MLB
GAME ON! AND ON AND ON. ROCKS WIN IN 22
In the time it took to decide who would win a baseball game at Petco Park in San Diego on Thursday night and Friday morning, you could fly from New York to London, read The Great Gatsby, or catch up on the three original Indiana Jones movies.
The Colorado Rockies got an RBI double from Troy Tulowitzki early Friday morning-6 hours and 16 minutes after "Play Ball!"-to defeat the San Diego Padres 2-1 in the ninth longest major league game ever played. Tulowitzki's hit knocked home Willy Taveras to give Kip Wells the win. The Padres put two runners aboard in the bottom of the 22nd, but they couldn't reprise their 14th inning comeback. In that inning, after the Rockies' Taveras scored the game's first run in the top of the inning, Josh Bard tied the game with a one-out RBI single.
So, Taveras scored both of the Rockies runs. He batted 10 times in the game and had three hits. The worst night for a Rockies hitter belonged to Brad Hawpe, who went to the plate nine times without a hit. He did walk twice, including in the 14th inning when his bases-loaded walk scored Taveras. Hawpe struck out four times. The Rockies used 21 players. The Rockies struck out 20 times in the course of the marathon contest.
The Padres' Tadahito Iguchi was also 0 for 7 for the evening (and morning). Seventeen Padres went down on strikes in the game.
The Padres have two 21 games in their history-one in 1971 at home against Houston and one at Montreal in 1977.
OTHER SCORES
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Atlanta 8, Florida 0
NY Mets 3, Washington 2 (14 innings)
Cincinnati 9, Chicago Cubs 2
Milwaukee 5, St. Louis 3 (10 innings)
Philadelphia 10, Houston 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Seattle 8, Oakland 1
Boston 7, NY Yankees 5
Cleveland 11, Detroit
Texas 4, Toronto 1
Baltimore 6, Chicago White Sox 5 (10 innings)
Tampa Bay 4, Minnesota 3
NHL
FLYERS USE TWO OT WIN TO GO UP 3-1
The Flyers are definitely back. And they are serious about their Stanley Cup opportunity.
The team that sank to the bottom of the NHL in 2006-2007 now stands just one win from moving to Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs after dispatching the Washington Capitals on Thursday night 4-3 in double overtime.
Mike Knuble scored the gamewinner at 6:40 of the second extra session to give the Flyers a 3-1 series lead. The goal was Knuble's second of the playoffs.
The Flyers didn't waste any time making the home crowd happy at the Wachovia Center. Jeff Carter, using assists from Knuble and Scottie Upshall, scored just 42 seconds after the puck was dropped.
Then Washington threatened to take over and secure a 2-2 series tie by scoring the next two goals in the initial stanza. Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin did the deal. But at 18:33, Carter struck again for the hometown skaters by scoring his third goal of the series to knot the game at 2-2 heading into the first break.
Steve Eminger put the Caps up again early in the second period, and that 3-2 lead held until Daniel Briere saved the Flyers at 10:01 of the third with his fifth postseason goal. And that is where the score stood until Knuble grabbed a rebound in front of the goal and fired it past Cristobal Huet.
The teams will suit up and go at it again on Saturday in the nation's capital.
OTHER PLAYOFF SCORES
San Jose 4, Calgary 3
San Jose leads the series 3-2
Boston 5, Montreal 1
Montreal leads the series 3-2
Dallas 3, Anaheim 1
Dallas leads the series 3-1
Colorado 3, Minnesota 2
Colorado leads the series 3-2
FRIDAY'S GAMES
New York at New Jersey
New York leads the series 3-1
Nashville at Detroit
Series tied 2-2
Dallas at Anaheim
Dallas leads the series 3-1
NBA
NBA PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
Eastern Conference
#1 Boston vs. #8 Atlanta
Game 1: At Boston
#2 Detroit vs. #7 Philadelphia
Game 1: At Detroit
#3 Orlando vs. #6 Toronto
Game 1: At Orlando
#4 Cleveland vs. #8 Washington
Game 1 at Cleveland
Western Conference
#1 LA Lakers vs. #8 Denver
Game 1: At LA
#2 New Orleans vs. #7 Dallas
Game 1: At New Orleans
#3 San Antonio vs. #6 Phoenix
Game 1: At San Antonio
#4 Utah vs. #5 Houston
Game 1: At Utah
SPORTS SPECTRUM INSIDER
Getting to the heart of what matters in life
TODAY'S FEATURE
WILLY TAVERAS, Colorado Rockies
BIO NOTE: Taveras hit .320 for the Rockies in 2007.
