WASHINGTON: Chase Utley #26 of the Philadelphia Phillies bats during a baseball game. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
MLB
PHILLIES POUNCE ON ROCKIES
The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Denver Broncos 20-5 on Monday. Oops... It's still baseball season! The Philadelphia Phillies pounded the Colorado Rockies 20-5.
Chase Utley and Jamie Moyer starred for the Phillies. Utley drove in a career-high six runs highlighted by his 16th home run of the year. Utley finished 3-for-6 at the dish. Moyer (5-3) threw seven strong innings at the Rockies to earn his 235th career win. The veteran southpaw struck out a season-high seven batters.
No matter who Colorado manager Clint Hurdle sent to the mound seemed to get roughed up. Starter Jorge De La Rosa (1-3) surrendered an early three-run lead. His line included six earned runs. Reliever Jason Grilli gave up three earned runs in 1 2/3 innings, followed by Josh Newman, who lasted just 2/3 of an inning and served up six earned runs. Veteran reliever Matt Herges was also bumped around. He gave up six hits and four earned runs in 1/3 of an inning. Ouch!
Philadelphia improved to 29-24, while Colorado fell to 20-31.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Atlanta 7, Arizona 3
Florida 7, New York Mets 3
Chicago Cubs 3, Los Angeles Dodgers 1
Milwaukee 4, Washington 3 - 11 innings
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Boston 5, Seattle 3
Tampa Bay 7, Texas 3
Baltimore 6, New York Yankees 1
Toronto 7, Kansas City 2
Chicago White Sox 6, Cleveland 3 - 10 innings
Los Angeles Angels 1, Detroit 0 - 12 innings
NBA
DETROIT NEVER TRAILS; EVEN SERIES
A 10-0 start to an NBA game is great for the team with the 10 points, but usually it doesn't mean much over the long haul of 48 minutes. But when the Detroit Pistons opened up that lead on Monday against the visiting Boston Celtics, they used it to keep a distance between themselves and the Cs. As a result, Detroit won 94-75 to even their Eastern Conference finals matchup with Boston.
Detroit had the game's first 10 points and the game's last 11 points-and the rest of the game was pretty much even. Yet every time Boston made a little run at the Detroit lead, the Pistons answered it. Boston never caught Detroit on the scoreboard the entire night.
On a team not known for its superstars, Antonio McDyess played like one for the Pistons, snagging 16 rebounds and scoring 21 points to lead the charge. Richard Hamilton had 20 points on a thrifty 10 shots (he hit eight of them) and a perfect night from the line.
The Boston offense, stalled by a smothering Detroit defense, got 16 points from Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, but not much else. The Celtics made just 21 shots the entire game. If not for their 32 free throws, they would have set some offensive deficiency records.
NBA PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
BOSTON VS. DETROIT
Game 1: Boston 88, Detroit 79
Game 2: Detroit 103, Boston 97
Game 3: Boston 94, Detroit 80
Game 4: Detroit 94, Boston 74
Series tied 2-2
Game 5: Wednesday at Boston
WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
LOS ANGELES LAKERS VS. SAN ANTONIO
Game 1: Los Angeles 89, San Antonio 85
Game 2: Los Angeles 101, San Antonio 71
Game 3: San Antonio 103, Los Angeles 84
Los Angeles leads series 2-1
Game 4: Tuesday at San Antonio
NHL
STANLEY CUP FINALS
Detroit vs. Pittsburgh
Game 1: Detroit 4, Pittsburgh 0
Game 2: Detroit 3, Pittsburgh 0
Detroit leads 2-0
Game 3: Wednesday at Pittsburgh
RED WINGS KEEP LID ON PENS' OFFENSE
Hope the Pittsburgh Penguins bought some T-Shirts in Motown. Otherwise they would have nothing to show for their trip to Detroit. The Penguins limped back home to thee Mellon Arena after being shutout twice by the Detroit Red Wings, including Monday's 3-0 whitewashing at the Joe Louis Arena.
