Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
WIMBLEDON, England — Like the main human characters in "Planet of the Apes," tennis fans might have trouble recognizing the world they return to Friday when play reverts to the bottom half of the draw, the same half that was devastated by the exits of Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka, among others, on Wednesday.
Rain late Thursday prevented the start of one of the Day 4 picks, Alison Riske vs. Urszula Radwanska, so that remains a suggestion for Day 5. The second-round match between Grega Zemlja and Grigor Dimitrov, which was halted by rain with Zemlja leading, 9-8, in the fifth set, is a good bet for entertainment, especially if Sharapova returns to the stands to support Dimitrov, her boyfriend, as she did on Thursday.
Here are six new picks from the third-round matches scheduled for Friday.
Nicolas Almagro vs. Jerzy Janowicz It could be entertaining, but putting this match on Centre Court reflects just how slim the pickings are in the bottom half of the men's draw. At No. 15, Almagro is the second-highest seed remaining in the bottom half, behind only No. 2 Andy Murray. Grass is by far his worst surface, and Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam at which he has never reached the second week. Janowicz, the big-serving No. 24 seed, has a game much more suited to grass, but he has never made it to the second week of any Grand Slam. Almagro knocked out Janowicz in the third round of the Australian Open in January, but the conditions should be stacked in Janowicz's favor this time.
Petra Kvitova vs. Ekaterina Makarova In the wreckage of the bottom half of the women's draw, this match-up is the rare marquee battle. Both left-handers, Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, and Makarova play their best tennis on grass, and they might have been considered favorites to reach the semifinals had they been put further apart in the draw. Makarova has had the stronger recent form of the two, but Kvitova has more success on the Grand Slam stage. No. 8 Kvitova is the highest seed remaining on the bottom half, but No. 25 Makarova should hardly be considered a clear underdog when these two meet on Court No. 1 Friday afternoon.
Sloane Stephens vs. Petra Cetkovska Although it is a seeded player against a qualifier, whoever makes it out of this match could make it into the semifinals. Stephens, the No. 17 seed, beat Cetkovska in three sets at Wimbledon last year but had a tough second-round victory over Andrea Petkovic, winning by 8-6 in the third set. Cetkovska dropped only four games in a 6-2, 6-2 drubbing of No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki. Cetkovska was ranked No. 25 last year before injuries forced her off the tour and dropped her ranking so low that she needed to play in the qualifier to enter this year's tournament. With a win over Stephens, the 196th-ranked Cetkovska could be considered a serious contender to make the final out of this decimated bracket.
Jurgen Melzer vs. Sergiy Stakhovsky Stakhovsky, who beat Roger Federer in the second round, will have the chance to back up his serve-and-volley driven victory against Melzer, a former top-10 singles player and a champion at Wimbledon in both men's and mixed doubles. Melzer's left-handed baselining will prove a very different challenge from Federer's game for Stakhovsky, not to mention the immense possibility of a letdown after the biggest victory of his career. But if he can summon that same form again, there is room for him in this draw to make it quite far.
Marion Bartoli vs. Camila Giorgi At No. 15, Bartoli is the second-highest seed remaining in the women's draw, and the highest in her quarter. In 93rd-ranked Camila Giorgi, Bartoli faces a player who has recent familiarity with this stage of the tournament, having reached the fourth round of Wimbledon last year with a straight-sets upset of Nadia Petrova. Giorgi plays a stylish, aggressive game that will keep points short, just as Bartoli likes them. The margins of victory could be very small in this one.
Ernests Gulbis vs. Fernando Verdasco Though still a recognizable name for his run to the Australian Open finals and top 10 in 2009, the 54th-ranked Verdasco has been slumping for most of this year, going just 11-12. Gulbis, meanwhile, has been ascendant, going 23-9 and rising to No. 39 after starting the year at No. 136. Gulbis should be considered something of a favorite to reach the quarterfinal from his section, but if Verdasco can show glimpses of vintage shot-making, he could frustrate Gulbis into a possible collapse.
Another serve-and-volleyer with a one-handed backhand took out a seeded player at Wimbledon Thursday as Igor Sijsling dismantled Milos Raonic in straight sets. I was struck by how well Sijsling returned the huge first serve of Raonic, chipping back the Canadian's massive pace with an efficient block return. On second serves, Sijsling moved forward and timed the return just inside the baseline, using both underspin and topspin returns to get the ball in play. On his service games, Sijsling dominated Raonic, who struggled to make returns against the hard-charging Dutchman.
Like Sergiy Stakhovsky, Sijsling showed that old-school grass court tennis, with an attacking, all-court style, can win on the slick, low-bouncing grass. The one-handed backhand allows for a variety of shots, from the sweeping topspin drive to deft drop shots to the efficient and elegant slice, and Sijsling used his versatile backhand to expose Raonic's less-than-stellar movement. But the most striking difference in the match was Sijsling's superior ability to return serve. If he got a racket on the ball (no mean feat, as Raonic clobbered 22 aces), Sijsling got a very high percentage of returns in play. Perhaps he took a page from Andy Murray's playbook, as Sijsling used the chip return off both sides, tapping into the speed of Raonic's serve with a minimalist's efficiency. At last year's United States Open, Murray blocked back Raonic's serve, tracked down the tall Canadian's first strike — usually a big forehand — then gradually turned the point his way. Sijsling, for his part, used the chip to keep the ball down on Raonic, whose lack of tactical flexibility was painfully apparent.
You would think that both Raonic and John Isner would be natural grass court players, with their titanic serves and strong forehands, but neither player has gone very far at Wimbledon. The two men have similar strengths and weaknesses, but both struggle with the return of serve and with moving naturally on grass. It might be wise to add the serve-and-volley to the repertoire, as the movement coming forward is less tricky than covering the backcourt. At the very least, the aggressive tactic would keep opponents from being able to play a safe chip return. And it could shorten points and conserve energy, especially in the best-of-five-set format of Grand Slams.
I was also impressed by Sijsling's steady match temperament. Whether he won or lost the point, his between-points behavior was the same. This Wimbledon has so far been a glorious coming-out party for the journeymen in the men's game, with lower-ranked players like Steve Darcis, Stakhovsky and Sijsling all making bold statements on the biggest stage in tennis.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 28, 2013
An earlier version of this post misspelled the last name of the Dutch player with an attacking style. It is Igor Sijsling, not Sisjling.
WIMBLEDON, England — The deluge of surprises Wednesday that included the exits of Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka led to one of the rarer occurrences in the sport: a sparsely attended Ernests Gulbis news conference.
Not only is he an in-demand talker under mundane circumstances, Gulbis, the 24-year-old Latvian with the jumping-jack forehand, had just upset the No. 6 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Gulbis advanced when Tsonga stopped with a knee injury, trailing Gulbis two-sets to-one, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
The early stop was a welcome reprieve for Gulbis, who relishes the brutality of best-of-five but also understands how psychologically exhausting the pressure of a Grand Slam is, something he attributed as a major reason for the long casualty list that day.
"After that you have incredible headache, you're completely exhausted, and you need this one day to recover," he said of Grand Slam matches. "But if you play like this and you play far in the tournaments, as Victoria Azarenka does, as Rafa Nadal does, as somebody else does, it's tough to recover. You need time to recover. Mentally, physically, every time. You need more time in between."
Gulbis did not, however, agree with recent calls by people like Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King to shorten the men's format to best-of-three to preserve the health of the players.
"Grand Slam is Grand Slam," he said. "You don't need easy way to win it. If you can't make it, you can't make it. Sorry. Stay at home and do something else. Grand Slam should be five sets, blood, fight five sets all the way until the end, until somebody is dead."
Gulbis has not always been a willing combatant in that sort of battle, but says he has learned a fighting spirit that some of his peers were naturally gifted.
"I think it's two ways, you know?" he said in a recent interview at the tournament in Halle, Germany. "You're born with this, you're naturally a fighter who takes on everything, or it comes a little bit with age when you mature."
He added: "For me to mature in tennis, it took some time. It took sometime to understand. I had some matches when I walk on court, I don't want to play this match. I don't know why, but I have this thought in my head. But now with age, I learn how to deal with this. 'O.K., Ernests, you know, shut up and go play,' and give myself motivation. Because four years ago, I would be different. And Nadal is obviously an extraordinary person in that case. He's like a machine, very focused every point. It's great for him; it doesn't work for everybody."
