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Tracker Wednesday's results Tehama MLB Minnesota Athletics 5 1 Crisp: 3-3, BB, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, SB Milone: W, 8 IP, ER, 2 hits Giants L.A. Dodgers LATE Today's games MLB Athletics Tampa Bay OAK —T.Ross, 2-8 TB —Cobb, 7-8 Atlanta Giants ATL— Hanson, 12-5 SF— Zito, 9-8 On the tube CYCLING •1 p.m., NBCSN — U.S. Pro Chal- lenge, stage 4, Aspen to Beaver Creek, Colo. GOLF • 6:30 a.m., TGC — European PGA Tour, Johnnie Walker Championship, first round, at Perthshire, Scotland • 11 a.m., TGC — PGA Tour, The Bar- clays, first round, at Farmingdale, N.Y. • 3:30 p.m., TGC — LPGA, Canadian Women's Open, first round, at Coquit- lam, British Columbia (same-day tape) LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL •1 p.m., ESPN — World Series, elimi- nation game, teams TBD, at South Williamsport, Pa. •5 p.m., ESPN2 — World Series, elimination game, teams TBD, at South Williamsport, Pa. MLB •4 p.m., CSNC — Oakland at Tampa Bay •7 p.m., CSNB — Atlanta at San Francisco NFL •5 p.m., ESPN — Preseason, Arizona at Tennessee TENNIS • 10 a.m., ESPN2 — WTA, New Haven Open, quarterfinal, at New Haven, Conn. • Noon, ESPN2 — ATP World Tour, Winston-Salem Open, quarterfinal, at Winston-Salem, N.C. •8 p.m., ESPN2 — ATP World Tour, Winston-Salem Open, quarterfinal, at Winston-Salem, N.C. (same-day tape) Prep football Week 0 Schedule Friday's games All games 7:30 p.m. except where noted Williams at Los Molinos Shasta at Anderson Portola at Burney West Valley at Del Norte Colusa at Durham Pierce at Esparto University Prep at Etna Weed at Fall River Lassen at Galena, 7 p.m. Paradise at Grant, 7 p.m. Bradshaw Christian at Maxwell, 7 p.m. Central Valley at River Valley Bethel at Sutter Trinity at Yreka Friday's 8-man games Mercy at Dunsmuir Princeton at Big Valley, 6 p.m. Happy Camp at Greenville, 6 p.m. Butte Valley vs Hayfork at Dunsmuir, 5 p.m. Virginia City at Westwood, 7 p.m. Saturday's 8-man game Liberty Christian at Redding Christian, 7 p.m. Around town The games start with the Mighty mites at 8:30 a.m. The Jr. Peewees hit the field at 10 a.m. with the Peewees playing at noon. The Jr. Midgets are up at 2 p.m. and the day is capped by the Midgets game at 4 p.m. Shootout The miniaturized ver- sion of the Tehama County Shootout takes place this weekend as the Red Bluff Jr. Spar- tans and Corning Lions kick off their seasons against each other in Northern California Federation of Youth Football action. Tehama County Softball tryouts The Nor Cal Pride girls 18-U fastpitch soft- ball travel team will be holding fall ball tryouts at 10 a.m. Sunday at Trainor Park, Frey Field in Red Bluff. For more information contact Mike McEnaney at 366-4875. DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 7:15 p.m. CSNB 4:10 p.m. CSNC Sports two 50-game suspensions in exactly one week — both starters for con- tending teams from the Bay Area, both for testosterone. Former Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon of the Oakland Ath- letics was suspended for 50 games Wednesday after a positive test, join- ing San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera on the suspended list for the rest of the regular season. Major League Baseball made the announcement of Colon's penalty a week after All-Star game MVP Cabrera received his 50-game sus- pension ''I apologize to the fans, to my teammates and to the Oakland A's,'' Colon said in a statement released by the players' association. ''I accept responsibility for my actions and I will serve my suspension as required by the joint drug program.'' He will miss the final 40 games OAKLAND (AP) — Make it of the regular season and the first 10 games of the postseason if Oakland advances that far. Any remainder of the suspension would be served in a future season, if Colon signs another major league contract. ''It's a shock,'' Oakland reliever Grant Balfour said. ''He's a guy that we're definitely relying on right now. I guess you could say it's bad timing any time, but especially now.'' MCT file photo playoffs since 2006, began Wednes- day a half-game out in the AL wild- card race. The A's were preparing for an afternoon series finale against Minnesota when they got the news from clubhouse televisions. A closed-door team meeting was Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Bartolo Colon (left) was suspended 50 games. Oakland, which hasn't made the called. ''The Oakland Athletics are dis- appointed to learn of today's suspen- sion,'' the team said in a statement. Starter Brandon McCarthy took that a little further. ''You can say someone's a good teammate, but it has to extend in all facets,'' McCarthy said after a 5-1 win. ''Off the field, on the field and how you are in the clubhouse, no matter how you look at it, we've now lost a really important part of our team to his actions.'' See COLON, page 2B Milone becomes a 10-game winner, beats Twins OAKLAND (AP) — Coco Crisp has been tinkering with his batting stance to finally find something that works. Now that he's feeling it again at the plate, Crisp refuses to offer any details in fear of jinxing a good thing. Go study some video to see for yourself, he says. Crisp homered, hit an RBI double, and scored three runs, and the Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins 5-1 on Wednesday for their second straight winning series. ''I felt like Cal Ripken over there with so many batting stances,'' Crisp said. Yoenis Cespedes hit a go-ahead Leinart unlikely to play against Detroit Lions two-run single in the third inning that held up for Tommy Milone, and Crisp also singled and stole his 28th base to give the A's a much-needed boost only a couple of hours after right-hander Bartolo Colon received a 50-game sus- pension for a positive testosterone test. The ban came one day before he had been scheduled to start the opener of a series at Tampa Bay. Milone (10-9) allowed one run and two hits, struck out five and walked one in eight impressive innings to end a five-start winless stretch in which he had gone 