By: Doug Benc © Getty Images Sport
MLB
BRAUN STAYS HOT; BREWERS DUMP CARDINALS
Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Ryan Braun is seeing the ball well!
For the second straight day, Braun clubbed a pair of home runs as Milwaukee beat the first-place St. Louis Cardinals 8-3.
Braun, who cracked his sixth and seventh home runs of the year on Sunday, hit a pair of solo home runs off Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright (3-2) to lead the Brewers' offensive attack. Bill Hall also took Wainwright deep.
Brewers starter Dave Bush (1-4) earned his first win of the season with six solid innings. Guillermo Mota earned his first save of the season.
Milwaukee, winners of three of their last four games, improved to 19-19 on the season.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pittsburgh 5, Atlanta 0
Washington 10, New York Mets 4
Cincinnati 8, Florida 7
Chicago Cubs 12, San Diego 3
Houston 7, San Francisco 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Cleveland 3, Toronto 0 - Game One
Toronto 3, Cleveland 0 - 10 innings - Game Two
Tampa Bay 7, New York Yankees 1
Minnesota 7, Boston 3
LA Angels 10, Chicago White Sox 7
Texas 13, Seattle 12 (10 innings)
NBA
SPURS, JAZZ EVEN THINGS UP
NO SURPRISE; CLEVELAND WINS AT HOME
The playoff refrain continues. Lose on the road. Win at home. Except for one Detroit Pistons win in Orlando, all of the conference semifinals game have followed this format--and as a result three of the four series are now knotted at 2-2.
On Monday, the Cleveland Cavs put the old homecourt defensive clamps on the Boston Celtics, beating them 88-77 as this series continues to result in high school scores. Only once has a team crossed the 90-point mark as the teams slug it out.
The coup de grace for Cleveland on Monday was holding the Celtics to just 12 points in the fourth quarter. Neither Kevin Garnett nor Ray Allen scored at all in that quarter. Garnett failed to score in the game's final 22 minutes.
LeBron James topped all scorers with 21 points, although he hit just 35 percent of his shots. He chipped in bigtime in the help-your-teammates category by dishing out 13 assists. And he sent the Quicken Arena fans into a frenzy when he blew past almost the entire team for a powerful fourth-quarter super slam that was a final parting gift for the struggling Celtics. Wally Szczerbiak and Daniel Gibson both added 14 points for the home team.
Garnett, Allen, and Rajon Rondo all had 14 for Boston.
NBA PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
BOSTON VS. CLEVELAND
Game 1: Boston 76, Cleveland 72
Game 2: Boston 89, Cleveland 73
Game 3: Cleveland 108, Boston 84
Game 4: Cleveland 88, Boston 77
Series tied 2-2
Game 5: Wednesday at Boston
DETROIT VS. ORLANDO
Game 1: Detroit 91, Orlando 72
Game 2: Detroit 100, Orlando 93
Game 3: Orlando 111, Detroit 86
Game 4: Detroit 90, Orlando 89
Detroit leads 3-1
Game 5: Tuesday at Detroit
WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
LOS ANGELES LAKERS VS. UTAH
Game 1: LA Lakers 109, Utah 98
Game 2: LA Lakers 120, Utah 110
Game 3: Utah 104, LA Lakers 99
Game 4: Utah 123, LA Lakers 115 (OT)
Series tied 2-2
Game 5: Wednesday at Los Angeles
NEW ORLEANS VS. SAN ANTONIO
Game 1: New Orleans 101, San Antonio 82
Game 2: New Orleans 102, San Antonio 84
Game 3: San Antonio 110, New Orleans 99
Game 4: San Antonio 100, New Orleans 80
Series tied 2-2
Game 5: Tuesday at New Orleans
NHL
DATSYUK DOES THE TRICK; WINGS UP 3-0
While much of the attention at the American Airlines Center must have been focused on the newly minted Mike Ribeiro-Chris Osgood conflict, Pavel Datsyuk stole the show.
Ribeiro and Osgood got into it in Game 2 when Osgood "inadvertently" allowed his stick and Ribeiro's face to meet as Ribeiro cruised past the net. Later, Ribeiro took a Josh Hamilton-like swing at Osgood to make up for it. The NHL evened the score by leveling both of them with hefty fines. So as Detroit motored into the arena for Game 3, that subplot had to be on everyone's mind.
But sometimes subplots don't make the story. Sometimes an interloper steps into the story to steal the attention. In this drama, Datsyuk created a leading role. He scored first at 9:27 of the first period to put the Red Wings on top. At 15:13, Nicklas Grossman neutralized Datsyuk's score, and tied the game with an unassisted goal.
Just 37 seconds later, Datsyuk scored his seventh goal of the playoffs and the Red Wings went into the first intermission with a lead.
After the teams traded goals in the second period, Henrik Zetterberg scored an insurance marker at 1:38 of the third as Detroit led 4-2. Then, at 17:19, Datszuk, the new protagonist, finished off the Stars with his third goal of the game, his first hat trick, and a 5-2 lead.
With the win, Detroit made it nine straight playoff wins, leaving little drama left as they have three games to get the one win they need to propel them to the finals.
