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2B Daily News – Thursday, August 16, 2012 SOCCER MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States ended 75 years of frustration in Mexico, winning at its southern neigh- bor and regional rival for the first time Wednesday night when Michael Orozco Fiscal's goal in the 80th minute and Tim Howard's late sprawling saves pro- vided a 1-0 victory. Dominated for most of the night, the Americans went ahead on a move creat- ed by a trio of second-half substitutes. Brek Shea cut inside Severo Meza on the left flank and crossed to Terrence Boyd at the top of the 6-yard box. With his back to the goal, Boyd took a touch with his left foot and with his right made a quick backheel pass to Orozco Fiscal, who with his left foot poked it from 3 yards past goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and defender Jorge Torres Nilo for his first international goal. Orosco Fizcal, a defender who plays in Mexico for San Luis, entered in the 77th minute for his fifth international appearance and first since October. Shea, back with the team for the first time since February following a season of turmoil in Major League Soccer, came on a minute later. Boyd had entered to start the second half. GIANTS (Continued from page 1B) was planning to play Cabrera until he got word. ''Ultimately, it was just a bad decision,'' catcher Buster Posey said. ''That's all I'm going to say.'' Strasburg (14-5) capped Washington's longest road trip of the season by winning his third straight start. He outpitched Tim Lince- cum in the process. Danny Espinosa hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the third inning, Jayson Werth drove in three runs and Kurt Suzuki added a sacrifice fly for Washington, which won a fourth straight series and now heads home for key series against division opponents New York and Atlanta. Strasburg struck out seven and walked four in six innings, allowing two runs and four hits. ''He pitches. Guys talk about his power stuff but he knows what he's doing out there,'' said Suzuki, who came to the Nationals in an Aug. 3 trade from Oak- land. ''He's got all the hype around him. Being on the outside looking in, you always wonder. Being in a different league, and now to be catching him, you see OUT (Continued from page 1B) Cabrera is batting .346 with 11 home runs and 60 RBIs in his first season with San Francisco and is five hits shy of 1,000 in his big league career. Flashing bright orange spikes, he singled and hit a two-run homer last month in the National League's 8-0 All- Star win, which secured homefield advantage for the World Series. He will miss the final 45 games of the regular season and serve the remainder of the suspen- sion at the start of next season or during the post- season, depending on whether the Giants make the playoffs and how far they advance. ''We were extremely disappointed,'' the Giants said. ''We fully support Major League Baseball's policy and its efforts to eliminate performance enhancing drugs from our game.'' Francisco Giants organiza- tion and to the fans for let- ting them down.'' If the Giants wanted him to become active in the middle of a playoff series, they would have to play a man short from the start of the series until the suspension ends because rosters can't be altered in mid-series. U.S. finally wins in Mexico Howard preserved the lead, changing directions to stop a deflected shot by Javier Hernandez in the 85th, then paw- ing away a 4-yard downward header by Chicharito in the 89th. ''I think it's huge. It's huge for I think all American fans, it's huge for the team, and it's historic,'' U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. ''We were very well aware that we've never won here at the Azteca Stadium. This is an amazing experience for the all the players. We told them before the game: This moment is for you, go and grab it. We are all aware that it was a lot, a lot of work.'' RAIDERS Tri in 75 years of games at Mexico, including 0-19-1 in the thin air at alti- tude in Mexico City — where they had been outscored 81-14. ''Tim Howard kept us in the game I don't know how many times,'' Klinsmann, who has been trying to change the defensive mindset the American had at times under Bob Bradley. ''It's a mental aspect of it. Eventually, you need a little bit of luck, too, and I think in some instances we were lucky tonight.'' said what it's all about.'' Lincecum's latest time in his career. Lincecum learned of Cabrera's suspension from TV. ''Yeah it's shocking. shaky outing was over after just four innings. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner (6- 13) lost his second straight start after win- ning three of the previ- ous four for the Giants, who ended a stretch playing for 20 straight days and will have a day off Thursday in San Diego ahead of a week- end series with the Padres. The Nationals right- hander allowed Craw- ford's single in the sec- ond after opening the inning with back-to-back walks but was otherwise strong in his first outing at the Giants waterfront ballpark. He struck out Posey in the third after a nine- pitch duel with the All- Star catcher, then struck out the side in the fifth. was his 13th of the sea- son and fourth in his past 12 games. It's something we're just going to have to deal with from here on out,'' he said. five and walked one but labored for most of his brief outing. He threw 38 pitches in the first inning when Washington scored twice, then gave up a towering drive to right- center by Espinosa in the third before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the fourth. cum's best stretch of the season — he had allowed only five earned runs over 20 innings going into the game — and left the two-time NL Cy Young Award winner once again searching for answers. Strasburg, on the other hand, was quietly effective while beating the Giants for the second That ended Lince- Cabrera became the second Giants player to receive a drug suspension this season. Reliever Guillermo Mota was penalized for 100 games in May, becoming just the third major league player disciplined twice for posi- tive drug tests. Mota is eli- gible to return Aug. 28, barring rainouts, and began a minor league rehabilitation assignment Tuesday with the Giants' rookie team in Arizona. There have been four suspensions in the major league drug program this year, with Philadelphia infielder Freddy Galvis and free agent outfielder Marlon Byrd also sus- pended 50 games apiece. There have been 70 sus- pensions under the minor league drug program. In mid-May, MLB and the players' union agreed to drop the 100-game sus- pension imposed on Col- orado Rockies catcher Eliezer Alfonzo for a pos- itive drug test because of the same procedural issues that came up in the case of Braun, the Milwaukee outdfielder who is the reigning NL MVP. Alfon- zo missed 48 games — the final 15 of last season and the first 33 of this year. Braun's 50-game sus- pension for a positive drug test was overturned in February by arbitrator Shyam Das after Braun's lawyers argued his urine Lincecum struck out Espinosa's home run The umpire crew turned to instant replay to determine whether Michael Morse's hit to lead off the fifth was a home run or a double off the top of the wall in right-center. The double stood, and Morse extend- ed his hitting streak to 12 games. Tyler Clippard pitched the ninth for the Nation- als, allowing a two-out single to pinch-hitter Hector Sanchez and an unearned run when first baseman Adam LaRoche lost Pablo Sandoval's popup for an error that allowed Sanchez to score from second. Clippard held on for his 25th save. Sandoval insists the Giants will move ward without Cabrera. ''We are a team. for- We're trying to make the playoffs,'' Sandoval said. ''We're going to fight.'' sample was not handled in the manner specified by baseball's drug agreement. Das, who had been base- ball's permanent arbitrator since 1999, was fired this spring. The U.S. had been 0-23-1 against El MCT file photo Jacoby Ford, left, said his first preseason outing was not how he wanted to start. Ford puts 1st game behind By JOSH DUBOW Associated Press NAPA — Jacoby Ford is glad he got a clunker of a game out of the way in the preseason. Ford had a rather forgettable exhibi- tion opener for the Oakland Raiders. He dropped two passes, was unable to break up an interception on a deep ball from Carson Palmer and muffed a punt for Oakland (tied for No. 23 in the AP Pro32) in a 3-0 loss to