That focus was missing from Gulbis last year at Wimbledon, when after a straight-sets upset of No. 6 Tomas Berdych in the first round, he lost in the second round to the qualifier Jerzy Janowicz, a missed opportunity he now rues.
"From my side of the draw, it was Florian Mayer who was in the quarterfinal afterwards, so it was a good draw," he said. "I don't think that I am much worse of a player than he is, it was just that I didn't take my chance. So if I start taking these chances, if I get to fourth round or quarterfinal at Grand Slam, that's when the points come, that's when the ranking is much higher, and everything, you know? This is the goal."
With the carnage of Wednesday in the bottom half of the draw, Gulbis, ranked 39th, has an even better chance of a deep run this year. He faces 54th-ranked Fernando Verdasco, who he beat in straight sets in April, in the third round Thursday. Gulbis would then play either No. 22 seed Juan Monaco, a slumping clay court specialist, or 80th-ranked Kenny de Schepper, a big server who advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time when his second round opponent, No. 10 Marin Cilic, withdrew.
Not only will Gulbis have an excellent chance to advance through that draw to a possible quarterfinal against No. 2 Andy Murray, but he also has a chance to become one of the central characters in a bottom half that features no players in the top 14 beside Murray, given his uncommonly bluntness in interviews.
With the first week of the French Open having been devoid of the same seismic upsets that have rocked Wimbledon, an interview Gulbis did with the French sports newspaper L'Equipe caused a significant stir for comments he made that suggested the top four men — Murray, Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal — were "boring" in their press conferences.
Gulbis said that he meant no offense by his comments and that his outspoken approach to interviews in comparison to top players could be chalked up to normal human diversity of personality.
"Everybody is different," he said. "Why, for example, in the company often guys, why somebody would be some kind of leader, and somebody is going to be a follower? It's always like this. I don't consider myself a leader, but somebody and is like this and somebody is like that. It's just different kind of people. Somebody feels very nice and calm where he is, somebody wants to say something."
Gulbis also said he enjoyed the medium of the interview and spends free time consuming them.
"I enjoy fun interviews. I enjoy interesting interviews, you know? Because I'm a big fan of interviews. I like to read them and watch interesting interviews on YouTube. I spend a lot of time doing that, especially with some Russian musicians, Russian actors. I like it. I would like that somebody reads my interview and also he finds it interesting, he finds it entertaining, because I don't want to be a guy who just gives some kind of boring answers, and you read the obvious stuff. I want to read something interesting.
"If you read books also, I like reading books which surprise me in some way, or watch a movie which surprises us. Everybody does. And even if it's an interview, I would like to read an interview which surprises me, which gives me some kind of goosebumps in the moment where I read it."
But Gulbis said that interviews of tennis players hadn't proven similarly satisfactory.
"I started to watch some of the interviews of tennis players, and I switched them off after one and a half minutes," he said with a loud laugh. "It was sad. I'm not going to tell which one."
Illustration by Sam Manchester/The New York Times
Chris Froome of Britain, viewed by many as the rider to beat, finished second in last year's Tour de France.
Only two years separate them in age, but they seem a generation apart. For much of the past decade, Alberto Contador has been the stage-race cyclist to beat, winning five grand tours, the grueling three-week races, including two in Paris. Chris Froome has been something of a development project, rising from obscurity in his African homeland to super domestique in Europe, twice finishing second in grand tours but never winning.
This year the roles have flipped. After a hugely successful spring season, Froome is now the leader of Sky, the most formidable team in cycling. And when the 100th Tour de France begins Saturday on the narrow, wind-driven roads of Corsica, he will be the man to beat, with Contador expected to lead a pack of 196 other riders in the chase.
"I think the obvious choice is Chris Froome," said Tejay van Garderen, an American on BMC Racing who is a podium contender. "As of now, nobody has been able to climb with him. He's going to be a hard guy to beat."
Froome, 28, has more than just a stretch of four stage-race victories this spring to bolster his front-runner status. A Briton born in Kenya, he proved his mettle in last year's Tour, finishing second to his teammate Bradley Wiggins. And this year's 21-stage, 2,115-mile course plays to his strengths as a nimble climber and accomplished time trialist, with four mountaintop finishes and two time trials that are shorter but more hilly than last year's.
Moreover, Team Sky is as deep as ever. Indeed, the loss of both Wiggins, who withdrew citing illness and knee problems, and the sprinter Mark Cavendish, who left Sky for Omega Pharma-Quick Step citing a lack of support, may have given an already methodical team even more focus.
There is no drama about whether to support Cavendish or questions about whether Wiggins or Froome will lead. The intrigue is gone, the goal singular: bring Chris Froome home in the maillot jaune, the victor's yellow jersey.
"With Froome on this Death Star of a team, it could be like last year where it was almost a coronation," said Joe Lindsey, a contributing writer for Bicycling Magazine, referring to the 2012 Tour, when Sky's control of the race made Wiggins's victory seem almost anticlimactic.
Yet Contador, 30, who missed last year's Tour while serving a doping ban, is not ready to cede an inch. Savvy, tenacious and backed by a Saxo-Tinkoff team considered nearly as strong as Sky, Contador is, on his good days, as strong as Froome in the mountains and time trials.
"They are both suited to the course," said Jonathan Vaughters, general manager of Garmin-Sharp.
Unfortunately for Contador, he has had fewer good days than usual this year, winning only two stages and no races while sustaining a drubbing from Froome in the time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this month. He blamed his showing on allergies, but others wondered about his legs, noting that the last time Contador failed to win a spring race was in 2007.
Notably missing from the field will be Vincenzo Nibali of Astana, the third-place finisher last year, who handed Froome his lone defeat this year, at Tirreno-Adriatico, and then won the Giro d'Italia. He chose to skip the Tour de France in favor of another grand tour, the Vuelta a España in August. The perennial stars Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara will also miss the race. And Andy Schleck, a past winner and two-time runner-up, has struggled with injuries and is given little chance this year.
But other top riders are looking to upend the Contador-Froome narrative, including Cadel Evans of BMC Racing, the Australian who won in 2011; his teammate van Garderen, who finished fifth last year and won the competition for best young rider; Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha, one of the world's best climbers; and Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Lotto-Belisol, who finished fourth last year.
Vaughters asserts that any one of three riders on his Garmin-Sharp team could reach the podium: the team leader Ryder Hesjedal; the 2012 Giro champion, Dan Martin, a powerful climber; or Andrew Talansky, a 24-year-old American in his first Tour.
"I see our team as the potential wrench in the race," Vaughters said. "Our guys are just below the radar enough that they could sneak away."
Jon Brand contributed reporting from Porto-Vecchio, Corsica.
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
The Mets have finally pulled ahead in a baseball race, their all-out campaign to try to secure David Wright the starting spot as the National League's third baseman in next month's All-Star Game at Citi Field appearing to pay dividends.
The latest numbers on fan balloting, released Sunday night, showed Wright had moved ahead the San Francisco Giants' Pablo Sandoval, who was activated from the disabled list Monday after missing a little more than two weeks with a foot injury. Wright, who had trailed Sandoval by more than 100,000 votes last week, now has a lead of 128,831 votes to start the July 16 game. Sandoval beat out Wright last year for the starting spot, despite Wright's having the more productive first half.
Wright is making it hard to ignore him this time around, even if the Mets have struggled to pull in enough fans to stuff the All-Star ballot box. He has been on a tear of late, hitting .405 with 8 doubles, 5 homers and 11 runs batted in since June 5. He capped that stretch by going 4 for 5 with four extra-base hits in the Mets' 8-0 victory against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday. Through Sunday, Wright was hitting .309 with 12 home runs and 41 R.B.I. in 72 games, while Sandoval was batting .289 with 8 homers and 37 R.B.I. in 57 games.
The Mets were still eight games under .500 and 11 1/2 games out of first place in the N.L. East after Sunday's win. But at least by the end of the night they had pulled Wright to the top of the voting. Now, to lure enough fans to the ballpark to keep him there.
In sports, debuts come in all shapes and sizes. Some take place almost unnoticed and are interesting only when looking back. Others occur amid an onslaught of hype that makes it hard for an athlete to breathe, let alone succeed.
Sometimes, a first performance is an accurate indicator of what is to come. Sometimes, it means nothing at all.
