Dein erstes Forum » ahead score, his sixth, on a quirky power-play sequence

BOSTON -- Will Middlebrooks reaction running down the first-base line might have summed up how his teammates were feeling when the Boston Red Sox finally got back to .500. The slumping Middlebrooks pumped his fist a few times after hitting an RBI single with the bases loaded, capping a two-run rally in the eighth inning that sent the Red Sox over the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 Wednesday night for a sweep of the two-game interleague series. "I just wanted to help the team win and to contribute," Middlebrooks said. Mired in a 2-for-19 stretch and coming off an 0-for-5 night with a pair of strikeouts, Middlebrooks sent a hard grounder up the middle for the go-ahead run. "Ive been frustrated, but regardless if youre 10-for-10 or 0-for-10 or whatever, youre happy to contribute to a win in any way possible," he said. David Ortiz and Mike Napoli also drove in runs for the World Series champions, who reached .500 for the first time since the fourth game of the season. They failed in eight previous chances. "I dont think it was a mental hurdle," Boston manager John Farrell said. "I never heard too many of us mention that were bumping up against .500 and taking a step back. It was just more of a situation inside games where we had opportunities that we havent cashed in on, finally we do tonight." Skip Schumaker hit a two-run homer for Cincinnati, who lost the opener to Boston 4-3 in 12 innings. It was the Reds 11th one-run loss, most in the majors. "We play a lot of low scoring, one-run games," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "Were battling and well be whole soon, but until then weve got to find a way to create some distance between ourselves and our opponent. Itll come down to making every single play over the course of those last three innings to win the game, and it cant be like that every single day of a baseball season." Trailing 3-2 in the eighth, the Red Sox scored against two relievers. "Its tough," Reds left fielder Chris Heisey said. "We felt like we had the game and let it slip away." Napoli drew a one-out walk from Manny Parra, J.J. Hoover (1-4) walked pinch-hitter Jonny Gomes and A.J. Pierzynskis ground-rule double tied it at 3. Jackie Bradley Jr. was intentionally walked before Middlebrooks had his tiebreaking hit. Craig Breslow (2-0), who also got the win in Tuesdays game, pitched one hitless inning. Koji Uehara struck out the final three batters for his eighth save. Cincinnati starter Mike Leake pitched seven strong innings and was in line for the win before Boston rallied. He gave up two runs on eight hits, walking two and striking out four. Bostons Jake Peavy allowed three or fewer runs for the sixth time in seven starts, giving up three runs on four hits with four walks and five strikeouts. The Reds took a 3-2 lead in the seventh when Roger Bernadina bounced a slow groundout to second against reliever Chris Capuano with the bases loaded. In the bottom half, Heisey made a nice inning-ending running catch on Shane Victorinos liner into the gap with the tying run on second. Boston tied it with a pair of runs in the sixth on a run-scoring single by Ortiz and RBI double by Napoli. It could have been worse for Leake, but Grady Sizemore bounced to second with runners on second and third and, after an intentional walk, Bradley Jr. hit an inning-ending grounder. Schumaker, who came off the 15-day disabled list on Saturday after being sidelined since spring training with a dislocated left shoulder, homered in the third after Heisey had a leadoff double. The teams bounced into a combined five double plays, with the Red Sox turning three. NOTES: Farrell didnt start SS Xander Bogaerts to "get another left-handed bat in the lineup." Switch-hitter Jonathan Herrera took his spot and batted ninth. Bogaerts came in as a defensive replacement in the ninth. ... Leake had given up eight hits and four runs over seven innings in each of his last two starts. ... Reds RHP Alfredo Simon turned 33 Wednesday. ... The Reds are off until Friday, when they open a six-game homestand against Colorado with RHP Johnny Cueto (3-2, 1.31 ERA) going against RHP Jhoulys Chacin (0-1, 7.20). After Peavy, Chacin is the second of four straight starting pitchers the Reds are scheduled to face with the first letter of their first name starting with the letter "J." The Rockies will are also slated pitch RHP Jordan Lyles and Juan Nicasio. ... Boston is also off Thursday before opening a six-game road trip in Texas when RHP Clay Buchholz (2-2, 5.63) faces Yu Darvish (2-1, 2.87). Semyon Varlamov Jersey . -- Martin Kaymer never lost sight of opportunity even amid so much evidence of trouble in the closing stretch Sunday at The Players Championship. Joe Sakic Jersey . Ferrer was unable to find his rhythm in losing 6-4, 6-2 to Teymuraz Gabashvili in his opening match while Nadal struggled past fellow Spanish player Albert Ramos 7-6 (2), 6-4. Nadal eventually overcame his 103rd-ranked opponent to reach the third round, rebounding from a surprise loss to Ferrer in the Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinals. http://www.cheapavalanchejerseys.com/?tag=adidas-patrik-nemeth-jersey . Tepesch, back from the minor leagues, earned his first major league victory in more than 10 months and the Rangers edged the Seattle Mariners 4-3 on Wednesday. Tyson Jost Jersey . Mika Zibanejad and Jason Spezza scored in the shootout to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 2-1 victory over Nashville on Saturday night. Joe Colborne Jersey .com) - Mikko Korhonen carded a 5-under 67 on Thursday to claim medalist honors at the European Tours Final Qualifying Stage tournament.