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Sports Tehama Tracker Wednesday's results Stanley Cup Finals Boston Thursday June 13, 2013 MLB LATE Chicago MLB 8 Giants 12 Pittsburgh SF — Poset 2-5, 2 RBI PIT — Walker 2-4, 3 RBI N.Y. Yankees LATE Athletics Today's games NBA FINALS Miami ABC San Antonio 6 p.m. San Antonio leads series 2-1 MLB Giants CSNB Pittsburgh 4:05 p.m. SF — Cain PIT — Morton N.Y. Yankees Athletics 1B CSNC 12:35 p.m. NYY — Kuroda OAK — Parker On the tube GOLF 6 a.m. ESPN — USGA, U.S. Open Championship, first round, part I, at Ardmore, Pa. Noon NBC — USGA, U.S. Open Championship, first round, at Ardmore, Pa. 2 p.m. ESPN — USGA, U.S. Open Championship,, first round, part II, at Ardmore, Pa. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 4 p.m. MLB — Regional coverage, Boston at Baltimore or Kansas City at Tampa Bay NBA BASKETBALL 6 p.m. ABC — Playoffs, finals, game 4, Miami at San Antonio Around town Giants can't catch Pirates, fall 12-8 PITTSBURGH (AP) — Barry Zito doesn't believe his quality pitches just magically disappear whenever the San Francisco Giants venture away from AT&T Park. It only looks that way. The veteran left-hander continued to get shelled on the road, allowing eight runs in 4 2-3 innings of a 12-8 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night. Zito (4-5) remains winless away from home (0-4) and had his road ERA balloon to 11.28. ''It probably doesn't look like it but I think it's just a coincidence,'' Zito said. ''At home, I've caught some breaks and kept stuff down in the zone and I haven't on the road. I've felt pretty good in some of these starts out on the road but I just haven't been able to get people out.'' There's a lot of that going around for the Giants at the moment. The defending World Series champions are just 12-20 on the road this season, including 7-19 against teams not named the Arizona Diamondbacks. Joaquin Arias knocked in three runs for the Giants and Hunter Pence doubled twice but San Francisco couldn't keep pace on a night the Pirates set season highs in runs and hits (18). San Francisco bench AP photo The Giants' Tony Abreu, right, dashes home to score on a single against the Pirates on Wednesday. coach Ron Wotus filled in for manager Bruce Bochy, who was suspended one game after reliever George Kontos threw at Pittsburgh's GOLF | U.S. Open By BRIAN MAHONEY AP Basketball Writer The Brooklyn Nets have hired Jason Kidd as their coach, bringing the former star back to the franchise. Kidd just retired after his 19th NBA season and the Nets decided to hire him despite his lack of coaching experience. The move reunites Kidd with the franchise he led to consecutive NBA Finals in 2002-03, when they played in New Jersey. ''Welcome home, Jason,'' owner Mikhail Prokhorov says Wednesday in a statement. Follow us on Twitter for live game coverage, exclusive online articles and more. @TehamaSports will serve his suspension whenever he's recalled. Wotus remains as baffled by Zito's home and road splits as Zito is 4-1 with a 1.94 ERA at one of baseball's more pitcher friendly parks but ineffective else- See GIANTS, page 2B RAIDERS Janikowski deals with more change The Daily News V's Awards Banquet will be held at 6 p.m. today at the Red Bluff VFW Hall. Red Bluff High Spartan Summer Football Program Incoming athletes: Freshman and sophomore weight training and conditioning begins 7:30 a.m.Monday at Spartan Stadium. Come prepared to work out and get ready for the 2013 season. Contact Coach Sanders for more information at 530-526-2191. Returning varsity athletes: Weight training and conditioning begins at 7 a.m.Monday in the Spartan Weight Room. Come prepared to work out and get ready for the 2013 season. Contact Coach Hein for more information at 530-941-3579. Brooklyn Nets hire Jason Kidd as head coach Starling Marte and Andrew McCutchen on Tuesday night. Kontos, optioned to Triple-A earlier in the day, And what I wanted to say was, 'You're crazy.' But you just don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. And in a way, that's kind of cool.'' Not so cool was the weather expected for the opening round. Merion already took a beating last Friday when more than 3 inches of rain sent water over the edges of some bunkers and left small streams on fairways and greens. More rain on Monday caused the course to be closed three times. The forecast called for increasing clouds, gusts and showers Thursday morning, with stronger storms likely to arrive around noon. ''Sure, we want