When Zack Wheeler, a 23-year-old pitcher and former No. 1 draft pick, took the mound for the Mets in his major league debut last week in Atlanta, there was reason to suspect that he might not immediately live up to his billing. After all, the Mets, eager to get everyone to stop thinking about their woeful record, had essentially shouted Wheeler's name from the rooftops in advance of his first game.
It all felt like too much of a drum roll. And yet Wheeler emphatically shut the Braves down, throwing fastballs they could not touch. In six innings, he struck out seven and did not give up a run. On Tuesday night, against the White Sox in Chicago, he will try to do it again.
This time, the pressure will be a little less because there can be only one debut, whether it is on the mound, or in the batter's box, or at Centre Court in Wimbledon or in a country, and a league, where no player of your nationality has appeared before.
What ties so many debuts together is that it is not just the athletes, or the teams, who remember them. So do fans. And so do writers who were there, who, years later, are still struck by what they witnessed.
One Night in the Majors
Christian Parker made the Yankees' rotation out of spring training in 2001 but was tagged for seven runs in what turned out to be his only major league start.
Seeing the Wheeler family watch not-so-little-anymore Zack from the Atlanta stands last Tuesday night, I was whisked back to an evening I spent in April 2001 with the parents of Christian Parker, a right-hander starting for the Yankees in his major league debut.
Parker had surprised everyone by breaking camp with the big club. His mother, Sandy, had picked up the phone a few days before and upon hearing her stuffed-up son's voice at the other end, she thought he was sick. "You O.K.?" she said.
"I'm trying to be," Christian said, before delivering the good news. The whole family flew to New York and took their seats in Yankee Stadium's family section on April 6.
Boom! — the Blue Jays' Carlos Delgado slammed a two-run homer in the first. Two more runs scored in the third. Joe Torre yanked Parker with the Yankees down, 6-0, in the fourth, on the way to a ghastly 13-4 loss.
"I'm proud of you, son," Parker's father, Rick, told him afterward in the Yankee Stadium lobby. Christian didn't tell him that his shoulder hurt. Three days later, Parker went on the disabled list. Later he was sent to the minors. He never pitched in the majors again.
But he and his 21.00 earned run average live on at Baseball-Reference.com — as will my memories of that night with his family, when the vagaries of baseball fate made his debut a farewell, too. — ALAN SCHWARZ
A Florentine Massacre
The U.S. national team's trip to the 1990 World Cup was its first in 40 years. Its 5-1 loss in the opener still stings.
Technically, it wasn't a debut for the United States soccer team in the 1990 World Cup, more like a re-debut. The United States had played in the first two World Cups, in 1930 and 1934, and in 1950 it produced one of the great World Cup upsets, beating England, 1-0, in Brazil.
But in the following decades, American soccer fell into dormancy on the international level. Forty years passed without a World Cup appearance. And then, thanks to a group of college players, the United States earned a seat at the table again. Still, qualifying for the 1990 Cup in Italy was one thing. Competing in the tournament was a quite different matter and one that, at times, turned out to be quite difficult. Every member of that American team made his World Cup debut in the opening game against Czechoslovakia at the Stadio Comunale in Florence on the afternoon of June 10, 1990. Over the course of 90 minutes, the young Americans were slapped, shoved, elbowed, kicked, beaten and humiliated, 5-1.
The result confirmed the lowest projections of the worst cynics, who scoffed at the notion that American college players could stand on the same field with rugged pros from Europe and South America.
"The thing about this is it makes all the oddsmakers look like kings," the American goalkeeper, Tony Meola, said. "It was the U.S. team that made the Czechs look like kings."
The final score could have been worse. Ivan Hasek missed a penalty kick in the 89th minute, perhaps intentionally.
"We are sorry for the score," Hasek said.
It was embarrassing even for the American reporters covering the game; they were received warmly by their hosts but patronized by their international colleagues. But progress came quickly.
Less than a week later, the United States lost by just 1-0 to host Italy, in Rome, and then fell, 2-1, to Austria. The cynics quieted down. The American team has played in every World Cup since. — DAVID WALDSTEIN
Perfect Start for an Imperfect Met
Kazuo Matsui's arrival from Japan in 2004 raised the hopes of Mets fans.
It's almost impossible for a major league player to have a more perfect debut than Kazuo Matsui did for the Mets in 2004. The rest of his major league career, well, not so great. But that first night, that first at-bat, that first pitch, was sublime.
BOSTON — They got the start they envisioned — the first time in the series that the Boston Bruins dominated the first period. They got the game's first goal, a pretty play by Tyler Seguin, converted by Chris Kelly into an open net less than eight minutes into the game. That was another boost for a team on the precipice.
The momentum and adrenaline of that first 20 minutes, in which the Bruins outshot the Blackhawks, 12-6, won 17 of 24 face-offs and outhit the visitors, 16-13, could only last so long. The only question as the game wore on and the Blackhawks got their skating legs was: would the Bruins have enough left at the end to force a Game 7?
Had the game been 58 minutes instead of 60, they would be on their way to Chicago today. Instead, they are still trying to dissect a most uncharacteristic and fatal breakdown in the final 76 seconds, which led to two Chicago goals within 17 seconds and a 3-2 defeat. The Blackhawks won the series in six games.
"It's a cruel feeling," Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference said in a somber locker room. "Especially given the effort that everyone put forth. It's really sickening. You feel helpless."
The Bruins seemed to be in control, despite unmistakable slippage in the second period and the third period, when Milan Lucic scored with 7 minutes 49 seconds remaining on a typical, bruising, Lucic effort, forcing the play in back and then controlling it in front for a swipe past goalie Corey Crawford.
In a defensive, low-scoring game, this goal looked as if it would stand up, especially when the Bruins killed off a penalty to Kelly and headed into the final minutes nursing the lead as Chicago pulled its goalie.
Goalie Tuukka Rask appeared to be on his game despite surrendering a second-period goal to Jonathan Toews. But the same kind of comeback that started the Bruins on their playoff run — the late two-goal rally to force overtime in Game 7 against Toronto — was instead replicated by the Blackhawks in front of a stunned TD Garden crowd, which included a large contingent of Chicago fans.
Bryan Bickell converted a Toews pass with the Blackhawks using an extra attacker with 1:16 remaining to tie the game. It was his first goal of the series after he scored eight in the first 22 games. Then, as everyone was awaiting and expecting overtime, Dave Bolland rapped home a Johnny Oduya rebound with 59 seconds to play for the game and Cup winner.
"We did it to Toronto, so I guess we got a taste of our own medicine," said Rask, who weathered 31 shots, 16 in the third period.
The Bruins had their chances. They failed to convert on four power-play opportunities. Zdeno Chara and David Krejci missed late scoring chances. The Bruins had injury issues as well. Jaromir Jagr left with an injury, and then returned, only to leave again, playing just 6:27 seconds and only nine shifts.
Patrice Bergeron revealed that he separated his shoulder during the game — and that was after breaking a rib and tearing cartilage in Game 5, necessitating a trip to a hospital.
He gamely soldiered on, playing 24 shifts covering nearly 18 minutes, but he was clearly laboring. Whatever pain he still felt after the game, he said, was not nearly as bad as watching the Blackhawks celebrate in Boston's building.
"It's tough to put into words," Bergeron said. "To work so hard to get to this point, you feel you're right there, Game 7. It hurts. Give Chicago credit, but it hurts to see them raise the Cup."
Charles Krupa/Associated Press
Jonathan Toews became the first captain in the 87-year history of the Blackhawks to lift the Stanley Cup twice. More Photos »
BOSTON — The Chicago Blackhawks pulled off perhaps the most improbable comeback in the history of the Stanley Cup finals on Monday night. Trailing the Boston Bruins, 2-1, with 76 seconds left, the Blackhawks erupted for two goals 17 seconds apart to stun the Bruins, 3-2, and win their second Cup in the last four seasons.
"This goal, this ending — nobody saw it coming," said Blackhawks Coach Joel Quennville, after a finish that strained credulity. So sudden and late was Chicago's rally that even the Blackhawks themselves seemed not to believe what they had just seen.
Milan Lucic put the Bruins ahead, 2-1, with 7 minutes 49 seconds left in regulation, seemingly forcing a Game 7 in Chicago on Wednesday.