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Relentless is the word Columbus forward Brandon Dubinsky chose to describe the surging Blue Jackets style of play. Dubinsky and Matt Calvert each had a goal and assist to lead Columbus to a team-record eighth-straight win -- the longest active streak in the league -- with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night in the franchises 1,000th game. Jack Johnson, Derek MacKenzie and Nathan Horton also scored for Columbus. The Blue Jackets played their inaugural season in 2000 and has only made the playoffs once, but are finally showing real signs of promise. "Theres a confidence in the room now," coach Todd Richards said. "I think there is an understanding of how we need to play, what we need to do as a group to have success." The offence has come on of late, but the backbone has been Sergei Bobrovsky, last seasons winner of the Vezina Trophy, which goes to the leagues top goalie. Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves in his first game against his former club to earn his seventh win in a row since returning from a groin injury. "Its everybody from Bob all the way out that are contributing," Dubinsky said. The Blue Jackets closed out the Flyers with four straight goals to improve to a league-best 9-0-1 record in January. They are currently holding an Eastern Conference playoff spot. "If you look at the standings we are still right there," Dubinsky said. "By no means can we be satisfied. Obviously its a big accomplishment. We are happy, we are going to enjoy it tonight. We are going to come to work tomorrow and get ready for a tough game." Brayden Schenn and Vincent Lecavalier scored for the Flyers, playing the second of an unscheduled back-to-back set after a snowstorm in Philadelphia pushed their game, a 3-2 loss to Carolina, to Wednesday. Philadelphia is 2-4-2 since winning 10 of 13. Coach Craig Berube said the Flyers recent struggles are because of poor execution inside their blue line. "It starts in our own end breaking the puck out," he said. "We are not doing a very good job of it. We end up spending too much time in our own end." Backup Ray Emery got the nod in goal instead of Steve Mason and had 34 stops. Mason, acquired from the Blue Jackets in 2012, played against the Hurricanees and has yet to face his former team in two visits to Columbus.dddddddddddd The home crowd chided the former rookie of the year with chants of "We want Mason!" during the second and third periods. The Flyers fell behind 1-0 at 8:20. Johnsons shot from the right boards bounced off the legs of Luke Schenn and eluded Emery for his third of the season. Brayden Schenn tied it 1:56 in on a nice individual effort. He stripped the puck from Ryan Murray at the Columbus blue line, then cut in on Bobrovsky, eventually scoring on his third rapid-fire shot for his 14th. Lecavalier made it 2-1 just under six minutes later with his 11th, blasting a shot from the slot on the power play after a nice passing combination. The Blue Jackets responded with goals 4:49 apart to regain the lead, then added two more in the third period. "Were slowly getting the feeling in the room that no matter what teams throw at us we seem to dig deep and come up with a win," MacKenzie said. Corey Tropps forecheck squirted the puck free to Artem Anisimov, who centred a short-range pass to MacKenzie that he chipped in for his third at 11:24. Calvert was credited with the go-ahead score, his sixth, on a quirky power-play sequence. Philadelphias attempted sure clear, hit a glass partition and stayed in their zone. James Wisniewski got the puck and sent a hard pass from the left circle that hit Calverts turning skate in the crease and deflected into the goal. The play went to review and was upheld. Dubinsky beat Emery with a wrist shot from the slot for his 11th at 3:29 of the third. Horton scored a highlight-reel goal three minutes later, stepping around Andrej Meszaros at the boards and powering a high shot past Emery for his fourth. "This is something weve talked about as a group ... really trying to create an identity for our team and I think weve done that." NOTES: The Blue Jackets look to continue their record run Saturday against visiting Buffalo. ... Philadelphia is 6-4-0 in the second of back-to-back games. ... Columbus is 12-7-1 in the Metropolitan Division, while Philadelphia is 9-8-3. ... Arguably the Flyers best player this season, Mason recently signed a three-year contract extension. However, hes 1-2-1 with a 4.21 goals against average in his last five starts, getting pulled twice. ' ' '