The Baltimore Ravens were intent upon demonstrating their physical prowess. The New York Giants were eager to prove they could take it — and give it back. The result was a hard-hitting, mistake-filled preseason game that produced far more injuries than touchdowns. New York won 13-12 Sunday night, but both teams lost key players.
John Smoltz wasn’t content with 12 strikeouts, a Braves franchise record and a lead through eight innings. He wanted more, telling manager Bobby Cox he was in a groove. “I said ‘Groove? You’re completely unhittable. Nobody stands a chance,”‘ said Cox, who still brought in Bob Wickman to close out the Atlanta Braves’ 6-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.
At 41, Greg Maddux can still beat teams with his arm, his bat and his glove. The only thing that wasn’t pretty about his afternoon’s work was that awkward slide into third base. “Wasn’t too clean,” Maddux said after his otherwise all-around effort helped the San Diego Padres to a much-needed 5-3 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday.
Lane Kiffin hoped one of his quarterbacks would make it obvious in the preseason who should start when the regular season begins. Halfway through the exhibition season, Daunte Culpepper is doing his best to be that player. Culpepper outplayed Andrew Walter and Josh McCown in Saturday night’s 26-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, throwing two touchdown passes and showing he can still run a little…
Marcus Washington is out at least a week. Jason Campbell is officially “day-to-day.” Given the circumstances of their injuries, the Washington Redskins couldn’t ask for much better news. Washington and Campbell were injured in Saturday night’s 12-10 preseason loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they spent much of Sunday afternoon at Redskins Park getting treatment for soreness and swelling.
A grand jury is scheduled to convene Monday in the federal court where Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and three co-defendants were indicted on dogfighting charges last month. There’s no indication whether the grand jury will take up further allegations against Vick, although federal prosecutors have said they plan to seek a superseding indictment in the case.
For the next three weeks, the Seattle Mariners get the chance to prove their surprising run so far is no fluke. And the Mariners enter their most difficult stretch of the season on a roll. Jose Guillen sparked the Mariners offense with a two-run homer in the first inning and finished with five RBIs as Seattle swept the slumping Chicago White Sox 11-5 on Sunday.
Lenny DiNardo was lights out again, and the Oakland Athletics found enough offense to avoid the embarrassment of being swept by the Royals at home for the first time in almost two decades. DiNardo allowed three singles to Joey Gathright among his five hits en route to winning his third straight start and fifth consecutive decision, and Marco Scutaro and Dan Johnson each homered in a 6-1 victory…
Matt Schaub has shown enough poise and flash during Houston’s first two preseason games that the Texans should feel good about their new-look passing game. The running game? That’s more of a mystery. While the starting running game hasn’t been bad, it would be a stretch to call it good. While Schaub was 9-of-12 for 108 yards and ran for a touchdown to post a 102.1 quarterback rating in a 33-20 win…