But then lightning struck. With 1:16 left, Bryan Bickell finished a feed from Jonathan Toews, knocking the puck past Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask and tying the score at 2-2. With 59 seconds to go, Dave Bolland beat the sprawling Rask after a rebound off the goal post, and just like that, the Blackhawks were ahead.
"How can you call that?" Toews said, beaming, in the moments after victory. "We knew we needed just one bounce there. Obviously, that was a big goal for them to go up 2-1. But you never know what can happen, so you don't stop playing until the end."
Moments later, Toews was lifting the Stanley Cup over his head in triumph, the first Blackhawks captain in the club's 87-year history to win it twice.
"These are the feelings you live for," said his teammate, Patrick Kane.
Bolland's goal was the latest Stanley Cup-winning goal scored in regulation time, breaking the mark set in 1929, when Boston's Bill Carson scored to win the Cup with 1:58 left in the deciding game against the Rangers.
The Blackhawks also became the first club to win a Stanley Cup-clinching game in regulation by overcoming a deficit in the final two minutes.
On the Bruins side, shock mingled with dejection.
"It's a tough way to lose, tough way to lose a game, tough way to lose a series," said Zdeno Chara, the Bruins' towering 6-foot-9 defenseman. Chara was especially glum. He had been on the ice for 10 of the Blackhawks' last 12 goals in the series, although not Bolland's Cup winner.
Bolland, a third-line center, was surprisingly blasé about what he had done.
"I could always imagine the season ending this way," he said, a sentiment that was as credulity-straining as the goal he scored. He was asked the difference between winning the Stanley Cup this season and in 2010.
"What's the difference?" he said. "Nothing."
Bolland and Bickell's goals ended this classic, almost unbearably tense series, in which three games went to overtime and every game was razor close. Kane was voted the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player, becoming the third straight American to receive the honor. He had 9 goals and 10 assists in the postseason.
It was the Blackhawks' fifth championship, joining their triumphs in 1934, 1938, 1961 and 2010.
Chicago trailed, 1-0, and did not mount a real threat until Toews, motoring at full speed after an undisclosed injury that knocked him out of Game 5 on Saturday, scored at 4:24 of the second period.
In Game 6, players dropped left and right as they put everything on the line with the Cup at stake. Bruins center Patrice Bergeron played a full game despite a series of injuries that did not become known until after the game.
Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw played despite taking a hard shot to the face; later he carried the Cup around the ice while bleeding through his stitches. Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson left for a short time after blocking a shot. Bruins forward Jaromir Jagr was rattled by a check from Bolland and missed most of the second period. Chicago's Marian Hossa and Boston's Nathan Horton played on through nagging injuries, as they have throughout this series.
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
PHILADELPHIA — Deliverance for the Mets lasted "about five minutes" at Citizens Bank Park, third baseman David Wright said. He scampered home from first to tie Saturday's game against the Phillies with two outs in the ninth, capping a six-run comeback, only to watch Philadelphia's Kevin Frandsen giddily jog past him at third after a game-ending home run for an 8-7 win.
The tug-and-pull of the Mets' season has unfolded along a similar track all year, with success often fleeting and more troubling news always seemingly around the next bend.
Earlier this week, there seemed to be an embarrassment of riches in the Mets' rotation and, at the very least, some harmony in the batting lineup, with the struggling first baseman Ike Davis massaging his psyche and rehabilitating his swing in the minor leagues.
But the Mets had to place the left-hander Jon Niese on the disabled list Friday, then arrived to the ballpark Saturday with worrisome news about Lucas Duda, Davis's replacement at first, who had to return to New York for an examination of his left oblique.
Duda's magnetic resonance imaging test revealed a left intercostal strain, and he was placed on the disabled list, leaving another hole at first.
The Mets recalled infielder Zach Lutz to fill Duda's roster spot. Manager Terry Collins indicated that Davis, who has begun to swing the bat well for Class AAA Las Vegas, might be called back up.
"Ike's certainly got to be in the conversation," Collins said.
The Mets' first baseman on Saturday was Daniel Murphy, and he delivered the game-tying hit with two outs off Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth.
With Wright on first and the Mets trailing, 7-6, Papelpon got two quick strikes on Murphy. On the third pitch, Wright broke for second and Murphy dribbled a ground ball to shortstop, where Jimmy Rollins would have been positioned if he was not covering second base.
With the Phillies' outfield playing deep to prevent an extra-base hit, Wright hurried home and scored easily after center fielder Ben Revere bobbled the ball.
"It was tremendous placement by Murph," Wright said. "The ball just seemed to kind of slow down in the outfield, and why not take a chance?"
That tied the score at 7-7. The Mets had trailed, 7-1, heading into the seventh inning.
The Phillies tagged Mets starter Dillon Gee for six runs (five earned) in five innings.
Over his previous four starts, Gee had the fourth-best earned run average in the major leagues (1.53) and the fifth-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.40).
There was a sense that, with Gee finally finding his rhythm, the Mets' rotation was shaping into something fairly remarkable, spearheaded by Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler and Niese.
But Niese left Thursday's game with a rotator cuff injury and was placed on the disabled list Friday, couching some of those good feelings at least temporarily.
Gee allowed two runs in the first inning, although catcher John Buck mishandled a pitch for a passed ball that allowed two runners to get into scoring position with one out. Ryan Howard knocked them in with a single.
Howard got to Gee again in the fourth, poking a solo home run to left field, and yet again in the fifth, driving a second home run deep to right. Howard is now 7 for 16 with six home runs in his career against Gee.
"That guy definitely has me," Gee said. "It seems like no matter what I throw he hits it out of the ballpark."
The Mets scored four runs in the seventh after Phillies starter Jonathan Pettibone left the game with lower back tightness. With the Mets trailing, 7-5, Murphy came up with two runners on and two outs, but Phillies reliever Jake Diekman struck him out looking at a 97-mile-per-hour fastball.
Murphy, though, provided some nice symmetry when he came through in the ninth, hitting in Duda's customary No. 5 spot. Duda complained of some soreness after Friday's game and arrived at Citizens Bank Park early Saturday for treatment. But he left shortly thereafter, bound for New York.
Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson has been in Tucson watching Davis play against the San Diego Padres' Class AAA affiliate, and on Friday, Davis homered twice for the second consecutive game. He was hitting .333 in 11 games in the minors entering Saturday.
Without Duda or Davis, the Mets were feeling pretty good about their effort Saturday — until Frandsen, a pinch-hitter, came up against reliever Carlos Torres and hit his second pitch out to left. It was a swing of emotions in five minutes.
"We did a nice job battling back, and then one pitch, game's over," Wright said. "That's the way it goes."
PHILADELPHIA — Mets outfielder Lucas Duda was sent to New York for tests on his left oblique Saturday, after Duda complained about soreness after Friday's game against the Phillies.
Duda, who is tied for second on the team with 11 home runs, had been playing first base for the Mets in the absence of Ike Davis, who was sent down to Class AAA Las Vegas earlier in the month. Manager Terry Collins said that Davis would "certainly" be considered for a recall back to the majors if Duda is expected to miss a prolonged period of time.
"If Lucas has to go on the disabled list, Ike's got to be certainly in the conversation," Collins said.
General Manager Sandy Alderson has been in Tucson, watching Davis play against the San Diego Padres' Class AAA affiliate. On Friday, Davis homered twice for the second consecutive game. He is hitting .333 in 11 games in the minors.
Daniel Murphy started at first base for the Mets on Saturday against the Phillies, with Jordany Valdespin starting at second. Collins said Josh Satin would likely start at first Sunday against Philadelphia's left-handed starter, John Lannan.
Zack Greinke allowed one run over eight sharp innings, Adrian Gonzalez ended a wild Edinson Volquez no-hit bid with a homer in the sixth and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 6-1, on Saturday night.
In his first game in San Diego since breaking his collarbone in a brawl with Carlos Quentin, Greinke had a season-high eight strikeouts. He allowed four hits and pitched to two batters more than the minimum through seven innings in his longest outing of the season.
Volquez, the San Diego starter, did not allow a hit until Gonzalez, a former Padres first baseman, led off the sixth with his ninth home run. But the right-handed Volquez allowed a run in the fifth on three walks and a fielder's choice by Skip Schumaker.
ROCKIES 7, NATIONALS 1 Jhoulys Chacin pitched seven shutout innings and drove in a run, and Colorado snapped its season-high five-game skid by beating host Washington.
