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2B Daily News – Friday, May 27, 2011 Sanchez quiets Giants again his first loss in six starts. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Ani- bal Sanchez threw a five-hitter for another complete game in San Fran- cisco, leading the Florida Marlins to a 1-0 win Thursday over a Giants team still stunned by the loss of Buster Posey. A day after the star catcher sus- tained a broken lower left leg when Scott Cousins crashed into him at the plate — likely ending Posey’s season — the Marlins finished off a three- game sweep. Sanchez (4-1) struck out eight and walked two for his fifth career com- plete game and second this season. He pitched a one-hitter against the Giants last July 29 in his previous appearance at AT&T Park. Logan Morrison’s RBI single in the sixth inning off Ryan Vogelsong scored Chris Coghlan for the only run. Vogelsong (3-1) struck out three and scattered eight hits in eight innings for PARIS (AP) — There were plenty of excuses available for Kim Clijsters after a stunning collapse in the second round of the French Open against a woman ranked 114th. In assessing her 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 loss to Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands on Thurs- day, the second-seeded Cli- jsters could have pointed to her heavily taped right ankle, which she hurt while dancing barefoot at her cousin’s wedding last month. In recounting how she managed to waste two match points and drop 11 of the last 12 games after lead- ing 5-2 in the second set, the Belgian could have men- tioned that she last entered the French Open in 2006, and had played a total of five clay-court matches any- where since. And in explain- ing her 65 unforced errors — 43 more than her oppo- nent made — and 10 dou- ble-faults, Clijsters could have reminded everyone that she hadn’t competed at all since late March because of that bum ankle and previ- ous injuries to her right shoulder and wrist. Instead, the winner of the last two Grand Slam titles, and four overall, pointed a finger squarely at herself and an odd crisis of confidence. ‘‘I started doubting a little bit,’’ said Clijsters, the French Open runner-up in 2001 and 2003. ‘‘When you start doubting yourself on any surface — but for me, definitely on clay — it’s the wrong attitude to have.’’ GIANTS (Continued from page 1B) Hard to imagine a more important position player than Posey to replace. Posey has been San Fran- cisco’s cleanup hitter, a team leader and key cog behind the plate for one of baseball’s best rotations. The 2010 NL Rookie of the Year was bat- ting .284 with four home runs and 21 RBIs, just find- ing his groove in the midst of a 13-game hitting streak to move the Giants into the NL West lead. ‘‘It’s part of baseball, I understand that, guys run- ning into catchers. Being a catcher, I’ve been in a few of them. You’re in harm’s way there,’’ Bochy said. ‘‘I think we do need to consider changing the rules here a lit- tle bit because the catcher is so vulnerable and there’s so many who have gotten hurt. And not just a little bit, had their careers ended or short- ened. And here’s a guy who’s very popular in base- ball. Fans want to see him play. ‘‘Now he’s out for a while.’’ An MRI confirmed Posey had a fractured left fibula and three torn ligaments in his left ankle, Giants trainer Dave Groeschner said. Posey will seek a specialist to per- form surgery. ‘‘We’ve seen this stuff before. We’ve had other guys through our system, catchers included, that have returned no problem,’’ Groeschner said without giving a Freddy Sanchez doubled with one out in the Giants ninth before Aubrey Huff and Cody Ross grounded out. Cousins, who went to college at the University of San Francisco and lives in the Bay Area, did not play. Tears welled up in his eyes when he talked before the game about the severity of Posey’s