Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/15381
2B – Daily News – Thursday, August 26, 2010 GIANTS (Continued from page 1B) Miguel Cairo doubled and scored on Votto’s two-out single in the 12th off Barry Zito (8- 9), making his second career relief appearance. ‘‘For us to play as well as we did and to still be able to come back and win sure means a lot to all of us,’’ Votto said. ‘‘Zito is dif- ficult to face because he knows exactly what he wants to do. I’m just try- ing to put the ball in play and I end up find- ing a hole.’’ Ryan Hanigan and Stubbs also homered for Cincinnati. The Reds homered three times in the first inning, and the slugfest put an exclama- tion mark on the high- est-scoring three-game series at AT&T Park. ‘‘That was a heavy- MCT photo Brian Wilson watches a ninth inning error. Athletics 6 Cleveland 1 weight fight out there,’’ Reds manager Dusty Baker said. ‘‘Votto, that’s what MVPs and All-Stars do. They come through when you need them.’’ The Giants scored at least 11 runs in three straight games for the first time since June 1953. The Reds’ rally spoiled what would’ve been the biggest come- back in franchise histo- ry. The NL East-leading Braves weren’t so fortu- nate in their 12-10 loss at Coors Field. The major league record for the biggest comeback is 12 runs, most recently by Cleveland against Seattle in 2001. The NL mark is 11, last done by Houston against St. Louis in 1994. Francisco Cordero (4- 4) pitched the final two innings. ‘‘It just feels terrible to let the team down in a situation where we come back from 10-1,’’ Zito said. ‘‘It could have been a huge sweep for us. It’s frustrating as ever but they hit the pitches I was making.’’ Juan Uribe’s three- run homer in the eighth sparked the Giants’ late rally as the first six hit- ters reached base. Jose Guillen and Sandoval singled ahead of Uribe’s shot. Cody Ross and Mike Fontenot singled ahead of Andres Torres’ two-run double. Torres later scored on Huff’s medium fly. ‘‘We just kept chip- ping away, had a big eighth and unfortunately it wasn’t enough,’’ Ross said. ‘‘You want to win these games and at the same time we showed a lot of resiliency.’’ Reds starter Homer Bailey lasted 5 1-3 innings and was in line for his third straight start since coming off the disabled list on Aug. 15. Giants rookie Madi- son Bumgarner had his worst outing in the majors, allowing eight runs in 2 2-3 innings. The Reds hit three home runs in the first inning, taking a 4-0 lead. Votto hit a two-run shot, while Gomes and Hanigan went back-to- back. The Reds hit con- secutive homers for the eighth time this season and the second time in a week. ‘‘You can call this a 25-man roster win,’’ Gomes said. ‘‘We used just about everybody. It’s fortunate we have a day off.’’ NOTES: Reds 2B Brandon Phillips left the game an inning after getting hit by a pitch from Santiago Casilla in the fifth. ... Former Giants closer Robb Nen was a visitor to the Reds’ clubhouse before the game and was greeted enthusiastically at the door by Darren Baker, Dusty’s 11-year- old son. ... Sanchez finished 9 for 11 in the series. ... Sandoval recorded three hits for the 10th time, all at home. ... Zito pitched a scoreless inning of relief on Aug. 5, 2007. Cahill leads Athletics Hawaii, Taiwan, Wash. win CLEVELAND (AP) — Trevor Cahill didn’t need his best stuff to put together another strong start for Oakland’s overwhelming pitching staff. Cahill (14-5) pitched seven strong innings to beat Cleveland 6-1 on Wednesday night, handing the Indi- ans their fifth straight loss. The right-hander was helped by three double plays as he improved to 5-1 with a 0.77 ERA in six starts since July 28. ‘‘Cahill is one of the top guys right now,’’ said Indi- ans manager Manny Acta, who was very impressed by the 22-year-old right-hander. ‘‘He kept us hitting the ball on the ground the whole night.’’ Kevin Kouzmanoff lined a three-run double to cap Oakland’s five-run first inning off Mitch Talbot (8- 11). ‘‘You don’t want to be five down before you swing the bat, especially facing a guy who’s competing for the Cy Young,’’ Acta said. ‘‘That put us in a big hole.’’ Kouzmanoff broke a 4 for 42 slump (.095) with the shot off the center-field wall. ‘‘I just wanted to see the ball and hit it,’’ said Kouz- manoff, who hit a grand slam on the first pitch thrown to him when he debuted for the Indians in 2005. ‘‘I knew I hit it good, but it wasn’t one of those where you know it’s just gone.’’ Jack Cust gave the Athletics a 1-0 lead with an RBI single grounded between first and second. After Mark Ellis walked to load the bases, Rajai Davis grounded a single between third and short to make it 2-0. The speedy Davis nearly caught Ellis rounding the bases on Kouzmanoff’s drive. When Ellis slid in ahead of the late throw, Davis had to tiptoe to the plate to avoid steamrolling his teammate. ‘‘I didn’t see that and I’m glad I didn’t,’’ Oakland manager Bob Geren said. ‘‘I was watching the throw.’’ Cleveland’s first batter reached safely in each of the first six innings, but the Indians lost for the 13th time in 16 games. They have totaled four runs and hit only .168 (27 for 161) during their five-game skid. The Indians struck out eight times — each of their last eight outs. Cahill fanned the last two men he faced, Craig Breslow got three strikeouts and allowed one hit in the eighth and Henry Rodriguez struck out the side in the ninth on 10 pitches — twice hitting 100 mph and six times registering 101 on the radar gun. ‘‘It’s really fun to watch him get better each time out,’’ Cahill said of the hard-throwing rookie right- hander. ‘‘He’s throwing 100-plus and painting his curve or slider on the corners.’’ Cahill gave up seven hits as Oakland had a starter work at least six innings for the 23rd consecutive game, two short of the club record set in 1980. The Athletics’ staff has given up five or fewer runs in all those games, longest in the AL since Kansas City’s 25-game streak in 1980. ‘‘Everybody here knows what we are capable of doing and it is all kind of coming together,’’ Cahill said. Oakland starters have not allowed more than three runs in 17 consecutive games, longest by the franchise since the 1927 Philadelphia Athletics did it 18 times in a row. The Indians’ unearned run in the fifth ruined the Athletics’ bid for a fifth shutout in eight games this year against Cleveland, which has been outscored 43- 13 in going 2-6 against Oakland. It was Cleveland’s first run in 22 innings, since the first inning Sunday in Detroit. Jason Donald reached when his grounder went through Kouzmanoff’s legs at third. Two outs later, Asdrubal Cabrera singled home Donald from second base, but was retired in a rundown that was scored 9- 2-6-3-5. Kouzmanoff tripled to lead off the sixth and scored on a sacrifice fly by Gabe Gross to make it 6-1. Talbot gave up six hits and six runs over six innings to drop to 0-5 in eight starts since his last victory, June 27 over Cincinnati in an interleague game. The right- hander, in his third start since spending the first half of August on the disabled list with a strained back, walked three and struck out two. NOTES: Oakland C Kurt Suzuki went 0 for 4, has an 0 for 15 streak and is hitting .130, 9 for 69, in August. ... Indians OF Michael Brantley went 1 for 4 in his first game after missing four games with a sprained left ankle. ... Cust went 2 for 4 and has hit .337 (32 for 95) with eight homers and 27 RBIs in 28 career games against Cleveland, including 8 for 15 (.533) in five games this year. ... OF Shin-Soo Choo had three of Cleveland’s eight hits and is hitting .455, 10 for 22 against the Athletics this season. ... Oakland 1B Daric Barton walked twice and leads the AL with 80. SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — Matthew Campos gave Hawaii’s offense one big punch, and one of inning of wildness on the mound cost Ohio a chance to move on at the Little League World Series. Called on to pinch hit, Campos had Waipahu’s only hit with a game-tying three-run homer in the fourth in the West region champs’ 6-4 victory Wednesday. Two runs later scored on a hit batter and wild pitch. The 12-year-old Campos said it was July when he last homered. No wonder he had a wide smile rounding third as his teammates gathered to greet him at the plate. ‘‘I hadn’t hit one of those in a while, so when it came, it just felt awesome,’’ Cam- pos said. Hamilton, Ohio, scored three runs in the top of the fourth to go up 4-0 when diminutive, 5-foot-1 left Ezra Heleski came on in relief and got the final two outs for Hawaii. He pitched the final 2 2-3 innings for the win. ‘‘Um, no, I still can’t believe it,’’ Hawaii manager Brian Yoshii said after a laugh when asked if he thought before the game he could win despite being out- hit 7-1. ‘‘Somehow, we got lucky because that was a great team. They deserved to win every other aspect but the score.’’ Hawaii faces a must-win game Thursday night against Georgia to stay alive for a berth in the U.S. final. Also Wednesday, Auburn, Wash. beat Pearland, Texas, 7-4, to avoid elimination and set up a Thursday rematch, with the winner getting the other spot in the U.S. final. A four-run fifth lifted Kaoshiung, Taiwan past Chitre, Panama, 5-1 Wednesday night to clinch a berth in Saturday’s interna- tional final against Japan, with the winner moving on to the World Series final Sunday. The teams were tied 1-1 in the fifth when a walk and bunt singles by Yi-Chung Chen and Chen-Wei Chen loaded the bases with nobody out. After a force at home, Shao-Fei Huang tripled to the fence in right to clear the bases, and later scored on a wild pitch for a 5-1 lead. ‘‘The other team’s pitch- NFL owners are eager to increase the regular season from 16 to 18 games. The players aren’t so sure. During a five-hour meet- ing at a posh hotel in down- town Atlanta, the push to add two more games to the regular season picked up steam Wednesday — at least among those who sign the checks. ‘‘I think it’s a win-win all around,’’ said Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. The owners also unani- mously approved Stan MLB West Division Texas A’s American League WL Pct GB 72 54 .571 — 63 62 .504 8.5 Angels 63 65 .492 10 Seattle 50 77 .394 22.5 East Division WL Pct GB New York 78 49 .614 — Tampa Bay 78 49 .614 — Boston 73 55 .570 5.5 Toronto 66 60 .524 11.5 Baltimore 45 82 .354 33 Central Division WL Pct GB Minnesota 72 55 .567 — Chicago 68 58 .540 3.5 Detroit 63 64 .496 9 Kansas City 54 73 .425 18 Cleveland 50 76 .397 21.5 ————————————————— Wednesday’s results Oakland 6, Cleveland 1 Baltimore 4, Chicago 2 Boston 5, Seattle 3, 1st game Kansas City 4, Detroit 3, 12 innings Los Angeles 12, Tampa Bay 3 Seattle 4, Boston 2, 2nd game Texas 4, Minnesota 3 Toronto 6, New York 3 Today’s games Oakland (Mazzaro 6-5) at Clev.(Masterson 4-12),4:05 p.m.,CSNC Detroit (Scherzer 9-9) at Toronto (R.Romero 10-7), 4:07 p.m. Minnesota (Liriano 11-7) at Texas (Cl.Lee 10-7), 5:05 p.m., MLBN Baltimore (Arrieta 4-5) at Chicago (E.Jackson 1-0), 5:10 p.m. Tuesday’s late result Tampa Bay 10, Los Angeles 3 Kroenke’s proposal to pur- chase majority ownership of the St. Louis Rams, assum- ing he turns over control of two other teams he owns — the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche — to his son. But talks on the expand- ed season dominated most of the meeting. Goodell pointed out that the league already has the right to impose an 18-game sched- ule — and keep four presea- MLB West Division National League WL Pct GB Padres 75 49 .605 — GIANTS 71 57 .555 6 Colorado 66 60 .524 10 Dodgers 65 62 .512 11.5 Arizona 49 77 .389 27 East Division WL Pct GB Atlanta 73 54 .575 — Philadelphia 70 56 .556 2.5 Florida 63 62 .504 9 New York 63 63 .500 9.5 Washington 53 74 .417 20 Central Division WL Pct GB Cincinnati 73 54 .575 — St. Louis 68 56 .548 3.5 Milwaukee 59 67 .468 13.5 Houston 57 69 .452 15.5 Chicago 54 74 .422 19.5 Pittsburgh 43 84 .339 30 ————————————————— Wednesday’s results Cincinnati 12,San Francisco 11,12 innings Chicago 4, Washington 0 Colorado 12, Atlanta 10 Florida 5, New York 4 Houston 3, Philadelphia 2 Los Angeles 5, Milwaukee 4 Pittsburgh 5, St. Louis 2 Arizona at San Diego, late Today’s games Houston (W.Rodriguez 9-12) at Phila.(K.Kendrick 8-6), 10:05 p.m., MLBN Los Angeles (Monasterios 3-4) at Milwaukee (Gallardo 11-5), 11:10 a.m. Arizona (I.Kennedy 7-9) at San Diego (Correia 10-8), 3:35 p.m. St. Louis (C.Carpenter 14-4) at Washington (Zimmermann 0-0), 4:05 p.m. Florida (Ani.Sanchez 10-8) at New York (Niese 8-5), 4:10 p.m. Tuesday’s late results San Francisco 16, Cincinnati 5 Houston 4, Philadelphia 2, 16 innings San Diego 5, Arizona 0 er threw hard and we were also chasing his slider out of the strike zone,’’ Taiwan manager Tung-Yu Ho said through interpreter Ming- Huang Yeh. ‘‘I told the boys that we needed to bunt a lit- tle more to put pressure on the other team.’’ Huang pitched three scoreless innings of relief for the victory. Panama became the first team to score against Tai- wan in the tournament on Javier Garcia’s two-out RBI double in the first. Earlier, Ohio was cruis- ing behind the Robinson brothers. Brooks Robinson — who’s named after the Baseball Hall of Famer and wears the same No. 5 — pitched three scoreless innings and Ryan Robinson homered to center in the sec- ond. Ryan is named after Rangers Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. But Hawaii broke through in the fourth, load- ing the bases with a hit bat- ter and two walks. A run later scored on a groundout before Campos’ three-run homer. Ohio manager Ken Coomer said Brooks Robin- son used his curve to set up his fastball before getting son games for each team — under the current labor agreement with the players. But that contract expires after this season, and it’s clear the expanded schedule will be a central issue in talks on a new collective bargaining agreement. The owners would like to keep the season at 20 weeks, reducing the number of pre- season games from four to two. ‘‘We want to do it the North Division GOLDEN Golden League WL Pct. GB Calgary 22 12 .647 — Victoria 18 14 .563 3 Edmonton 17 15 .531 4 OUTLAWS 14 14 .500 5 St. George 7 18 .280 10.5 South Division Maui WL Pct. GB 19 5 .792 — Orange Co. 23 7 .767 -1 Tucson 18 19 .4867 1/2 Yuma 11 21 .344 12 Tijuana 2 25 .07418 1/2 ————————————————— Wednesday’s results St. George at Chico, late Maui at Yuma, late Today’s games St. George at Chico, 7:05 p.m. Maui at Yuma, 3 p.m. Tijuana at Orange County, 6:05 p.m. Victoria at Calgary, 6:05 p.m. Edmonton at Tucson, 7 p.m. Tuesday’s late result Orange County 6, Maui 4, 2nd game NFL Preseason Week 3 Today’s games St. Louis at New England, 4:30 p.m. Indianapolis at Green Bay, 5 p.m., ESPN Friday’s games LITTLELEAGUE At South Williamsport, Pa. Double Elimination Wednesday’s results Waipahu, Hawaii 6, Hamilton, Ohio 4, Hamilton eliminated Kaohsiung, Taiwan 5, Chitre, Panama, 1, Chitre eliminated Auburn, Wash. 7, Pearland, Texas 4 Today’s games Game 24 — Auburn, Wash. vs. Pearland, Texas, 1 p.m., ESPN Game 26 — Columbus, Ga. vs.Waipahu, Hawaii, 4 p.m., ESPN2 Atlanta at Miami, 4 p.m. Washington at N.Y. Jets, 4 p.m. Philadelphia at Kansas City, 5 p.m. San Diego at New Orleans, 5 p.m. Saturday’s games San Francisco at Oakland, 6 p.m. Cleveland at Detroit, 2 p.m. Cincinnati at Buffalo, 3:30 p.m. N.Y. Giants at Baltimore, 4:30 p.m. Jacksonville at Tampa Bay, 4:30 p.m. Dallas at Houston, 5 p.m. Tennessee at Carolina, 5 p.m. Seattle at Minnesota, 5 p.m. Arizona at Chicago, 5:30 p.m. Sunday’s games Pittsburgh at Denver, 5 p.m. flustered in the fourth by the hit batter and a couple close calls. Ryan Robinson followed his brother to the mound later in the inning but didn’t retire a batter before Bryce Couch got the last out. Couch threw three wild pitches in his 1 1-3 innings of relief. ‘‘We felt we outplayed them, we know we out- played them,’’ Coomer said in relaying his postgame message to his disappointed squad. ‘‘They’re all great, great baseball players. They all have a great future.’’ Washington 7, Texas 4 Ikaika Nahaku had an RBI single before scoring on a wild play following a throwing error, and Isaiah Hatch struck out 12 in relief to lead Washington and hand Texas its first loss of the tournament. Chris Leger tried to make shoestring grab of Nahaku’s blooper to left in the fourth, but the ball fell to the ground for a hit, allowing a run to score. After the relay to third, the Texas third base- man’s throw to second to try to get Nahaku sailed into the outfield, and Ryan Lacey and Nahaku raced home to give Washington a 5-4 lead. NFL moving forward with 18-game season ATLANTA (AP) — right way for everyone, including the players, the fans and the game in gener- al,’’ Goodell said. ‘‘There’s a tremendous amount of momentum for it. We think it’s the right step.’’ The owners held off on voting on a specific pro- posal. WNBA Conference Semifinals (Best-of-3) EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlanta 1,Washington 0 Wednesday: Atlanta 95, Washington 90 Friday: at Atlanta, 4:30 p.m. Sunday:at Washington, 1:00 p.m. New York vs. Indiana Today:Indiana at New York, 4 p.m., NBATV Sunday: at Indiana, 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept.1:at New York, 4:30 p.m. WESTERN CONFERENCE Seattle vs.Los Angeles Wednesday: at Seattle, late Saturday: at Los Angeles, 3 p.m. Tuesday: at Seattle, 7 p.m. Phoenix vs. San Antonio Today: at Phoenix, 6 p.m., ESPN2 Saturday: at San Antonio, 10 a.m. Monday: at Phoenix, 7 p.m.