Colorado's Michael Cuddyer extended his hitting streak to 20 games, the longest active streak in the majors.
BREWERS 2, BRAVES 0 Francisco Rodriguez earned his 300th career save, finishing off Milwaukee's second straight 2-0 victory over visiting Atlanta.
Donovan Hand, making his first big-league start, allowed two hits in four and two-thirds innings for Milwaukee. He struck out three and walked one in helping to extend Atlanta's scoreless streak to 24 innings.
GIANTS 2, MARLINS 1 Hector Sanchez singled home the winning run with one out in the 11th inning, and San Francisco snapped a nine-game home losing streak to the Marlins.
Giants right fielder Hunter Pence made a diving catch to rob Placido Polanco of a likely go-ahead single to end the 11th as Miami left runners on first and second in back-to-back innings. DIAMONDBACKS 4, REDS 3 Jason Kubel hit a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning to rally Arizona past Aroldis Chapman and visiting Cincinnati for the Diamondbacks' fourth straight win.
Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth before Chapman issued two consecutive walks. Kubel singled over second base for his third career game-ending hit.
RANGERS 4, CARDINALS 2 Nelson Cruz got the decisive hit for the second straight game with a two-run homer in the third inning, and Martin Perez prevailed in a matchup of rookie starters as Texas beat host St. Louis.
ASTROS 4, CUBS 3 Ronny Cedeno's squeeze bunt drove in Justin Maxwell for the tiebreaking run in the ninth inning to lead visiting Houston over Chicago.
J. D. Martinez tied the game with a three-run homer in the sixth for Houston.
BLUE JAYS 4, ORIOLES 2 Jose Bautista hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning, and host Toronto won its 10th straight game.
Toronto is on its longest winning streak since a 10-game run late in 2008. The Blue Jays, who are 14-4 this month, are one victory from matching the franchise record. Toronto had 11-game streaks in 1987 and 1998.
TIGERS 10, RED SOX 3 Max Scherzer won his 11th straight decision to start the season, and Victor Martinez hit a first-inning grand slam to lead host Detroit over Boston.
Scherzer allowed two runs in the first, including a towering solo homer by David Ortiz, but Martinez's drive put the Tigers ahead to stay.
INDIANS 8, TWINS 7 Michael Bourn had three hits and three R.B.I. to help Corey Kluber win his third consecutive start as host Cleveland won its fourth straight.
Cleveland took advantage of five first-inning walks to score six runs. Jason Kipnis added three hits to pace the Indians, who are 8-2 since losing eight in a row.
WHITE SOX 3, ROYALS 2 Alejandro De Aza drove in Jordan Danks with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, sending Chicago to a victory over host Kansas City.
Jesse Crain got through a shaky eighth inning for the White Sox, putting a runner on third with one out and then leaving him there.
State police officers and dogs searched the North Attleboro, Mass., home of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez again Saturday as they continued to investigate the killing of a semipro football player whose body was found about a mile away.
Jim Young/Reuters
Chicago's Patrick Kane, center, scored twice during Game 5 as the Blackhawks beat the Bruins, 3-1, to take a 3-2 series lead.
CHICAGO — There is something about important games that brings out the best in Patrick Kane, the Blackhawks' star wing with the magic touch. In 2010, he scored the overtime goal in Philadelphia that ended Chicago's 49-year Stanley Cup drought. In the conference finals this year, his hat trick in Game 5 eliminated the Los Angeles Kings.
On Saturday night — six years after Chicago made him the No. 1 overall pick in the N.H.L. entry draft — Kane's pair of goals propelled the Blackhawks to a 3-1 victory against the Boston Bruins and gave them a three-games-to-two lead in the Stanley Cup finals.
After the game, Kane stood at center ice, his helmet off and his mullet exposed, straining to speak over the roaring United Center crowd.
"One more win," he said as the fans cheered even louder.
Kane now has 9 goals and 19 points in the playoffs, tops on the Blackhawks. He leads the Blackhawks in scoring in the Stanley Cup finals with 5 points. He also led the team in the 2010 finals against the Flyers with 8 points in 6 games.
Patrick Sharp said about his teammate Kane: "I still remember when he got drafted, I was watching on TV. I remember him sitting at the desk on TV saying he was going to show up and make the team out of training camp, and I got a good chuckle out of that. Little did I know he'd win rookie of the year, and he's improved every season."
In the first three games of this series, Coach Joel Quenneville baffled onlookers by splitting up Kane and his longtime forward-line partner, Jonathan Toews. The Blackhawks trailed the Bruins by two games to one.
"Maybe it looks like I didn't know what I was doing," Quenneville said after Game 4, when the reunited Kane and Toews each scored a goal in the Blackhawks' 6-5 overtime victory.
Now Quenneville's belated move seems like the turning point of the series. But Toews, Chicago's captain and one of the best two-way centers in hockey, may not be able to play at all.
Toews stayed on the bench throughout the third period. He was struck high by a hard, unpenalized check from Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk in the second period. After the game, Quenneville declined to specify the nature of Toews's injury beyond calling it "upper body."
"It's been a war — it's been a battle," Quenneville said of both the game and the series.
Patrice Bergeron, also a top two-way center, sustained what appeared to be an even worse injury.
Bergeron was taken to a Chicago hospital for observation with an undisclosed injury after skating only two shifts in the second period, the second one lasting only 16 seconds. An ambulance with Bergeron inside was seen leaving the rink before the second intermission.
Now the series shifts to Boston on Monday night, when the Bruins will try to stave off elimination and force a Game 7.
They do so knowing that the Blackhawks beat them Saturday by sticking to their game plan of generating speed through the neutral zone. Chicago attempted 55 shots to Boston's 49, giving the Blackhawks the advantage in that category in every game of the series. Over all, the Blackhawks have tried 377 shots to the Bruins' 293 — a measure of how much more they have had the puck.
On Saturday, the Bruins leveled plenty of hits — 53 to the Blackhawks' 22 — but deviated from one crucial element of their own game plan.
The Bruins inexplicably failed to test Chicago goalie Corey Crawford, who surrendered five goals in Game 4, all over or under his glove hand. Nine of the Bruins' 12 goals in the first four games of the series came against Crawford's glove.
Yet on Saturday they did not send a shot to his glove hand until two minutes into the third period.
Defenseman Zdeno Chara beat Crawford on the Bruins' second shot to his glove side, a slap shot from 36 feet at 3 minutes 40 seconds of the third period. It reduced the Boston's deficit to 2-1. But the Bruins did not manage another shot to Crawford's shaky glove side the rest of the night.
The Bruins swarmed the Chicago net in the final minutes, but the Blackhawks' Dave Bolland shot into an empty net with 14 seconds left in regulation. Bruins defenseman Torey Krug was tripped by Chicago forward Michael Frolik moments before, allowing Bolland to get to the puck, but neither referee called the penalty.
In shots on goal, the Blackhawks outperformed the Bruins by 31-25. Tuukka Rask finished with 29 saves; Crawford finished with 24.
Kane's first goal, which opened the scoring at 17:27 of the first period, came after Johnny Oduya's shot struck a Bruins stick and fell right to Kane, who was open at the side of the net.
Kane made the score 2-0 at 5:13 of the second. The other wing on the line, Bryan Bickell, charged in around Seidenberg, shot the puck off the side of the net, gathered the rebound and fed it to Kane. Chara was caught between Bickell and Kane, and could only watch as Kane roofed a backhander over Rask.
Chara finished minus-2 on the night. He was minus-3 in the Bruins' Game 4 defeat.
After the game, Kane was asked if he remembered his overtime goal that won the Cup for Chicago in 2010. He described it, and how he was the only one in the building who saw it go in and how he broke into a celebration before anybody else knew what was going on.
"It was a great moment," he said. "I think it's exciting to be back in that situation again. This is what you work for all year, all summer, when you're training throughout the year at training camp, whatever it may be. This is what you work for, this opportunity. We've got to seize the moment and take advantage of it."
Kane and the Blackhawks will soon have their chance to take advantage of their moment.
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
Keep up with the latest news, on the court and off, with The Times's basketball blog.
The Miami Heat's defeat of the San Antonio Spurs in the N.B.A. finals averaged nearly 17.7 million viewers on ABC, the most to watch the Spurs play for the league championship. The higher numbers were helped by a series that went seven games and because the Spurs' opponent was the LeBron James-led Heat.