injury. Posey was put on the 15-day dis- abled list. The reigning NL Rookie of the Year who helped the Giants win the World Series last year was hurt when Cousins plowed him over scor- ing the go-ahead run in the 12th inning Wednesday night. The Giants had runners on first and second with one out in the first, setting the stage for Huff to do some damage. But he grounded into a double play to end the inning, a familiar theme throughout the day. Aaron Rowand doubled with one out in the second but was stranded when Miguel Tejada struck out swing- ing and Eli Whiteside — filling in for Posey at catcher — grounded out. Huff, who replaced Posey in the cleanup spot, went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts, a double play and a ground- out with the tying run at second in the ninth. Chris Coghlan led off the sixth with a double and Emilio Bonifacio’s sacri- fice bunt moved him to third. Morrison followed with a bloop single to center field to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead. Emmanuel Burriss singled and stole second with two outs in the Giants third, then Sanchez settled into a groove. He retired 14 of the next 15 batters until pinch-hitter Pat Burrell walked with one out in the eighth. The Marlins blew plenty of chances, too. The biggest came in the seventh when they loaded the bases with two outs against Vogelsong. Coghlan flied out to left field. This was the fourth time the Giants were shut out this season, and the fifth time the Marlins have held an oppo- nent scoreless. Clijsters stunned in Paris; Sharapova comes back The 27-year-old Clijsters also gave credit to the 20- year-old Rus, who entered the day with a 3-4 career record in major tournaments and only twice before had been to Court Philippe Cha- trier — and those visits were as a spectator. After delivering one of the most surprising tennis results in recent years, Rus acknowledged she was ner- vous at the outset, perhaps because Clijsters is one of her favorite players, some- one she used to cheer for when watching on TV. ‘‘She obviously started building up more confi- dence, started playing a lot better, and was really kind of putting me on my back foot all the time,’’ Clijsters said. ‘‘I couldn’t really play my aggressive tennis anymore in that third set.’’ A similar scenario played out later in that stadium Thursday, except it was the heavy favorite, three-time major champion Maria Sharapova, who appeared to be down and out against an inexperienced kid, 17-year- old French wild-card entry Caroline Garcia, before reel- ing off the final 11 games to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-0. ‘‘Look,’’ the seventh- seeded Sharapova said, ‘‘it could have easily gone the other way.’’ She said she had trouble dealing with wind that gust- ed at upward of 20 mph, making the balls move unexpectedly at times and occasionally kicking up clouds of loose clay into timetable on Posey’s return. ‘‘This is probably more of a football-type injury, a contact injury, and those guys come back.’’ The loss of Posey will be an enormous hurdle for the Giants to overcome. Backup Eli Whiteside will be Posey’s immediate replacement. The team also put infielder Mike Fontenot (left groin strain) and utility man Darren Ford (left ankle sprain) on the 15-day dis- abled list. Slugger Brandon Belt and catcher Chris Stewart were recalled from Triple-A Fres- no, and infielder Brandon Crawford was called up from Class-A San Jose. ‘‘I’m not going to try and be Buster Posey,’’ Whiteside said. ‘‘That’s our cleanup hit- ter and one of the best hitters in baseball. I’ll do my best and play my game, but I’m not going to try to be Buster Posey.’’ Posey was hurt after San Francisco scored four runs in the ninth to force extra innings. The play started when Emilio Bonifacio hit a shal- low fly ball to right-center off Guillermo Mota for the sec- ond out in the 12th inning. Cousins tagged from third base on the sacrifice fly, beat- ing the throw from Nate Schierholtz and lowering his shoulder to slam into Posey for a clean hit on the catcher. Cousins was safe as Posey never could quite corral the ball, giving Florida a 7-6 vic- tory. Cousins, who went to the University of San Francisco, players’ eyes. Those condi- tions led to this bon mot from Rafael Nadal: ‘‘If you play good, seems like much less wind. If you are playing bad, seems like a hurricane.’’ The five-time French Open champion wasn’t forced to work nearly as hard as he did in getting past John Isner in five sets Tues- day, but Nadal was hardly satisfied after beating 48th- ranked Pablo Andujar of Spain 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (4). ‘‘I am not playing that well,’’ said Nadal, who has spent 7 hours, 19 minutes on court. ‘‘I am not happy, but I am here.’’ He needed to erase eight set points after trailing 5-1 in the third against Andujar, who said he thinks Nadal is ‘‘going through perhaps a period of doubt.’’ Also reaching the third round were past Grand Slam finalists Robin Soderling and Andy Murray, along with No. 10 Mardy Fish, the last U.S. man in the field. Six seeded men lost: No. 8 Jurgen Melzer of Austria, No. 20 Florian Mayer of Germany, No. 24 Sam Querrey of the U.S., No. 27 Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, No. 28 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and No. 32 Kevin Anderson of South Africa. Davydenko, a French Open semifinalist in 2005 and 2007, was beaten in five sets by Antonio Veic of Croatia, a qualifier ranked 227th whose reward is a third-round match against Nadal. Garcia was the youngest lives in the Bay Area and had almost a dozen friends and family in attendance, apolo- gized repeatedly for injuring Posey. But he believes — as most Giants reiterated — that he made a clean baseball play. Cousins was even more remorseful when he heard the severity of the injury before the series finale, say- ing he had to look away from the replay that was shown repeatedly at the team’s hotel. He said he tried calling Posey twice overnight, left messages with Giants train- ers and sent his condolences to the other clubhouse. ‘‘The last thing I wanted to do was break a guy’s leg,’’ he said, tears welling up in his eyes. The moment was as stun- ning as any San Francisco has seen this season. Posey lay in the dirt around home plate, dazed, writhing in pain and curling up in a ball. After several minutes of stunned silence, NBA PLAYOFFS Conference Finals Thursday’s result Miami 83, Chicago 80 Miami wins series 4-1 Other series Dallas beat Oklahoma City 4-1 and, at 188th, lowest-ranked woman left, and was playing in only the second tour-level event of her nascent career. Many expect great things from her, including Murray, who after beating Simone Bolelli 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-5, took to Twitter and wrote, ‘‘Girl sharapova is playing is going to be No.1 in world one day caroline garcia, what a player u heard it here 1st.’’ Sharapova’s take? ‘‘She’s on her way up, definitely.’’ Actually, Garcia looked like the poised veteran early, taking the first set and a 4-1 lead in the second, buoyed by a partisan crowd that roared with approval after her 17 groundstroke win- ners, seven more than Shara- pova accumulated. But during a changeover, spectators raised a ruckus by doing the wave, and Garcia acknowledged later that flustered her a bit. ‘‘I had many things going in my head, because I was leading. I was playing well. She was not really in the court,’’ said Garcia, who now will play in the junior tournament. ‘‘And then she reacted just like a champion, because she is a great cham- pion.’’ The French Open is the one major title Sharapova doesn’t own, but she and Svetlana Kuznetsova are the only women with multiple Grand Slam trophies who are still around. That’s because the Williams sisters didn’t enter the French Open and Clijsters is done. fans began chanting ‘‘Posey! Posey!’’ as he was helped off the field by two team trainers holding up his left leg. Posey had already taken several hard foul tips off his mask and legs this season, even leaving one game as a precaution to make sure he didn’t have a concussion. Some observers have argued a slugger of his caliber shouldn’t be behind the plate, where hits can be rou- tine, and this injury surely won’t do much to quiet that sentiment. Posey himself has always shaken off those remarks, saying he was born to play catcher and loves the position. Bochy also shook off questions that Posey should switch to first base — where he played some last year — in the future, saying it’s too early to be talking about such plans. ‘‘Right now,’’ Bochy said, ‘‘we’re just trying to get over the shock of this a little.’’ PGA Byron Nelson At TPC Four Seasons Resort Course Irving, Texas Purse: $5.5 million Yardage: 7,116; Par: 70 (35-35) First Round Leaders Jeff Overton 33-31— 64 -6 NHL PLAYOFFS Conference Finals Today’s game Tampa Bay at Boston, 5 p.m., VS Series tied 3-3 Other series Vancouver beat San Jose 4-1 Ryan Palmer 33-32— 65 -5 Jeff Quinney 31-35— 66 -4 Dustin Johnson 33-33— 66 -4 Sergio Garcia 33-33— 66 -4 Scott Piercy Will Strickler Chris Riley Josh Teater Joe Ogilvie 32-34— 66 -4 32-34— 66 -4 32-34— 66 -4 33-33— 66 -4 32-34— 66 -4 Keegan Bradley 32-34— 66 -4 Brandt Jobe 31-36— 67 -3 Ricky Barnes 32-35— 67 -3 Vaughn Taylor 33-34— 67 -3 Zack Miller 34-33— 67 -3 Garth Mulroy 34-33— 67 -3 Michael Putnam 34-33— 67 -3 Jerry Kelly 33-34— 67 -3 Chad Collins 34-33— 67 -3 LeBron, Heat reach Finals CHICAGO (AP) — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh joined to win a champi- onship. Well, now they have their shot. James scored 28 points, Wade added 21, and they led a furious rally in the final minutes as the Miami Heat eliminated Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls 83-80 in Game 5 of the Eastern Con- ference finals on Thursday. James and Wade were simply spectacular down the stretch, each scoring eight during a game-end- ing 18-3 run as Miami wiped out a 12-point deficit to win the series. Now, the Heat are headed back to the NBA finals for the first time since 2006, and in a fitting twist, they’ll be facing the Mavericks. Back then, with Wade leading the way, Miami beat Dallas to cap- ture the championship. This time, it’ll be James and Dirk Nowitzki going for their first rings. The Heat will host Game 1 on Tuesday night. For Miami’s Big Three, this was the plan right from the start. The Heat had their difficulties along the way, but look at them now. They just knocked off the team that won more games than any other, that boasted the league’s MVP in Rose and sent expectations soaring around Chicago in a way not seen since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were racking up champi- onships. Rose led Chicago with 25 points but hit just 9 of 29 shots. He fouled Wade on a key four-point play and missed a tying free throw with 26.7 seconds left. James had 11 rebounds and six assists. Wade’s late surge helped negate his nine turnovers. Bosh added 20 points and 10 rebounds as the Heat pulled out a dramatic win. The Bulls looked like they were in good shape up 77-65 with about three minutes to go, but Wade started the deciding run with a runner and layup. A 3 by James pulled Miami within 77-72 with 2:07 left. Rose then scored on a spin move in the lane, but fouled Wade as he nailed a 3, resulting in a four-point play. Then, after a miss by Rose, James tied it at 79 with another 3 with 1:01 remaining, sending a loud groan through the arena. James buried another jumper to put Miami ahead 81-79 with 29.5 seconds left. Rose immediately got fouled by James, but missed the second free throw after making the first. Kurt Thomas then tipped the inbounds pass, but