KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011 / NEWS / 1.1
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Statistics are like bikinis - they show a lot but not everything."
FACT OF THE DAY
— Lou Piniella
Q: Which former MLB manager won AL Rookie of the Year with the Royals in 1969?
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
In 2003, shortstop Angel Berroa was the last Royal to win American League Rookie of the Year.
MLB.com
A: Lou Piniella
MLB.com
MORNING BREW
Loss wasn't total disappointment
Game 7 tends to be the most nerve-
tracking contest for players and fans. Tuesday night's headline
Game 7 tends to be the most nerve-racking contest for players and fans. Tuesday night's hockey game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Vancouver Canucks didn't go the way I wanted it to, but the fact that there was a Game 7 was good enough for me. The Blackhawks fought till the end and lost in overtime.
BY MIKE LAVIERI lavieri@kansan.com
Last week I thought the Blackhawks, down three games to zero, were on the brink of elimination. I said that the season was over and that I would focus more of my attention on the Bulls, who closed out the series against the Pacers on Tuesday four games to one. That didn't happen. I cheered for the Blackhawks more.
I watched Game 4 at my house here in Kansas. I saw the Blackhawks come alive for the first time in this series, netting seven goals
To the chagrin of my girlfriend, who is now getting into hockey, I listened to Game 5 on WGN Radio as I drove from Lawrence to Champaign, Ill., to pick up my brother and go back home. My girlfriend didn't want to listen because she didn't understand the game. After one period, the game was 3-0 and I told her I would turn on music after the Blackhawks' next goal. Less than two minutes into the second period, the Hawks netted another one. I couldn't
believe what was going on. Chicago was in Vancouver giving the Canucks the whopping they deserved.
Game 6 was on Sunday, the day I was driving back from Chicago. It's usually an eight-hour drive that I timed almost perfectly. I left at 11 a.m. and should have made it back at 6:30 p.m., just in time for the drop of the puck. But because of a gas stop just outside of Kansas City, Mo., I missed the first 15 minutes of the game.
She fell asleep and I turned the game back on. Just before getting into Champaign, the game finished and I could breathe a sigh of relief.
I thought the season was going to be over. I wasn't confident. I thought the luck had run out. But the game went into overtime and Ben Smith, a rookie who was still playing for Boston College just a few weeks
ago, gave the Blackhawks new life.
Game 7: one final game that would send one team to the next round and send another home. I just wanted to watch at home, but my girlfriend wanted to watch it at bar. Remember this is the girl who didn't understand hockey, but ended up liking the game more than soccer. She's starting to love it.
I was calm, but nervous at the same time. Chicago was down the entire game until 1:56 was left and Jonathan Toews gave the Hawks momentum. I thought they had the Canucks on the ropes, but for the first time in three years, Vancouver defeated Chicago in a playoff series.
Edited by Helen Mubarak
MLB
Philadelphia's bats come alive against Arizona
PHOENIX — Philadelphia had the pitching, not the hitting in the opener. Second game, they had hitting, no pitching.
Facing their first sweep in the desert in nearly four years, the Philies got the hitting and the pitching to inch closer toward their winningest opening month ever.
Cole Hamels pitched seven solid innings after being padded to an early lead and the Phillies kept swinging on their way to an 8-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Philadelphia didn't do it in the opener, shut out to spoil Cliff Lee's solid start. The Pangles hung坚固.
five runs the second game, but still lost because Roy Oswalt wasn't quite right.
That was more than enough for Hamels (3-1), who pitched the Phillies to their 16th win in April, one short of the team record set in 1993.
In the series finale, Jimmy Rollins keyed a big first inning with an RBI double and Ben Francisco knocked in two more with another double. Rollins later hit a two-run homer, and Shane Victorino and Ryan Howard also hit solo shots.
Placido Polanco continued his torrid start to the season, getting four of Philadelphia's 12 hits and scoring three runs to extend his hitting streak to eight games.
Hamels and the hard-hitting Phillies never gave the Diamondbacks much of a chance at the sweep.
Philadelphia roughed up starter Joe Saunders (0-3) early and tagged Arizona's bullpen, providing enough cushion to absorb Chris Young's two-run homer in the sixth inning off Hamels and solo shot off Antonio Bastardo in the eighth that cut Philadelphia's lead to 7-4.
Philadelphia came into the series on a five-game winning streak and looked to extend it with Lee and Oswalt lined up to face the struggling Diamondbacks.
Those two couldn't get it done, leaving it up to Hamels to avoid the sweep.
The left-hander wasn't quite as dominant as his shutout against the Mets on Friday, but was good enough against the Diamondbacks.
Hamels gave up an RBI double to Melvin Mora after a leadoff walk in the second inning, then retired the next 10 batters before pinch hitter Juan Miranda led off the sixth with a triple. Young hit the next pitch out to left for a two-run homer, cutting Philadelphia's lead to 6-3.
Hamels came back out to finish off the seventh after allowing three runs on four hits, picking up the win Philadelphia hoped to get from Lee and Oswalt.
The Diamondbacks won the series' first two games behind solid outings from Ian Kennedy and
Daniel Hudson, and were hoping for another from Saunders, who allowed a run on two hits in six innings of a no-decision against the Mets on Friday.
Hit hard almost from his first pitch, Saunders gave up three straight hits to open the game and three runs in the inning, on a run-scoring double by Rollins and Francisco's two-run, ground-rule double.
Victorino hit a two-out soto homer in the second and Rollins lifted his first homer to left off Saunders in the fifth, a two-run shot that put the Phillies up 6-1.
They didn't get it.
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
Saunders lasted 5 2-3 innings giving up six runs on 10 hits.
Tennis
Big 12 Championships
All Day
Waco, Texas
TODAY
FRIDAY
Baseball
vs. Texas Tech
6:30 p.m.
Lubbock, Texas
Tennis
Big 12 Championships
All Day
Waco, Texas
SATURDAY
Rowing
Big 12 Championships
9:45 a.m.
Kansas City, Kan.
Softball
vs. Texas A&M
4 p.m.
Lawrence
Baseball vs. Texas Tech 5 p.m. Lubbock, Texas
CORRECTION
Wednesday's baseball story incorrectly stated the scores of the game heading into the 5th inning. Creighton took a 2-1 lead after the third inning, and Kansas regained the lead in the 5th, going ahead 3-2.
Please recycle this newspaper
s u l r i g s l f o t y c l i v e s n
22