CONFERENCE FINALS
East
Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia
Game 1: Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 2
Game 2: Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 2
Pittsburgh leads 2-0
Game 3: Tuesday at Philadelphia
West
Detroit vs. Dallas
Game 1: Detroit 4, Dallas 1
Game 2: Detroit 2, Dallas 1
Game 3: Detroit 5, Dallas 2
Detroit leads 3-0
Game 4: Wednesday at Dallas
SPORTS SPECTRUM INSIDER
Getting to the heart of what matters in life -- in the words of an athlete in the news.
TODAY'S FEATURE:
JOSH HAMILTON, outfielder, Texas Rangers
BIO NOTE: Hamilton was a first-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Rays.
RECENT NEWS: On Monday, Hamilton hit his eighth home run of the season and knocked in four runs (43) to help the Rangers beat the Mariners in extra innings.
FAITH QUOTE: "Every day I wake up, I pray that Today I'll be a responsible Christian man, a responsible husband, and a responsible father. Keeping that order--keeping God first--helps me do all those things." --Sports Spectrum magazine
NOTE: Josh Hamilton is featured on the cover of the May-June edition of Sports Spectrum magazine. It is available in many Christian bookstores across the country.
MINI MEMOS
Putting the SS spin on today's sports news
PGA
WITHOUT TIGER, GOLF NEEDS GOYDOS
Somehow it's not the same without Tiger Woods out there threatening to run away with every tournament. So, to replace Woods and his superiority, maybe this is a good time to turn to Paul Goydos and his humility, humor, and approachability. Maybe we'll discover that it's more fun to hear clever, entertaining, self-effacing quotes than to watch relentless, nearly perfect golf round after round. So, for your golf entertainment while we await Mr. Woods' return, here are a few of Goydosisms, which came from the runnerup at The Players Championship this past weekend: "I may have made mistakes, but the day I don't mistakes is the day I'm dead." Tiger Woods would NEVER say that! When asked if he could do anything about his opponent, Sergio Garcia, Goydos suggested, "You can't control it. No defense. I couldn't tackle the little guy." On leading after Saturday's play: "This is my 16th year, and this is my first Saturday lead. There you go. I guess I was due." When asked why he buttons his shirt to the top: "I don't have any shoulders. If I didn't button my shirt, it would fall off." On how to win: "The key is to have the lead with no holes to go." Here's a man who doesn't take himself so seriously that he can't enjoy life as a professional athlete.
MLB
IS THE CLOCK TICKING?
The baseball season is one-quarter over, and while some teams are doing surprisingly well, others are bringing frustration and head-scratching to their fans--and to the people in charge. Will any managers soon face the wrath of the front office? It would seem that one candidate for displeasure would be Toronto's John Gibbons. The Jays are in last place in the American League East, and the prospects don't look promising. In his defense, Gibbons couldn't do anything to control the fact that both Frank Thomas and Jim Edmunds did nothing to help and had to be let go. Nor could he control the injuries to both David Eckstein and Vernon Wells. But something has to be done in Toronto to prevent the Jays from falling any further behind in the East. Another team that was not supposed to be this bad is Seattle. The Mariners are in the basement of a division where they were expected to at least finish second. Is John McLaren in the hot seat in Seattle? Colorado is playing poorly, but Clint Hurdle put some insurance in the bank by getting the Rockies to the World Series last fall. But below Colorado is Bud Black's San Diego, which is having a hard time scoring runs and has the fewest wins in the majors. It won't be long until folks start asking questions at Petco. So, the clock is ticking? Will all of these guys make it until October?
MLB
CABRERA RARITY
In the thousands upon thousands of major league baseball games that have been played over the past 100-plus seasons, only 14 players have done what Asdrubal Cabrera did on Monday night. He turned in the most helpful single play a pitcher could ever ask for. Cleveland's Cliff Lee found himself in a spot of trouble in the second game of a doubleheader with the Toronto Blue Jays. In the fifth inning, he allowed singles to Kevin Mench and Marco Scutaro with Lyle Overbay coming up next. There were no outs, so this had Jays rally written all over it. On a 1-0 pitch, Toronto manager sent both runners. Overbay swung and laced a line drive toward right field. That's when Cabrera turned a potential rally into the quickest three outs in baseball. Cabrera dove toward the ball, backhanded it into his glove, stepped on second, and tagged out Scutaro. And just like that the Indians were walking off the field. This was the third unassisted triple play in Cleveland history--the first being 99 years ago and the second 88 years ago. The last American Leaguer to retire the opponents all by himself in an inning was Randy Velarde nearly eight years ago.
SPRINT CUP STANDINGS
We are 11 races into the 2008 NASCAR season. On Saturday, Kyle Busch won for the third time this year, taking the checkered flag at Darlington in the Dodge Challenger 500. The race to get into the Cup Chase looks like this.
1. Kyle Busch 1,690
2. Jeff Burton 1,611
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1,556
4. Denny Hamlin 1,500
5. Clint Bowyer 1,490
6. Jimmy Johnson 1,442
7. Carl Edwards 1,400
8. Tony Stewart 1,397
9. Kevin Harvick 1,396
10. Carl Edwards 1,326
THIS JUST IN
Notes of significance from the Christian sports community
New Book: The Mulligan
By Wally Armstrong
After ending a successful career as a PGA golfer, Wally Armstrong began a venture of teaching golf and of using gold analogies to teach biblical principles. One of his latest ventures is teaching timeless truths through golf is a book called The Mulligan. It's a book that can be used by the Christian for edification, and it can be given to the non-Christian as an outreach tool. Find out more about the book at www.wallyarmstrong.com.
