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srijeda, 28.09.2011.

Cardinals closing crazy season by pulling even with Braves

By the end of the game, the only folks remaining in the stands of Minute Maid Park were the few thousand, fiercely loyal members of Cardinal Nation on hand to see if this wild and crazy baseball season would draw to a fitting conclusion.

The Redbird mob was on its feet savoring every moment of the biggest game of this desperate season (at least until Wednesday night’s huge, ginormous, really, really big game). But mostly they were doing what the rest of us have been doing for the past month or so. Trying to figure out if this is real, some hokey fantasy or some wickedly cruel joke that will end sometime late Wednesday night with a sickening crash to earth.

But for the time being, allow the unlikely miracle to settle in for a few more delirious hours.

All even. One game to play.

"This is a blast," said Ryan Theriot late Tuesday night after a 13-6 victory over the Houston Astros that drew the Cardinals into an absolute deadlock with the Atlanta Braves for the National League’s wild-card playoff berth with one game remaining in the regular season. "We’re having a blast. This is why you play the game."

If it doesn’t make sense to you anymore how or why the Cardinals are thisclose to the postseason, join the crowded line of bewildered members of Cardinal Nation who had given this baseball team up for dead more than a month ago when it fell 10 { games behind the Braves in the wild-card race. If you were among that doubting flock then (and who wasn’t), then you were probably revisiting those same emotions early Tuesday night when things were a bit more tense. Knowing that the Braves were well on their way to another embarrassing implosion at home (a 7-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies), the Cardinals quickly fell behind against the Astros 5-0 after three innings.

As we’ve seen repeatedly over the last month &ndash heck, over the entire confounding season – the Cardinals never make it easy. Drama. Frustration. Excitement. Redemption. Stir. Repeat. That’s become the Cardinal Way these days.

"But the game won’t let it be easy," said right fielder Lance Berkman, who had three hits and scored three runs. "Baseball is a tough sport. That’s why it’s maddening at times. But when you get on a roll like we’ve been on, the dramatic things tend to fall your way like it has for us."

Well who’s complaining now?

One game to play. Tied for the wild-card lead.

Atlanta, which has now lost four straight and seven of its last 10, is heading into Wednesday night against the Phillies, as Chipper Jones said Tuesday night, "like we’re living out a bad dream."

The Cardinals, who have won three of their last four and 10 of their last 14, are entering Wednesday night with former Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter on the mound and a sense of inevitability on their side.

I don’t know about believing in miracles, but how can you not like the Cardinals’ chances now after all that they’ve fought through to get to this exciting conclusion to their season?

"It just felt like we were going to do it," Berkman said as he explained how he and his teammates have made this incredible and improbable turnaround. "I’ve been on three teams that have made unbelievable runs, so I know what it feels like. You show up and try to do the best you can. The bottom line is we have a good team, a talented team and generally along the course of 162 games that talent will rise to the top and it has. I compare this team to the ’04 Astro team where all year we were saying, ’OK, where is the winning streak?’"

Those Astros were as talented as this Cardinals team, and started off even more inconsistently before catching fire to win the wild-card berth in the final days of the season. "This team is very similar," said Berkman. "Everyone in here always believed we had a better team than the way we were playing. It’s just taken a while to show up."

For 161 crazy, mixed-up games, the Cardinals have taken us on an anguishing six-month joy ride through this wildly unpredictable baseball season.

There could be no more fitting conclusion to this season than this gasping, wheezing, woozy, frustrating then suddenly miraculous stumble to the finish. One more game to decide their playoff fate, even if you can barely stand to look. One more desperate stab to salvage a 162-game season that has been marred and mangled by so many injuries and missed opportunities. But as always, just when it looked as if the season was about to slip away, the Cards received a splendid, desperate, do-or-die rally by a steady stream of bench players named Ryan Theriot, Nick Punto and Allen Craig that allows all of Cardinal Nation to cling to the wild idea that the season might have a happy ending after all.

This is why you have to love this fascinating group that Tony La Russa rolls out every night to scratch and claw their way back into this improbable playoff dream. The Cardinals are not the most perfect team in the world to watch, but they are beyond a doubt one of the most entertaining, for all the right and wrong reasons. Tuesday night when it seemed like they were on the verge of blowing their final chance to draw even with Atlanta after the Braves were blown out, the Cardinals climbed out of a 5-0 third-inning hole and turned a 6-5 deficit into a stunning 9-6 lead in the seventh inning on big RBI hits by Craig, Theriot and Punto.

With one game to play, the Cardinals are still clinging to the dream. Through all the injuries, all the slumps, all the maddening errors and finally a string of inspiring and improbable victories, they have used all 161 games on the schedule so far.

Dead even with a game to go.

It would be a shame to let it all slip away now.

28.09.2011. u 14:48 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

četvrtak, 15.09.2011.

Colts' Collins Ready to Make up for Rough Start

All Kerry Collins really wants is a chance to make things right.

He's been studying the playbook, refining the timing with receivers, getting acclimated to shotgun formations and Indianapolis' no-huddle offense. By Sunday, the Colts quarterback hopes all of his overtime will help him make a better impression in his home debut with the Colts.

"I feel more and more comfortable every day running the offense, making decisions," Collins said Wednesday. "It (more practice) is really going to help me, no question. We just have to keep grinding away and get better than we were last week."

Hey, it couldn't get much worse.

