The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • 20

B4 The Windsor Star Saturday, May 13, 2000 Baseball i "r-'V Baseball Tigers beat tlhe odds Detroit hitters shell Clemens JI IIJI lllrlllJ I EAST DIVISION Pet GB Home Away P10 BA ERA NY Yankees 33 22 11 ,667 12-5 10-6 7-3 .269 4.04 Boston 32 20 12 .625 1'. 11-5 9-7 7-3 .277 3.65 Toronto 37 19 18 .514 5 12-9 7-9 6-4 .285 5.97 Baltimore 35 16 19 ,457 7 10-6 6-13 1-9 .276 5.95 Tampa Bay 34 13 21 .382 9'i 5-8 8-13 4-6 .278 5.59 CENTRAL DIVISION Chicago Sox 34 19 15 ,559 10-5 9-10 2-8 ,293 4.78 Cleveland 33 18 15 .545 6-8 12-7 5-5 .285 4.56 Kansas Citv 35 18 17 .514 IV. 14-4 4-13 6-4 .288 5.95 Minnesota 35 16 19 .457 3V. 11-11 5-8 5-5 .273 5.37 Detroit 33 10 23 .303 8'. 5-9 5-14 4-6 .249 5.50 WEST DIVISION Seattle 32 17 15 .531 10-5 7-10 4-6 .276 4.80 Oakland 35 18 17 .514 6-10 12-7 6-4 .270 4.97 Anaheim 36 18 18 .500 1 11-9 7-9 5-5 .289 5.19 Texas 34 15 19 .441 3 10-12 5-7 6-4 .298 5.14 MERKER IN INTENSIVE CARE: Anaheim Angels left-hander Kent Merckerwas in Intensive care with bleeding in his brain Friday, one day after leaving a game complaining of headaches and dizziness.

Mercker, 32, was hospitalized Thursday night and will remain in Intensive care at UC-lrvine Medical Center throughout the weekend for further observation and evaluation. John Kusske, head of neurologic surgery at the hospital, said test results indicated there was bleeding within the brain. Mercker threw 30 pitches against Texas Thursday before sinking to one knee and leaving the game under his own power. THOMPSON HAS SURGERY: Texas Rangers left-hander Justin Thompson had arthroscopic surgery Friday to repair a torn rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder. The tear was repaired.

Associated Press up that every pitch is a potential disaster," said Nitkowski, who allowed two runs on six hits. Instead, it was Clemens and the Yankees who took a beating but not before Paul O'Neill's two-run homer in the ninth stilled a few Detroit hearts. The Tigers batted aroiirid against Clemens in the fourth inning and scored four times on four hits to take a 5-0 lead, the key hit was Juan Encarnacion's one-outi, two-run double down the third base line after Becker worked Clemens for a bases-loaded walk. After the Yankees fought back with two runs on four hits in the fifth inning, Dean Palmer led off the Tigers' half of the inning with a home run into the Detroit bullpen in right field for a 6-2 lead. Three batters later, Clemens was through for the night after allowing six runs on 10 hits in what was his shortest outing of the season.

Gonzalez drove in Detroit's first run when he doubled over the bag at third to score Luis Polonia. It was only Gonzalez's second hit in 22 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Becker, signed Wednesday after being released by the Oakland A's, started in left field in place of Bobby Higginsoii, who was sitting out the second of a five-game suspension. By Dave Hall star sports writer DETROIT The Big Game odds were longer but not by much. If there was a bigger favourite than Roger Clemens and the Yankees beating the hapless Tigers Friday night, you'd be hard-pressed to find it.

But on a day when a guy from Utica won $90-million, the Tigers pulled off something almost as amazing. Journeyman C.J. Nitkowski outpitched a future Hall of Famer, Deivi Cruz had four hits to spark a 16-hit attack and the Tigers held on to upset the defending World Champions 9-7. And if that wasn't enough, Juan Gonzalez drove in a run and two minutes after Jorge Posada sent Rich Becker back to the warning track for the final out, the rains came. "It's always a challenge when you face some- THURSDAY RESULTS Cleveland 16 Kansas City 0 Boston 11 Baltimore 4 Oakland 7 Seattle 6 Anaheim 3 Texas 2 Tampa Bay 1 New York Yankees 0.