the Heat recovered, leading to two free throws for Bosh. The Bulls still had one more chance to tie it, but Kyle Korver got doubled up top and passed to Rose on the wing. His 3-pointer got blocked by James, with Udonis Haslem doubling him as time expired. A’s (Continued from page 1B) Anderson were a single by Erick Aybar in the second inning, a double by Maicer Izturis in the sixth and a sin- gle by Alberto Callaspo in the seventh. ‘‘Anderson pitched a good game and kept us down all afternoon,’’ Angels man- ager Mike Scioscia said. ‘‘He just was ahead in the count all game. We had some opportunities to chip into their lead and we just couldn’t get one or two runs across early.’’ Joel Pineiro (2-1) gave up 11 hits and four runs in 6 1-3 innings — the same three totals he had in his previous start against Atlanta. The 11 hits are the most allowed by an Angels starter this season. The right-hander struck out three and walked none for the second straight game while falling short in a bid to notch his 100th career victo- MLB West Division Texas East Division American League WL Pct GB 26 24.520 — Angels 26 26 .500 1 Seattle 24 25 .490 1.5 A’s 24 27 .471 2.5 WL Pct GB New York 27 21 .563 — Boston 28 22 .560 — Tampa Bay 26 23 .531 1.5 Baltimore 24 24 .500 3 Toronto 24 26 .480 4 Central Division WL Pct GB Cleveland 30 17 .638 — Detroit 25 24 .510 6 Chicago 24 28 .462 8.5 Kansas City22 27 .449 9 Minnesota 16 32 .333 14.5 ————————————————— Thursday’s results Oakland 4, L.A. Angels 3 Baltimore 6, Kansas City 5, 12 innings Boston 14, Detroit 1, 8 innings Chicago 3, Toronto 1 Today’s games Baltimore (Tillman 2-3) at Oakland (G.Gonzalez 5-2),7:05 p.m.,CSNC Boston (Wakefield 1-1) at Detroit (Porcello 4-2), 4:05 p.m. Chicago Buehrle 4-3) at Toronto (Drabek 3-3), 4:07 p.m. Cleveland (Tomlin 6-1) at Tampa Bay (Price 5-4), 4:10 p.m. Kansas City (Adcock 1-0) at Texas (C.Lewis 4-5), 5:05 p.m. Los Angeles (Chatwood 3-2) at Minnesota (S.Baker 2-3), 5:10 p.m. New York (A.J.Burnett 5-3) at Seattle (Pineda 6-2), 7:10 p.m. ry. ‘‘After he had given up a couple of runs, his stuff picked up a little bit and he looked like he got his second wind,’’ Scioscia said about Pineiro. ‘‘But I just don’t know that he had the com- mand that he’s shown us, and he definitely missed some spots in that inning where they bunched those three runs.’’ The A’s extended their lead to 4-0 with three runs in the fourth. Josh Willingham led off with a single before Mark Ellis singled with two outs. LaRoche followed with a double to left field, scoring Willingham and Ellis. He scored on Cliff Pennington’s single. Oakland led 1-0 in the second on LaRoche’s groundout to third that scored former Angel Hideki Matsui, who singled to lead off the inning. MLB West Division National League WL Pct GB GIANTS 27 22 .551 — Arizona 25 24 .510 2 Colorado 24 24 .500 2.5 Dodgers 22 29 .431 6 Padres 20 30 .400 7.5 East Division WL Pct GB Philadelphia 31 19 .620 — Florida 29 19 .604 1 Atlanta 28 23 .549 3.5 New York 23 26 .469 7.5 Washington 21 28 .429 9.5 Central Division WL Pct GB St. Louis 30 21 .588 — Milwaukee 27 23 .540 2.5 Cincinnati 26 25 .510 4 Chicago 22 26 .458 6.5 Pittsburgh 22 26 .458 6.5 Houston 19 31 .380 10.5 ————————————————— Thursday’s results Florida 1, San Francisco 0 Chicago 9, New York 3 Philadelphia 10, Cincinnati 4 Arizona at Colorado, late Today’s games San Francisco (Lincecum 4-4) at Milwaukee (Marcum 6-1),5:10 p.m.,CSNB Pittsburgh (Correia 6-4) at Chicago (D.Davis 0-2), 11:20 a.m., WGN San Diego (Richard 2-5) at Washington (Lannan 2-5), 4:05 p.m. Philadelphia (Oswalt 3-2) at New York (Capuano 3-5), 4:10 p.m. Cincinnati (Leake 3-2) at Atlanta (Hanson 5-3), 4:35 p.m. Arizona (D.Hudson 5-5) at Houston (Myers 1-4), 5:05 p.m. St. Louis (Westbrook 4-3) at Colorado (Jimenez 0-4), 5:40 p.m. Florida (Vazquez 3-4) at Los Angeles (Garland 1-4), 7:10 p.m. MIA Miami 83 Chicago 80 4-1 Florida 0 Giants 1