’’ Sin- gletary said. ‘‘I think the biggest thing with Nate is to figure out how he learns and get that burning desire to do whatever it takes to be out here and to get it done. I know he can do it, it’s just a matter of him doing it. Time will tell.’’ Davis was told of his coach’s remarks for the first time after Tuesday’s prac- tice — and he didn’t argue with the assessment. He plans to reach out to Singletary soon, to ‘‘just see where he’s at with me.’’ ‘‘He’s the head coach. And now I’ve got to put more into it,’’ Davis said. ‘‘That’s what it all comes down to.’’ Speaking a day after Singletary, offensive coor- dinator Jimmy Raye said he believes Davis could chal- lenge Carr for the backup job behind Alex Smith when the time comes. ‘‘His progress has been impeded by the fact we have an additional quarter- back, but I think his progress to this point has been OK,’’ Raye said of Davis, the team’s fifth- round draft pick in 2009 out of Ball State. Davis’ aim is to win the backup job. ‘‘I don’t want to be someone who sits on the bench their whole life,’’ he said. Thus, the extra work with Zeigler, who lives in Davis’ Santa Clara home. The quarterback’s girl- friend helps out, too. Zeigler said he benefits from the extra studying in the process. ‘‘We’ll go over the script,’’ Zeigler said. ‘‘Sometimes he’ll ask me the play, what we have in a certain formation. Or I’ll read the play to him and he’ll tell me his reads, which read is first. He’ll tell me which the hot is. We just basically just test our- selves.’’ Getting Davis up to speed is an important step for an offense led by Smith that Singletary and Raye say is ahead of schedule at this stage — more than a month before the start of training camp. While Smith isn’t facing a pass rush in these prac- tices, he has been crisp and accurate, and the receivers are making some athletic catches when the ball isn’t right on target. Ted Ginn Jr. made a pretty diving grab for a 20-yard gain Tuesday and Pro Bowl tight end Ver- non Davis had a couple of leaping receptions. ‘‘We are just so much further ahead of the game compared to last year with everything,’’ Smith said. ‘‘We really have the foun- dation set and we are able to build on it now.’’ It helps having the sta- bility with Raye back for a second season after Smith experienced a different offensive coordinator in each of his first five NFL seasons. Last year, Raye was the seventh person in the job in as many years. ‘‘If you have to change that every year consecutive- ly as you start, then it would be mind-boggling to think where he would be if he was in a change again. I think it would be unparal- leled,’’ Raye said. The 49ers also are counting on their two high- ly touted offensive linemen draft picks learning in a hurry: 11th choice tackle Anthony Davis and No. 17 selection guard Mike Iupati. Defensive end Ray McDonald flattened Davis during 11-on-11 drills, then razzed the rookie a bit after- ward. Raye said the team would probably wait until at least after the first exhibi- tion game in August to determine its starting offen- sive line. He is eager to see the two rookies in full pads at the start of camp in July. Any first impressions? ‘‘They’re huge,’’ Raye said. WASHINGTON (AP) — Over-hyped? Are you kid- ding? Stephen Strasburg went beyond the hype — and any- one’s reasonable expectations — by striking out 14 batters in his electric major league debut. With a standing-room-only crowd cheering every pitch, the Washington Nationals phenom put on a dazzling display of pitching power Tuesday night in a 5-2 win over Pitts- burgh. His fastballs reached 100 mph, and the Pirates found his nasty curves nearly impossible to hit. Last year’s No. 1 overall draft pick — the one with the record $15.1 million contract — threw his first pitch 97 mph and got stronger as the game progressed. He struck out the last seven batters he faced, and all nine Pirates in the starting lineup fanned at least once. The 21-year-old right-hander took a curtain call after pitching seven innings. He allowed four hits, two earned runs and didn’t walk a batter, piling up the most strikeouts in a major league debut since J.R. Richard fanned 15 for Hous- ton in 1971. Scoreboard MLB American League Monday’s late result Los Angeles 4, Oakland 2 Tuesday’s results Oakland 10,Los Angeles 1 Boston 3, Cleveland 2 Detroit 7, Chicago 2 Minnesota 7, Kansas City 3 New York 12, Baltimore 7 Tampa Bay 9, Toronto 0 Texas 7, Seattle 1 Today’s games Los Angeles (J.Saunders 4-6) at Oakland (Braden 4-5), 7:05 p.m.,CSNC Boston (Buchholz 8-3) at Cleveland (Masterson 1-5), 4:05 p.m. N.Y.Yankees (Sabathia 5-3) at Baltimore (Tillman 0-1), 4:05 p.m. Toronto (Marcum 5-2) at Tampa Bay (Price 8-2), 4:10 p.m. Seattle (Snell 0-4) at Texas (C.Wilson 4-3), 5:05 p.m. Detroit (Porcello 4-5) at Chicago (F.Garcia 5-3), 5:10 p.m. Kansas City (Davies 4-4) at Minnesota (Pavano 5-6), 5:10 p.m. National League Monday’s late results Arizona 7, Atlanta 4 Los Angeles 12, St. Louis 4 Tuesday’s results San Francisco 3, Cincinnati 0 Atlanta 7, Arizona 5 Houston 4, Colorado 3 Los Angeles 1, St. Louis 0 Milwaukee 3, Chicago 2 New York 2, San Diego 1, 11 innings Philadelphia 10, Florida 8 Washington 5, Pittsburgh 2 Today’s games San Francisco (J.Sanchez 4-4) at Cincinnati (Harang 4-5),4:10 p.m.,CNSB Florida (Jo.Johnson 6-2) at Philadelphia (Halladay 8-3), 4:05 p.m. Pittsburgh (Lincoln 0-0) at Washington (Lannan 2-3), 4:05 p.m. San Diego (Latos 5-4) at New York (J.Santana 4-2), 4:10 p.m. Chicago (Zambrano 1-4) at Milwaukee (Wolf 4-5), 5:10 p.m., ESPN Houston (F.Paulino 1-7) at Colorado (Cook 2-3), 5:40 p.m. Atlanta (Kawakami 0-8) at Arizona (I.Kennedy 3-3), 6:40 p.m. St. Louis (Wainwright 8-3) at Los Angeles (Kershaw 5-3), 7:10 p.m. NBAFINALS Tuesday’s result L.A. Lakers 91, Boston 84 L.A. Lakers lead series 2-1 STANLEY CUP Today’s game Chicago at Philadelphia, 5 p.m., NBC Chicago leads series 3-2 SOFTBALL UCLA 15, Arizona 9;UCLA wins series