Red Bluff Daily News

June 19, 2010

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Saturday 10 a.m. — Giants at Blue Jays, CSNBA 1 p.m. — Dodgers at Red Sox, FOX 1:30 p.m. — US Open third round, NBC Sunday 10 a.m. — Giants at Blue Jays, CSNBA noon — Toyota/Save Mart 350, TNT noon — US Open final round, NBC Sports 1B JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Maurice Edu kicked the ball into the net. American players jumped around wildly, thinking they had capped a historic come- back, turning a two-goal, first- half deficit into a 3-2 victory over Slovenia in the World Cup. ‘‘Then I heard the whistle,’’ Edu said Referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali had called it off. Over and over, American players asked, ‘‘Why?’’ In English. Then in French. ‘‘He just ignored us,’’ Landon Donovan said. ‘‘Or he didn’t understand.’’ Perhaps Coulibaly, working his first World Cup game, will never explain himself. By the rules, he doesn’t have to speak to the media on game days, and his next availability isn’t until Mon- day. Perhaps it will remain one of those unsolved soccer mysteries. What’s known for now is this: Donovan and Michael Bradley scored second-half goals that did count, and U.S. hopes to reach the second round remained alive with a 2-2 tie Friday night. And for one moment, Edu felt ‘‘pure excitement.’’ It did not last. Now it comes down to Wednesday’s match against Algeria. ‘‘My guess is there’s not many teams in this tournament that could have done what we did and arguably won the game. And that is what the American spirit is about,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘And I’m sure people back home are proud of that.’’ Slovenia (1-0-1) leads Group C with four points and would have qualified for the second round with a win. The U.S. and England (both 0-0-2) are tied for second with two points each fol- lowing England’s 0-0 draw with Algeria (0-1-1). The top two teams in the group advance, so the U.S. Mickelson figures out Pebble Woods now 7 back of leader PEBBLE BEACH (AP) — With each birdie, Phil Mickelson put some life into an overcast day at Peb- ble Beach and gave himself another chance to finally take something more than silver home from a U.S. Open. It wasn’t enough to catch Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, who set the early pace Friday with a 3-under 68 to take a two- shot lead into the weekend. All that mattered to Mickel- son, however, was getting back to even par. He did one better. With five birdies in a seven-hole stretch early in his round, Mickelson shot a tournament-best 66 and joined a shrinking group of five players who have beat- en par over two days at Peb- ble Beach. McDowell was at 3- under 139, and he made even more friends with a bogey on the final hole. Because of the 10-shot cut rule, that assured 60-year- old Tom Watson two more rounds in what likely will be his final U.S. Open. Mickelson was joined at 1-under 141 by two-time U.S. Open champion Ernie runner-up finishes is a U.S. Open record. ‘‘I don’t look at the leaderboard. I don’t look at other players. I look at par. If you can stay around par, you’re going to be in the tournament Sun- day. That was kind of the goal.’’ The Masters champion opened with a 75 Thursday after missing a half-dozen birdie putts inside 12 feet. On Friday, he hardly missed anything. It began with an approach into about 4 feet on the tough par-4 second hole, and Mickelson was relentless on the front nine until hitting into the cavenous bunker short of the ninth green and making his only bogey. By then, he was back in MCT photo Phil Mickelson celebrates his birdie on the 11th green during the second round of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links Friday. Els (68), 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa (71) and Dustin Johnson (70), who has won the last two times in the Pebble Beach National Pro- Am and looks right at home Cardinals beat Athletics 6-4 behind Holliday ST. LOUIS (AP) — Matt Holliday homered and drove in three runs in his first successful night in the No. 2 slot, helping the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Oakland Athletics 6-4 on Friday. Skip Schumaker drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh as St. Louis manager Tony La Russa improved to 6-1 against his old team. Schumaker had three hits and scored three times. Albert Pujols, a major league-best .352 hitter in interleague play for his career, singled in a run and walked twice for St. Louis, which has won three of four overall. Chris Carpenter (8-1) gave up four runs in the second, matching his season worst, but none in his other six innings. Rajai Davis matched his career high with four hits and drove in a run for the Athletics, who have lost six of seven. Conor Jackson had two hits and two RBIs. Holliday hit a two-run homer to straightaway center against Vin Mazzaro in the first — ending a 43 at-bat RBI drought — but the Athletics jumped on Carpenter in the second. The big hit was a two-run double by Jackson, with Davis and Kurt Suzuki also driving in a run. Holliday and Pujols hit RBI singles in consecutive at-bats in the fifth, tying it at 4. Holliday’s bloop single barely cleared the infield, finding a hole between short- stop Cliff Pennington and a charging Jackson in left. Holliday began the year as the cleanup hitter but was moved up to second on Monday, his third spot in the lineup this season. He was 2 for 11 over his first three games and struck out on a ball in the dirt with the go- ahead run on third in the eighth inning on Wednesday. Even after the big day, he is sixth on the team with 28 RBIs. Carpenter allowed a season-high 10 hits but Oakland had no runners in scoring position in its last five innings against the right-hander. Schumaker hit an RBI double and Ryan Ludwick added a run-scoring single against Brad Ziegler (2-4) in the seventh. Ryan Franklin finished for his 13th save in 14 chances. The Cardinals and Athletics are meeting for the third time in interleague play, which has not diminished La Russa’s enthusiasm for facing the team he managed from 1986-95. La Russa lives in northern California, about a half-hour drive from Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. ‘‘A lot of good memories,’’ La Russa said. ‘‘I still live there, as opposed to living here.’’ Davis has four straight multihit games, going 11 for 19, and is batting .386 during a 10-game hitting streak (17 for 45). in much firmer conditions. The names weren’t important to Mickelson. Only the numbers. ‘‘I’m in a good spot,’’ said Mickelson, whose five the game. Tiger Woods says he’s still in the mix,, although a pedestrian round of 1-over 72 left him seven shots behind. Woods has never won a major when trailing by more than six shots going into the weekend. Asked if he liked his positions, Woods replied, ‘‘Absolutely.’’ ‘‘I’m right there in the championship,’’ Woods said. ‘‘I just need to make a few more birdies, a few more putts on the weekend, and I’ll be right there.’’ Weekend June 19, 2010 Two goals that were for US, and one that wasn’t would make the second round with a victory against Algeria. The Americans also could advance if they tie the Algerians while England draws Slovenia, provided the U.S. maintains its advantage in goals scored over the English, currently 3-1. ‘‘We can still get through,’’ goalkeeper Tim Howard said. ‘‘Being down 2-0 in a game, I’ve played long enough to feel very lucky and fortunate to come out of it still in the World Cup.’’ Zito’s solid game for not in Toronto TORONTO (AP) — Edwin Encarnacion hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning and drove in three runs as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the San Francisco Giants 3-2 Friday night. Encarnacion homered into the lower deck in left field on left-hander Barry Zito’s first pitch of the eighth, snapping a 2-all tie. The homer was his ninth. The third-baseman hit a two-run single in the fifth and went 2 for 2 with a walk. Scott Downs (2-5) worked one inning of relief for the win and Kevin Gregg closed it out in the ninth for his 17th save in 20 chances. Zito (7-3) allowed three runs and four hits in eight innings for his 11th career complete game and first since 2009. He walked one and struck out five. Pablo Sandoval drew a bases-loaded walk off Blue Jays right-hander Brandon Morrow to give the Giants a 1-0 lead in the first. Zito didn’t allow a hit through the first four innings, but was tagged for two runs in the fifth. Alex Gonzalez led off with an infield single, Jose Bautista was hit by a pitch and everyone was safe when Sandoval threw late to second on Lyle Overbay’s bouncer to third. Encarna- cion followed with a two-run single to left. The Giants promptly tied it in the top of the sixth. Aubrey Huff led off with a double and Juan Uribe was hit by a pitch, but Huff was thrown out at the plate on Pat Burrell’s single to right, with both runners advanc- ing on Aaron Hill’s relay throw. Sandoval followed with an RBI grounder. Morrow allowed two runs and five hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out four. The Giants are 0-4 at American League ballparks this season. They were swept in a three-game series at Oakland from May 21-23. Kahne takes pole at Sonoma SONOMA (AP) — Kasey Kahne won the pole Friday at Infineon Raceway in the same car he drove to victory in last year’s race on the road course. Kahne turned a lap of 93.893 mph around the 11-turn, 1.99-mile course in a Ford for Richard Petty Motor- sports. He knocked four-time defending series champi- on Jimmie Johnson from the pole. Johnson, who has never won on a road course, qualified second at 93.809 mph in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. ‘‘It’s a great car,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s the same car we ran here last year, minus the engine. We’ve got a new Ford engine that runs really well. I’m looking forward to see- ing how it runs through- out the race. Tomorrow (practice) is huge as far as getting the balance right and getting it to turn and hit the corners the way we want to.’’ Kurt Busch qualified third and was followed by series points leader Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gor- MCT photo NASCAR driver Mark Martin exits a turn during qualifying for the Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma Friday. don and Marcos Ambrose, who many consider the darkhorse pick to win Sunday’s race. Tony Stewart rebounded from a terri- ble practice session to qualify seventh, while Bobby Labonte, Greg Biffle and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top 10. Mark Martin was 11th and was followed by series wins-leader Denny Hamlin, who has won the last two races and five overall. Dale Earnhardt Jr., the slowest car in prac- tice, qualified 23rd. Among the three dri- vers who failed to quali- fy was Michael Waltrip, who was driving a Toy- ota with a special paint scheme created as part of a ‘‘Sponsafy Your Ride Contest.’’ The winning submis- sion honored a woman’s 1-year-old grandson who suffers from a rare inter- stitial lung disease. Brandon Ash and Brian Simo were the other two drivers who failed to qualify. 49ers’ Alex Smith is making progress SANTA CLARA (AP) — Quarter- back Alex Smith raised his arms Friday morning after connecting with Michael Crabtree down the field after the wide receiver got behind defenders. The 49ers hope that is a sign of things to come from their sixth-year quarter- back. Smith completed a strong performance this spring with another solid week of practice, continuing to assert himself behind center as the 49ers concluded their offseason program with a series of minicamp practices. The rest of his teammates aren’t far behind. Coach Mike Singletary was so satis- fied with his team’s progress that he canceled Saturday’s scheduled practices of what was supposed to be a three-day minicamp session. The 49ers are now off until rookies report for training camp on July 30.

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