Category: Uncategorized

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Casey McGehee was hit less in his his previous 18 at-bats, but that all changed with one swing of the bat.

McGehee hit a grand slam off of Jarred Cosart in the bottom of the second inning, helping the San Francisco Giants to a 6-0 victory over the Miami Marlins before a sellout crowd of 41,413, the 345th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

Besides the grand slam, McGehee also grounded into two more double plays, being his total on the season up to 11.

It was the third career grand slam for McGehee, and his first since April 26, 2010 against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Brendan Donnelly, while playing for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Tim Lincecum pitched a strong six innings, as he allowed just three hits, while walking three and striking out eight.

Lincecum extended his scoreless inning up to 15, just five days after throwing eight scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

In his career, Lincecum improves to 65-2 when getting four runs or more, this according to Bill Arnold of Sports Features Group.

Brandon Belt continues to hit the ball well, as he went 4-for-5 on the evening and is now batting .312 after being at the .077 mark on April 17.

Belt added another double, moving within one of tying Jeff Kent for the most consecutive games with a double by a San Francisco Giant.

Kent picked up a double in seven consecutive games from April 22-29, 1999.

Buster Posey went 2-for-2 at the plate with two runs scored, and was also walked twice.

Justin Maxwell also picked up two hits for the Giants in the win, as they are now 6-2 on the 10-game homestand.

The Giants extended their streak of scoring six runs or less up to 30 games, their longest streak since 1914.

To find the last time the Giants scored more than six runs in a game was in Game Four of the 2014 World Series, when they scored 11 against the Kansas City Royals.

Yusmeiro Petit pitched the final three innings, and picked up his first career save in the process.

By Jeremy Harness

Rory McIlroy has a very detailed and intense workout regimen, and after a prolonged last couple of days, that really paid off for him.

After his quarterfinal match with Paul Casey was suspended due to darkness Saturday night after 20 holes, he had to tee off at 6:45am PST Sunday to finish that match before moving on to the semifinal.

He came back to finally finish off Casey early Sunday morning and had another dramatic comeback in his satchel against Jim Furyk in the semis before holding off long-hitter Gary Woodland, 4-and-2, to claim his first-ever Cadillac Match Play championship at San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park.

“It’s been a great week to play,” McIlroy said. “What is it, seven matches, having to sleep on one as well. Sort of trying to beat three players in one day today.

“I played some great golf this week and got the job done, which was the most important thing, and (it was ) great to get the first win state-side this year.”

Against Woodland in the title match, McIlroy to a four-hole advantage, which he earned on the front nine and carried to the 11th hole while Woodland struggled to find his rhythm.

However, the world’s top player had a pair of slip-ups in the next pair of holes, and Woodland used that as a catalyst to win those two holes and give himself a realistic chance of a comeback. It could have been a tighter match, but after a brilliant bunker shot, Woodland missed a three-footer for par at the 13th after McIlroy was already in for bogey.

After getting that big break, McIlroy tightened things back up and proceeded to turn the lights out on Woodland, who was forced to concede at the 16th after going from one greenside bunker to another.

“The putt on 13 killed me,” Woodland said. “(If) my putt drops on 13, and I get to one down, and it’s a different ballgame. But I missed that one, and he was like a shark, smelled blood, and it was game over quickly.

“Losing sucks.”

Furyk will likely second that, especially after the way he fell to McIlroy in the morning semifinal. He had the Northern Ireland native a hole down going into the 16th hole, which he birdied. McIlroy responded quickly with a birdie and then followed that right up with another birdie to square it up.

McIlroy then made the putt of the tournament, rolling one in from more than 43 feet away for an eagle to take the match in the most dramatic fashion possible.

“I played solid today,” Furyk said. “(But) I tip my hat to him. It was a good match, back and forth. It was just disappointing.”

For Furyk, the disappointment continued into the consolation round, which got an eye-roll from him when asked about the significance of that match after his win over Louis Oosthuizen in the Saturday quarterfinal.

He had been known for coming on strong on the back nine, but he simply ran out of gas against Danny Willett and saw the Englishman take him down, 3 and 2.

By: Ben Leonard
Follow @ben___leonard
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With or without point guard Mike Conley, the Memphis Grizzlies are no pushover. Any team with Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph will play you tough, making the Warriors’ 101-86 victory in Game One of the Western Conference Semifinals all the more impressive.

Conley was forced to sit out after undergoing surgery to repair fractures in his face, but still watched from the bench. Conley’s status for the rest of the series is still up in the air at this point. Without Conley, Randolph and Gasol paced Memphis’ attack, scoring 20 and 21 points, respectively, both grabbing nine rebounds.

But not even those efforts were strong enough to beat the surging Warriors at Oracle Arena, who extended their home winning streak to 21 games. Stephen Curry paced the Warriors with 22 points and 7 assists, teaming up with fellow “Splash Brother” Klay Thompson and his 18 points to carry the Dubs over the depleted Grizzlies. As a team, Golden State shot an absurd 50.6% from the field, but were given some competition by Memphis in that department, who made 45.2% of their shots. However, the difference in this game was the Warriors’ ability to knock down threes, hitting 13 of their 28 attempts, as compared to Memphis’ 3 of 12 showing.