FRIDAY RESULTS Detroit 9 NY Yankees 7 Cleveland 7 Kansas City 3 Boston 9 Baltimore 0 Tampa Bay 4 Toronto 3 Minnesota at Chicago White Sox Seattle at Oakland Texas at Anaheim. Today's American League Games one like Clemens because you know you're not likely to have many runs to play with by the time the night's over," said Nitkowski in a noisy Tigers' clubhouse. "It shouldn't make a difference in how you approach the game but it does. "He's so good and they have such a great line Las Vegas Pro-Line Spread Probable Pitchers $5 Line No OU NYY (PettitteM L) at NYY 4 1.20 2.80 9.5 Pet (Weaver 0-4 R), 1:05, 8-9 K.C. (Suppan 1-3 R) at Cle Cle (Burba 3-1 9J1 Bos(Fassero4-l Dat pick 3 1.20 2.80 8.5 Bal (Johnson 0-2 R), 1:35.

'em Sea (Tomko 1-2 R) at Oak 9 2.00 1.40 9.5 Oak (Appier 3-2 R), 4:05. 7J Tor(Escobar3-4R)at Tor 1 1.50 1.90 10.5 T.B. (Gooden 2-2 R), 4:15. 5.5-6.5 Min (Redman 2-0 L) at ChiS ChiSox (Sirotka 2-3 L), 7:05. 7.5-8.5 Sluggish Devil Rays edge Jays 8 1.80 1.60 10.5 Tex 6.5-7.5 Tex (Helling 4-1 R) at Ana (Wshburn 0-0 L), 10:05.

WHITE LEADS EXPOS PAST CHICAGO 8-3 Williams supplies winner in eighth SUNDAY GAMES N.Y. Yankees at Detroit, 1:05 p.m.; Kansas City at Cleveland, 1:05 p.m.; Toronto at Tampa Bay, 1:15 p.m.; Boston at Baltimore, 1:35 p.m.; Minnesota at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 p.m.; Seattle at Oakland, 4:05 p.m.; Texas at Anaheim, 4:05 p.m. MONTREAL Rondell White hit a key two-run single in the fourth inning and MikeThurman was solid in his first start of the season as the Montreal Expos beat Kerry Wood and the Chicago Cubs 8-3 Friday night. Dustin Hermanson pitched IK innings for his first major-league save, a day after being designated Montreal's closer with Ugueth Urbina sidelined by an elbow injury. Thurman (1-0) limited Chicago to one run on five hits in 5 innings.

Canadian Press you could sense that it wasn't the1 same energy level. Our pitchers picked us tip. It's not too often you win a game with five errors." The Devil Rays beat right-hander Chris Carpenter (34) for the first time after losing to him four times the last two seasons. Rick White (1-2) pitched two innings of relief to get the win, and Lopez worked the ninth for his second save. "I had a chance to win the game in that eighth inning I had to do my job and get out of that and I didn't do it," said Carpenter, who allowed eight hits, struck out two and walked none in his second complete game of the season." The Blue Jays scored an unearned run off Bryan Rekar in the first when second baseman Cairo mishandled a cutoff throw from right field.

They added another hi the seventh off White, tying it 2-2, when Stacker was charged with a double error for booting Homer Bush's two-out grounder and then throwing wildly past Cairo at second. The Associated Press st. petersburg, fla. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays wouldn't allow themselves to lose. Gerald Williams broke an eighth-inning tie with an RBI single and scored on Miguel Cairo's triple as the Devil Rays overcame the sloppiest fielding performance in team history to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 Friday A team-record five errors three by shortstop Kevin Stacker and one by his late-inning replacement Ozzie Guillen kept the outcome in doubt until closer Albie Lopez struck out Raul Mondesi with the tying run at first in the ninth.