0-3 since his last victory, a 9- 3 decision at Minnesota on July 14. He lowered his ERA to 3.87 from 4.03 and became Oakland's second 10-game winner after Colon, the 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner while with the Angels. The A's won despite four errors MCT photo Tommy Milone pitches during the Athletics win Wednesday. behind Milone. ''Typically, you don't win games making four errors,'' manager Bob Melvin said. ''The reason we did come back is Milone.'' for the A's (67-56), who moved a sea- son-high 11 games over .500 — their best since finishing the 2006 season at 93-69. That's the last year Oakland reached the playoffs, getting swept in four games of the AL championship Josh Reddick added an RBI single series by the Detroit Tigers. Oakland began the day a half-game out in the AL wild-card race. ''When Coco plays well, we win,'' Melvin said. Minnesota starter Liam Hendriks (0-6) is still searching for his first major league win after 13 career starts, and nine this season. The right-hander allowed four runs and six hits in five See A's, page 2B NAPA (AP) — Oakland Raiders backup quarterback Matt Leinart is OK to play after injuring the index fin- ger on his non-throwing hand but still might be held out of Saturday's game against the Detroit Lions. Leinart, who received stitches in his finger after being knocked out by an ille- gal hit by Arizona's Ricky Lumpkin last week, attend- ed practice Wednesday but did not participate in any team or positional drills. The Raiders (tied for No. 23 in the AP Pro32) said Leinart also passed a series of tests to determine whether he suffered a concussion from the jarring hit. ''He's fine to play,'' Oak- land coach Dennis Allen said. ''Whether we play him or not, I don't know the answer to that yet. That will be a game time decision.'' Leinart wore a thick white bandage on his finger but showed no other out- ward effects from the hit while throwing passes on the side during a period when See PLAY, page 2B 49ers trying to improve protection for Smith But one area where both Smith and the team would like to see the eighth-year veteran improve is in his ability to recognize and elude pass rush pressure. Smith was sacked twice and hit several other times during his three series of action in last week's 20-9 exhibition loss to the Hous- ton Texans. It brought back visions of last season, when Smith was sacked a career- high 44 times, more than any other NFL quarterback. Smith has been sacked 179 times in 72 career games, including playoffs, and the 49ers (No. 4 in the — Offensive coordinator Greg Roman said Wednes- day that quarterback Alex Smith has become ''savant- like'' in his understanding of the San Francisco 49ers' West Coast system. SANTA CLARA (AP) AP Pro32) have focused this summer on improving the protection in front of him. The breakdowns in pro- tection last year contributed to San Francisco finishing 26th in the NFL rankings in both total offense and sacks allowed per play. ''We'd like to get those numbers down, bottom line,'' Roman said. ''There were far too many unforced errors, a lack of execution on our part. That's something that has to improve, and that's not just on the offen- sive line.'' seventh offensive coordina- tor in seven seasons last year, steadily grew in Roman's system as the year progressed. He finished with the best season of his career while leading the 49ers to a 13-3 finish and a berth in the NFC championship game. Smith was ninth in the NFL with a career-best 90.7 passer rating, and coaches Smith, playing for his have raved about his progress this year with a full offseason to digest the offense. ''He totally understands Smith also is working on getting the football out of his hands more quickly on pass- ing downs. He had a tenden- cy to hold the ball too long last season. the offense now and all the different things that we do,'' Roman said. ''He's really, really, really an intelligent, bright football player. He is super smart, savant-like at times, has great ideas, can recite things, fix things. There's times a quarterback has to make a quick deci- sion. Alex is getting through his reads quicker, he's elimi- nating reads earlier and he's really taking ownership of our offense.'' But he also protected it better than any quarterback, throwing just five intercep- tions, the fewest in team his- tory and the fewest in the league last season for any regular starting quarterback. Smith has played well during his five series of action in San Francisco's two preseason games, com- pleting 8 of 12 passes and compiling a 108.0 passer rating. He took the blame for the protection issues that surfaced against the Texans after Smith faced little pres- sure while completing all three of his passes in the team's Aug. 10 preseason opener against Minnesota. ''A lot of that was self- inflicted, so I take credit for quite a bit of that during the (Houston) game,'' Smith said. ''I really felt like the protection was pretty good, and it's much better now. I think we'll all do a better job, and really it falls on all of us. There's a fine line there getting the ball out in windows and then using your legs, using them to help you, finding the soft spot in the pocket and helping your offensive linemen out.'' San Francisco's offensive line struggled for several years to find continuity as a unit before establishing itself last year. The 49ers — who have allowed 238 sacks over the past five seasons — found an identity last year as a power running team, fin- ishing eighth in the NFL in rushing offense. of the offense, which has rushed for 378 yards while averaging 5.7 yards per carry in two preseason games. ''You have to be able to run the ball before you pass it, right?'' left guard Mike Iupati said. ''We just try to play physical as an O-line, and I think we're coming along good in pass protec- tion. We had a great offsea- son, so that hopefully will get better. The other side gets paid too, so we just have to hold our end and fight.'' That remains the strength 1B Thursday August 23, 2012 Colon suspended 50 games