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2B Daily News – Wednesday, October 5, 2011 Francisco's homer lifts Phillies past Cardinals ST. LOUIS (AP) — Charlie Manuel guessed right, twice. Tony La Russa, well, he wound up getting second-guessed. And on his 67th birthday. Pinch-hitter Ben Francisco and closer Ryan Madson made their man- ager's moves look smart, and the Philadelphia Phillies held off the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 Tuesday for a 2-1 lead in their NL playoff series. ''To steal a game here, if worse comes to worst, we come back home and we've got another game with Doc (Halladay) on the mound,'' Phillies slugger Ryan Howard said. ''We put ourselves in a great situation.'' Francisco batted for Cole Hamels and broke open a scoreless game with a two-out, three-run homer off Jaime Garcia in the seventh inning. The Car- dinals stuck with Garcia instead of opt- ing for a pinch-hitter with two on and two outs in the sixth. Garcia struck out, then lost his pitching touch. ''Well, it didn't work, so that's bad managing,'' La Russa said. ''I'm watching him pitch and was really pleased. I thought he was the guy to continue pitching and I knew the matchups were in our favor. ... It didn't work.'' Madson earned his first multi- inning save of the year. He got Allen Craig to ground sharply into a double play with the bases loaded to escape in the eighth, then worked around Yadier Molina's RBI single in the ninth. Manuel's reasoning: ''I figured the game was on the line, and we had to stop them.'' The Phillies, favored to win it all after a franchise-record 102-win sea- son, can finish off the wild-card Cardi- nals in Game 4 on Wednesday, with Roy Oswalt opposing Edwin Jackson. The Cardinals are all too familiar TEXAS (Continued from page 1B) Neftali Feliz gave up a run in the ninth inning before closing for his third save of the series, preserv- ing the victory for Matt Harrison. Texas won for the fifth straight time on the road overall — all at Tropicana Field — in the opening round. The Rangers eliminated Tampa Bay in five games last year, winning three times in the Rays' home stadium. Beltre hit solo shots off Hellickson in the second and fourth innings, and added another solo drive against Game 1 winner Matt Moore in the seventh. The Rays weren't the only ones who had trouble keeping up with Beltre — a television cameraman try- ing to run alongside Beltre to capture the image as the star jogged home did a face-first pratfall. Beltre and Kinsler tied for the team lead with 32 homers, and Beltre had been on a late-season tear going into the playoffs. The Rangers finished with just six hits in the clincher. Texas reached the World Series for the first time last year, but lost to San Francisco. Down 2-0 early, the Rays literally rammed their way back into the game. Sean Rodriguez drew a one-out walk in the second and took off when Matt Joyce lined a two-out double to the gap in right-center field. Rodriguez barreled around third base and plowed into catcher Mike Napoli, jarring the ball loose. Rodriguez knocked Napoli backward, scrambled to his feet and touched the plate with his hand. It was the second plate collision in the playoffs this year. St. Louis' Jon Jay ran over Philadelphia's Carlos Ruiz in an unsuccessful attempt to score during Game 2 of the Cardinals' matchup against the Phillies. Manager Ron Washington and the Rangers trainer left the dugout to check on the woozy Napoli, who remained in the game. Napoli got more attention in- between innings and stayed in the lineup. The play energized the crowd of 28,299, about 4,000 less than Monday night, which was announced as a sellout. But several innings later, the Rays' season was over. YANKS (Continued from page 1B) tying run on second, putting New York in a 2-1 hole in the series. He bounced back to give the Yankees an early boost Tuesday. Detroit starter Rick Por- cello hit Jorge Posada with a pitch to start the third, and Russell Martin followed with a single. Brett Gardner struck out looking and disputed the call with plate umpire Dan Iassogna for a bit, but Jeter hit a drive to deep center that speedy Austin Jackson was- n't able to run down. Both runners scored on the double to give New York a 2-0 lead. After holding the Tigers hitless through three innings, Burnett allowed Victor Mar- tinez's leadoff homer in the fourth. One out later, Peralta doubled down the left-field line, but Burnett struck out Alex Avila and Wilson Betemit to end the inning. Martin and Gardner led off the fifth with singles. After Jeter bunted into a force play at third, Grander- son doubled to right, driving in a run. Alex Rodriguez added a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1. Porcello