Red Bluff Daily News

September 01, 2016

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ALEXBRANDON—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Milos Raonic returns a shot to Ryan Harrison, of the United States, during the second round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament Wednesday in New York. ByHowardFendrich TheAssociatedPress NEW YORK The cramping became so debilitating, Milos Raonic said, he couldn't grip his racket properly. The Wimbledon runner-up just last month, and seeded No. 5 at the U.S. Open, Raonic began to feel pain near his left wrist midway through the second set of what would become a stunning 6-7 (4), 7-5, 7-5, 6-1 second- round loss to 120th-ranked American qualifier Ryan Harrison on Wednes- day. Eventually, the problem spread to Raonic's right forearm. Then both thighs. Then his left hip flexor. Af- terward, his back seized up when he tried to sling his equipment bag over a shoulder. No way to try to win a tennis match. Or to serve: That's nor- mally his most effective stroke, yet he double-faulted 15 times. "It was just catching me all over," Raonic said. "I started getting small (cramps) where I couldn't hold the racket. I couldn't switch grips from one point to the next. There were a few points where I would hold the racket with my left and try to stretch out my right hand in between shots — and that's not going to work." He was one of a trio of highly seeded players to exit Flushing Mead- ows on Day 3, although the other de- partures were less surprising. No. 3 Garbine Muguruza, the French Open champion, made 38 unforced errors and bowed out 7-5, 6-4 against Anastasija Sevastova at night. All four of Muguruza's U.S. Open appearances have ended in the first or second round. No. 9 Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 champion, took the first four games before los- ing 6-4, 6-4 to Caroline Wozniacki, who is unseeded but can rely on the muscle memory from two trips to the final in New York. Later under the lights, the tourna- ment's new, $150 million retractable roof above Arthur Ashe Stadium was closed during a match for the first time, when there was rain during the second set of Rafael Nadal's contest U.S. OPEN TENNIS RaonicstunnedbyUSqualifier No.5seedcrampsup, falls to Harrison in 2nd round for serious upset By Carl Steward Bay Area News Group SAN FRANCISCO Santiago Casilla has experienced the ex- treme ups and downs of this bi- zarre 2016 San Francisco Gi- ants season as much as anyone, so it's only appropriate that the closer offered the pulse of the team Wednesday as it heads into Wrigley Field, the month of Sep- tember and the final tell-all 30 games. ""I think August was a month that gave us a test for us to see exactly where our heads were," Casilla said through an inter- preter following the Giants' hard-earned 4-2 victory over Ar- izona at AT&T Park. "Now here comes September and this is the month we need to actually win. "After September, there are no more months left." Casilla got a four-out save to finish off a dismal 11-16 August on an up note, something the Gi- ants desperately needed head- ing into Chicago to play base- ball's best team record-wise in the Cubs. They headed East un- derstanding they could have been 3 ½ games out in the Na- tional League West with a bad day. But with a victory and the Los Angeles Dodgers losing the first game of a doubleheader at Colorado, they are just a game out of first place and possibly could be just a half-game back pending the nightcap outcome in Denver. Casilla's 29th save was no cheapie. He entered the game with two out in the eighth af- ter Sergio Romo had loaded the bases by surrendering a dou- ble to Jean Segura and walking Paul Goldschmidt and Rickie Weeks Jr. The Diamondbacks had Casilla's personal nemesis Jake Lamb on the bench — or as locker neighbor Johnny Cueto joked, Casilla's "daddy" — but elected to send up Yasmany To- mas despite the fact that Tomas had already struck out three times in the game. Casilla delivered a fourth K, whiffing Tomas on a fastball to end the last big threat. Interest- ingly, Lamb wound up pinch-hit- ting with nobody on in the ninth and ripped a solo homer. As one might remember, Casilla threw a tantrum back on May 13 when manager Bruce Bochy yanked him with the bases loaded in fa- vor of Javier Lopez to get the fi- nal out of a 4-2 win in Phoenix. That drama seems like an- cient history these days. The Gi- ants were going incredibly well then compared to now, where they're still trying to find their competitive bearings for the fi- nal-month sprint to the finish. But they head to Chicago hav- ing won four of six, and now it's time to find out what they're truly made of against the Cubs for four games. "It's going to be fun," said BASEBALL MOOREHELPSLIFT