Die Anpflanzler [DA] » rom the Yank

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- If this was the last swing of the season at Kauffman Stadium, it was one to savour. Justin Maxwell ended the Kansas City Royals home season with a two-out grand slam in the 10th inning Sunday for a 4-0 win over the Texas Rangers in a matchup of AL playoff contenders. "I kind of blacked out after I looked at Gordo (Alex Gordon) over there going crazy," Maxwell said. "I just saw the excitement in all my teammates eyes. I couldnt wait to get around the bases and to home plate." The Oakland Athletics clinched the AL West with the Rangers loss. Texas dropped 1 1/2 games behind Cleveland for the second wild-card spot. Kansas City is 3 1/2 back. Maxwell connected off former Royals All-Star closer Joakim Soria. "Ive never faced him before," Maxwell said. "With a 3-2 count, bases loaded, two out, I was just looking for a fastball strike and I got one. I didnt try to do really do too much. Paralysis by analysis. I try to dumb it down and try to hit the ball hard." Soria knew he couldnt afford to throw a borderline pitch and have the winning run score on a walk. "I had to throw a strike in that situation, and it couldnt be close," Soria said. Royals starter James Shields gave up six hits in eight innings, walking one and striking out two. Texas starter Alexi Ogando pitched two-hit ball for seven innings, striking out five and walking one. Eric Hosmer led off the Royals 10th by punching a double with two strikes down the left-field line off Neal Cotts (5-3). Soria relieved and intentionally walked Billy Butler, and an infield single by Salvador Perez loaded the bases. Mike Moustakas popped up and pinch-hitter George Kottaras grounded into a force play at the plate before Maxwells grand slam. Tim Collins (3-6) worked a perfect 10th to pick up the victory. Ogando, who had three stints on the disabled list this season, excelled in just his eighth start since May 15. He left after 77 pitches. "I thought overall it went very well," Ogando said through a translator. "I was really able to locate my pitches and able to throw them for strikes. You know whats going to happen if you can throw strikes where you want and be able to be aggressive with your pitches." Maxwell hit a leadoff single in the third and moved up on a sacrifice, making him the lone Royals runner to get past first base off Ogando. Shields, who was 4-1 in his previous five starts, lowered his ERA to 3.21. He was struck in the right elbow by David Murphys liner in the second, but remained in the game after making some warmup tosses as manager Ned Yost watched from the mound. "You can probably see the big bump in my elbow," Shields said. "I had a hard time feeling the baseball the whole rest of the game. Its just one of those games, one of those moments where I wasnt coming out of the game. I told Skip I wasnt hurting. I wasnt necessarily feeling good, but I felt fine to go back out. It was kind of tightening up between every inning. "Ogando pitched his heart out and it was just fortunate we got the win. The fans were unbelievable. It was electric in the stadium as Ive ever seen it. They were into every single pitch," he said. Shields allowed two-out singles to Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus before getting out of the inning. Royals closer Greg Holland took over in the ninth. Alex Rios made it to first when he struck out on a wild pitch to lead off the inning and stole second. But Rios was thrown out trying to take third on Adrian Beltres fly to left, with Gordon getting his AL-leading 16th outfield assist. "Rios was trying to make something happen, which you cant blame him," Gordon said. "I was just trying to make the play, keep the score zero-zero and help Greg out. Alex Rios is a long strider, very fast, so I had to make a good throw. Thats what I planned to do. I didnt do much all day, but that was key." Perez helped out Shields by throwing would-be basestealers Andrus at third base in the first and Leonys Martin at second in the fifth. "Stealing third is easier than stealing second for me," Andrus said. "He throws well. I took my chances. That kid Perez is amazing. Its pretty tough the way they play defence. You have to tip your cap." NOTES: The Royals final home attendance was 1,750,754, an average of 21,614 for 81 games. The Royals averaged 21,748 for 80 home dates last year. ... The Rangers play their final seven games at home. LHP Derek Holland, who starts Monday against Houston, has lost five straight decisions at Rangers Ballpark since May 31. He is winless in his past eight starts, the longest drought of his career. ... The Royals, who finish up with seven games at Seattle and Chicago, are 38-36 on the road. They have not finished