The Spurs have generally needed a larger market team as a partner in the finals to help attract viewers. In 1999, the Spurs-Knicks finals were seen by an average of 16.0 million viewers. But the Spurs' sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007 averaged just 9.3 million. Only slightly better was the Spurs' 2003 finals victory over the Nets, which averaged 9.86 million viewers.
Game 7 on Thursday night drew 26.3 million viewers, the second most to watch an N.B.A. game on ABC. The viewership peaked from 11:30 to 11:45 p.m. Eastern, at 34.2 million viewers.
Jim Mcisaac/Getty Images
Zoilo Almonte acknowledged the home crowd after his sixth-inning home run in the Yankees' 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
During the first part of the Yankees' season, the baseball world marveled at the contributions made by the cast of castoffs the team had assembled. These Yankees were a gritty bunch, an easily likable group because they had been so lightly regarded, unlike past Yankees teams that were littered with All-Stars at every position.
But that magic was short-lived. More recently, Yankee fans have been cringing at how those castoffs have started to play like the spare parts they actually were.
On Friday, the Yankees turned to the rookie Zoilo Almonte to help spark them offensively. Almonte was given his first major league start, in left field, in place of the slumping Vernon Wells. Showing how eager the Yankees were for offense, Manager Joe Girardi placed Almonte sixth in the lineup.
The move turned out to be an inspired choice. Almonte had three hits, including his first major league home run, to help the Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-2.
Almonte's contributions recalled the beginning of the season, when all of Girardi's moves seemed to work beautifully. After his sixth-inning homer, Almonte was saluted by the Yankee Stadium crowd with a curtain call.
As a boy in the Dominican Republic, when Almonte dreamed of the big leagues, he imagined that he would get lots of hits in his major league debut. "I think it was pretty much as I imagined," he said.
He also described Friday as one of the two best days of his life. "Today and when my son was born," he said.
Almonte, 24, is not a highly regarded prospect, although he has had a fairly successful minor league career. He was hitting .297 with a .369 on-base percentage for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season, and he has a career .766 on base-plus slugging percentage in the minors.
Almonte was spotted as a teenager by Victor Mata, the Yankees' Dominican scout, in 2005 when he played in a park league in Santo Domingo. Mata invited Almonte to try out at the Yankees' academy, and the team was so impressed it offered him a $200,000 bonus.
A few years ago, Girardi admired Almonte's hitting in the batting cage during spring training. "We expected him to be a big-league player at some point," Girardi said. "And that time has arrived."
Almonte also showed prowess in the outfield in the fourth inning. With a runner on third base, he caught a fly ball and then unleashed a strong throw to home plate to keep a run from scoring.
Before the game, Girardi said he would not commit to giving Almonte an extended look in place of Wells, who is hitting .102 with a .216 on-base plus slugging percentage in 61 plate appearances in June, but added, "Any time you're out there, it's an opportunity."
The message was clear. The Yankees need offense, and they are looking everywhere for solutions. They had scored two runs or fewer in five of their previous eight games heading into Friday's matchup with the Rays. Also entering Friday's game, the Yankees ranked fourth-worst in the American League in slugging percentage.
For the first four innings Friday, neither team seemed capable of taking control. The Yankees would take a lead, then give it away. The Rays would tie the score, then allow the Yankees to take another lead.
The Yankees took the lead for good in the fourth. Travis Hafner led off with a single and advanced to second on Lyle Overbay's single. Almonte loaded the bases with a single to right. Hafner scored on Jayson Nix's double-play grounder, and Overbay scored on David Adams's infield single to give the Yankees a 4-2 lead. Almonte's home run gave the Yankees an added cushion, and Overbay drove in the final run with a single in the eighth.
David Phelps, the Yankees' starter, was effective, but he was not efficient. Although he had given up only two runs, he came out of the game with two outs in the sixth inning after having thrown 102 pitches. But he ended up with a win, and largely had Almonte to thank for it.
Mark Blinch/Reuters
Edwin Encarnacion of the Toronto Blue Jays slid for a first-inning double against the Baltimore Orioles.
Rajai Davis singled home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Toronto Blue Jays rallied for their ninth straight win, by 7-6 over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night in Toronto.
Munenori Kawasaki hit his first career home run, a tying two-run shot in the seventh, and Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion also homered for the Blue Jays.
"The legend grows, the Kawasaki legend grows, and rightfully so," Blue Jays pitcher R. A. Dickey said.
INDIANS 5, TWINS 1 Scott Kazmir allowed one run in seven strong innings, and Jason Kipnis drove in three, leading host Cleveland over Minnesota.
Kipnis hit a sacrifice fly — to the second baseman — in the third and added a two-run single in the seventh as the Indians won their third straight and seventh in nine games since losing eight in a row.
RED SOX 10, TIGERS 6 Shane Victorino homered and hit three singles, driving in five runs to lead visiting Boston to a win over Detroit. Miguel Cabrera hit a three-run homer for Detroit, which nearly rallied from a 6-1 deficit but could not come through against the Boston bullpen. Jon Lester allowed five runs and nine hits in five and two-thirds innings, but he won for the first time in seven starts.
WHITE SOX 9, ROYALS 1 Hector Santiago shut down Kansas City's punchless offense for a career-best eight innings, and visiting Chicago roughed up Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie.
RANGERS 6, CARDINALS 4 Nelson Cruz snapped a ninth-inning tie with a two-run single through a drawn-in infield, and visiting Texas beat St. Louis in the opener of a series between 2011 World Series opponents.
Left fielder David Murphy robbed Carlos Beltran of an extra-base hit and saved a run with a running catch at the wall in left-center to end the game.
CUBS 3, ASTROS 1 Matt Garza pitched into the ninth inning, and Anthony Rizzo hit his first home run since May 18 to lead host Chicago over Houston after a rain delay that lasted more than three hours.
NATIONALS 2, ROCKIES 1 Stephen Strasburg struck out nine in seven innings, Ian Desmond homered in the seventh to help give Strasburg his first win in June, and Washington beat visiting Colorado.
Making his 14th start of the season, Strasburg allowed one run and five hits for his first victory since May 31.
BREWERS 2, BRAVES 0 Jean Segura hit a home run, and Wily Peralta allowed two hits in seven innings to lead host Milwaukee past Atlanta for its second shutout of the season.
AROUND THE MAJORS The Tigers have designated reliever Jose Valverde for assignment, less than two months after bringing him back to the major leagues for another chance to be the team's closer. Valverde went 0-1 with a 5.59 E.R.A., converting nine saves in 12 chances. ... The former All-Star outfielder Lenny Dykstra has been released from prison in California after serving time for bankruptcy fraud. Dykstra was sentenced in December for hiding baseball gloves and other heirlooms from his playing days that were supposed to be part of his bankruptcy filing.
PHILADELPHIA — The Mets this week seemed to be accelerating faster than ever toward their often-discussed but still-hypothetical future, when a successful club will coalesce around a young pitching staff.
Matt Harvey, 24, led the charge on Tuesday afternoon, dominating a division rival and cementing his status as baseball's hottest young pitcher. Zack Wheeler, 23, was electrifying later that night in his major league debut.
But the organization's vision of the future blurred for the moment on Friday afternoon when Jon Niese, the team's opening day starter this year, was found to have a partly torn rotator cuff."This is huge for us," Manager Terry Collins said before the Mets' 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. "Jon Niese was our No. 1 guy coming out of spring training. This does not help us."
John Ricco, the Mets' assistant general manager, said the tear was discovered through a magnetic resonance imaging exam on Friday, the day after Niese was pulled from a game because of discomfort around his shoulder. Niese, a 26-year-old left-hander, was placed on the disabled list. He will rest for two weeks and then have another M.R.I. exam, at which point the team doctors are expected to make a recommendation on whether surgery is necessary. The Mets hope a procedure will not be necessary.
Rotator cuff injuries — shoulder ailments as a whole, really — are considered ominous.
The rotator cuff refers to the muscles that move the shoulder; the tendons that connect the muscles to the bone are susceptible to tearing. For some athletes, surgery can be avoided if the surrounding muscles are strengthened to the point that they can compensate for the weakened tendon. Pitchers who resort to rotator cuff surgery generally require several months to return to game form.
