Red Bluff Daily News

May 05, 2011

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Thursday PGA — Wells Fargo Championship, 11 a.m., TGC MLB — Giants at Mets, 10 a.m., MLB Brewers at Braves, 4 p.m., MLB NHL — Vancouver at Nashville, 6 p.m., Versus Sports 1B Thursday May 5, 2011 Sharks see red Dialed In is early Derby favorite LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Nobody wanted to be No. 1. No. 20 wasn’t too popular, either. Dialed In managed to avoid both — the inside rail and far outside — at Wednesday’s post-position draw for the Kentucky Derby. He was made the early 4-1 favorite for Saturday’s race after drawing the favorable No. 8 post, prompting owner Robert LaPenta to let out a cheer. Uncle Mo was the second choice in a full field of 20 horses. Ten horses have won from the No. 8 position; the last, 50-1 shocker Mine That Bird two years ago. ‘‘It’s a big thing, and he deserves it,’’ two-time Derby winner Nick Zito said, referring to his horse’s status as the favorite. Dialed In has won 3 of 4 career races. Three times in the last seven runnings the favorite has worn the garland of roses, most recently Big Brown in 2008. ‘‘So far, so good,’’ Zito said. ‘‘If he has another cou- ple of good days we’ll be happy. Things are doing all right.’’ Things haven’t been quite so right for Uncle Mo, who drew the No. 18 post, three slots from the outside. The colt is being treated for a gastrointestinal infection, which was blamed for his stunning first-ever defeat in last month’s Wood Memorial. Owner Mike Repole has said if Uncle Mo isn’t suf- MCT photo The Sharks' Devin Setoguchi, top left, and teammate Patrick Marleau (12) celebrate a goal by Setoguchi as the Red Wings' Valtteri Filppula (51) and Niklas Kronwall react to the puck under Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard (35) during in Game 3 of the NHL's Western Conference semifinals in Detroit Wednesday. DETROIT (AP) — Devin Setoguchi scored 9:21 into overtime to finish a hat trick, and the San Jose Sharks took a commanding 3-0 lead over the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference semifinals with a 4-3 win Wednesday night. ‘‘You need people to step up,’’ Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. ‘‘He’s got a tremendous trigger.’’ The Sharks will have a chance to sweep the series in Game 4 on Fri- day night in Detroit. ‘‘We know what we have to do or Detroit’s Nicklas Lid- it’s over,’’ strom said. San Jose’s Dan Boyle scored the tying goal with 4:08 left in regula- tion, setting up the Sharks’ second overtime win of the series. Pavel Datsyuk scored a go-ahead goal late in the second period, but Detroit couldn’t hold on. The Red Wings also didn’t capi- talize when Setoguchi went to the penalty box at 5:14 of overtime for holding, failing to score a third power-play goal. ‘‘All you’re thinking is, ’Don’t score, don’t score, don’t score,’’’ Setoguchi said. ‘‘I thought out penalty killing did a great job on that power play.’’ San Jose made them pay for it with Joe Thornton getting the puck to Setoguchi at the top of the right circle for a wrist shot that went across goalie Jimmy Howard and into the net. ‘‘Point blank, I thought we deserved to win,’’ Howard said. Antti Niemi stopped 38 shots for the Sharks. Howard made 34 saves. San Jose won the first three games of last year’s second-round series — including Game 3 by 4-3 in OT — against the Red Wings and eliminated Detroit in Game 5. Clippers’ Griffin voted top rookie LOS ANGELES (AP) — Blake Griffin played his entire rookie season like a man mak- ing up for lost time. Now that the Los Angeles Clippers’ dynamic dunker has been named the league’s top rookie in a landslide, he’s already thinking about ways to improve on a delayed NBA debut that was well worth the wait. Griffin accepted the Rookie of the Year award on Wednesday, becoming the NBA’s first unanimous choice for the award in 21 years. The No. 1 overall draft pick out of Oklahoma in 2009 missed all of the 2009-10 season after breaking his kneecap in the Clip- pers’ final preseason game. But Griffin returned with one of the most impressive debut campaigns in a gen- eration. Griffin frequently thought back to that season in limbo while picking up his award during a party at the Clippers’ training complex. ‘‘To miss my entire first year and then be able to be up here today is definitely satisfying,’’ Griffin said. ‘‘When I got injured, I just decided I had to come back even better. I had to keep improving even while I could- n’t play, and I dedicated myself to that.’’ Griffin received every first-place vote from a panel of 118 media members, easily outdistancing Washing- ton’s John Wall. The Clippers’ 22-year-old power for- ward is the first unanimous choice since San Antonio’s David Robinson in 1990, and just the third in NBA his- tory after Ralph Sampson in 1984. New Orleans’ Chris Paul came close in 2006, missing by one vote. Griffin led all rookies in scoring and rebounding while playing in all 82 games for the Clippers, finish- ing 12th in the entire NBA in scoring (22.5) and fourth in rebounds (12.1) while ranking second among rook- ies in assists (3.8). See GRIFFIN, page 2B ‘‘It’s pretty much deja vu from last year,’’ Red Wings defenseman Brad Stuart said. ‘‘We had the lead in the third in Game 3 and end up giving it up and losing in overtime.’’ Setoguchi scored first, a power- play goal midway through the first period, and made it 2-all late in the second with another man-advantage goal. Lidstrom scored off of Henrik Zetterberg’s no-look, between-the- legs pass with 22 seconds left in the first period to get the Red Wings even. Patrick Eaves put Detroit ahead 2-1, but Setoguchi tied it 50 later in the second period. Both goalies made big saves to keep the third period scoreless until Howard went low and Boyle shot high from the right circle to make it 3-3. See SHARKS, page 2B ficiently recovered, he won’t run in the 1 1/4-mile Derby. Trainer Todd Pletcher, however, said Uncle Mo might be able to win even if he’s at less than his best. ‘‘But we’re committed to bringing him over there at 100 percent, anything less than that, we won’t accept,’’ he said. Uncle Mo, last year’s 2-year-old champion, jogged a mile around the dirt track at Churchill Downs and later stood in the starting gate to familiarize himself with the surroundings. He is scheduled to gallop on Thursday. ‘‘I’ve always said I think he’s the best horse of his generation,’’ Pletcher said. ‘‘We proved that last year and identified what we thought was the reason for the poor performance in the Wood. I think if he shows up and he’s the Uncle Mo from the Breeders’ Cup or the Champagne or even the Timely Writer, he’s the horse to beat.’’ Uncle Mo would have to overcome a bit of history. Only one horse since 1900 has come out of the No. 18 hole to win and that was Gato Del Sol in 1982. Still, Pletcher and Repole were relieved to have avoided the rail. ‘‘We had this overlying fear we were going to get the 1,’’ the trainer said. ‘‘Once it was anything besides that we were happy.’’ Repole’s other colt, Stay Thirsty — also trained by Pletcher — landed in the No. 4 post and is 20-1 on the morning line set by Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia. Pletcher ended an 0-for-24 skid in the Derby last year when Super Saver won from the No. 4 post. Nehro was the third choice at 6-1. The other 17 hors- es were listed at double-digit odds. See DERBY, page 2B Lincecum and Giants beat Mets NEW YORK (AP) — With a boisterous bunch of orange-and- black clad fans in the crowd and weather conditions similar to home, Tim Lincecum knew the formula was right for a special night. He sure provided one. Lincecum struck out 12 to sur- pass Christy Mathewson for most double-digit strikeout games in Giants history and Pat Burrell hit a tiebreaking single against his favorite opponent, lifting San Francisco over the New York Mets 2-0 on Wednesday night. ‘‘Windy and wet is kind of what I’m used to,’’ Lincecum said. Griffin Lincecum (3-3) gave up five hits in seven innings, throwing 127 pitches for his most since Aug. 28, 2009. He struck out his final five batters. ‘‘Terrific job,’’ Giants manag- er Bruce Bochy said. ‘‘He’s one of those special guys, when he’s had to turn it up a notch he can do it.’’ Four Giants relievers complet- ed the six-hitter with Brian Wil- son working a perfect ninth for his 10th save. The Giants can fin- ish their 10-game road trip with a sweep of the Mets on Thursday. Mike Fontenot added an insur- ance run with an RBI single off Chris Capuano (2-3) in the sev- enth and Aubrey Huff had three more hits to lift his average over .200. The defending World Series champions won two in a row for the first time since April 18-19 and have won just five of their last 13 games. The Mets struck out season- high 16 times and were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. New York faced a Cy Young win- ner for the third time in four games, going up against Roy MCT photo Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants throws against the New York Mets at Citi Field in New York,Wednesday. Halladay and Cliff Lee last week- end in Philadelphia. Lincecum was the most dominant. We’re a big league team, too,’’ Mets manager Terry Collins said. ‘‘We’ve got to start putting the ball in play, we’ve got to start driving in some easy runs.’’ The Freak needed 26 pitches to get through the first inning, yielding a one-out double to Daniel Murphy. But he didn’t allow a runner to reach third until the sixth. See GIANTS, page 2B

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