National Digest
Short start
By The Associated Press
Joba Chamberlain’s first big league start was over almost as quickly as it began.
The star reliever got just seven outs in his much-ballyhooed move to the Yankees’ rotation, coming out after he approached his pitch limit in the third inning. Chamberlain touched 101 mph on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard but walked three and threw 38 pitches in the first inning as Toronto took a 1-0 lead on Alex Rios’ groundout.
Roy Halladay held New York in check despite some control problems of his own, leading the Toronto Blue Jays to a 9-3 victory on Tuesday night.
In Tuesday’s other games, it was: the Los Angeles Angels 5, Seattle 4; Oakland 5, Detroit 4, 11 innings; Boston 7, Tampa Bay 4; Baltimore 5, Minnesota 3; Texas 12, Cleveland 7; and Chicago White Sox 9, Kansas City 5.
Cubs roll on
By The Associated Press
The Chicago Cubs are showing they can win on the road, too.
Alfonso Soriano hit a three-run homer and Mark DeRosa added a two-run shot to lead the Cubs to a 9-6 win over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, their ninth straight victory.
Jason Marquis (3-3) won for just the second time in eight starts, although he didn’t get past the sixth inning for the seventh straight time. Kerry Wood pitched the ninth for his 16th save.
The Cubs’ streak is their best since winning 12 straight games from May 19-June 2, 2001. By taking the first two games of the three-game set, Chicago won a road series for the first time since sweeping three games at Pittsburgh April 7-10.
The Cubs have their best record after 59 games since the 1977 team was 39-20.
In other NL games, it was: Milwaukee 7, Arizona 1; Atlanta 5, Florida 4; Philadelphia 3, Cincinnati 2; Houston 2, Pittsburgh 0; Colorado 3, Los Angeles 0; New York 9, San Francisco 6; and St. Louis 6, Washington 1.
Second place
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Randy Johnson took sole possession of second place on baseball’s career strikeout list after getting the Milwaukee Brewers’ Mike Cameron to go down swinging in the first inning Tuesday night.
It was Johnson’s 4,673rd career strikeout, breaking a tie with Roger Clemens and leaving the Arizona Diamondbacks’ veteran ace behind only Nolan Ryan, who had 5,714 strikeouts in his career.
French open
PARIS (AP) — Three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal matched the most lopsided Grand Slam victory of his career, defeating fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 at the French Open. The drubbing equaled the standard Nadal set in his previous victory, when he lost three games against another Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco.
Nadal was giving the center-court crowd a thumbs-up signal to punctuate his triumph shortly after Novak Djokovic completed a much more arduous win on Court Suzanne Lenglen. He needed more than three hours to eliminate childhood friend Ernests Gulbis 7-5, 7-6 (3), 7-5.
The No. 3-seeded Djokovic will play No. 2 Nadal in a much-anticipated showdown Friday, with No. 1 Roger Federer looming as a potential opponent for the winner in the final.
With less fanfare, No. 2-seeded Ana Ivanovic and No. 3 Jelena Jankovic advanced and will meet in the women’s semifinals Thursday. Ivanovic beat Patty Schnyder 6-3, 6-2, and Jankovic defeated unseeded Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-2.
TRACK
DENVER (AP) — Antonio Pettigrew gave up his Olympic gold medal, two weeks after the sprinter admitted in court that he cheated to win at Sydney in 2000.
During last month’s trial involving former track coach Trevor Graham, Pettigrew came clean about using banned substances EPO and human growth hormone from 1997 to 2003. Graham, his one-time coach, was found guilty of lying to federal investigators about his relationship to a steroids dealer.
Pettigrew’s decision to give up the gold for the 1,600-meter relay was expected, and it came only a day after one of his teammates, Michael Johnson, also said he was giving back his relay medal in response to what Pettigrew had admitted.
NBA
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Flip Saunders was fired as Detroit Pistons coach, four days after his team was eliminated by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.
President of basketball operations Joe Dumars said it’s “time for a new voice to lead our team.” Saunders had a year left on a four-year deal he signed in 2005. The decision comes three years after Saunders took over for Larry Brown, who led the Pistons to two straight NBA finals.
In Saunders’ three seasons, the Pistons were 176-70 in the regular season and 30-21 in the postseason, but they lost in the Eastern Conference finals each year.
The Pistons have appeared in six straight conference finals, the first franchise to do so since the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. But they also are the second team in league history to lose in the round before the NBA finals three years in a row, joining the Celtics from 1953-55.
NFL
HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Texans have signed general manager Rick Smith to a four-year contract extension — keeping him with the team at least through 2012.
Smith, one of three black general managers in the NFL, was hired in 2006 and is the second general manager in Texans history. He spent 10 years with coach Gary Kubiak while the coach was offensive coordinator of the Broncos.
The Texans reached .500 for the first time in 2007.
NHL
VOORHEES, N.J. (AP) — Philadelphia Flyers right wing Sami Kapanen retired from the NHL on and plans to return to Finland and play for a team he owns there.
The 34-year-old Kapanen spent the last five seasons with the Flyers and tallied five goals and three assists in 74 games last season. He added two goals in 16 postseason games as the Flyers went to the Eastern Conference finals.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — John Tortorella was fired as coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, four years after leading the team to its only Stanley Cup title. He had one season remaining on his contract.
The Lightning were 239-222-36-38 and made the playoffs four times in 6 1/2 seasons under Tortorella, who took over a perennial last-place team in January 2001 and — along with stars Vinny Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards — helped transform it into a championship contender in three years.
SOCCER
LONDON (AP) — The United States should abandon plans to host the 2018 World Cup in favor of a 2022 bid, FIFA vice president Jack Warner urged.
Warner wants to back England to host football’s showpiece tournament, but says it would be “political suicide” not to support the United States in his role as president of the CONCACAF federation, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean.
AUTO RACING
PARIS (AP) — Max Mosley overcame a sex scandal and won a vote of confidence to remain FIA president in a decision that threatens to divide motor racing’s governing body.
Soon after Mosley was given permission to remain as president through October 2009 — when his fourth term ends — the German motoring federation broke off its cooperation with the FIA and the Dutch body criticized smaller clubs for letting monetary issues influence their vote.
The 68-year-old Englishman won a secret ballot 103-55 — with seven abstentions and four invalid votes — at the specially convened assembly in Paris.
The German, American, Japanese, French, Australian and Spanish auto federations all voted against Mosley, while federations from Finland, Canada and Sweden were among 24 club members that had publicly come out against Mosley before the vote.
