BOSTON (AP) _ They started as a Big Three and grew to a Big Four
when Rajon Rondo earned the right to be mentioned along with the
other Boston Celtics All-Stars.

At no point, however, did Brandon Bass merit marquee billing in
his first season in Boston.

The fifth, newest and least-heralded member of the Celtics’
starting lineup, Bass erupted for a career playoff-high 27 points
on Monday night, scoring 18 in the third quarter as Boston pulled
away from the Philadelphia 76ers to win 101-85 and take a 3-2 lead
in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“We’ve got a few good players on the team that they had to
focus on,” said Bass, who left the game to a standing ovation with
2 minutes left and Boston leading by 18. “That left me open, and I
was able to take advantage of my opportunity.”

The 27 points matched Bass’ regular-season career high, and the
18 points in the third was one off his career playoff high for an
entire game. It was also more than the Sixers scored in the quarter
as a team.

“It was one of those games we needed something to ignite us
together,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “I thought the biggest
difference was his energy. He played with a force. I thought he
just let himself go.”

Kevin Garnett added 20 points and Rajon Rondo had 13 points and
14 assists for the Celtics, who can advance to the East finals with
a victory in Philadelphia in Game 6 on Wednesday. The Sixers would
need a win at home to force the series back to Boston for a
decisive seventh game.

As he walked to his postgame interview, Elton Brand told the
Celtics’ ball boys in the hallway outside the locker rooms: “See
you on Saturday.”

No team has won consecutive games yet this series.

“It would just be nice to win two in a row. That would be
terrific,” Rivers said. “It’s not going to be easy. This series
has been hard. Every minute, you think we’re leaking oil
physically.”

Brand scored 19 and Evan Turner had 11 points and 10 rebounds
for Philadelphia, which led by six points early in the third
quarter before Boston scored 14 of the next 16 points. Bass had
eight of them, including back-to-back dunks followed by a steal
that set up Ray Allen’s fast-break layup to give the Celtics a
63-57 lead with five minutes left in the quarter.

Boston closed out the third with a 10-2 run over the final 3
minutes and outscored the Sixers 28-16 in the period. The Celtics
also scored 16 of the first 22 points in the fourth quarter _ seven
from Rondo _ to put away the game.

“We had too many turnovers and that just got those guys
going,” 76ers center Spencer Hawes said. “They got a couple of
easy baskets in transition off our mistakes. It got them going,
they took advantage of it and held home court. Now we have to go
home and take care of ours.”

The Celtics acquired Bass in December in a trade with Orlando
for Glen “Big Baby” Davis, and he worked his way into the
starting lineup after the All-Star break. Although he solidified
the power forward position after Garnett moved to center, he hadn’t
done anything spectacular _ until Monday.

Bass hadn’t scored more than 22 points in a game this season.
His playoff high was 19 points, in 2008.

Paul Pierce had 16 points _ a perfect 9 for 9 from the free
throw line _ and Allen, back in the starting lineup because of an
injury to Avery Bradley, had five points.

Boston tied it 57-all when Bass stole the ball from Thaddeus
Young and got to the free throw line, making both foul shots. After
a Sixers miss, Rondo found Bass underneath for the dunk. Bass added
another crowd-pleasing dunk before knocking loose a ball to start
Rondo on a fast break he finished by finding Allen for the layup.
Notes: Actor Will Smith, a 76ers co-owner, was at the game, as
were comedians Chris Rock and David Spade. … Bradley did not play
because of problems in both shoulders, Rivers said. … Rondo had
seven assists in the third quarter. He picked up one of his most
spectacular when he slipped at the free throw line but left-handed
the ball to Greg Stiemsma for the dunk.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Zach Parise had two goals and an assist and Bryce Salvador and
Travis Zajac beat Henrik Lundqvist less than four minutes apart in
the first period in a series where the intensity and the emotions
are picking up.

Brodeur even notched an assist in the third, on Parise’s empty
netter, capping a game in which the Devils maintained their
composure and bounced back from a 3-0 shutout in Game 3, while the
Rangers took several uncharacteristic penalties and seemed rattled
from the start.

Game 5 is Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.

This game was one where the chippiness increased with each
period. New York’s Marc Staal whacked Patrik Elias in the back of
the knee with his stick in the second. Ryan Callahan, the Rangers
captain, and New Jersey’s Ilya Kovalchuk tussled. And finally,
Rupp, a former Devil who scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal for
New Jersey in 2003, jabbed Brodeur in his crease in the third after
a stoppage in play.

That almost set off a free-for-all among the players on the ice,
especially after Brodeur reacted like he had been hit by a
roundhouse right.

The best action, though, was along the benches where Devils
coach Peter DeBoer screamed at Rangers coach John Tortorella in
what he must have perceived was an intentional attack on his
goaltender in a game in which the Rangers were once again
dominated. The two coaches also sniped at each other on Sunday,
complaining about pick plays and embellishing penalties. Indeed,
these are the makings of another classic series in this rivalry.

The Rupp punch came about four minutes after Parise scored on a
power play to give New Jersey a 3-0 lead and for all practical
purposes, ended the game.

Ruslan Fedotenko ruined Brodeur’s bid for his 25th career
playoff shutout with just over five minutes to play.

The Rangers pulled Lundqvist, who had shut out the Devils in
Games 1 and 3, with less than three minutes to play, and Brodeur
made two outstanding saves to keep it a two-goal game.