Ricco said the team doctors believe Niese's partial tear could be small enough that surgery will not be needed. Furthermore, the doctors indicated that the tear could start to heal on its own.
Ricco was unwilling to offer a best-case return date. "He's going to rest for two weeks, and I'm not going to speculate beyond that," he said. "We have a plan for the next couple of weeks, and we'll see how that goes."
Niese missed a start earlier this month after he was found to have shoulder tendinitis. An M.R.I. administered on May 30 revealed no structural damage. After skipping one rotation turn, Niese came back to pitch twice before Thursday's outing, when he said he began to experience pain again. According to Ricco, the current tear occurred sometime after the initial first test.
"This is something that changed," Ricco said.
The Mets will now be without a starter they expected to help lead the rotation this year and into the future. The front office, which has been reluctant to dole out long-term contracts, made its opinion about Niese clear early last year, when they signed him to a five-year deal worth $25 million.
Early this year, after R. A. Dickey, who won 20 games for the Mets last year, departed and before Harvey ascended to his current lofty perch, Niese was briefly considered the team's ace. He took the ball for the season opener at Citi Field.
But since then, he has not performed to expectations, compiling a 3-6 record and 4.32 earned run average. His struggles could be attributed partly to the tendinitis, which plagued him for four starts this spring. But he claimed that he felt healthy after the one outing he skipped.
After Wheeler's rise this week to the major leagues, the Mets were planning to employ a six-man rotation for the near future. Collins said he hoped it would give each starter some additional rest heading into the season's second half. That will not be possible now. The Mets on Friday recalled Greg Burke, 30, a right-handed relief pitcher, to take the open roster spot.
Niese has been known for his durable arm and smooth mechanics, and Collins was asked whether Dan Warthen, the pitching coach, had noticed anything about Niese's motion that may have caused the injury.
"I asked Dan about that today, and Dan said he's going to look at some tapes," Collins said. "But he didn't think there was anything wrong with his delivery."
Either way, Niese's actual pitching motion seems like a faraway concern now. The Mets need to wait two weeks to see when he can even begin to use any pitching motion again.
Inside Pitch
Juan Lagares made a nice catch on a bases-loaded drive in the fifth inning, then hit a a go-ahead double in the sixth to cap a Mets rally from a 3-0 deficit. Jeremy Hefner (2-6) gave up 10 hits and 3 runs in six innings. (NYT)
The constantly-changing Yankees roster evolved once again on Friday when the team designated infielder Reid Brignac for assignment and recalled infielder Alberto Gonzalez from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said Gonzalez, who had a stint with the team earlier this year, would most likely fill in at shortstop and third base. Girardi also said Jayson Nix and David Adams would get the majority of starts at shortstop and third base, respectively, while the team waited for the injured infielders Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Youkilis and Derek Jeter to return.
The Yankees had hoped Brignac would solve their infield bench woes, but in 44 plate appearances he hit only .114 with a .270 on-base plus slugging percentage.
Gonzalez's numbers were not much better in the minors. At Scranton, he was hitting .224 with a .587 OPS. In his previous stint with the Yankees, Gonzalez had three hits in nine at bats. He also was called on to pitch on May 15 in a 12-2 blowout loss to the Seattle Mariners.
"Hopefully he'll bring some offense," Girardi said of Gonzalez. "He's a shortstop that can play anywhere."
Gonzalez said he was surprised when he learned of his promotion. It has been a complicated season for him; he played for the Chicago Cubs this season before joining the Yankees, then was designated for assignment in May to make room for Brignac, who was acquired from the Colorado Rockies in a trade.
"It never feels good to be designated," Gonzalez said. "It's been a bit tiring going through that. I had that happen to me with Chicago, too. I haven't been able to be in one place. But thankfully, I'm back here."
ROOKIE GETS FIRST START The recently promoted rookie outfielder Zoilo Almonte was given his first start in place of the slumping Vernon Wells in left field.
Girardi said that he was simply giving Wells a day off, but he did not discount the possibility that Almonte could earn more playing time if he performed well in spot duty.
"Any time you're out there, it's an opportunity," Girardi said.
The 24-year-old Almonte has a career .766 OPS in the minors and was hitting .297 with a .369 on-base percentage for Scranton this season. Wells is hitting .102 in 61 plate appearances in June.
GRANDERSON BACK Outfielder Curtis Granderson returned to the Yankees clubhouse after having surgery on Thursday to remove pins from his fractured left hand.
Granderson, who sustained the fracture on May 25, said it would still be some time before he was able to swing a bat. He is not expected to be activated until at least late July.
But Granderson said he expected to begin start his rehabilitation in a therapy pool shortly.
"I'm assuming that once we get things going, things will go relatively quickly," Granderson said.
Granderson will begin his rehabilitation by taking one-handed swings with a small object in the pool. He will then begin to swing a bat one-handed before taking swings with both hands. Then it will be tee and toss before finally taking regular batting practice.
Granderson, who started the season on the disabled list because of a fractured right forearm, acknowledged that it has been a difficult season.
"As soon as something good happens, something bad happens," he said. "But things could be way worse in the grand scheme of things."
Despite having to miss extended time this season because of two injuries caused by being struck by pitches, Granderson said he was not going to make any changes at the plate.
"I'm going to be ready to dig in and go from there," he said. "There's no major adjustments that need to be made for it."
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 22, 2013
A summary that appeared with an earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a Yankees infielder. His name is Alberto Gonzalez, not Gonzales.
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account »
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more »
Matt Moore, the Tampa Bay Rays' talented young left-handed pitcher, was in the midst of a troublesome month of baseball before Thursday night. After posting an 8-0 record through the first two months of the season, Moore was 0-3 in June, with a 13.86 earned run average, and in desperate need of a soothing tonic to temper his woes.
Moore found his prescription Thursday. The Yankees' offense, stagnant and inefficient, was just the solution Moore needed to rediscover at least some of his old form.
He had given up an average of almost nine hits per game in his previous three starts, but he limited the staggering Yankees to only four Thursday and won his first game since May 19 as the Rays beat the Yankees, 8-3, at Yankee Stadium.
It was the Yankees' second straight loss and their seventh in nine games as they continue to search in vain for offense.
"We're in a little funk right now," said Brett Gardner, the only Yankee with two hits. "We need to get out of it."
The Rays' offense had little trouble scoring against Andy Pettitte and the Yankee bullpen. Evan Longoria hit a pair of home runs and had three runs batted in, and Yunel Escobar hit a two-run shot against Boone Logan in the eighth to turn the game into a rout.
By the time the Yankees came to bat in the eighth inning, only a small fraction of the announced crowd of 37,649 remained to see the final few outs. Joba Chamberlain, who surrendered the second of Longoria's home runs, was booed off the mound, taking the brunt of anger from fans who would never consider booing a venerable Yankee like Pettitte.
But Pettitte practically booed himself in a rambling, self-deprecating critique of his performance. He was not awful, but he allowed the Rays to take a 4-0 lead, and when the Yankees did crawl to within 4-3, he gave up two more runs. In all, he surrendered five earned runs and nine hits in six and two-thirds innings.
"Another disappointing outing," he said. "Just another frustrating outing. I need to get better, whether it's my focus, whether I need to maybe get a little more work."
Pettitte, who went on the disabled list May 18 with a sore back, has been limiting his work between starts to protect his back. But he said that as it heals, he may consider going back to two bullpen sessions between starts to regain his sharpness.
The position players, too, have been looking for ways to break out of their collective slumps. Whether it has been doing extra work in the batting cage or looking at more videotape, they have failed to find the right formula, and Moore capitalized on their struggles.
"Seeing success helps you be a little more confident," Moore said, "and have a little more belief."
The Yankees did scratch out three runs against Moore in their best impression of a rally, but those came in a rather unimpressive fashion. The Yankees loaded the bases in the sixth and pushed across three runs without a single hit, letting the Rays off the hook in what could have been a breakout inning.
Reid Brignac singled and Moore issued two straight walks before allowing his first run on a wild pitch. The second run came across on a sacrifice fly by Robinson Cano and the third on a weak ground out to second base by the designated hitter and No. 4 batter Travis Hafner.
When Hafner went back to the dugout, he received congratulatory high-fives from his teammates and coaches for a job well done. He did the bare minimum, making sure the run scored by hitting a ball to the right side of the infield, but it was hardly the kind of slugging a team likes to see from its cleanup hitter.
