One fan got a baseball. The rest left with another sweet memory. Manny Ramirez homered off Francisco Rodriguez with two outs in the ninth inning and the Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-3 Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in their AL playoff series. The Red Sox, who tied the game in the fifth thanks to the friendly — and legal — grab of a front-row fan, have a chance to complete the…
Closer Jason Isringhausen will be back in St. Louis next year, after the team picked up his $8 million option Friday night. The move was announced by John Mozeliak, interim general manger. Walt Jocketty was dismissed on Wednesday. The 35-year-old Isringhausen was 32-for-34 in save opportunities, a year after missing the postseason following hip surgery.
After all the changes the New York Islanders went through this summer, coach Ted Nolan’s decision to put together an all-newcomer top line quickly paid off. Mike Comrie, Bill Guerin and Ruslan Fedotenko, inseparable since the free-agent threesome was put together on the first day of training camp, found instant chemistry in a 6-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres in the teams’ season opener Friday…
The Anaheim Ducks’ World Tour took a wrong turn Friday night. Rick Nash had two goals and a career-best four points and Pascal Leclaire stopped 28 shots to help the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the road-weary Ducks 4-0. Asked if his team was tired after playing four games on two continents and in three arenas in less than a week, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle refused to take the easy way out.
Pittsburgh’s opener featured all the trademarks of a typical Penguins game — young star forwards flying up and down the ice, an up-and-coming goalie making save after acrobatic save. Only this time, all the big plays were made by the Carolina Hurricanes’ youngsters. Eric Staal scored two first-period goals, Cam Ward stopped 33 shots in taking a shutout into the final minutes and the Hurricanes…
Student Council may not be a fluke, after all. Taking the lead in the stretch, Student Council pulled away for a 1 1/4-length victory over Jonesboro in the $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap on Saturday, nearly six weeks after his surprise win in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar at odds of 23-1. Ridden by Richard Migliore, the 5-year-old Student Council ranged four wide around the final turn,…
Hard Spun turned the tables on Street Sense, going right to the lead and then holding off the Kentucky Derby winner in a determined drive to win the $350,000 Kentucky Cup Classic on Saturday at Turfway Park. Hard Spun broke from the inside post and was taken to the lead immediately by jockey Mario Pino, with Street Sense outside him just a half length back.
Charlotte Bobcats forward Sean May will miss the season after deciding to undergo microfracture surgery on his troublesome right knee. May will have the surgery Tuesday in New York. Recovery time will take six to 12 months. “It’s extremely frustrating,” May said Friday in a phone interview. May, the 13th pick in the 2005 draft, has played in only 58 of 164 games over the past two seasons.
Swat! Take that, New York Yankees. Helped by a freakish invasion of bombarding bugs that rattled rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain in the eighth inning, the Cleveland Indians rallied to beat the Yankees 2-1 in 11 innings Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in their AL playoff series. Travis Hafner’s bases-loaded, RBI single with two outs in the 11th scored Kenny Lofton with the winner.