allowed four runs and five hits in six innings. The Yankees broke it open with six runs in the eighth. Detroit reliever Al Alburquerque balked in a run, and the Yankees added two more on singles by pinch-hitter Jesus Montero and Gardner. Daniel Schlereth allowed a run later in the inning when his wild pitch bounced all the with the win-or-else proposition. They won the NL wild card on the final day of the season, erasing a 10 1/2-game deficit on Aug. 25 to overtake the Braves. ''Listen, we flip the page and come back ready to play with the same ener- gy we've been having the last six weeks,'' said Albert Pujols, who had four hits. ''We've been in this situation before.'' Francisco's shot on a 1-0 fastball from Garcia was only his second hit in 19 postseason at-bats. He hit six homers this season, the last on May 25 against the Reds. Francisco had been preparing for that moment against a lefty, and Manuel said after the game that he might have stuck with Francisco even if the Cardinals had changed pitchers. ''I didn't know it was a homer, I knew I hit it good,'' Francisco said. ''I saw it bounce over the fence and just pure excitement, pure joy.'' Hamels struck out eight in six score- less innings and reversed a disturbing trend after allowing nine homers in September, with a pair of doubles by Pujols the only extra-base hits. He's a franchise-best 7-4 in the postseason with a 3.09 ERA. ''You don't want to make mistakes, you don't want to leave the ball over the plate,'' Hamels said. ''Every pitch mattered, every inning mattered. I knew I couldn't let it get out of hand.'' The Cardinals frustrated a season- high crowd of 46,914 by stranding 14 runners. They set a National League record with 169 double-play balls this season. ''Sometimes you're going to get a bunch of hits, sometimes you're going to get no hits with men on base,'' Pujols said. ''I don't think Allen hit a ball that hard all season like he did with the bases loaded.'' Ryan Theriot also had four hits for St. Louis, a heavy underdog in this series. The Cardinals had runners in scoring position in six innings but came up empty despite three hits in the eighth, including a pinch-hit single by Matt Holliday in only his second appearance of the series. The Cardinals' decision to let Gar- cia bat with two on and two outs in the sixth backfired in a big way. Garcia struck out on Hamels' 117th pitch and wasn't the same in the seventh. The Phillies, held to three hits to that point, doubled that total in the seventh. Shane Victorino led off with a single and moved up on a passed ball before Carlos Ruiz was intentionally walked with two outs. Francisco, who had been 1 for 9 against Garcia, deposited a 1-0 fastball in the visitors' bullpen in left-center. Francisco was clutch at the end of the year, getting seven hits in his last 20 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Lefty vs. lefty percentages, even against Howard, allowed Garcia to elude trouble until the seventh. Chase Utley singled with two outs in the sixth, breaking a string of nine straight batters retired by Garcia, and went to second on a wild pitch on an 0- 1 delivery to Hunter Pence. The Cardinals elected for an inten- tional walk at that point, and the move paid off when Howard, who is 2 for 15 with a homer and an RBI against Gar- cia counting the playoffs, tapped out weakly to first. Garcia was at only 74 pitches through six, but needed 26 more in the seventh. Hamels was up to the task as well, striking out David Freese with two run- ners on to end the first. The 2008 World Series MVP also got Garcia on a groundout with two on to end the fourth.to get four hits in a postseason game. ... The Phillies have five pinch- hit homers in the postseason, the last by Matt Stairs on Oct. 13, 2008, in the NLCS at Los Angeles. Rodriguez scored all three runs for the Rays. He drew a one-out walk and scored on Casey Kotchman's single in the ninth, but Feliz retired the next two bat- ters. ''It's huge, but we've still got a lot on our minds,'' said Ranger pitcher Derek Holland, who won Game 2 in Arlington and worked 1 1-3 scoreless innings in relief in the clincher. ''We want to win the whole thing, and that's what we're going to try to do from here.'' Tampa Bay certainly gave its faithful, and fans everywhere, quite a ride in the final month. Manager Joe Maddon's team overcame a nine-game deficit against Boston in the wild-card standings, then rallied from seven runs to beat the Yankees on the last day of the regular season to reach the playoffs for the third time in four years despite a small payroll. ''It's sour the way it ended. You feel like you have done more. We really, really have nothing to hang our heads about,'' said Evan Longoria, whose 12th-inning