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| New addresses -- join us as we move to http://www.xanga.com/zsnsports and http://www.zsnsports.blogspot.com. Thanks! | | |
| MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Game played July 29, 2007 The Los Angeles Angels scored early and often Sunday en route to taking the finale of a three-game set with Detroit, 13-4, scoring in double-digits for the third consecutive game for the second time in team history and sweeping this important series between division leaders, each by narrow margins, and potential playoff opponents. The Angels started the carnage in their first time on the offensive. In the first inning, Chone Figgins singled to left, and Vladimir Guerrero laced a one-out double off the wall in left field, sending Figgins to third base. Garret Anderson walked, and a Casey Kotchman sac fly scored Figgins, making it 1-0. Gary Matthews Jr. proceeded to triple down the right-field line, chasing home Guerrero and Anderson and taking a 3-0 lead. Maicer Izturis doubled to the right-center field gap, and Matthews came around to take a 4-0 advantage. Los Angeles proceeded to secure all the offense it would need in its next two at-bats. In the Angels second, Figgins led off again after Los Angeles batted around in the first, and singled to right field. Orlando Cabrera blooped a single to left, and Figgins moved to third. Cabrera stole second base, then Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman (10-3), who only worked 2 1/3 innings, yielding 11 runs on nine hits with three walks and four strikeouts, allowed Figgins and Cabrera to score on two wild pitches, seizing a 6-0 lead. Then, in the third, after Detroit’s Sean Casey scored on a Brandon Inge sac fly, the Angels batted around again, for the fourth time in the series, en route to salting the game away. Izturis singled off Placido Polanco’s glove, and Jeff Mathis singled just under Carlos Guillen’s glove. Bonderman threw a Reggie Willits sac bunt down the right-field line, allowing Willits to reach and Izturis to score, making the score 7-1. Figgins then singled again to right, scoring Mathis. Willits and Figgins executed a double steal, and Cabrera walked to chase Bonderman. Reliever Chad Durbin hit Guerrero immediately, forcing in Willits and making it 9-1. Anderson then singled to right, scoring Figgins and Cabrera and taking an 11-1 lead. Finally, Kotchman’s fielder’s choice scored Guerrero, closing the book on the inning with a 12-1 lead. Detroit did manage to score again in the fourth and fifth innings. In their fourth time up, Gary Sheffield led off with a single to center and took second on a balk on Angels spot starter Dustin Moseley, making his first start since April 12 and filling in for Bartolo Colon, out with elbow trouble. Ivan Rodriguez singled to center, scoring Sheffield and cutting the lead to 12-2. In the fifth, Ryan Raburn and Inge each singled to left and advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. A Sheffield two-out walk chased Moseley, one out shy of qualifying for the victory, but pitching 4 2/3 innings of five-hit, four-run ball, with two walks and five strikeouts. Craig Monroe got a bloop single down in right off reliever Chris Bootcheck (3-2), scoring Raburn and Inge and making the score 12-4. The Angels capped the score on a sac fly from Matthews in the eighth, scoring Kotchman, who had doubled, and making the final score 13-4. Los Angeles was paced by Figgins, who went three-for-five. Kotchman, Izturis, and Mathis also got two knocks each. On the mound, Bootcheck got the win, going 2 1/3 innings, yielding two hits and no runs. Greg Jones and Marcus Gwyn, making his big-league debut, shut it down out of the bullpen. For Detroit, Raburn and Inge each garnered two hits. On the hill, Durbin, Macay McBride, Todd Jones, and Bobby Seay allowed two runs after Bonderman’s departure. The Angels will next go to face Seattle in a three-game set, starting the series Monday night with Kelvim Escobar slated to throw. Detroit will travel to Oakland for three, with Jordan Tata making a spot start. Los Angeles, now 61-42, leads the AL West over the Mariners by four games, and the 60-44 Tigers’ lead over Cleveland was cut to a half-game with the loss. Video credit- ESPN | | |
| MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Game played July 22, 2007 St. Louis ended a less-than-stellar road trip with a big win over the Braves, 7-2, on Skip Schumaker’s home run in the tenth inning off Atlanta reliever Tyler Yates and Scott Rolen’s follow-up homer against Oscar Villarreal, to assure a 2-2 split of the four-game set and take five of ten on the road trip overall. With the game tied at two apiece in the Cardinals tenth, St. Louis went right to work. Aaron Miles led off with a single to center field, and, one out later, Schumaker hooked a shot down the right field line to take a 4-2 advantage. Later, after an Albert Pujols walk and a Juan Encarnacion single to left, Rolen, in his first game back after missing four contests with shoulder trouble, hit a two-out jack just over the left-field wall to add some insurance, closing things out at 7-2 after Jason Isringhausen (4-0) pitched the second of his two dominating innings of relief to secure the win. Down 2-1 in the top of the eighth, Pujols tied things up with a two-out solo homer to left off Braves outfielder Willie Harris’ glove, making it 2-2. In the bottom of the frame, the bases were loaded with two out for Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who could only manage a broken-bat popout to St. Louis shortstop David Eckstein, ending the threat and leaving the bases juiced. Atlanta had jumped out to a lead in the third, backing starting pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes, who worked 5 1/3 innings in his third career big-league start, yielding only three hits and one run, with four walks and three strikeouts. Edgar Renteria knocked a two-out single up the middle off the second-base bag, and Chipper Jones doubled to the left-center wall, scoring Renteria and taking a 1-0 lead. Then, in the fourth, Kelly Johnson hit a leadoff homer to right, doubling the advantage to 2-0. The Cardinals finally dented the scoreboard in the sixth, with So Taguchi scoring on Encarnacion’s groundout after reaching on a single of his own off Braves first baseman Julio Franco’s glove. For the Cardinals, Pujols and Rolen each recorded two base knocks and one homer. Defensively, Yadier Molina threw Harris out at second twice, each time on an interesting call. On the mound, starter Brad Thompson worked six innings giving up six hits and two runs, walking three and striking out two. Ryan Franklin held down the fort for two innings out of the pen, giving up two hits and walking two but allowing no runs while striking out two Braves, and Isringhausen slammed the door on Atlanta with two perfect innings of relief, with four punchouts. The Braves’ Renteria, Jeff Francoeur, and Saltalamacchia each got two hits, and on the bump, Peter Moylan held down the lead for Reyes for 1 2/3 innings, but Rafael Soriano sustained his third blown save after Pujols’ homer, and Bob Wickman worked a frame before Yates (2-2) came on. The 45-50 Cardinals go back home for the first time since the All-Star Break to face the Cubs in a three-game series, beginning Tuesday evening with Kip Wells slated to start. 52-47 Atlanta begins a seven-game West Coast swing with a Monday night contest in San Francisco, as Barry Bonds continues to chase Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record, in the first of a four-game set, with John Smoltz scheduled to kick the series off. The Cardinals continue to stare up in the NL Central at Milwaukee and the Cubs, standing 8.5 games back of the Brewers and five behind Chicago, while the Braves are 3.5 back of the Mets in the East. Video credit- ESPN | | |
| MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Game played July 15, 2007 At Citizens Bank Park, the St. Louis Cardinals salvaged the final game of a three-game set in Philadelphia, slugging six home runs en route to giving the Philadelphia Phillies the dubious distinction of being the first major American sports franchise to register their 10,000th loss, 10-2. Starter Adam Wainwright (8-7) threw seven shutout innings, allowing only six hits, all singles, and two walks, while getting five strikeouts. St. Louis gave Wainwright all the offense he would need in the second and third innings. Scott Rolen drilled a leadoff double to center, and Juan Encarnacion sacrificed him to third. Adam Kennedy then doubled to center, getting Rolen in and the Cardinals on the board, 1-0. A Yadier Molina groundout moved Kennedy to third, and Wainwright singled to center, scoring Kennedy and taking a 2-0 lead. In the third, Skip Schumaker led off with a double to right and eventually scored on a Rolen groundout, making the lead 3-0. The Cardinals simply supplemented the lead throughout the rest of the game, as the Phillies’ offense, which had produced 23 runs in the first two games of the series, was dominated nearly all game by Wainwright, leaving the bases loaded in the third and getting nothing after loading them again with one out in the sixth. In the top of the fifth, Schumaker stretched a bloop to left into another leadoff double, and Albert Pujols homered to left for the third straight game after a 22-game drought, making it 5-0. Chris Duncan homered on the next pitch from Phils starter Adam Eaton, taking a 6-0 lead. Then, in the Cardinals seventh, Pujols hit a leadoff shot off reliever Brian Sanches, seizing a 7-0 lead. With two out, Encarnacion and Kennedy hit back-to-back jacks, Kennedy’s first as a Cardinal, to make the score 9-0, Cardinals. Later, in the eighth, pinch hitter Ryan Ludwick hit a leadoff homer to deep center, the sixth of the game and the most St. Louis has hit in a game all