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Monday MLB— Red Sox at Yankees, 11 a.m., MLBN MLB— Cardinals at Reds, 4 p.m., ESPN MLB — Athletics at Mariners, 7 p.m., CSNC MLB— Cubs at Giants, 7 p.m., CSNB Sports 1B Monday August 9, 2010 Cahill beats Rangers again OAKLAND (AP) — Coco Crisp practiced making spectacular catches in the outfield even when an injured hand kept him out of the lineup. The real thing just seemed routine. Crisp had two hits, drove in a run, stole a base and robbed Bengie Moli- na of extra bases in helping the Oak- land Athletics beat the first-place Texas Rangers 3-2 on Sunday. ‘‘It’s tough playing the Rangers,’’ said Crisp, a career .292 hitter against them. ‘‘We just jumped on the back of our pitcher and tried to contribute. We’re chasing Texas so we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves.’’ As for his fourth-inning grab high up the wall in center field? ‘‘I was positioned well,’’ Crisp said. ‘‘When I first looked up it didn’t look like it was going that far. It caught a second wind but I had enough time to know where the fence was.’’ Kurt Suzuki hit a tiebreaking sacri- fice fly in the seventh inning, Trevor Cahill allowed six hits through eight and the A’s won for the eighth time in their last 10 home games. Rajai Davis also drove in a run. Cahill (12-4) won his fifth straight against the Rangers despite allowing two unearned runs in the sixth. He struck out three and did not walk a bat- ter. ‘‘I had been walking a lot of guys my past few starts so I was trying to throw strikes and let them hit it,’’ Cahill said. ‘‘No free passes.’’ Darren Oliver (0-1) started the sev- enth, and gave up a single to Chad Pennington and an RBI double to Crisp before leaving the game. Texas starter Colby Lewis failed to win his 10th game for a fourth consec- utive start, although the Rangers were leading when he was replaced. He gave up a run on three hits over six innings, walking three and striking out seven. ‘‘He never did have a 1-2-3 inning,’’ Rangers manager Ron Wash- ington said. ‘‘He had to keep making pitches, which he did. We put up two runs against Cahill and took the lead into the seventh inning. It just didn’t work out.’’ Michael Wuertz pitched the ninth for his fifth save in as many chances. He walked Molina and Cristian Guz- man around a strikeout and then got pinch hitter Vladimir Guerrero to ground into a game-ending double play. ‘‘It’s not the situation you want to be in,’’ Wuertz said. ‘‘With Vlad on the bench you know he’ll probably get a turn at bat. Walking two guys just makes it harder. I made a pretty good MCT photo Trevor Cahill pitches Sunday during the A’s win against Texas. pitch and luckily we got the double play.’’ Cahill had his career-long scoreless streak end at 23 innings, including 13 against the Rangers, when Josh Hamilton singled home a run in the sixth. Cahill improved his AL-leading day ERA to 1.33 in seven starts. ‘‘He just continues to go out there and keeps doing everything right,’’ Wuertz said. Lewis took a shutout into the sixth. Kevin Kouzmanoff opened the frame with a double, moved to third on Mark Ellis’ groundout and scored on Davis’ sacrifice fly. ‘‘It seemed like they had runners in scoring position every inning,’’ Lewis said. ‘‘I threw too many pitches, allowed too many baserunners to go deep in the game.’’ The Rangers scored a pair of unearned runs in the sixth to take the early lead. Elvis Andrus was safe on a fielding error by Chad Pennington and scored on Hamilton’s sharp single. Hamilton reached third on the play when Suzuki threw the ball into center field and scored on Nelson Cruz’s sac- rifice fly. Giants fall in Atlanta 6-3 ATLANTA (AP) — David Ross made the most of a rare start Sunday. Ross hit a tw o-run homer and Derek Lowe pitched into the sixth inning before leaving with an injury, leading the Atlanta Braves to a 6-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants. The Braves have All-Star catcher Brian McCann, so Ross doesn’t play much. But he is hitting .284 with 20 RBIs in 37 games, 24 starts, this sea- son. He also walked and scored Atlanta’s final run on Melky Cabrera’s single in the eighth. ‘‘I finally ran into one,’’ Ross said of his first homer of the season, a drive to left during Atlanta’s three-run second. ‘‘Guys were giving me a (hard time) so I got that off my chest, finally. I thought I was getting too old, that I didn’t have AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Hunter Mahan is doing things he never imagined possible, on and off the golf course. He thought it was ‘‘crazy talk’’ when friends told him he would know immediately when he fell in love, until he met former Dallas Cowboys cheer- leader Kandi Harris in December and proposed to her in June. How about beating Tiger Woods by 30 shots at Fire- stone? ‘‘I never, ever thought that would be possible,’’ Mahan said Sunday, stifling any pop anymore.’’ Lowe (11-9) was bothered by cramping in his hamstring. The right-hander allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1-3 innings. Lowe said he also had some cramps in his right arm in the fourth inning but he would not miss his next start. ‘‘The whole right leg was cramp- ing,’’ he said. Four relievers combined to finish up, with Takashi Saito tossing a score- less ninth for his first save of the sea- son. Omar Infante hit a solo homer for Atlanta, which won three of four in the series and has won four of five overall. The NL East-leading Braves also improved their major league-best home record to 39-15 and maintained a two-game lead over Philadelphia, which beat the New York Mets 6-5. Jonathan Sanchez (8-7) pitched four a laugh at the absurdity of it all. ‘‘It never crossed my mind. It’s definitely differ- ent.’’ Some six hours after Woods finished off the worst tournament of his career, Mahan looked better than ever in the Bridgestone Invitational. He ran off five birdies on the front nine to make up a four-shot deficit, delivered three clutch pars down the stretch to protect his lead and closed with a 6- under 64 for a two-shot vic- tory over Ryan Palmer that brought plenty of perks. Mahan earned $1.4 mil- lion to lock up a spot on the innings for the Giants, yielding four runs and five hits. The left-hander was coming off a strong performance against Colorado, when he threw six effective innings in a 10-0 victory. The full-count pitch to Ross ‘‘was a sinker away,’’ Sanchez said. ‘‘He killed it. That’s baseball. You can’t expect to win all the games.’’ Infante made it 4-1 with a drive to left in the fourth for his third homer. Alex Gonzalez also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Melky Cabrera had an RBI single for Atlanta, which finished with 12 hits. Cabrera went 3 for 5. Juan Uribe hit an RBI double in the second and Travis Ishikawa added his third homer in the seventh for San Francisco. ‘‘We’ve had rough stretches before and have battled back and found ways to win games,’’ Ishikawa said. Atlanta has dropped just one series this year, April 20-22 against Philadel- phia, at Turner Field. Mahan wins at Firestone, earns Ryder Cup spot U.S. Ryder Cup team, one of his primary goals this year. He won his first World Golf Championship title and moved to No. 12 in the world ranking, a big step toward joining the elite in golf. And he won for the second time this year, becoming the fifth player this year with multiple vic- tories on the PGA Tour. ‘‘The last couple of weeks, the game has been good,’’ said Mahan, who won the Phoenix Open in February by shooting 65 in the final round. ‘‘I knew it was there. I know I just had to keep going and keep trust it. This weekend, I definite- ly just kind of let everything go and just had some fun.’’ It was anything but that for Woods. He had won seven times in his last nine starts at Fire- stone. He had not shot over par since 2006. But in a week that showed just how lost he is amid a personal life in chaos, Woods shot 77 on Sunday to finish at 18- over 298. It was his highest score on the PGA Tour as a professional or an amateur. He tied for 78th in the 80- man field, his worst finish ever. Juan Pablo Montoya wins at Watkins Glen WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) — Juan Pablo Montoya finally had a race without a mistake, and he proved invinci- ble. The hard-driving Colombian erased 113 races of futility Sunday, winning a duel with Marcos Ambrose and the Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International. ‘‘It’s about time,’’ Montoya said after celebrating with his crew in Victory Lane. ‘‘We’ve lost a lot of them, gave away a lot of them. It gets frustrating, everybody fighting. There’s so many things I have to learn. I still make a lot of mistakes. It’s experience. We’ve just got to learn from it.’’ Frustration mounted when crew chief Brian Pattie’s pit strategy backfired at the previous two races. A late four-tire call likely cost Montoya a win at the Brickyard 400, and he finished 16th a week ago at Pocono after starting second, another questionable pit call the culprit that led to harsh words over the radio. A prerace talk at Watkins Glen with team co-owner Chip Ganassi helped clear the air. Montoya went out, withstood repeated stalking and challenges from Ambrose and won going away. Montoya led 74 of 90 laps and beat Kurt Busch to the line by nearly 5 seconds for his second career victory, the other coming on NASCAR’s other road course at Sonoma in 2007, 113 races ago. Montoya gave Earnhardt Ganassi rac- ing just its third victory of the season. Ambrose was third, his third straight top-three finish at Watkins Glen, followed by AJ Allmendinger and pole-sitter Carl Edwards. Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top 10. It was the first career victory for Pattie, who fought back tears after watching the No. 42 take the checkered flag. ‘‘It’s huge,’’ Pattie said. ‘‘I still want to win on an oval. He wants to prove his point. The Brickyard was my fault. Hope this makes up for it. Trophies mean a lot. It’s pretty cool.’’ Montoya made the Chase for the Sprint Cup last year, made a strong run early in the 10-race postseason, and fin- ished eighth in points. His chances of making the Chase this year vanished early. He’s failed to finish seven of the first 21 races and is well out of contention. ‘‘Last year, we were so hung up on making the Chase that it was all about numbers, it wasn’t about being fast or slow,’’ said Montoya, who dominated the 2009 Brickyard 400, only to lose a chance at his first victory on an oval by speeding on pit road. ‘‘It was about bringing the car home every week. ‘‘This year, we thought we were going to do the same thing. But by race five, we had three DNFs. Then you’ve got to be realistic about what’s going to happen. I started being aggressive, and a lot mistakes came. I think this will really bring the team together. It’s a great thing for the future.’’ Ambrose won his third straight Nationwide race over the 11-turn, 2.45-mile Watkins Glen layout on Saturday. He was poised to capture his first Sprint Cup victory at Sonoma in June when things went awry. He stalled his No. 47 while leading under a late caution, was unable to keep pace, had to restart seventh when he couldn’t get it refired and finished sixth. He seemed destined to finally break through at The Glen, but the handling on the last set of tires was off and Kurt Busch slipped past him late. ‘‘It hurts,’’ said Ambrose, who announced recently that he was leaving JTG-Daugherty Racing after the season. ‘‘It doesn’t feel nice.’’ Montoya was able to pull away on every restart, but each time Ambrose reeled him in. When the race restarted for the final time with 15 laps remaining, Kurt Busch passed Ambrose as Montoya took off again, pulling away as Busch kept Ambrose at bay. Ambrose got past Busch in the first turn of lap 77 and began the chase again as it became a two-car contest. This time, Ambrose was unable to cut into the lead as Montoya steadily pulled away, increasing his lead from 1.7 seconds to 4.2 seconds in five laps. Scoreboard MLB American League Sunday’s results Oakland 3,Texas 2 Baltimore 4, Chicago 3 Detroit 9, Los Angeles 4 Minnesota 5, Cleveland 4 Seattle 3, Kansas City 2 Toronto 1, Tampa Bay 0 Boston at New York, late Saturday’s results Oakland 6,Texas 2 Chicago 4, Baltimore 2 Kansas City 2, Seattle 1 Los Angeles 10, Detroit 1 Minnesota 7, Cleveland 2 New York 5, Boston 2 Toronto 17, Tampa Bay 11 Today’s games Oakland (Mazzaro 6-3) at Seattle (Fister 3-8), 7:10 p.m.,CSNC Boston (Lester 11-7) at New York (P.Hughes 13-4), 11:05 a.m., MLB Chicago (E.Jackson 1-0) at Baltimore (Matusz 4-11), 4:05 p.m. Tampa Bay (Price 14-5) at Detroit (Galarraga 3-4), 4:05 p.m. Kansas City (O’Sullivan 1-2) at Los Angeles (E.Santana 10-8), 7:05 p.m. National League Sunday’s results Atlanta 6, San Francisco 3 Cincinnati 11, Chicago 4 Colorado 8, Pittsburgh 4 Los Angeles 8, Washington 3 Milwaukee 11, Houston 6 Philadelphia 6, New York 5 San Diego 10, Arizona 1 St. Louis at Florida, ppd., rain Saturday’s results Atlanta 3, San Francisco 0 Arizona 6, San Diego 5 Cincinnati 4, Chicago 3 Florida 5, St. Louis 4, 10 innings Los Angeles 3, Washington 2, 10 innings Milwaukee 5, Houston 2 New York 1, Philadelphia 0 Pittsburgh 8, Colorado 7, 10 innings Today’s games Chicago (Zambrano 3-6) at S.F.(Bumgarner 4-4),7:15 p.m.,CSNB St. Louis (C.Carpenter 12-3) at Cincinnati (Leake 7-3), 4:10 p.m., ESPN Atlanta (Minor 0-0) at Houston (Norris 4-7), 5:05 p.m. Arizona (I.Kennedy 6-9) at Milwaukee (Narveson 9-7), 5:10 p.m. GOLDEN Sunday’s results Calgary at Chico, late Victoria 4, Tucson 3 Edmonton at Maui, late., 1st game Edmonton at Maui, late, 2nd game Orange County at St. George, late Tijuana at Yuma, late, 1st game Tijuana at Yuma, late, 2nd game Saturday’s results Calgary 5, Chico 1 Maui 3, Edmonton 2 Yuma 19, Tijuana 4 Orange County at St. George, cancelled Tucson at Victoria, ppd., rain Today’s game Orange County at St. George, 6:05 p.m. NFL Sunday’s exhibition game Cincinnati vs. Dallas, late WNBA Sunday’s results Connecticut 76, Washington 67 Indiana 104, Phoenix 82 New York at Minnesota, late San Antonio at Los Angeles, late Saturday’s results Minnesota 87, Chicago 82, OT Seattle 111, Tulsa 65 MLS Sunday’s results FC Dallas 3, Philadelphia 1 Houston at Seattle FC, late New York at Chicago, late Saturday’s results Colorado 1, San Jose 0 Kansas City 1, Real Salt Lake 1, tie New England 1, D.C. United 0 Toronto FC 2, Chivas USA 1