Dallas on Mon- day night. ''It's definitely not the way I wanted to come out and put anything on film like that,'' Ford said Wednesday. ''But games like that happen and that's why you've got to have a short-term memo- ry and put it behind you. Good thing is it's preseason so you kind of just put that behind you now and go into the next game, work on improvements the next time.'' Ford is being counted on heavily for the Raiders this season as one of the few experienced receivers on the roster. His absence for most of the second half last season with a foot injury played a role in the team missing the playoffs for a ninth straight season. He had a strong start to training camp, showing good chemistry with Palmer after the two got very little time to work together following Palmer's midseason acquisition. That's why it was so surprising to the Raiders to see Ford struggle in the first exhibition game. ''It's one football game,'' coach Den- nis Allen said. ''It's not the end of the world. He knows, we all know, we all got to get better, every single one of us out there. We got to put that one behind us because there's not anything we can do about the last one. We got to go on to the next one. He's done a good job of putting it behind him. He's ready to go back to work and we got all the confi- dence in the world in Jacoby Ford.'' The rough night started when Palmer took a deep shot for Ford on the open- ing drive and safety Gerald Sensabaugh came over to make the interception. While Palmer took full blame for that turnover, saying he did a poor job of Famer Willie Mays' 49 from 1958. In December 2011, slugger Manny Ramirez received a 50-game sus- pension for a second posi- tive drug test. The 12-time All-Star signed a one-year minor league contract with the Oakland Athletics on Feb. 20, but was released in June per his request while playing for Triple-A Sacramento before even reaching the big leagues with the A's. the Tampa Bay Rays last season rather than serve a 100-game suspension for a second failed drug test. The penalty was cut to 50 games because he sat out nearly all of last season. The 28-year-old Cabr- era, who became a market- ing phenomenon this year with nicknames like ''Got Melk?'' ''Melk Man'' and ''Melky Way,'' produced a 51-hit month in May. Cabrera batted .429 in May with three homers, five triples, seven doubles and 17 RBIs. He hit safely in 25 of 29 games. The 51 hits matched Randy Winn for most hits in a month since the club came to San Francisco in 1958. Ramirez retired from Cabrera also set the San Francisco record for most hits in May, passing Hall Cabrera came to the Giants in a trade with Kansas City last Novem- ber that sent left-hander Jonathan Sanchez to the Royals. Cabrera — who signed a $6 million, one- year deal to avoid salary arbitration — batted .305 with 44 doubles, 18 homers and 87 RBIs last season. He is a big reason San Francisco began play Wednesday tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers atop the NL West. Cabrera had been listed in the original lineup for the series finale with the Washington Nationals, batting third and playing left field. Gre- gor Blanco replaced Cabr- era. San Francisco said it will not make a roster WNBA WESTERN CONFERENCE WL Pct GB Minnesota 15 4 .789 — San Antonio13 5 .722 1.5 Los Angeles15 6 .714 1 Seattle 9 10 .474 6 Phoenix 4 15 .211 11 Tulsa of looking off the safety, Allen said Ford could have done a better job breaking up the play. There was no doubt who was at fault the next drive when Ford dropped back- to-back passes from Palmer. Ford said he was a little overanxious after missing six of the final seven games with a sprained left foot last season. ''I was excited to get back out there, and I just want to go out and just per- form better for the team,'' he said. ''I didn't perform at all the way that I wanted to, but that's preseason. So whenever it comes to the regular game, we'll be ready.'' Palmer pulled Ford aside near the bench after those drops to give him a mental boost. He said he has no con- cerns about Ford's reliability, saying those are the only two drops he can remember in training camp or offseason practices. ''It's nothing that needs to be talked about,'' Palmer said. ''I have complete faith