Road Warriors

Just when you thought I might be catching my breath, I come upon one of my busier weekends of the year... Yes, I'm hitting the road A LOT again! Tomorrow morning, I'll be helping my good friend Chris out with a garage sale in nearby Newbury Park. I'll be selling some stuff too, by the way. It will probably be a bittersweet day as it will more than likely be the last time I see my friend Dave Dixon before he heads off to live in Thailand. Tomorrow night, I'll be heading to the Staples Center in Los Angeles for a Keith Urban concert! This will be my first even Keith Urban show, and from all accounts he puts on quite the show. I'll be taking my Mom and sister - the tickets to the show were actually a birthday present for them (they both have April birthdays). Opening for Keith are the Wreckers, who have had a VERY successful debut album in Stand Still, Look Pretty. On Sunday I'll be taking my Mom, sister and brother in law to Dodger Stadium to see the Dodgers take on the Angels in my first ever "freeway series" game. Who do I root for??? I always encounter this problem when these two teams play each other... I guess I'll just take the easy way out and just root for my fantasy players in the games and let the chips fall where they may!

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Yes, the topic today is "road warriors," and the Washington Nationals have suddenly become very representative of that term! Jason Simontacchi bobbed and weaved through seven innings, giving up nine hits and four walks, but amazingly only one run as the Nats finished off a three game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles 3-1 in Baltimore. Chad Cordero picked up his 10th save of the year for the Nats who have now won eight of their past 10 games away from RFK.

Vladimir Guerrero drove in three more runs and Casey Kotchman added three hits as the Angels took game three of their series against the Reds in Cincinnati, 9-7. Francisco Rodriguez struggled a little, giving up a run, but nonetheless picked up his 21st save of the year.

In Minnesota, it was another tough luck outing for Twins' ace Johan Santana. Johan was brilliant as usual, giving up only two runs in seven innings while allowing five hits and three walks to go along with nine strikeouts. Unfortunately, the Twins could not hit the Atlanta Braves' Tim Hudson as he shut them out for 7 1/3 innings, giving up only two hits and a walk. Rafael Soriano protected the lead for the Braves, retiring both batters he faced in the eighth... Hudson seemed all but certain of picking up the win, but the Twins rallied in the ninth. Luis Castillo led off against Braves closer Bob Wickman with a single to left. Joe Mauer then grounded out... little did they know at the time this would be the last out recorded in the game... Michael Cuddyer tripled in Castillo. Justin Morneau then tapped an infield single - Cuddyer had to hold on the play. Torii Hunter then reached on an error by third baseman Yunel Escobar, allowing Cuddyer to score and tie the game. Mike Redmond then singled to left, scoring Morneau and finishing off the Twins dramatic 3-2 victory. For Wickman, it was his third blown save of the year in only 14 oppoturtunities... One has to wonder just how long he will remain in the closer role there. It's pretty obvious that the aforementioned Soriano has better stuff than Wickman... if past history is any indicator, don't be surprised if Braves manager Bobby Cox inserts Soriano into the role at some point...

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From the "ho-hum" road warrior department... The San Antonio Spurs finished off a four game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers with an 83-82 victory in Cleveland... For the Spurs, it's their fourth NBA Championship in the past nine seasons... Spurs forward Robert Horry now has an amazing seven Championship rings!

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You know I couldn't go without posting about the U.S. Open golf tournament... The scores were expectedly very high. Only two players - Nick Dougherty (-2) and Angel Cabrera (-1) managed to break par... Bubba Watson and Jose Maria Olazabal both managed to match par... Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Vijah Singh and defending champ Geoff Oglivy posted one-over-par 71's to lurk just three back. Phil Mickelson battled a streaky driver to post a respectable four-over-par 74. Masters champion Zach Johnson struggled to a six-over-par 76 as did Colin Montgomery, while Sergio Garcia posted a nine-over-par 79 and will need a nice round to be playing into the weekend... live coverage continues on the Golf Channel at 10am ET/7am PT. NBC takes over coverage for two hours beginning at 3pm ET/12 pm PT, while the Golf Channel resumes coverage beginning at 5pm ET/2pm PT. For the live real-time leaderboard, click on this link: 2007 U.S. Open Leaderboard

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