season, taking a 10-0 lead. Philadelphia finally got on the board in the ninth against Cardinals reliever Andy Cavazos. Michael Bourn hit a leadoff homer to right, the first of his career. Chris Coste reached on an error on Kennedy, and eventually came around on a Chase Utley double to the wall in center, closing the scorebook at 10-2. Offensively for the Cardinals’ 15-hit attack, Pujols was three-for-five, and Schumaker, Rolen, and Kennedy each had two bingles. On the hill, Troy Percival worked an inning out of the bullpen, striking out two and yielding one hit, and Cavazos worked the final frame. For Philadelphia, only Utley recorded two hits, and on the mound, Eaton (8-6), now 1-4 lifetime against St. Louis, pitched four innings, giving up six runs on ten hits and one walk, striking out one. Clay Condrey, Jose Mesa, Sanches, and Mike Zagurski worked the final five innings for the Phillies, allowing five hits collectively, with Sanches surrendering four runs. St. Louis, now 41-47, continues its road trip to Florida for three, with Braden Looper pitching the opener Monday night. The 46-45 Phillies start a West Coast swing against the Dodgers, with Jamie Moyer working Monday night. The Cardinals are in third place in the NL Central, 8.5 games behind Milwaukee and five back of the Cubs, while Philadelphia mans third in the East, five games behind the Mets and 3.5 back of Atlanta. Video credit- ESPN | | |
| 2007 MLB SPECIAL COVERAGE- 78TH ALL-STAR GAME
Game played July 10, 2007 Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki paced the American League All-Stars, garnering MVP honors after going three-for-three with an inside-the-park home run, the first in All-Star Game history, leading the junior circuit to a 5-4 win over the National League and extending its undefeated streak in All-Star Game play to eleven games, including 2002’s infamous tie. However, the NL drew first blood in its first at-bat. The Mets’ Jose Reyes led off with a single up the middle and stole second off Oakland’s Dan Haren, the AL starting pitcher. With two down, Cincinnati’s Ken Griffey Jr. singled off the mound up the middle, scoring Reyes and giving the NL a 1-0 lead. Griffey’s single was his 11th base hit in Midsummer Classic play, the active career leader. Then, in the top of the fourth inning, the AL squandered its first good chance to score. The Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, hampered with a sore hamstring, singled and stole second. However, with two out, Detroit’s Ivan Rodriguez had a safe base knock into right field, but Griffey threw Alex Rodriguez out by several steps at the plate and the Dodgers’ Russell Martin made a great catch and tag at the dish, ending the inning. The AL did get on the board and take the lead for good in its next time at the plate. Baltimore’s Brian Roberts reached on a walk by San Diego’s Chris Young, and Suzuki, with one out, hit the ball off the right field fence. The ball took a weird bounce, caroming away from Griffey and allowing Roberts and Suzuki to score, taking a 2-1 lead. In the top of the sixth, Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford hit a solo shot to deep right field, making the score 3-1, AL. In the bottom of the inning, the Mets’ Carlos Beltran led off with a triple off the right field wall, and Griffey’s sac fly scored Beltran and made it 3-2. The top of the eighth proved to be the inning that salted the game away for the AL. Boston’s Mike Lowell singled, and Cleveland’s Victor Martinez hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer off the Mets’ Billy Wagner down the left-field line, giving the AL a 5-2 lead. The NL did catch a little lightning in a bottle in the bottom of the ninth to make things interesting. With Seattle closer J.J. Putz on to shut it down, Washington’s Dmitri Young reached on a two-out single off Roberts’ glove, and the Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano quickly jacked a two-run shot to right to cut the deficit to 5-4. Then, after Putz walked Milwaukee’s J.J. Hardy, the Angels’ Francisco Rodriguez came on for the AL, and promptly walked the Cubs’ Derrek Lee on a full-count, check-swing, and issued another free pass to Arizona’s Orlando Hudson, loading the bases with two down. However, Rodriguez induced a flyout to right from Philadelphia’s Aaron Rowand, allowing the AL to escape, 5-4. The AL’s RBI all came on homers, off the bats of Suzuki, Crawford, and Martinez. On the hill, Boston’s Josh Beckett got the win after working the third and fourth innings, scoreless, allowing one hit and getting two strikeouts. Francisco Rodriguez picked up the save. For the NL, Reyes picked up three hits, with Griffey and Soriano garnering two RBI each. On the mound, Chris Young took the loss. Eight hurlers toed the rubber for the AL, while nine pitchers worked for the senior circuit. Video credit- FOX
Report filed from Maumelle, Ark.
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