Indian Fever?


(Indians manager Eric Wedge on the verge of being tossed from last night's come-from behind 5-2 victory over the A's.)

You'll remember this one, or at least A's fans will, for a long time to come. One night after having beaten the Indians, the A's fabled bullpen surrendered a three-run homer to Ben Broussard, a .249 hitter this season, and the Indians kept the lead for good.

For good measure, Broussard, who was mired in a 1-for-23 slump, had hit a 2-run shot in the 7th to tie the game at 2.

That was two homers and all 5 RBIs to save the Indians from losing a second straight to their AL Wildcard rivals.

The night before the Indians were beaten 2-0 on four hits by Dan Haren and four Oakland relievers in the series opener and Kirk Saarloos had them equally stumped for six innings until Broussard snapped loose.

The comeback allowed the Indians to maintain their one-game lead over the New York Yankees for the wild card, and Cleveland moved 2 1/2 games ahead of the Athletics. The Indians have won eight of nine and have won 19 of their last 25.

*****

Meanwhile the Yankees enjoyed a rare day of fun against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, showing up for 20 hits and 17 runs in a 17-3 route that was more points than the Redskins-Bears game totalled last Sunday.


Steroid Boy Blasts Another Homer, his 30th of the season to go along with his 5 RBIs.

Tampa Bay has been a thorn in the Yankees side all season, winning 11 of 16 games between the teams before Tuesday night.



The Yankees pulled within 2½ games of the first-place Red Sox in the American League East, and remained one game behind the Indians in the wild-card standings.

Yankees starter Jaret Wright gave up three runs in seven innings for his third straight win.


Knackered from running around so many bases?

*****NL Wildcard

In the NL Wildcard race, the former leader, Houston Astros were knocked from their perch by the Florida Marlins

At the end of the day, it was an unusual call against Houston pitcher Wandy Rodriguez that helped boost the Florida Marlins' lead in the NL wild-card race.

Juan Pierre walked in the seventh inning when umpires said Rodriguez touched his mouth with his hand while on the mound, and Paul Lo Duca followed with a tiebreaking, two-run homer that sent Florida on to a 4-2 victory over the Astros on Tuesday night.


Winning pitcher congratulates homer-hitting, winning catcher, the perfect battery.

Josh Beckett (14-8) struck out eight over 7 1-3 innings and Carlos Delgado homered for the second straight game, becoming just the ninth player to hit 30 homers in nine straight seasons. Carlos Delgado, the man who signed with the Marlins instead of the Mets because he thought the Marlins had a better chance of making the playoffs.

(now that the Mets have gone and embarassed themselves again, I guess we kinda see his point.)

"A lot of us knew we needed to win these first two games when you've got (Roger) Clemens and (Andy) Pettitte going the next two games," LoDuca said of the Marlins first two victories over the Astros in this four game series. "It was huge to win these two."

*****

Just as huge was the Philadelphia Phillies won their second straight game over the NL East leading Atlanta Braves last night, this time with a 5-4 victory led by the Mike Lieberthal-driven go-ahead run with a two-out single in the sixth inning.

One night after Eude Brito pitched six scoreless innings in his third career start, the Phillies again got contributions from their youngsters. Rookie Ryan Howard homered and doubled, and Chase Utley drove in two runs.

The Braves lead in the NL East dropped to five games ahead of the Marlins and the Phillies win kept them one game behind the Marlins in the NL Wildcard chase. The loss by the Astros dropped them to 1 1/2 games behind the Marlins (with two games against them and their two aces left) whilst the Nats defeated the Mets at Shea to stay to within a quasi-realistic four games.

Sports Amnesia, after getting a load of the Astros season-closing schedule has already deamed the Astros the odds-on favourite to ultimately take the NL Wildcard but there is still time and still many unexpected results could happen.

*****Tuesday Morning Quarterback - NFL Week One*****

1. The Falcons 14-10 victory, at home, barely squeaking past the Eagles after jumping to an early lead is essentially, for non-Falcon fans, meaningless save for the odd pre-game brawl that saw one of the Eagles' best defensive players kicked out of the game before it even started. They might not even beat the Seahawks next week in Seattle but the Eagles will certainly destroy the 49ers delusions, let's say 43-10.

Warrick Dunn dances whilst he still can.

2. Chad Pennington's six-fumble, one-interception comic absurdity was a one-game mirage and doesn't already mean that Heimerdinger's system is a disaster, even if it felt that way. They will come back big against the Dolphins at home or start the season an irrevocable 0-2. Look for the Jets to win, 17-13 despite Nick Saban's well-panned opening game - By the way, if Lou Saban is such a great coach, how come the Dolphins had so many penalties throughout the game?


Joe Klecko appears to have accidentally killed a man who was pushing a grocery cart in the middle of the street like an idiot.

3. Where are the future playoff contenders? Vikings were humiliated by the Bucs, the Rams suffered and suffered their first loss in their first game, not exactly a brilliant start, the Carolina Panthers, SA's pre-season favourite for the NFL title, lost to the New Orleans love story.

4.
You think Culpepper will put in another Pennington-like performance next week against the Bengals? Not bloody likely. Vikings 28, Bengals 11.

5. Can it be true that there were only two 300-yard passing performances last week, that of Tom Brady and Marc Bulger? And yet, there were 10 100-yard receivers last week. How does that work?

6. Don't look now but there's already a QB controversy in DC:


Brunell will start over Ramsey, wait, only til halftime, no, wait, only in the first quarter or until he throws his first INT.

The Redskins-Bears seriously ugly 9-7 game, which the Redskins appear to have won by default, was the worst of Week One. Don't look for them to improve, we're picking a 31-10 victory by the Cowboys over the Skins. The Bears should beat the Lions next week to go 1-1.

7. Chargers have nowhere to go but down. After losing to the Cowboys at home to start the season, they've now got to go to Denver to face a humiliated Broncos squad. Hellooooo 0-2 and Good Bye Drew Brees! Broncos 20 Chargers 10.

8. Toni Fritsch, who went from Austrian soccer player to place-kicker for the Dallas Cowboys, died at 60. The Austria Press Agency reported that Fritsch collapsed and died of heart failure in Vienna after eating at a restaurant. We told you about eating all those Vienna sausages, little Fritsch.


Good Night, Funny man.

9. Lions kicker Jason Hanson might be out next week with a lame hammy:



The Lions can't find a quarterback, but boy, they know how to pick kickers.

• Since 1980, the Lions have had just two regular guys -- Eddie Murray (1980-1991) and Jason Hanson (1992-present).

• Only three other kickers have attempted field goals for Detroit: Bob Thomas (1982), Mike Prindle (1987, during the NFL-strike replacement games) and Rich Karlis (1990).

• Hanson has not missed a game in his career and is No. 1 on the Lions' all-time list with 209 regular-season games played.

10. Although the humiliation of losing to the 49ers still stings, the Rams are going to have to travel to Arizona's heat and try to salvage a victory. They won't be on the turf, either but they will run the ball down AZ's throats:


Stephen Jackson will have a wild week.

Prediction, Rams 28-Cardinals 10.

Last week 9-7, ATS, 6-10.