in him and he'll catch the next one. I told him right after it happened I'm coming right back at you to give you another chance. I know the next ball I throw to him, if it's a bad ball he'll go up and make a play on it and make a play for me.'' After a strong rookie season in which he caught 25 passes and scored seven touchdowns in the final eight games, Ford played only sparingly last year because of injuries. He missed two games early with a hamstring injury and then six games with the foot injury. He caught 19 pass- es for 271 yards and a touchdown. Ford is also looking to add punt return duties to his repertoire this sea- son for the first time since his senior season at Clemson. Already one of the NFL's most dangerous kick returners with four touchdowns in two seasons, Ford is adjusting to the more stressful job of catching punts with defenders bearing down. His first attempt at a return came late in the first quarter against Dallas when he muffed a ball near the sideline and went right out of bounds, costing Oak- land a chance at good field position. move until Thursday's off day before opening a weekend series at San Diego. The clubhouse was closed before the game when the news of Cabr- era's suspension broke. ''Sad, man,'' Robinson Cano of the Yankees said. ''He's a friend. I'm going to be there for him. I never MLB West Division Texas A's American League WL Pct GB 67 49 .578 — 61 55 .526 6 Angels 61 56 .521 6.5 Seattle 55 64 .462 13.5 East Division WL Pct GB New York 70 47 .598 — Baltimore 64 53 .547 6 Tampa Bay 63 54 .538 7 Boston 57 61 .483 13.5 Toronto 55 62 .470 15 Central Division WL Pct GB Chicago 64 52 .552 — Detroit 63 55 .534 2 Cleveland 54 63 .462 10.5 Kansas City51 65 .440 13 Minnesota 50 67 .427 14.5 ------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday's results Detroit 5, Minnesota 1 Seattle 1, Tampa Bay 0 Baltimore 5, Boston 3 N.Y.Yankees 3, Texas 2 Chicago White Sox 9, Toronto 5 Kansas City 3, Oakland 2 Cleveland at L.A. Angels, late Today's games Texas (D.Holland 7-6) at N.Y.Yankees (Nova 11-6), 10:05 a.m. Boston (Buchholz 10-3) at Baltimore (Till- man 5-2), 4:05 p.m. 3 15 .167 11.5 EASTERN CONFERENCE WL Pct GB Connecticut 15 4 .789 — Indiana 10 7 .588 4 Atlanta 9 10 .474 6 Chicago 8 9 .471 6 New York 6 12 .333 8.5 Washington 4 14 .222 10.5 Chicago White Sox (Liriano 3-10) at Toronto (Laffey 3-3), 4:07 p.m. Oakland (Straily 0-0) at Kansas City (Hochevar 7-10), 5:10 p.m. Tampa Bay (Price 15-4) at L.A. Angels (Haren 8-9), 7:05 p.m. Friday's games Baltimore at Detroit, 4:05 p.m. Boston at N.Y.Yankees, 4:05 p.m. Texas at Toronto, 4:07 p.m. Chicago White Sox at Kansas City, 5:10 p.m. Cleveland at Oakland, 7:05 p.m. Tampa Bay at L.A. Angels, 7:05 p.m. Minnesota at Seattle, 7:10 p.m. talked to him about any- thing like that. Sad day.'' MLB West Division National League WL Pct GB Dodgers 65 53 .551 — GIANTS 64 54 .542 1 Arizona 58 59 .496 6.5 San Diego 52 67 .437 13.5 Colorado 44 71 .383 19.5 East Division WL Pct GB Washington 73 45 .619 — Atlanta 68 49 .581 4.5 New York 55 62 .470 17.5 Phillies 54 63 .462 18.5 Miami 53 65 .449 20 Central Division WL Pct GB Cincinnati 71 46 .607 — Pittsburgh 64 53 .547 7 St. Louis 64 53 .547 7 Milwaukee 52 64 .448 18.5 Chicago 46 70 .397 24.5 Houston 39 80 .328 33 ------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday's results Miami 9, Philadelphia 2 Chicago Cubs 7, Houston 2 Colorado 7, Milwaukee 6 Washington 6, San Francisco 4 L.A. Dodgers 9, Pittsburgh 3 Cincinnati 6, N.Y.Mets 1 Atlanta 6, San Diego 1 St. Louis 5, Arizona 2 Today's games L.A. Dodgers (Blanton 8-10) at Pittsburgh (A.J.Burnett 14-4), 1:05 p.m. N.Y. Mets (Harvey 1-3) at Cincinnati (H.Bailey 10-7), 4:10 p.m. San Diego (Marquis 6-6) at Atlanta (Medlen 3-1), 4:10 p.m. Philadelphia (Cl.Lee 2-7) at Milwaukee (Estrada 0-5), 5:10 p.m. Arizona (Cahill 9-10) at St. Louis (Lohse 12-2), 5:15 p.m. Miami (Nolasco 9-11) at Colorado (White 2-6), 5:40 p.m. Friday's games N.Y. Mets at Washington, 4:05 p.m. Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati, 4:10 p.m. L.A. Dodgers at Atlanta, 4:35 p.m. Arizona at Houston, 5:05 p.m. Philadelphia at Milwaukee, 5:10 p.m. Pittsburgh at St. Louis, 5:15 p.m. Miami at Colorado, 5:40 p.m. San Francisco at San Diego, 7:05 p.m.