homer beat the Yankees and put the Rays in the post- season. ''We had our opportunities. Our bullpen and start- ing pitchers gave us a chance,'' he added. ''It came down to offensively not getting it done.'' Harrison, who made a relief appearance in the Rangers' loss in the series opener, pitched five innings and won in his first postseason start. The Texas bullpen took over after that. Texas' five consecutive division series road wins matches the second-longest streak in big league histo- ry. The Atlanta Braves won a record eight straight from 1995-99 and the Yankees won five in a row from 2003-05. Moore stymied the powerful Texas lineup by work- ing seven scoreless inning in the opener at Arlington. The Rays brought him on again in hopes of holding the Rangers to a 3-2 lead, and it looked like the move might work. The 22-year-old lefty retired the first six batters he faced before Beltre led off the seventh with an opposite-field shot into the stands in right. ''It's always painful, especially being around the league for this long,'' said Rays designated hitter Johnny Damon, finishing his 17th season. ''We had a good enough team to win, and keep on winning. It just seemed Texas definitely had our number.'' way over the screen, and Robinson Cano's two-run single sent fans at Comerica Park toward the exits. NOTES: Rodriguez, hitless in the series coming into the game, had a pair of singles. ... Burnett, who threw 25 wild pitches during the regular season, was charged with another in the fourth. The ball actually bounced only a few feet away from Martin, but the catcher had a hard time finding it and Peralta went from second to third....At 22 years, 9 months and 7 days WNBA Finals Minnesota 1, Atlanta 0 Game 1: Minnesota 88, Atlanta 74 Today: Atlanta at Minnesota, 5 p.m. Friday: Minnesota at Atlanta, 5 p.m. Sunday: Minnesota at Atlanta, 1 p.m. Oct. 12: Atlanta at Minnesota, 5 p.m. old, Porcello became the youngest Detroit pitcher to start a postseason game. ... Former Detroit closer Todd Jones took the mound in a Jose Valverde jersey before the game and threw the ceremonial first pitch, then hopped off and tried to mimic one of Valverde's dance moves. ODDS NFL Sunday's games at Indianapolis 2.5 (38.5) Kansas City at Minnesota 2.5 (44.5) Philadelphia 2.5 (49.5) at Houston 6 (49) New Orleans 6 (52.5) at Jacksonville 2.5(37) at Pittsburgh 5 (40) at N.Y. Giants 10 (42.5) Arizona at Buffalo Oakland at Carolina Cincinnati Tennessee Seattle at San Francisco 2.5 (40.5) TampaBay at New England 9.5 (49) San Diego 4 (47.5) Green Bay 5.5 (54) at Detroit Monday's game 6 (48) Off Key Pittsburgh QB questionable Chicago N.Y. Jets at Denver at Atlanta NBA talks break down over money, games in jeopardy NEW YORK (AP) — Commissioner David Stern floated it as an idea more than a firm proposal: a 50-50 revenue split. Even so, the union's reply was unequivocal. ''They said, 'We can't do it.''' according to Stern. And with that, the remainder of the presea- son was lost and the first two weeks of the regular season moved to the brink of cancellation. The NBA shelved the rest of its exhibition schedule Tuesday and will wipe out the first two weeks of the regular sea- son if there is no labor agreement by Monday. ''We were not able to make the progress that we hoped we could make and we were not able to con- tinue the negotiations,'' Stern said after nearly fours of talks between owners and players ended without gaining ground on a new deal. No further meetings are scheduled, making it even more likely the league will lose games to a work stoppage for the first time since 1998-99, when the season was reduced to 50 games. Stern and Deputy Commissioner Adam Sil- ver said owners offered players a 50-50 split of basketball-related income. That's below the 57 per- cent that players were guaranteed under the pre- vious collective bargain- ing agreement, but more than the 47 percent union officials said was formally proposed to them. The only numbers that matter now, however, are the millions that stand to be lost when arenas go dark. ''The damage will be enormous,'' Silver said. Players had offered to reduce their BRI guaran- tee to 53 percent, which they said would have given owners back more than $1 billion over six years. They say they won't cut it further, at least for now. And they insist the 50- 50 concept wasn't an even split, because it would have come after the league had already deducted $350 million off the top. ''Today was not the day for us to get this done,'' players' associa- tion president Derek Fish- er said. ''We were not able to get close enough to close the gap.'' With superstars like Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett stand- ing behind him, union executive director