"This is a game I sensed early that we were dragging," said manager Larry Rothschild, EAST DIVISION Pet GB Home Away P10 BA ERA Atlanta 35 23 12 .657 14-4 9-8 4-6 .268 3.49 Montreal 33 18 15 .545 4 12-7 6-8 4-6 .273 5.00 Florida 36 19 17 .528 4'. 14-9 5-8 6-4 .247 4.10 NYMets 36 19 17 .528 4', 10-6 9-11 3-7 .265 4.98 Philadelphia 34 13 21 .382 9'. 6-9 7-12 6-4 .251 4.53 CENTRAL DIVISION St. Louis 34 20 14 .588 12-6 8-8 4-6 .288 4.94 Cincinnati 33 18 15 .545 l'i 10-8 8-7 8-3 .269 4.91 Pittsburgh 34 15 19 .441 5 8-11 7-8 6-4 .262 4.45 Houston 33 14 19 .424 Sh 5-10 9-9 5-5 .246 5,66 Milwaukee 36 14 22 .389 7 6-10 8-12 5-5 .242 4.88 Chicago Cubs 38 14 24 .368 8 9-12 5-12 3-7 .268 6.43 WEST DIVISION Arizona 34 24 10 .706 14-5 10-5 9-1 .274 3.68 San Francisco 32 18 14 ,563 5 9-8 9-6 8-2 .273 4,55 LOS Angeles 33 17 16 ,515 6'. 8-6 9-10 4-6 .265 4.67 Colorado 33 15 18 .455 8'i 9-4 6-14 4-6 .292 6.28 San Diego 34 13 21 .382 11 6-7 7-14 2-8 .271 5.13 who attributed the sluggishness to the Devil Rays arriving home in the early-morning hours after winning 1-0 at New York the night before.

"No excuses, but we did get in late," Rothschild said. "They gave me what they had. But THURSDAY RESULTS Cincinnati 11 San Diego 9 Milwaukee 14 Chicago Cubs 8 Florida 5 Atlanta 4 Philadelphia 6 Montreal 4 New York Mets 3 Pittsburgh 2. FRIDAY RESULTS Montreal 8 Chicago Cubs 3 Atlanta 8 Philadelphia 7 Milwaukee 6 Pittsburgh 1 Florida at New York Mets Cincinnati at Houston Los Angeles at St. Louis San Francisco at Colorado Arizona at San Diego.

Today's National League Games Las Vegas Pro-Line Spread Probable Pitchers $5 Line No OU Fla (Nunez 0-3 R) at NYM 8-9 Cin(Fernandez0-OR)at Hou 6 1.65 1.75 11.5 Hou (Holt 1-5 R), 3:05. 5.5-6.5 San Fran (Estes 2-1 L) at Col Col (Astacio 4-2 R), 3:05. 5.5-6.5 ChiCubs(Leiber3-2R)at ChiC 2 1.75 1.65 9.5 Mtl (Armas 0-0 R), 7:05. even-6 Atl (Maddux 4-1 R) at Atl 5 1.80 1.60 9.5 Phi (Ashby 2-3 R), 7:05. 9J1 Mil (Estrada 1-0 L) at Pit Pit (O'Connor 0-0 L), 7:05, 6-7 LosAngeles(Park3-3R)at StL 7 2.65 1.25 10.5 StL (Ankiel 3-1 L), 8:10, Arz(Stottlemyre6-l R)at Arz 10 1.55 1.85 9.5 S.D.

(Spencer 0-0 R), 10:05. 6.5-7.5 nmh i SUNDAY GAMES Florida at N.Y. Mets, 1:10 p.m.; Chicago Cubs at Montreal, 1:35 p.m.; Atlanta at Philadelphia, 1:35 p.m.; Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, 1:35 p.m.; Los Angeles at St. Louis, 2:10 p.m.; San Francisco at Colorado, 3:05 p.m.; Arizona at San Diego, 4:05 p.m.; Cincinnati at Houston, 8:05 p.m, WABPfS AUGUST21 1 Tecumseh Arena CarnP 777j umm k)MW Every player receives 15 hours of ice time and a playing jersey Game and skills competition NHL guest Meal plan through the Tecumseh Arena All applications received prior to May 31st, 2000 are eligible for a free week at this years hockey camp Excellent preparation for hockey tryouts! Send completed application form signed by a parent or guardian to: RYCHEUs Hockey Shop co 3S5 Centennial Dr. Tecumseh, Ontario N8N 2P1 Phone inquiries welcome (519) 735-6854.

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