4B
SPORTS
MLB
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2006
San Diego continues postseason woes
Associated Press
St. Louis Cardinals closer Adam Wainwright throws to the San Diego Padres during the ninth inning in Game 2 of their National League Division Series baseball game Thursday in San Diego.
BY BERNIE WILSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
The crowd booed after Cardinals rookie closer Adam Wainright retired the side in the ninth.
"Right now, I mean it's about as flat as it can get," said the 43-year-old Wells, who plans to retire when the season ends.
Well, history suggests the best-five series will end Saturday in St. Louis, unless the popgun Padres can find their missing bats. The Padres are hitting an embarrassing .164 in the series, getting just 10 hits and one run so far, while striking out 20 times. They're 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and have stranded 13.
"We've got to get on the board, score some runs," said San Diego native David Wells, who may have pitched his final big league game. "I think one run in two games isn't going to cut it. This continues, then you know that's the end of it.
"I just wanted to stay away from the extra-base hits and things of that nature, and was able to throw a lot of quality breaking balls to keep these guys off-balance," said Weaver, who dodged jams in the first and fifth innings.
Aware that the Padres liked fastballs, Weaver didn't throw very many. San Diego leadoff batter Dave Roberts estimated that more than 50 percent of Weaver's pitches were curveballs.
Weaver gave up two singles in five innings, allowing only two Padres baserunners as far as second base. He struck out three and walked three.
And to think Weaver struggled so badly with the Angels this year, going 3-10, that he was traded to make room in their rotation for his younger brother, Jered. But he earned this start by going 4-1 with a 4.03 ERA in eight road starts with St. Louis.
SAN DIEGO — Getting out of September intact was the hard part for the St. Louis Cardinals, who clinched a division title while stuck in reverse.
Relievers Randy Flores, Josh
Cardinals drop Padres for ninth straight loss in playoffs
St. Louis, which barely avoided one of the biggest September collapses ever, improved to 8-0 in the postseason against San Diego. That includes division series sweeps last year and in 1996.
Kinney, Tyler Johnson and Wainwright pitched four innings of two-hit ball. Wainwright got the last four outs for the save.
Saturday's Homecoming Events:
And the San Diego Padres? Well, after coming into the playoffs with all the confidence in the world — and rare home-field advantage — they may not make it through the weekend.
"It's very big because coming into these playoffs we didn't really know what to expect," Cardinals shortstop David Eckstein said.
Pancake Breakfast
The Padres appear to be headed for their same of postseason fate against the Cardinals, who won 2-0 on Thursday behind Albert Pujols and reclamation project Jeff Weaver to take a 2-0 lead in the NL division series.
Wells lost his third straight postseason start, allowing two runs and seven hits in five innings. He struck out two and walked none. Overall, the hefty lefty is 10-5 in the postseason.
Where: Stauffer-Flint Front Lawn When: 8:00 a.m. How much: $5.00
Weaver and four relievers, three of whom are rookies, combined on a four-hitter. Making his second career postseason start, Weaver outpitched Wells, who was making his 17th postseason start and 27th appearance dating to 1989.
The Padres obtained Wells from the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 31, mostly because of his history of postseason success, which included World Series championships with Toronto in 1992 and the Yankees in 1998, when he beat San Diego in Game 1.
The Padres haven't led in a postseason game since being up 3-2 against the Yankees after seven innings of Game 3 of the '98 Series. Scott Brosius stunned the Padres with a three-run homer off Trevor Hoffman in the eighth inning — his second shot of the night — and the Yankees won 5-4.
Padres rookie Josh Barfield doubled off Wainwright with two outs in the eighth before Adrian Gonzalez grounded to second.
San Diego hadn't lost consecutive games in almost a month.
Annual Parade
"We battled our tails off through September to get here," said Geoff Blum, who's filled in for injured shortstop Khalil Greene. "Hopefully, there are some remnants of that floating around and we'll return to some of the magic in St. Louis."
So why have San Diego's bats gone AWOL?
Where: Jayhawk Blvd.
When: 9:00 a.m.
"It's one of those things where we struggle at home offensively," Brian Giles said. "There's no sugarcoating it. I wish we had an explanation. We don't."
Pujols had three more hits after homering in the 5-1 victory in Game 1. He and Jim Edmonds hit RBI singles off Wells in the fourth inning.
About the only thing the Padres have going now is that they were 45-36 on the road, including winning two of three at St. Louis last week.
Football Game
"I think it's a huge step in the right direction to come into somebody else's park and win the first two, especially in the short series," said Weaver, who used his curveball to baffle a lefty-dominated Padres lineup. "We're looking forward to getting back home and trying to make the series as short as possible."
Football Game Kansas Jayhawks vs. Texas A&M @ 11:00 a.m.
Once a Jayhawk, Always a Jayhawk www.homecoming.ku.edu
MLB
Detroit Tigers' Carlos Guillen, right, is congratulated by third base coach Gene Lamont after hitting a solo home run against the New York Yankees during the sixth inning in Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Thursday at Yankee Stadium in New York.
Associated Pres
Detroit evens playoff series Speedy pitching leads Tigers to victory against Yankees
BY RONALD BLUM ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Justin Verlander overpowered Alex Rodriguez with 100 mph heat. Joel Zumaya topped that, his fastball whizzing by at 102.
The New York Yankees never saw what was coming, and the Detroit Tigers headed home with a split.
Verlander and Detroit's bullpen held down New York's mighty offense, Curtis Granderson's go-ahead triple off Mike Mussina capped a comeback, and Detroit beat the Yankees 4-3 Thursday to leave them tied at one game apiece in their best-of-five AL playoff series.
"There's a lot of people doubting us," Zumaya said. "A lot of people don't expect the Tigers to come out and play as good as we did. We have to prove ourselves and, obviously, we
proved it a little bit today."
Verlander, like Zumaya one of Detroit's rookie sensations, pitched in and out of trouble for 5 2-3 innings, allowing seven hits and four walks. He gave his only runs on Johnny Damon's fourth-inning homer, which put New York ahead 3-1.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland then made the unusual move to pull him with a runner on, one out and a 1-1 count on Robinson Cano. Jamie Walker came in, threw two balls, and induced an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
It was that type of up-and-down day for the wild-card Tigers, who ended a six-game losing streak that cost them the AL Central title last weekend.
"I just didn't like the fastball before that it was 92." Leyland said.
"I just said, 'This is it. I'm going to make my move now. I know there's a count on the hitter, but I'm going to make it right now.' Just all of a sudden, your instincts take over and say, 'Look, this is just not right."
Those type of against-the-book moves helped Leyland turn around the Tigers in his first year as manager, stopping Detroit's streak of losing seasons at 12.
"He's a feel guy," Yankees manager joe Torre said.
Walker, Zumaya and Todd Jones combined for one-hit relief, making New York's modern-day Murders' Row resembled overmatched kids. Jones pitched the ninth for the save, giving up a leadoff single to Hidekid Matsui. A soft tosser when compared to his hard-throwing 'pen mates. Jones then retired the next three batters.
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