Billy Hunter said the players' proposal would have made up at least $200 mil- lion per season — a siz- able chunk of the $300 million owners said they lost last season. ''Our guys have indi- cated a willingness to lose games,'' Hunter said. The sides are also still divided on the salary-cap structure. Training camps were postponed and 43 presea- son games scheduled for Oct. 9-15 were canceled on Sept. 24. Both sides NCAA AP Top 25 Schedule Thursday's game No. 9 Oregon vs. California, 6 p.m. Friday's game No. 5 Boise State at Fresno State, 6 p.m. Saturday's games No. 1 LSU vs. No. 17 Florida, 12:30 p.m. No. 2 Alabama vs.Vanderbilt, 4 p.m. No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 11 Texas at Dallas, 9 a.m. No. 6 Okla. St. vs. Kansas, 12:30 p.m. No. 7 Stanford vs. Colorado, 4:30 p.m. No. 8 Clemson vs. Boston College, Noon No.10 Arkansas vs.No.15 Auburn, 4 p.m. No. 12 Michigan at Northwestern, 4 p.m. No. 13 Georgia Tech vs. Maryland, 9 a.m. No. 14 Nebraska vs. Ohio State, 5 p.m. No. 16 West Virginia vs. Connecticut, 9 a.m. No. 18 S. Carolina vs. Kentucky, 9 a.m. No. 19 Illinois at Indiana, 11:30 a.m. No. 20 Kansas St. vs. Missouri, 12:30 p.m. No. 21 Virginia Tech vs. Miami, 12:30 p.m. No. 22 Arizona State at Utah, 12:30 p.m. No. 23 Florida St. at Wake Forest, 9:30 a.m. No. 24 Texas A&M at Texas Tech, 4 p.m. No. 25 Baylor vs. Iowa State, 4 p.m. said they felt pressure to work toward a deal with deadlines looming before more cancellations would be necessary. Stern said the owners had removed their demand for a hard salary cap, were no longer insist- ing on salary rollbacks, and would have given players the right to opt out of a 10-year agreement after seven years. But the money split was always going to be the biggest hurdle in these negotia- tions, with owners insis- tent on the ability to turn a profit after the league said 22 of its 30 teams lost money last season. ''We want to and have been willing to negotiate, but we find ourselves at a point today where we in some ways anticipated or expected to be, faced with a lockout that may jeopar- dize portions if not all of our season,'' Fisher said. After hardly budging off their original proposal for 1 1/2 years, owners finally increased their offer to players from 46 to 47 percent of BRI. It was then that the top negotia- tors discussed the 50-50 concept, and while Stern sounded disappointed that it didn't work, Silver was more frustrated. ''I am not going to get a good night sleep,'' he said. ''After this after- noon's session, I would say I'm personally very disappointed. I thought that we should have con- tinued negotiating today and I thought that there was potentially common ground on a 50-50 deal. I think it makes sense, it sounds like a partnership. There still would have been a lot of negotiating to do on the system ele- ments, but I'm personally very disappointed.'' On what both sides stressed was an important day, the owners' entire 11- man labor relations com- mittee came to New York to meet with 11 players. They could still work something out before Monday's deadline, but neither side sounded opti- mistic. ''Right now, we had our committees, we gave it a really good run, and it didn't work,'' Stern said. Hunter said the union would hold regional meet- ings with its players, set up workout centers and help in other ways. And many players — includ- ing Bryant, who has been in talks with an Italian team — will have to decide if they want to explore playing overseas. And without a deal, the battle could go to the courts. Hunter said the union would have to con- sider decertification, and on Tuesday a federal court judge scheduled a hearing for Nov. 2 to hear argu- ments in the league's law- suit against the players seeking a declaration that the lockout doesn't violate antitrust laws. All things both sides hoped to avoid Tuesday. ''It wasn't to be, and we don't have any plans right now,'' Stern said. MLS WESTERN CONFERENCE WL T Pts GF GA x-Galaxy 18 4 10 64 46 25 x-Seattle 16 6 9 57 51 33 x-Salt Lake 15 10 6 51 43 32 FC Dallas 13 11 7 46 36 34 Colorado 11 9 12 45 42 40 Portland 11 13 7 40 38 44 Chivas USA 8 12 12 36 40 39 QUAKES 611 14 32 33 40 Vancouver 4 16 10 22 29 50 EASTERN CONFERENCE WL T Pts GF GA Kansas City 11 9 12 45 47 40 Philadelphia10 7 14 44 41 34 Columbus 12 12 8 44 38 41 New York 9 7 16 43 49 42 Houston 10 9 13 43 40 40 D.C. 9 10 11 38 46 46 Chicago 7 8 16 37 40 40 Toronto FC 6 13 13 31 33 56 N. England 5 14 12 27 35 51 NOTE: Three points for victory, one point for tie. x- clinched playoff berth —————————————————— Tuesday's result New York 2, Los Angeles 0 Thursday's game Real Salt Lake at Vancouver, 6:30 p.m. Saturday's games San Jose at New England, 4:30 p.m. Philadelphia at Seattle FC, 7 p.m.