The Red Wings hard-charging defense was so limiting to the Penguins that the black and white squad could manage just 12 shots in the first two periods. For the game, Detroit had 34 shots to Pittsburgh's 22. And any shots the Pens attempted were turned back by Chris Osgood, who is perfect so far in the Stanley Cup finals.
The Wings' offense got going early, pelting Marc-Andre Fleury with shots. Brad Stuart scored first for the Red Wings, collecting his first postseason goal at 6:55 of the first. At 11:18, Tomas Holmstrom made it 2-0.
Valtteri Filppula finished the scoring at 8:48 of the third with his fourth of the playoffs.
History is not on Pittsburgh side. Only once in NHL history has a team won the first two games on their home ice and not won the Stanley Cup (1971 Chicago Blackhawks).
SPORTS SPECTRUM INSIDER
Getting to the heart of what matters in life -- in the words of an athlete in the news.
TODAY'S FEATURE:
SO TAGUCHI, outfielder, Philadelphia Phillies
BIO NOTE: Taguchi is in his first season with the Phillies after spending six seasons with St. Louis. Taguchi played for 10 seasons in the Japan League before moving to major league baseball.
RECENT NEWS: On Monday, Taguchi, who has been having a slow season at the plate, went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored for the Phils as they trampled the Rockies 20-5.
FAITH QUOTE: "Christian thinking really helps me with my thoughts and thinking. With my wife or with the game, I like being able to (pray) to Jesus Christ." -Sports Spectrum magazine
MINI MEMOS
Putting the SS spin on today's sports news
COLLEGE BASEBALL
DALLAS BAPTIST INVITED TO THE PARTY
Dallas Baptist University has won national championships in baseball before-but they've never had a chance to win at this level. DBU, a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) for many years, now has a bid to play in the NCAA tournament against the big boys. Coach Dan Heefner's squad has received its first-ever NCAA Division I and will face the University of Houston in their tourney debut on Friday.
NHL
THE RETURN OF THE RATINGS
Some people can't watch. Some refuse to. But many more are turning back to the NHL and this season's dream matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Some can't watch because not everyone gets Versus, the cable network that carried the first two games. Some refuse to watch because they are still angry with the NHL for canceling a season. But the Versus' first-game ratings were very good-a 1.8 million national rating-the second best ever for Versus. And now, as the teams go into Game 3, the games move to NBC. It'll be interesting to see how the fans respond to a series that so far has been one-sided.
MLB
RAYS SHINE IN ST. PETERSBURG
Who would ever imagine that the Tampa Bay Rays would ever even have a home-field advantage? The AL-East leading Tampa Rays, that is. Let that sink in for a moment. Then consider this fact. The Rays have won 16 of their last 17 games at home. Then try to wrap your mind around this: We are past Memorial Day, and the Rays have the best record of any team in baseball. If they can hold on for two more holidays, this will be the greatest baseball story of the century. With two more wins, they will be halfway to their win total of 2007:66. There is only one cloud in this otherwise blue-sky day for the Rays: The fans in St. Pete still cannot bring themselves to show up at the park. On Monday, the best team in baseball drew just 12,174 fans.
SPRINT CUP STANDINGS
Twelve races into the 35-race card in the Sprint Cup 2008 season, Kyle Busch holds the lead. The NASCAR major league will reconvene this weekend in Dover, Delaware, for the Dover 400. Here's a look at the Top 12 in the Chase for the Cup.
1. Kyle Busch 1,860
2. Jeff Burton 1,766
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1,721
4. Denny Hamlin 1,596
5. Clint Bowyer 1,578
6. Carl Edwards 1,538
7. Kevin Harvick 1,517
8. Tony Stewart 1,511
9. Jimmie Johnson 1,493
10. Jeff Gordon 1,486
11. Greg Biffle 1,483
12. Kasey Kahne 1,454
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.
