Young, Teagarden help Rangers beat A's
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07/29/2010 - Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Young finished 4-for-4 with three runs scored, and Taylor Teagarden hit a two-run homer, as the Texas Rangers defeated the Oakland Athletics, 7-4, in the rubber match of a three-game series.
Vladimir Guerrero drove in two runs for the Rangers, who have won five of their last seven games and increased their lead atop the AL West to 8 1/2 games over the A's.
C.J. Wilson (10-5) earned the win after he pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts.
Vin Mazzaro (6-3) started on the hill for the visitors and was charged with seven runs on 12 hits over 5 1/3 frames.
Ra jai Davis posted two hits, an RBI and a run scored for Oakland, which entered this series as winners in four of its previous five and will now travel to Chicago for a weekend series against the White Sox.
After Oakland opened the scoring in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Kurt Suzuki, the Rangers moved ahead 2-1 in the home portion of the frame.
Young's one-out single preceded a double by Josh Hamilton. A grounder by Guerrero brought home Young, and an RBI base hit to right field off the bat of Nelson Cruz moved the Rangers in front.
Guerrero's RBI single in the third, which scored Young, made it 3-1.
Texas pushed its cushion to three in the fifth. Young led off with a double, and Hamilton singled to put runners on the corners. When Guerrero grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, Young crossed the plate.
In the top of the sixth, Oakland cut its deficit to 4-3 with a pair of runs. Kevin Kouzmanoff doubled leading off and headed for third on a one-out single by Mark Ellis. Landon Powell followed and grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring Kouzmanoff on the play. Later in the frame, a double by Cliff Pennington plated Powell.
Texas, though, essentially put the game away with three runs in the home half of the sixth. Murphy led off with his fifth home run of the year, and Joaquin Arias followed with a base hit. With one out, Teagarden belted a fastball over the wall in right field to give the hosts a 7-3 advantage.
Darren O'Day pitched two consecutive perfect innings, and Frank Francisco came on for the ninth. Francisco yielded a one-out single to Coco Crisp, who snagged second on defensive indifference and then scored on a single by Davis. Suzuki, though, grounded into a game-ending double play.
Game Notes
The Rangers lead the season series, 5-4...Mazzaro lost for the second time on the road this season (4-2)...Texas posted 14 hits compared to 10 for Oakland...Davis stole two bases and has 32 swipes this season...The A's were 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position...Hamilton was 3-for-4.
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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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