it firm and fast,'' USGA vice president Thomas O'Toole said Wednesday. ''We happen to play a sport that's played outdoors. We received significant rain over the last week, and some tell us that we'll have even more significant rain tomorrow. So it's not a perfect world. It's not a perfect game. But we take what we're dealt with.'' Whether a golf course is big or small, soft greens typically are a recipe for low scores. Then again, Merion is not a typical golf course. It measures 6,996 yards on the ALAMEDA (AP) — Sebastian Janikowski has seen plenty of changes on the Oakland Raiders in his 13 years in the NFL. He has played for eight head coaches, seven special teams coordinators and with countless teammates since entering the NFL in 2000 as the first kicker taken in the first round of the draft in 21 years. The one constant through all the turnover and turmoil was Janikowski's kicking partner and close friend Shane Lechler. Lechler also entered the NFL in 2000 and served as the Raiders punter and Janikowski's holder until leaving this offseason as a free agent for Houston. So Janikowski heads into his 14th season in Oakland and final one on this contract with a bit of uncertainty. --''It was weird,'' Janikowski said Wednesday about not having Lechler around anymore. ''I was back here a month ago and it was weird. But you get used to it. It's your job.'' With 13 years as punting and kicking teammates, Janikowski and Lechler spent plenty of time together as the kicking specialists often work on their own when the rest of the team is working on offense and defense at practice. The two were among late owner Al Davis' favorites and two of his more productive draft picks in his later years before his death in October 2011. ''That doesn't affect my decision,'' Janikowski said. ''I would love to stay and finish my career here. I don't have a problem with that. This is where I started and I would like to finish it (here).'' Once known as a player who partied too much and had a history of run-ins with the law, Janikowski has settled down in recent years after getting married and having kids. As he got older, Janikowski said he realized the importance of staying in shape to compete with younger players and said he lost about 10 pounds this offseason. ''That was many years back,'' he said of his party days. ''You're getting older and there's a lot of guys out there younger than you. You just got to keep up with it. It's your job. You got to take it seriously.'' He showed up at the team's first week of OTAs last month — a voluntary practice that he had skipped in the past — as he tries to work with a new holder this offseason. Punter Chris Kluwe has held for Janikowski this week at practice and he also has worked with punter Marquette King. He said Lechler held for all of his kicks in the regular and postseason and it will take extra time to build up that same rapport with his new punter. ''You got to get used to it,'' he said. ''I'm going to get back here early before training camp, and we're going to work on it. The timing is going to be different. See OPEN, page 2B See RAIDERS, page 2B AP photo Rory McIlroy, left, and Tiger Woods shake hands on the 18th green during practice for the U.S. Open golf tournament at Merion Golf Club on Wednesday. Mystery of Merion unfolds ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — The affection was genuine. Even better was beating Jack Nicklaus in a playoff. So when Lee Trevino got his hands on that U.S. Open trophy in 1971, the guy who never lacked for one-liners gushed, ''I love Merion, and I don't even know her last name.'' For this generation of stars, Merion is more like a blind date. No other course with four U.S. Opens had to wait such a long time — 32 years — for another chance to test the world's best players. Even with Tiger Woods back to No. 1 and winning at a ridiculous rate, so much of the talk at this major championship has been about Merion. For years, it was considered too small to handle such a big tournament and the big hitters with their modern equipment. And with soft greens from more than 6 inches of rain in the last week, the question is whether the course will yield the kind of scores rarely seen at the toughest test in golf. Today, the mystery of Merion will start to unfold. ''It's been how long, 32 years? And with all the technology since then?'' Steve Stricker said as he headed to the first tee Wednesday for one last practice round. ''Someone asked me the other day about someone shooting a 62.