RECENT NEWS: On Thursday, Taveras scored both runs in Colorado's 22-inning win over the San Diego Padres.
FAITH QUOTE: "We have a great group of guys that go to Bible study together. I'm a Christian, and I like to hear the Word. You go through good times and bad times. You've got to take care of things. You've got to pray."
-Sports Spectrum magazine
MINI MEMOS
Putting the SS spin on today's sports news
NBA
THERE GO THE COACHES
With the end of the NBA season always comes the departure of some coaches whose teams had less-than-successful seasons. The Chicago Bulls made it two firings in one season on Thursday by handing Jim Boylan his walking papers after the coached the Bulls in the wake of Scott Skiles' departure. Boylan could only coax a 24-32 record out of the team, and that was not enough to convince the team to keep him around. Meanwhile, up the road in Milwaukee, the Bucks said so long to Larry Krystkowiak. The Bucks were terribly inconsistent all season, and they have not been able to take advantage of high draft picks to go along with star scoring Michael Redd. Milwaukee completed a clean sweep; they fired GM Larry Harris a month ago and replaced him with John Hammond. Krystkowiak's Bucks finished with a 26-56 record. Still up in the air on the coaching front are Don Nelson at Golden State and Isiah Thomas at New York (though Zeke reportedly should already be cleaning out his desk.)
MLB
THE INCREDIBLE JOHN SMOLTZ
John Smoltz is one of the greatest competitors in sports. This is a man who probably should have stopped trying to use his oft-repaired right arm a long time ago-riding off into the sunset of baseball glory to enjoy his millions, watch his kids grow up, and forget about trying to milk another season out a shoulder that aches, an elbow that is Franksteinian, and a hand that sometimes can't even feel the ball that well. But Smoltz just keeps going. He endured something few famous starters would do-being moved to the bullpen-for three seasons while he got his arm back to starter's strength. And now, at age 40 (he'll be 41 on May 15 in case you want to send him one of the musical birthday cards with accordion music; he played the instrument as a kid), he is mowing down hitters who were in diapers when he started his pro career back in 1986. On Thursday, he pitched five scoreless innings to reduce his ERA to 0.56, and he struck out 10 Florida Marlins to give him 2,996 in his career. He is now 3-0 on the season, and he now has 210 career wins to go with his 154 saves-a remarkable combination.
College Football
POLS, NOT POLLS, WANT A SAY IN BCS
Here we go again. Now that the congressional mothering of baseball has taken a bit of a lull while investigators somewhere dig into Roger Clemens' testimony, another group of elected officials is turning their attention away from little items such as high gas prices, the housing market crash, and the fall of the dollar and are focusing on the Bowl Championship Series. Perhaps forgetting that while discussions on sports Web blogs make the issue of the BCS sound crucial, it is of small consequence in real life, three congress people want the Justice Department to check to see if the BCS is violating federal law-as if violating common sense isn't enough, now the BCS folks have to worry about the rule of law. These seems to be still another reason some people want a part-time legislature.
THIS JUST IN
Notes of significance from the Christian sports community
New Book: Time Out
By Stephanie Zonars
Campus Crusade for Christ has just published a new book by Athletes in Action coach Stephanie Zonars.
For Time Out, Zonars took lessons from her 17 years of experience training athletes spiritually and physically and turned them into a series of devotional articles for the person who loves sports and wants to grown in Jesus Christ.
Each devotional article is based on a Scripture passage and is followed up with some thought questions for application and further consideration. Find out more about Time Out at www.lifebeyondsport.com