GIANTS TO VICTORY San Francisco finishes off dismal 11-16 August on positive note, now heads to Wrigley Field ERIC RISBERG — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The San Francisco Giants' Buster Posey hits a two-run double off Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Shelby Miller in the first inning Wednesday in San Francisco. GIANTS4,DIAMONDBACKS2 Up next: San Francisco Gi- ants at Chicago Cubs, 5:05p.m. Thursday, TV on CSN-BA. THESCORE The Associated Press PENA CABARGA, SPAIN Chris Froome won a thrilling up- hill duel against climbing rival Nairo Quintana by a bike length to win the 11th stage of the Span- ish Vuelta on Wednesday. Quintana defended his race lead and is now 54 seconds ahead of Froome, who overtook Alejandro Valverde to move to second overall. Valverde finished six seconds behind, dropping to third over- all and 1:05 behind Quintana. Froome, who clinched his third Tour de France title in July, got his first stage win at a major race on this same Pena Cabarga peak in 2011 — the year the British rider finished as the Vuelta runner-up. Froome and Quintana, who have had some memorable climbing contests on the Tour, tested one another on the cate- gory-one ascent, trading attacks before Froome edged the Colom- bian at the line. "I have some special memo- ries from 2011 here, but today, to add to that, is just an incred- ible feeling," Froome said. Froome pumped his fist in the air after completing the 104.7-mile ride starting in Col- unga near the Atlantic coast in 3 hours, 44 minutes, 47 seconds. The stage's dramatic finish promises another two weeks of Quintana and Froome going head-to-head for the title. Quintana, who has twice fin- ished runner-up at the Tour be- hind Froome, said he expects to fight a "war" with the Sky leader until the end. "We arrived together, but (Froome) was faster at the end," Quintana said. "He is strong and SPANISH VUELTA Froome edges Quintana to capture 11th stage CYCLING PAGE 2 By John Hickey Bay Area News Group HOUSTON The Oakland A's and the Cleveland Indians made of- ficial Wednesday morning what was reported Tuesday night, that Oakland has traded veteran out- fielder Coco Crisp back to the In- dians. Cleveland is the team with which Crisp got to the major leagues in 2002 and for which he played the first four seasons of his career. He's been one of the faces of the A's since 2010, but that ended when Crisp waived his 10-and-5 rights to not be traded (10 years in the MLB, the last five with the same team) in order to accept the deal. The A's, who will also ship cash to the Indians, will get left- handed pitcher Colt Hynes from Cleveland. Hynes, 31, started the year with the Toronto Blue Jays organization before being traded to the Indians. He has a 3-1 re- cord, two saves and a 3.99 ERA while bouncing between Double- A and Triple-A in both organiza- tions. The money the A's are sending will be to help defray the Indians' costs with Crisp owed a little less than $2 million for the rest of the year and a $750,000 buyout of his 2017 contract. Even with the money being in- cluded in the deal, the A's are now in no danger of having a mas- sive $13 million Crisp contract on their books for next year. He'd played in 102 games at the time of the deal, and the $13 million in 2017 would vest if he would have reached 130 games played. The big payout now is a remote possibility — the Indians have 31 games left on the schedule, but Crisp isn't expected to play ev- ery day for Cleveland but rather to be part of the solution as the Tribe attempts to fill in for Mi- chael Bourne, who is on the dis- abled list. Crisp was unhappy that his playing time had been cut by the A's to the point where it be- came unlikely that he would be able to get to the 130-game mark, and came out mid-August to say "I know some strings are being pulled" to keep him only a semi- regular, adding "it all seems a lit- tle suspect." He'd been limited to just 44 games last year by head and neck injuries, and even this year needed to alter his daily game preparation to be able to be ready, including the use of pain-killers. "I haven't felt this good in a couple of years," Crisp said at the time. And it showed. The A's have used the disabled list a club re- cord 27 times in 2016, but Crisp didn't appear on it. With Crisp traded, Oakland has contracts with just five play- ers for 2017. DH Billy Butler, sec- ond baseman Jed Lowrie and re- lievers Ryan Madson, John Ax- ford and Sean Doolittle are locked in for next season for a total of $32.1 million. BASEBALL A's trade Crisp to Indians Crisp GIANTS PAGE 2 TENNIS PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, September 1, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1

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