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Monday Tour de France — Stage 15, 4:30 a.m., VERSUS MLB — Phillies at Cardinals, 4 p.m., ESPN MLB — Giants at Dodgers, 7 p.m., CSNB MLB — Red Sox at Athletics, 7 p.m., CSNC Sports 1B Monday July 19, 2010 Rosales leads A’s roll to 9-6 win Red Bluff All-Stars open with 7-4 win The Red Bluff 11-and MCT photo Athletics' Coco Crisp safely stole third base against Royals third baseman Alberto Callaspo in the seventh inning, Sunday in Kansas City. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Oakland Athletics are tied for last in the American League in home runs, so it figures that they don’t rely often on the long ball to win games. They did on Sunday. Adam Rosales, Kevin Kouz- manoff and Jack Cust each went deep, and Vin Mazzaro pitched into the eighth inning to help the A’s beat the Kansas City Royals 9-6 and finish a three-game sweep. The A’s have won five straight and 12 of 18 to even their record at 46-46, the first time they have been at .500 since June 15. The Royals have lost six straight, one shy of their longest losing streak this sea- son. ‘‘In spring training we talked about when we added Kouz about hitting more home runs,’’ Cust said. ‘‘We’ve got some guys who can do that. We don’t have guys who hit 30 homers, but we’ve got four or five who can hit some and guys who can drive in runs.’’ Cust’s three-run homer with two outs in the ninth made it 9-1, but loomed big in the bottom of the inning when the Royals scored five runs. ‘‘Obviously it helped with that thing there at the end,’’ Cust said. Cust, who has hit 25 or more home runs each of the past three seasons, homered in back-to-back games in the final two games before the All-Star break. ‘‘I predicted he’d have a solid second half and he appears to be doing that,’’ Oakland manager Bob Geren said. ‘‘A guy like that is going to get going good at some point.’’ Rosales, who had the winning hit with two-out in the ninth Saturday, homered in the fourth after Cust walked. Rajai Davis doubled home Landon Powell with the third run of the inning. Kouzmanoff, who had seven RBIs in the series, homered in the fifth. His sacrifice fly in the seventh scored Coco Crisp, who stole two bases in the inning. ‘‘We did everything right in this series,’’ Kouzmanoff said. ‘‘We’re all feeling pretty good right now and we’re all taking advantage of our opportunities.’’ The Royals are going the oppo- site direction of the A’s, and manag- er Ned Yost had a closed-door meeting after the loss to address the lack of focus. ‘‘We had a nice little bounce back in the ninth, but if our intensi- ty was a little bit greater in the first eight innings we might have won that game,’’ Yost said. ‘‘That’s all part of it, developing a mindset that nothing matters to you. It doesn’t matter about the heat, about an umpire, who the opposing pitcher is. Your intensity has to be consis- tent every single day. ‘‘You can’t take an inning off, a pitch off. You can be down 9-1 and end up putting a five or six spot on the board, but it does you no good, because we were flat the first eight innings.’’ Mazzaro (5-2) limited the Roy- als to seven hits — all singles — in a career-high 7 2-3 innings. He’s worked at least seven innings in four of his past five starts after going 19 consecutive starts without pitching beyond six. Mazzaro gave up a run in the first when Billy Butler’s two-out single scored Jason Kendall, but nothing after that. Royals right-hander Brian Bannister (7-8) lost for the first time in five day-game decisions this season. Bannister, who is 0-3 in four starts since a June 23 vic- tory at Washington, tied a career high with six walks, hit a batter and gave up five runs in 6 1-3 innings. Chris Getz and Scott Podsednik each drove in a pair of runs in Kansas City’s five-run ninth off four Oakland relievers. Andrew Bailey was summoned for the final out to log his 20th save in 23 oppor- tunities. Two runs were unearned after a Kouzmanoff error. ‘‘We played terrible,’’ Royals catcher Jason Kendall said, sum- ming up the series. Notes: 2B Mike Aviles, who was in a 1-for-16 slide and had just one extra-base and one RBI in his past nine games, was held out of the Royals lineup. Getz replaced him in the lineup. ... Oakland swept a three-game series at Kauffman Sta- dium for the first time since Aug. 5- 7, 2005. ... The Royals scored in only four of the 27 innings against the A’s. Obscure to dominating in Open Oosthuizen takes title Open at a glance ST. ANDREWS, Scot- land (AP) — Louis Oost- huizen walked over the Swilcan Bridge toward a victory that was never in doubt Sunday at St. Andrews, another big moment in sports for South Africa. This celebration, though, carried a different tune. The drone of vuvuzelas, all the rage at the World Cup, was replaced by the skirl of bagpipes coming from behind the Royal & Ancient clubhouse. For the 27-year-old South African, the sound could not have been sweeter. With a performance that rivaled the dominance of Tiger Woods at the home of golf 10 years ago, Oost- huizen led over the final 48 holes and blew away the field by seven shots to cap- ture the British Open. ‘‘To win an Open cham- pionship is special,’’ Oost- huizen said. ‘‘But to win it at St. Andrews ... it’s some- thing you dream about.’’ The timing could not have been better — one week after South Africa concluded a wildly popular World Cup, and the day Nelson Mandela celebrated his 92nd birthday. ‘‘It felt a bit special, real- ly,’’ he said. ‘‘When I walked down 18, I was thinking about his birth- day.’’ By then, the hard work was done. Oosthuizen (WUHST’-hy-zen) made only two bogeys over the final 35 holes in a strong wind that swept across the Old Course. He closed with a 1-under 71 for a seven- shot victory over Lee West- wood, who was never in the ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — A brief look at the final round of the British Open on the Old Course at St. Andrews: Winner: Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa shot a 1-under 71 for a seven-stroke victory at 16-under 272. Runner-up: Lee Westwood of England, the No. 3 player in the world, was at 279 after posting 70. Casey’s Collapse: England’s Paul Casey was the only player who had a real shot at catching Oosthuizen, but a triple- bogey at No. 12 after he drove into a gorse bush ended his chances. Wave the flag: Oosthuizen’s victory came on Mandela Day, which honored the 92nd birthday of the former South African president, and one week after the World Cup final in Johan- nesburg, the first time soccer’s biggest event was held on the African continent. Tiger Tales: Tiger Woods changed putters but could only manage a 72 that left him at 3-under 285, in a tie for 23rd. First Timer: Oosthuizen became the first player since Tony Lema in 1964 to win his first major at St. Andrews. Shot of the day: Oosthuizen bounced back from his first bogey of the round to make a 50-foot eagle putt at No. 9, restoring his four-shot lead over Casey. Fashion police: John Daly broke out his star-spangled pants for the final round, but he was upstaged by the Great Pumpkin, a.k.a. Rickie Fowler. The former Oklahoma State star went with alma mater’s color from head to toe, right down to the trim on his Rolex watch. Red, white and boo: Only two Americans, Sean O’Hair and Nick Watney, cracked the top 10, which doesn’t bode well for October’s Ryder Cup defense against the Europeans. Key statistic: Oosthuizen had only six bogeys all week, and the last one didn’t matter.He missed a short putt at No. 17, but all that did was cost him a chance to set a British Open record for margin of victory. Notable: The four reigning major champions hail from dif- ferent continents. Oosthuizen is from Africa, and joins U.S. Open champ Graeme McDowell (Europe), Masters winner Phil Mickelson (North America) and PGA champ Y.E. Yang (Asia). Quotable: ‘‘We have the Big Easy, and now we have the Ice Cool.’’— Dennis Bruyns, CEO of Southern African PGA, refer- ring to three-time major winner Ernie Els and Oosthuizen, who captured his first major. game. The only challenge came from Paul Casey, who got within three shots after the eighth hole, then drove the green on the par-4 ninth. Oosthuizen answered by hitting driver onto the green and knocking in a 50-foot eagle putt to restore his cushion. Three holes later, Casey hit into a gorse bush and made triple bogey, while Oosthuizen holed an 18- foot birdie putt. Oosthuizen spent the final hour soaking up an atmosphere unlike any other in golf with his cad- die, Zack Rasego. He fin- ished at 16-under 272 and became the first player since Tony Lema in 1964 to win his first major at St. Andrews. Just as Lema did when he won, Oosthuizen ordered bottles of cham- pagne for the press. Never mind that every- one struggled to pronounce 12-year-old Little League baseball All-Stars opened up sectional tournament play, Saturday, with a 7-4 win over McKinleyville. Red Bluff was sched- uled to play Sutter on Sun- day night. Saturday’s game started off with a bang, as Lane Pritchard led off the bottom of the first inning for Red Bluff with a homer over the fence. Will Macdonald followed with a double and then Kolby Button reached base on an error. Macdonald and Button would eventually come around on a series of passed balls to put Red Bluff up 3-0. McKinleyville fought back to make the score 3-2 by the fifth inning. Macdonald however started a Red Bluff rally with a base hit up the middle. Button, Jack Murphy, Wesley Clawson and Jay Boone followed with base hits and Red Bluff scored four runs to swell their lead up to 7-2. McKinleyville could only muster two more runs during their last at bats. Button pitched four-plus innings for Red Bluff with Clawson and Macdonald handling the rest of the game. 9-10 Softball All-Stars The Red Bluff girls edged out Northridge 5-4, Saturday night, in the opener of the state playoffs. Red Bluff was scheduled to play Chico Sunday. Giants fall in 10th his name. All that mattered was the spelling on the bot- tom of that claret jug. And yes, the engraver used the abbreviated version — Louis — not his given name of Lodewicus Theodorus Oosthuizen. With the fifth victory of his career, Oosthuizen moved to No. 15 in the world. And as a sign of just how global golf has become, it’s the second time this decade that the four major championship trophies reside on four con- tinents. ‘‘Nobody was going to stop him,’’ said Casey, whose adventures in the gorse sent him to a 75 and a tie for third with Rory McIlroy (68) and Henrik Stenson (71). ‘‘He didn’t miss a shot today. I don’t know if he missed one all week. That was four days of tremendous golf. He did- n’t flinch today.’’ No, there was only that gap-tooth smile that earned him the nickname ‘‘Shrek’’ from his friends. And there was amazement across his face when he cradled the oldest trophy in golf, a sil- ver claret jug with his name etched alongside Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, and the other South African winners — Gary Player, Bobby Locke and Ernie Els, his mentor. Without the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation in South Africa, the son of a farmer could not have afforded the travel required to reach the game’s highest level. ‘‘It was great to have a South African winning it on Mandela Day,’’ said Dennis Bruyns, the chief executive of the Southern Africa PGA. ‘‘And there was a great sense of satisfaction in having a South African caddie with him, too.’’ SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Mets outfielder Jason Bay had put his head down and took a few steps in thinking the game was over. It wasn’t, and he took advantage of the extra chance. Ike Davis doubled him home for the go- ahead run in 10th inning after the Mets had wasted a two-run lead in the ninth, and New York survived a wild ending to beat the San Francisco Giants 4- 3 on Sunday and avoid a four-game sweep. Pinch-hitter Travis Ishikawa hit a tying, two-run single in the ninth inning for San Francisco, but he was thrown out at the plate on an infield chopper as the potential winning run. Replays showed Ishikawa appeared safe as he slid into home. ‘‘When you see the catcher jump you think it’s over,’’ Bay said. ‘‘We had no business losing that game, and at the same time, there was a point we had no business winning that game. We don’t have the luxury when (Johan) Santana gives up one run of not winning his starts.’’ Giants manager Bruce Bochy also thought the game was over and his team had won. ‘‘He missed it,’’ Bochy said of plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. ‘‘It was a tough call, game over, but he thought he got him. Ishi got a great jump there, a high throw, and we all thought the game was over. Unfortunately that call went against us.’’ Ishikawa said he went through a spectrum of emotions as he slid home. ‘‘Phil and I disagreed,’’ Ishikawa said. ‘‘To be so sure of something and I guess I was wrong. I saw the replay and it was closer than I thought it was initially. I didn’t think it was anywhere near close, but I still think like I had made it.’’ Giants closer Brian Wilson (2-1) got the first two outs of the 10th before giving up Bay’s third single of the game. Davis, who also drove in a run in the eighth, doubled high off the right field wall for the go-ahead run. ‘‘I was scoring regardless,’’ Bay said. ‘‘I was not going to be stopped.’’ Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez (3-2) blew his fourth save in 26 chances — and wasted a stellar start by Santana — in the ninth inning, but he earned the win when Davis delivered. ‘‘I wanted to go back out and redeem myself after the meltdown in the ninth,’’ Rodriguez said. ‘‘I wanted to finish it after the guys picked me up.’’ The 10th wasn’t easy for Rodriguez, either. He gave up a two-out double to Edgar Renteria and intentionally walked Juan Uribe before striking out Eli Whiteside on a full-count pitch. ‘‘He asked me to go back out if we scored,’’ Mets man- ager Jerry Manuel said. ‘‘He’s our guy and we have to let him get that shot. We have to show confidence in him.’’ David Wright led off the fourth inning with his 15th home run of the season. Santana had his 16-inning scoreless streak snapped in the first when Buster Posey hit a sacrifice fly to give the Giants a 1-0 advantage. But that was all he allowed, giving up eight hits and one walk. He struck out five. ‘‘I had to step up,’’ said Santana, who has still allowed a mere two runs over his last 31 innings for a 0.56 ERA. ‘‘It’s getting to a point where I have all pitches working.’’ Rodriguez walked Pablo Sandoval and gave up a single to Uribe to start the ninth. After Whiteside sacrificed the runners up a base, Ishikawa delivered his hit. Andres Torres followed with a double, sending Ishikawa to third. Freddy Sanchez hit a short chopper to Wright, who threw high to Henry Blanco, who apparently made the tag. ‘‘The guy was out,’’ Manuel said. ‘‘I haven’t seen the replay. What are you talking about?’’ Sanchez and Aubrey Huff each had two hits for the Giants, who lead the majors in runs scored this month. Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez allowed two runs on six hits over seven innings. He walked one and struck out five. Notes: Wright took a hard grounder off his right knee in the sixth but stayed in the game. He has hit safely in 11 of his last 13 games. ... Posey extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single to lead off the sixth. ... Giants RHP Chris Ray has allowed five of the last seven hitters he’s faced to reach base. ... Ishikawa has a batting average of .478 (11 for 23) as a pinch hit- ter.