The Colts were manhandled by AFC South rival Houston in their opener last Sunday, losing 34-7 in a flat, mistake-filled outing that has fans wondering if Indy will win at all without Peyton Manning. The Colts went scoreless in the first half for the first time since September 2008, the last time Manning was recovering from an injury. And though Collins wound up with decent passing numbers at Houston -- 16 of 31, 197 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a higher quarterback rating than Houston's Matt Schaub -- they paled in comparison to the glaring miscues.

All Kerry Collins really wants is a chance to make things right.

He's been studying the playbook, refining the timing with receivers, getting acclimated to shotgun formations and Indianapolis' no-huddle offense. By Sunday, the Colts quarterback hopes all of his overtime will help him make a better impression in his home debut with the Colts.

"I feel more and more comfortable every day running the offense, making decisions," Collins said Wednesday. "It (more practice) is really going to help me, no question. We just have to keep grinding away and get better than we were last week."

Hey, it couldn't get much worse.

The Colts were manhandled by AFC South rival Houston in their opener last Sunday, losing 34-7 in a flat, mistake-filled outing that has fans wondering if Indy will win at all without Peyton Manning. The Colts went scoreless in the first half for the first time since September 2008, the last time Manning was recovering from an injury. And though Collins wound up with decent passing numbers at Houston -- 16 of 31, 197 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a higher quarterback rating than Houston's Matt Schaub -- they paled in comparison to the glaring miscues.

Collins did look better as the game wore on, and with six more workouts this week, perhaps the offense will start to look more normal by Sunday. At least that's the hope in Indy.

"I think it's huge. The more confidence he gets, the better we get as an offense," tight end Dallas Clark said. "Everyone needs to focus individually on their effort and if everyone improves collectively, then we'll improve as an offense."

It starts with Collins, who blamed himself for not taking care of the ball at Houston.

Collins lost the first fumble when Houston's Antonio Smith blind-sided him. On the Colts' next offensive play, Collins dropped the snap and Houston recovered again. The Texans quickly converted both turnovers into touchdowns, putting Indy in a quick 17-0 hole. Indy never recovered.

"I know he'll be more comfortable and have a little better grasp of things," Caldwell said. "There were some things he did well, but I think it's not just him. It's a number of guys who will show the kind of improvement we need."

Whether it was the blocking scheme, the new offensive line, a philosophical change or not enough time to get Collins acclimated, Colts fans expect to see a better performance this week.

And Collins intends to meet those expectations in his first home game as Manning's replacement.

"We'll improve, we have to improve," Collins said. "There were too many mistakes, too many turnovers. You know any kind of start would be better than what we had last week."

Note: The Colts signed linebacker Nate Triplett to the active roster and added linebacker Caleb Campbell to the practice squad Wednesday. Indy was looking for reinforcements after defensive captain Gary Brackett (shoulder) and backup linebacker Ernie Sims (sprained knee) were ruled out of Sunday's game by Caldwell. Triplett was a fifth-round draft pick of the Vikings in 2010. Campbell was a seventh-round pick of the Detroit Lions in 2008 and played in three games with the Lions last season.

15.09.2011. u 12:19 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

četvrtak, 01.09.2011.

U.S. Open: Andy Roddick labors past Michael Russell with wife Brooklyn Decker in stands in Flushing

He returned to the scene of his greatest triumph Wednesday night, and commemorated the moment by belting his first serve of the match 135 mph. The rest of the evening was not nearly so easy for Andy Roddick, once the big young gun of American tennis and still the last American male to win a Grand Slam.

Nobody expected Roddick to turn back the proverbial clock at Arthur Ashe Stadium Wednesday night, but few expected him to have a bumpy, three-hour tussle with fellow American Michael Russell, either.

The 29-year-old Roddick came into the Open with his lowest ranking in a decade (No. 21), and the lowest Slam seed (also No. 21) of his life, his 2003 Open title an increasingly distant memory. He wound up prevailing over the 33-year-old Russell, but it was neither smooth, nor artistic.

"I was lucky to get out of there in four sets," Roddick said, after his 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory. "It wasn't pretty."

The victory earns Roddick a second-round date with 18-year-old wild card Jack Sock, No. 553 in the world, and a Nebraska native, like Roddick. Sock is not just the youngest player in the draw; he is the newest pro in the draw, and he debuted by taking out 34-year-old Marc Gicquel of France, the oldest player in the field, 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.

In the nightcap, third-seeded Maria Sharapova moved into the third round with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Anastasiya Yakimova, also of Russia.

"I'm coming in looking to win," said Sock, the two-time USTA 18s champion, when asked about his expectations. "I wouldn't enter a tournament, come to a tournament, if I didn't think I could win some matches."

Roddick, his relief palpable after getting by the 96th-ranked Russell, said Sock was "full of ---- and vinegar," and reminded him of himself at that age.

"I'll take on the young American and I'll enjoy it," Roddick said.

Russell has yet to win an Open match in seven tries. A 5-8 baseline counterpuncher, he played in a sleeveless red shirt that showed off his bulging biceps, but didn't fully join the fray until the third set, when he went up an early break and made it stand up, smacking potent forehands and dictating most of the rallies. He held at love to clinch the set and take Roddick into the fourth, and continued his roll from there, going up by breaking Roddick at 15 with a crosscourt forehand for 3-2.

Roddick broke back, but when Russell hooked a forehand pass into the corner and hit an artful forehand lob in the ninth game, it sure looked as if this might go five, before Roddick held at love for 6-5 and closed it out when Russell had the last, and worst, of his eight double faults, for 15-40.

Russell netted a forehand volley and Roddick had lived to see the second round.

"Maybe he missed some more shots than he usually does," Russell said. "(But) if he serves well, he could go deep in the tournament."

01.09.2011. u 11:56 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

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