The Warriors were off to an auspicious beginning, holding a 16 point lead in the second, but failed to pull away from Memphis, finding themselves up just nine at the half. However, the Warriors outscored the Grizzlies 22-14 in the third, proving to be the difference in the game.

Golden State will look to take a 2-0 series lead on Tuesday, with tipoff at 7:30 PST at Oracle Arena.

 

By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, May 2, 2015

PHOENIX, Arizona – San Jose remains undefeated in six games following a resounding, but potentially costly, 56-34 victory Saturday over the defending three-time Arena Football League champion Arizona Rattlers at US Airways Center.

SaberCats quarterback Erik Meyer left the game with an undetermined injury with 6:01 remaining in the third quarter. Meyer, who completed 12 of 21 passes for 182 yards and five touchdowns, was alert as he was wheeled off the turf on a stretcher.

San Jose (6-0) used a big second half to do their damage after a closely played first half, outscoring the Rattlers 22-7 in the third and fourth quarters while handing Arizona its second defeat of the season.

“We thought we had (San Jose) right where we wanted them,” Rattlers Coach Kevin Guy said. “We tried some little things as far as adjustments, but we just had too many busted coverages and pass protections in the second half. Even after they changed quarterbacks, we still didn’t do a good job of fixing those coverages.

Asked about the two early losses, Guy responded, ”Remember, we’ve won three championships. We’re not going to panic.”

After the Rattlers (4-2) tied the game at 34-34 on a Mykel Benson 1-yard run, San Jose (6-0) went ahead to stay with 6:48 to play in the third quarter on a 45-yard scoring pass from Meyer to Reggie Gray. It was Gray’s third TD of the night and his 11th of the season.

Nathan Stanley, a second-year signal caller from Southeastern Louisiana, took over at quarterback for the SaberCats, completing 8 of 14 passes for 49 yards and two touchdowns. After Francis Maka sacked Arizona quarterback BJ Coleman in the end zone for a safety, Stanley completed a pair of TD passes in the fourth quarter to Dariu Reynolds (10 yards) and Adron Tennell (3 yards) to complete the scoring.

Tennell and Gray each snared six passes and a pair of touchdown strikes for San Jose. Tennell led the SaberCats with 88 pass reception yards. San Jose held an edge in total offense of 243 total yards to 187.

Defensive back David Hyland led the SaberCat defense with seven unassisted tackles and two assists. DB Ken Fontenette made five tackles and assisted on two more.

Arizona started backup quarterback BJ Coleman, who stepped in for the injured Nick Davila. Coleman completed 17 of 38 passes for three touchdowns, mostly in the first half. His primary target was Rod Windsor, who caught 10 passes for 95 yards and one TD.

San Jose jumped to a 21-7 first quarter lead on TD passes to DJ Stephens and Tennell, along with a 57-yard kickoff return by Gray – the third consecutive game he has ran a kickoff back for a score. The Rattlers closed their deficit to 21-14 on an eight-yard touchdown catch by Markee White from BJ Coleman.

A kickoff return for an apparent touchdown by Gray was called back due to a holding call, but the SaberCats soon scored again on a 27-yard pass from Meyer to Gray. The extra point attempt by Nick Pertult missed wide left, but San Jose was leading 27-14 at the end of the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, Markee White made another TD catch for Arizona, pulling the Rattlers to within 27-20. The Rattlers tried an onside kick that failed.

An interception by Cleven Thomas with 8:52 left in the first half snuffed out an Arizona drive, but the SaberCats were unable to capitalize, turning the ball over on downs at 4:25 of the second quarter.

Arizona tied the game at 27-27 with just under a minute to play on a pass from Coleman to Rod Windsor. San Jose took a 34-27 halftime lead when Meyer found Rich Ranglin open in the left corner of the end zone. Thomas’s second interception closed out the first half.

The SaberCats return home next Saturday to host the Las Vegas Outlaws. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-With a chance to tie up the game in the top of the ninth inning, Taylor Featherston was on the receiving end of the unthinkable.

Matt Joyce hit what could have a possible game-tying hit, but the ball hit Featherston for the third and final out and the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 5-4 before a sellout crowd of 41,287, the 339th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

Giants starter Tim Hudson faced the first batter in the top of the ninth inning, and after a walk to pinch hitter Colin Cowgill, Bruce Bochy summoned Sergio Romo in from the bullpen.

Romo was able to Erick Aybar to ground into a force play, after a single to Mike Trout, Albert Pujols struck out looking for the second out of the inning.

Jeremy Affeldt was brought on to face Kole Calhoun for the possible final out of the game.

Unfortunately, Affeldt was unable to get Calhoun, as he singled to left field score Aybar com second base.

That would be it for Affeldt, as Bochy brought in Santiago Casilla to David Freese, but that plan backfired.

Freese singled to centerfield to score Trout and send Calhoun all the way to third base with two outs.

Casilla would then get Joyce on the ball that hit Featherston to end the game, and gave the Giants their fifth straight win at AT&T a Park.

Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford each hit home runs for the Giants, while Nori Aoki drove in two runs.

Casey McGehee went three-for-four at the plate with an RBI and a run scored.