In the seventh, Lyle Overbay doubled with one out, but he was erased on Chris Stewart's ground ball to short. Overbay thought Longoria, the third baseman, would go after the ball and he would be able to get to third easily, but Longoria remained at the bag and applied the tag.
With the Yankees trailing by two runs, it was an ill-conceived play.
"Just a bad read," Manager Joe Girard said. "It happens."
But after Hafner's productive out, the No. 5 hitter Vernon Wells, who went 0 for 3, grounded out to prolong his slump. Wells went into the game batting .224. But much worse, he has only 6 hits in 59 at-bats in June, all singles.
It was not a stretch to say that Moore was the worst pitcher in June and Wells the worst batter. Something had to give when they met in the second inning, and Wells popped up to right field. In the fifth he grounded out to short, and in the sixth he bounced back to Moore.
But Wells is not the only suffering Yankees hitter as the slump has caught on.
"When you struggle, you tend to press a little bit," Overbay said. "It's only human nature."
ATLANTA — Jon Niese grimaced even before he finished his follow-through. As he staggered from the mound, he summoned his coaches, wiggling his index finger toward the visitors' dugout at Turner Field. While they encircled him, he gestured to his left shoulder.
It was not a welcome sight for the Mets, who have often said this season that Niese, a 26-year-old left-hander, represents a key pitching staff pillar, one expected to ascend alongside the young right-handers Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler.
"I think he's a huge piece of the puzzle," Manager Terry Collins said only hours before the Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-3.
The Mets described the injury as left shoulder discomfort, a vague characterization that left open an array of worrisome possibilities. Niese was scheduled to see a doctor Friday. At the very least, the injury should complicate the team's plan to keep a six-man rotation for the near future.
Niese said afterward that he thought it was a recurrence of the shoulder tendinitis that forced him to skip a start earlier this month. At the time, he was feeling soreness between starts. The team realized the problem was serious when he was finally unable to complete a scheduled bullpen session May 30 at Yankee Stadium.
He made two starts after missing his turn and said he felt fine, though he appeared to lack control during the second one, a June 15 loss against the Chicago Cubs. Collins said Thursday that he did not think Niese was hiding the injury.
"He's been pretty open," Collins said, pointing out that Niese also complained of discomfort earlier this season after pitching two games in extremely cold weather. "I think he's fought through some discomfort. I don't think he thought it was big pain — it was more stiffness. So, we'll wait to see what happens tomorrow."
Niese's 61st pitch was his last one. He began to feel pain as he faced Tyler Pastornicky and sensed his fastball velocity was down. Two pitches later, Niese was stumbling off the mound toward the third-base side. Collins and Dan Warthen, the pitching coach, jogged out alongside a team trainer to examine him. The conversation was short: "He just said, 'My shoulder hurts,' " Collins said. "So I said, 'You're done.' "
Niese went into the clubhouse, was treated by a trainer and the pain subsided. But he will need a magnetic resonance imaging exam before he and the Mets can plan his next move.
"After I left the game and everything kind of settled down in here the pain went away," Niese said. "So we'll see how it goes tomorrow."
As it was, Niese was not having a good outing. He gave up three runs and eight hits through three and a third innings. His record stayed at 3-6 while his earned run average rose to 4.32. Healthy or not, the Mets have been worried about his performance.
But the Mets did well, anyway. David Wright belted two solo home runs to lead the offense, and five relievers combined to shutout the Braves after Niese left the game.
"I'm proud of the guys," Bobby Parnell said of his bullpen mates after picking up his 11th save.
INSIDE PITCH
Before the game, Terry Collins noted he was receiving positive reports on the progress of Ike Davis, who has been playing for the Las Vegas 51s, the Mets' Class AAA affiliate, to rediscover his swing. Davis, who has a .258 average and .439 on-base percentage over nine games there, was making strides and taking instruction well, Collins said. Still, when Collins offered a catalog of things Davis was working on, the length of it symbolized the extent of the player's troubles: "They're trying to calm the hitch down, not have it so big. They're trying to keep his upper body back, behind the baseball a little bit more, keep his head in a little bit better. His stride had got him to where he's lunging. They've got him on the plate a little bit better. They're keeping his front hip in, instead of having it fly, which sometimes can cause the shoulders to come off the ball. The grip of the bat has helped him free up his hands a little bit, more toward your fingers and less toward your palm." And so Davis, Collins said, would not be fixed overnight.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 20, 2013
A headline with an earlier version of this story misstated the inning in which the pitcher Jon Niese left with a sore shoulder. It was in the fourth, not the third, inning.
Jhonny Peralta hit a two-run homer off Andrew Bailey in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the host Detroit Tigers a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday.
Boston led by 3-2 when Victor Martinez drew a leadoff walk off Bailey (3-1), and Peralta followed with a line drive over the fence in left field for his seventh homer of the year.
Boston Manager John Farrell said after the game that Bailey would be given a break from closing.
"We're going to back him out of there right now and try to get him fixed," Farrell said. "So we'll look at some other internal options to close. His velocity hasn't come back since the D.L. stint, and although he says he feels fine, the results obviously aren't there."
Bailey (3-1) spent time on the disabled list in May because of a biceps problem. Joel Hanrahan, Boston's top choice to close, is out for the season after elbow surgery.
David Ortiz homered and drove in a tiebreaking run with an eighth-inning single to put Boston up, but Drew Smyly (3-0) replaced Phil Coke for Detroit and prevented any further runs. He struck out four in two innings of relief.
RANGERS 4, ATHLETICS 3 Ian Kinsler put Texas ahead for the first time with a two-run single in the seventh inning, and the host Rangers held on for a series-clinching victory.
Texas pulled to within a game of the A's, the American League West leaders, by winning three times in the four-game series.
Kinsler came to the plate after Leonys Martin hustled for an infield single. With the bases loaded and two outs, Kinsler hit a full-count pitch through the middle of the infield.
The game ended when Josh Donaldson was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first on Seth Smith's single to center.
TWINS 8, WHITE SOX 4 Chicago starter John Danks allowed a career-worst four home runs, including a two-run shot by Brian Dozier, and host Minnesota finished its first three-game sweep of the season.
Oswaldo Arcia homered in the second inning ahead of Dozier. Clete Thomas and Eduardo Escobar hit back-to-back shots in the fourth, sending the White Sox to their seventh defeat in the last eight games. They fell to 5-13 in June and an A.L.-worst 13-27 on the road.
Danks (1-4) lasted five innings, giving up 12 hits and 6 runs.
ASTROS 7, BREWERS 4 Carlos Pena hit a three-run homer in the 10th inning, giving Houston a victory over visiting Milwaukee.
It was a sloppy game that included four errors and six unearned runs.
Hector Ambriz (2-4) pitched a scoreless 10th to help Houston take two of three in the series.
NATIONALS 5, ROCKIES 1 Jordan Zimmermann pitched eight innings to win his 10th game, Adam LaRoche had three hits, including a two-run triple, and host Washington spoiled Roy Oswalt's return to the majors.
Zimmermann (10-3) allowed an unearned run on six hits. He struck out nine and walked one.
Oswalt (0-1) went five innings in his Colorado debut, allowing four runs on nine hits. He struck out 11 and did not walk a batter.
Oswalt, 35, was signed to a minor-league contract May 2, and he went 3-2 with a 2.16 earned run average in five starts for Class AA Tulsa before being called up.
CARDINALS 6, CUBS 1 Lance Lynn earned his 10th victory to tie for the National League lead, Matt Holliday homered and drove in two runs and host St. Louis beat Chicago.
Lynn (10-1) allowed a run on three hits in six innings with six strikeouts and has reached double digits in wins before the All-Star break both of his years in the rotation.
Wellington Castillo homered leading off the third for the Cubs.
PIRATES 5, REDS 3 Pedro Alvarez drove in all of Pittsburgh's runs with a solo homer, a bases-loaded double and a single, leading the visiting Pirates to a victory.
By splitting the teams' four-game series, the Pirates remained a half-game behind second-place Cincinnati in the N. L. Central.
Against Homer Bailey, Alvarez had a run-scoring single and his 16th homer. After Alfredo Simon (5-3) loaded the bases in the seventh, Alvarez doubled off the left-hander Tony Cingrani to snap a 2-2 tie.
The five runs batted in were a season high for a Pirate and one short of Alvarez's career high.