above .500 on the road since going 43-39 in 2003. Tony Twist Jersey . Next up is another showdown with Michigan. Payne scored 18 points, Branden Dawson had 14 and No. 22 Michigan State beat No. 12 Wisconsin 83-75 on Saturday to reach the Big Ten tournament championship. Joe Mullen Jersey . Orlov, who scored two goals in the game, was assessed a major penalty for boarding on the play. The Flyers scored once on the power play and again with the extra attacker with 65 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime. http://www.cheapbluesjerseys.info/authentic-chris-pronger-blues-jersey/ .C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes used a strong third period to extend their winning streak to three games. St.Louis Blues Jerseys .C., has been named Canadas top female official, winning the 2014 SOC Award of Excellence. Cranes career as a figure skating judge has spanned over 40 years. Al Macinnis Jersey .C. -- The Edmonton Oilers used a late-power-play goal to get a hard-fought road victory.Max Scherzer will pitch the most important game of his career Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park in Boston. Its Game 6 of the ALCS, and if the Tigers lose, their season is over, and the Red Sox go to the World Series for the third time in 10 seasons searching for their third title over that span. If Scherzer and the Tigers win, it will force a Game 7 on Sunday night, with Justin Verlander on the hill against John Lackey. The interesting story is how Scherzer got to Detroit in the first place. In 2009, Scherzer was with the Arizona Diamondbacks, battling for the number five starter job with Yusmeiro Petit. Yes thats the same Petit, who came within one out of a perfect game, for the Giants back on September 6th against the Diamondbacks. Heading into that season, the D-Backs were a highly touted outfit. In fact, I found an old article from the Bleacher Report, that praised their starting rotation of Brandon Webb, Daren Haren, Doug Davis , Jon Garland and either Scherzer or Petit as the best in the National League West and arguably the tops in all the Majors. That year, Arizona was 70-92 and was needless to say a huge disappointment. Clearly a shake-up was in order. So on December 8, 2009, Arizona, Detroit and the New York Yankees concocted a monster three team deal involving seven players. Initially, it seemed the Yanks got the best of the swap, in acquiring up and coming slugging centre fielder Curtis Granderson, from the Tigers. Arizona landed two veteran arms in Edwin Jackson from Detroit and Ian Kennedy from the Yankees. Kennedy gave the D-backs one incredible season, but ultimately got traded to San Diego this season. Detroit picked up four young players a couple of which were highly rated prospects. They got centre fielder Austin Jackson and lefty reliever Phil Coke from the Yankees, and a couple of pitchers from Arizona, Daniel Schlereth and yes Max Scherzer. The deal didnt seem to help Arizona aat all.ddddddddddddThe next season (2010) they tumbled to 65-97, and in-season replaced manager A.J Hinch with current skipper Kirk Gibson. The Yankees got two solid seasons out of Granderson and an injury plagued 2013. Now Granderson is set to enter free agency and is by no means a lock to return to the "Pinstripes". What do the Tigers have? Well they beat the Yankees a year ago to make it to the World Series where they ultimately lost to the Giants. Theyve got a right hander in Scherzer, whos poised to win his first Cy Young Award, a starting centre fielder in Jackson and serviceable reliever in Coke. Now with Scherzer pitching Saturday, theyve at least still got a chance to go to the World Seriesfor the third time in eight seasons. Sometimes, it takes a few years to analyze a trade, but clearly GM Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers won this one. As a bit of a footnote, to this story, I saw one rumour, this week, that after the season, Detroit might actually consider trading Scherzer in the off-season. That knocked me back a few steps, but Scherzer is eligible for arbitration after this season, and can become a free agent in 2015. Maybe the Tigers just dont think they can afford to have Scherzer and Justin Verlander on the same staff, or perhaps, they just want to keep growing and replenishing their system, the way they did with that epic three team deal in December of 2009. Stay tuned. A couple of former Blue Jays of World Series vintage were in the news this week. Darnell Colesa valuable bench player on the 93 team, was promoted by Milwaukee to manage their Triple-Afarm club at Nashville. Turner Ward a versatile outfield back-up with the club in 92 and 93 is the assistant hitting coach with Arizona. 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