Talk » e most coachable bunch hes ever had. They were pre-s

BALTIMORE - Down by three runs in the eighth inning, the Baltimore Orioles had every reason to believe they could rally against the Tigers.Not only because the Orioles are capable of scoring in bunches, but more importantly, they were going up against Detroits leaky bullpen.Delmon Young drove in three runs with a pinch-hit double, and Baltimore used a four-run eighth to pull out a 7-6 victory Friday for a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five AL Division Series.Baltimore will try for a sweep in Game 3 Sunday at Detroit, when Miguel Gonzalez starts against the Tigers third straight Cy Young winner, David Price.Its huge going into Detroit up 2-0, said J.J. Hardy, who scored the go-ahead run with a sweeping slide. Weve got to go over there and do our job.A day after the Orioles battered Detroit relievers during an eight-run eighth that produced a 12-3 win, they pushed the Tigers to the brink of elimination with an uprising against the beleaguered duo of Joba Chamberlain and Joakim Soria a€” the primary victims on Thursday night.It was 6-3 with one out in the eighth when Chamberlain hit Adam Jones with a pitch and gave up a single to Nelson Cruz. Steve Pearce singled in a run, and the towel-waving, orange-clad fans among the sellout crowd of 48,058 sensed another comeback win by a team that won 10 games during the regular season during its final at-bat.Soria entered and walked Hardy to load the bases for Young, who lined the first pitch into the left-field corner.We did it yesterday, weve been doing it all year against teams in our own division, Young said. So any time we have an opportunity and get guys on, we think we can win.Young went 10 for 20 as a pinch-hitter during the regular season. He also was the AL championship series MVP in 2012 a€” for the Tigers a€” when they swept the Yankees.Its very hard to sit around and not know where the consistent at-bats are coming, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. He has done the things that you need to do to give yourself a chance to be successful.In the top of the eighth, baserunning was a key point. Miguel Cabrera was thrown out at the plate when he tried to score right behind Torii Hunter on Victor Martinezs double with no outs.I was watching the play develop and hoping they both would make it, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said.Zach Britton got three straight outs for the save.Soria wound up with the loss, but Chamberlain took the blame.This one is on me. Theres no getting around it, he said. Obviously, if I dont put us in that situation, then were having a different conversation.The defeat left Detroits bid to reach the ALCS for a fourth straight year in serious jeopardy. The Tigers wasted home runs by J.D. Martinez and Nick Castellanos, along with a solid start by Justin Verlander.Were 0-2. We understand it, Ausmus said. It doesnt really affect us playing Game 3. If you win Game 3, you go on to Game 4.Rooted on by girlfriend Kate Upton, Verlander left in the sixth with a 5-3 lead. Unless the Tigers stage a comeback, it was his last outing of the season.This is frustrating. This isnt easy, he said. I dont think anybodys walking out of this clubhouse feeling great, but youve got to stay positive. We win two games and the pressure is squarely back on these guys.Brad Brach got the win, getting two outs in the eighth after Kevin Gausman allowed one run and three hits in 3 2-3 innings.Detroit trailed 2-0 before peeling off five straight hits against Wei-Yin Chen. Hunter singled, Cabrera doubled and Victor Martinez delivered an RBI single.J.D. Martinez and Castellanos followed with consecutive home runs, the second day in a row that Detroits done it.Chen lasted only three more batters in his shortest outing since June 28 and left down 5-2.Baltimore got a run back in the bottom half with a two-out RBI single by Hardy, and the Orioles turned a 5-4-3 double play against Cabrera in the fifth that began with a diving stop by Ryan Flaherty.Nelson Cruz led off the sixth with a single to chase Verlander, and Anibal Sanchez held the lead through the seventh.After that, however, Detroits bullpen crumbled.Anytime you can go into the eighth inning winning by three like that, you have all the confidence in the world with Joba going out there, J.D. Martinez said. But unfortunately it just didnt happen today.The game started shortly after noon, and the boisterous crowd had plenty of enthusiasm left from the night before.The volume decreased, however, after Verlander began mowing down a potent lineup that one night earlier banged out 12 hits in a lopsided victory.He retired the first eight batters before Jonathan Schoop bounced a single up the middle. Nick Markakis then hit a 3-2 pitch off the roof of the grounds crew enclosure in right field.A replay confirmed the drive as a home run, ending Verlanders 32-inning scoreless streak in the ALDS. Markakis first homer off the right-hander in 50 career at-bats came on Verlanders 50th pitch.TRAINERS ROOMTigers: CF Rajai Davis (pelvic strain) was replaced in the fourth inning by a pinch-runner.It tightened up on him coming out of the box, Ausmus said.UP NEXTTigers: Price owns a lifetime record of 7-3 against the Orioles. Cruz is 7 for 19 (.368) with two homers against the left-hander.Orioles: Gonzalez will make his second career post-season start Sunday. Hes 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in three lifetime starts against Detroit. Custom Nike Baseball Jerseys Online . Gustafsson controlled the first round after getting top position on a throw, and came out much more forcefully in the second, buckling Manuwa with a Muay Thai knee, and finishing him off with strikes on the ground. Custom Nike Atlanta Braves Jerseys . I kind of got a taste of being able to pick a suit with the draft lottery, I went with the bow tie. https://www.customnikebaseballjerseys.com/241n-custom-nike-st-louis-cardinals-jerseys-baseball.html . The star receiver certainly isnt celebrating it with the Texans mired in a franchise-record 13-game skid. Custom Nike Houston Astros Jerseys . "Hopefully well get all this out of the way," he said, "and everyone will be healthy the rest of the year." Zimmerman was placed on the 15-day disabled list Sunday and is expected to miss between four to six weeks. Cheap Custom Nike Baseball Jerseys . -- Ryan Gropp scored in overtime as the Seattle Thunderbirds shut out the Spokane Chiefs 1-0 in Western Hockey League play Tuesday. ARLINGTON, Texas -- Coaches and players left them. Others told them to go away. The guys who stuck around at UConn ended up with the last laugh and a pretty good prize to go with it: The national title. Shabazz Napier turned in another all-court masterpiece Monday night to lift the Huskies to a 60-54 win over Kentuckys freshmen and bring home a championship hardly anyone saw coming. "Youre looking at the hungry Huskies," Napier told the crowd and TV audience as confetti rained down. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when you banned us." The senior guard had 22 points, six rebounds and three assists, and his partner in defensive lock-down, Ryan Boatright, finished with 14 points. The victory comes only a short year after the Huskies were barred from March Madness because of grades problems. That stoked a fire no one could put out in 2014. Napier kneeled down and put his forehead to the court for a long while after the buzzer sounded. He was wiping back tears when he cut down the net. "I see my guys enjoying it," Napier said. "Thats the most special feeling ever." UConn (32-8) never trailed in the final. The Huskies led by as many as 15 in the first half and watched the Wildcats (29-11) trim the deficit to one with 8:13 left. But Aaron Harrison, who pulled out wins with clutch 3-pointers in Kentuckys last three games, missed a 3 from the left corner that wouldve given the Cats the lead. Kentucky never got that close again. One key difference in a six-point loss: Kentuckys 11 missed free throws -- a flashback of sorts for coach John Calipari, whose Memphis team blew a late lead against Kansas after missing multiple free throws in the 2008 final. The Wildcats went 13 for 24. UConn went 10 for 10, including Lasan Kromahs two to seal the game with 25.1 seconds left. "We had our chances to win," Calipari said. "Were missing shots, were missing free throws. We just didnt have enough." Calipari said he decided not to foul at the end "because theyre not missing." In all, Caliparis One and Doners got outdone by a more fundamentally sound, more-seasoned group that came into this tournament a seventh-seeded afterthought but walked away with the programs fourth national title since 1999. They were the highest seed to win it all since Rollie Massiminos eighth-seeded Villanova squad in 1985. Napier and Boatright now go down with Kemba Walker, Emeka Okafor, Rip Hamilton, Ray Allen and all those other UConn greats. This adds to the schools titles in 1999, 2004 and 2011. "When they say Ray, Rip, Ben, Emeka, Kemba -- theyll soon say Shabazz," said their former coach, Jim Calhoun, who was in the crowd along with former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and a father-and-son team whose dance to the "Happy" song got huge applause when played on the big screen at AT&T Stadium. The crowd was cheering for UConn at the end. A short year ago, the Huskies were preparing for their first season in the new American Athletic Conference after being booted from the Big East and not welcomed byy any of the so-called power conferences.dddddddddddd Calhoun, who built the program, left because of health problems. And most damaging -- the NCAA ban triggered an exodus of five key players to the NBA or other schools. Napier stuck around. So did Boatright. And Calhouns replacement, Kevin Ollie, figured out how to make their grit, court sense and loyalty pay off. "Its not about going to the next level, its not about going to the pros, but playing for your university, playing for your teammates," Niels Giffey said. "And Im so proud of all the guys on this team that stuck with this team." They were one step ahead of Kentucky all night, holding off furious rally after furious rally. Kentuckys biggest push started when James Young (20 points, seven rebounds) posterized Amida Brimah with a monster dunk to start a three-point play and trigger an 8-0 run. In the middle of that, Boatright, who shut down Harrisons twin brother, Andrew, most of the night, twisted his left ankle while receiving an innocuous-looking pass from Napier. He called a timeout. Got it worked on and came back out. "Ive got a lot of heart and I wasnt coming out," Boatright said. "We put in too much work all year for me to give up on an ankle sprain." Napier and Giffey made 3s on UConns two possessions after the timeout, and that one-point lead was back up to five -- fairly comfortable by this tight, taut, buzzer-beating tournaments standards. The big question in Kentucky is what will happen to all those freshmen. Julius Randle (10 points, six rebounds) is a lottery pick if he leaves for the NBA. Young and the Harrison brothers could be first-rounders. The big question is whether theyll want to leave on this note. "I think all these kids are coming back, so I think we should be good," Calipari deadpanned, getting big laughs. He called his group the most coachable bunch hes ever had. They were pre-season No. 1, a huge disappointment through much of this season. They were seeded an uninspiring eighth for the tournament and came on strong in time for a run to the final. But they got outdone by a team on a different sort of mission -- a team led by Napier, who stuck with the program even though he knew the 2012-13 season was for nothing but fun. But what fun 2013-14 turned out to be. Napier was named the Final Fours Most Outstanding Player and he earned it on both ends of the court, keeping a hand in Aaron Harrisons face most of the night and holding him to a 3-for-7, seven-point, no-damage night. He could also shoot it a bit -- including a 3-pointer in the first half when UConn was having trouble dissecting the Kentucky zone. The shot came from about 30 feet, right in front of the edge of the Final Four logo at Center Court, or, as Dick Vitale put it: "He shot that one from Fort Worth." They felt it back in Storrs, where they could be celebrating another title shortly. The UConn women play for the national title Tuesday. If they win, it will be the first sweep of the titles since 2004. The last school to do it: UConn, of course. ' ' '