Parise finally iced the game with his second of the game and
sixth of the playoffs. It was a clearing pass that found its way
into the net. Brodeur notched the assist on the play for his fourth
of the playoffs.

This game _ which did not include New York’s Brendan Prust, who
was suspended for elbowing Anton Volchenkov in Game 3 _ was decided
early because the Devils finally found ways to beat Lundqvist.

The Devils dominated much of the play in Game 3, and the first
period of Game 4 was even worse for the Rangers. They looked slow,
were outhustled on nearly every shift, and they didn’t get a shot
on goal until roughly halfway through the period.
By then, New Jersey already had a 1-0 lead, on a goal by
Salvador, and was cruising.

Salvador’s see-eying shot through a half-dozen players from the
left point sneaked by the Rangers’ netminder for New Jersey’s first
goal since the third period of Game 2. New Jersey’s Jacob Josefson,
playing for the first time since breaking his left wrist on April
3, failed to deflect the shot on the way in, and New York’s Anton
Stralman seemed to screen Lundqvist, who seemingly never saw the
wristshot.

Zajac’s goal gave the Devils a 2-0 lead at 11:59. It was New
Jersey’s first two-goal lead in the series and Parise had a big
hand in it.

New Jersey’s Dainius Zubrus sent the puck along the boards and
New York’s Michael Del Zotto made two mistakes. He didn’t flag down
the puck and then he allowed Parise to skate past him, setting up a
2-on-1. Parise lifted a pass over the stick of a prone Dan Girardi,
and Zajac one-timed the pass into the upper portion of the net
before Lundqvist could react.

Parise extended the lead to 3-0 early in the third period, just
four seconds after Derek Stepan was sent off for high sticking.
Kovalchuk took a shot from the point that Lundqvist could not
control and Parise whacked the rebound into the net.

NOTES: Veteran Petr Sykora, who had played in every game for the
Devils this season and won the 2000 Stanley Cup with New Jersey,
sat, as Josefson returned to the lineup. … With Prust forced to
miss the game, the Rangers dressed seven defenseman, including Stu
Bickel who returned to the lineup after sitting for Game 3. …
Rangers rookie forward Chris Kreider had his three-game goal
scoring streak snapped. … The Devils’ win was played on the
18-year anniversary of New Jersey’s 3-1 victory over the Rangers in
the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals. That was also a Game 4, and
that also tied that series, 2-2. New York went on to win that
series in seven games.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

New York’s bats fizzled once again, going 0 for 13 with runners
in scoring position with five strikeouts and a foulout. Booed
repeatedly by their increasingly impatient fans, the Yankees lost
for the sixth time in seven games. At 21-21, they have their worst
record at this point in the season since they started 20-25 in 2008
_ the only time since 1994 that New York failed to make the
playoffs.

Batting cleanup for the first time in his big league career,
Moustakas homered in the first inning off Hiroki Kuroda (3-6), a
drive that clanked high off the right-field foul pole.

Eric Hosmer added an RBI double in the third, and Francoeur
homered into the visitor’s bullpen in the seventh on Freddy
Garcia’s second pitch of the night as the Royals opened a nine-game
trip by beating the Yankees for the third time in five meetings
this year.

In a sign of the Yankees’ frustration, Garcia threw a
run-scoring wild pitch in the eighth, then spiked the ball in
disgust. In the sixth, Mark Teixeira put both hands on his head
incredulously after throwing late to third on Irving Falu’s
grounder instead of taking the sure out at first.

On a rainy, misty evening, Paulino (2-1) became the first
starter to pitch shutout ball against the Yankees in consecutive
outings since Boston’s Josh Beckett on April 10 and May 14 last
year, according to STATS LLC. Following up on his six innings of
four-hit ball on May 5, Paulino allowed six hits in 6 2-3 innings,
struck out eight and walked two.

Kuroda had his second straight poor outing, leaving his ERA at
4.56. He allowed three runs, seven hits and three walks in 5 1/3
innings, failing to retire the side in order in an inning. After
adding Andy Pettitte to the rotation and sending Garcia to the
bullpen, pressure may increase on New York to make another move,
such as signing free agent Roy Oswalt.

Paulino stranded a runner in the third base in the first when
Raul Ibanez fouled out. The Yankees loaded the bases with no outs
in the third, but Robinson Cano took a called third strike, Alex
Rodriguez struck out swinging and Ibanez flied out to the
left-field warning track. The Yankees are 7 for 37 (.189) with the
bases loaded this season, and the empty night at the plate left
them 6 for 72 (.083) with runners in scoring position in their last
nine games.

Russell Martin’s groundout stranded a runner at third in the
fourth. New York advanced another runner to third with one out in
the sixth, but Nick Swisher and Teixeira fanned. Then in the
seventh, Cano hit into an inning-ending forceout with two on.

After missing three starts because of a bronchial illness,
Teixeira was dropped as low as seventh in the batting order for the
first time since May 2004 and went 1 for 4. By the time Derek Jeter
hit a game-ending lineout, completing a seven-hitter, only a few
thousand fans remained.

Notes: Kansas City 2B Chris Getz left in the fifth after
aggravating a bruised rib on his left side. He was tagged out at
second in the fourth inning trying to stretch a single. …
Rodriguez hit his 500th double. … Kansas City has three shutouts.
… The Yankees were blanked for the fourth time. … New York’s
Phil Hughes (3-5) starts against Luke Hochevar (3-4) on Tuesday.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Mike McKenry tied it with a two-run homer in the seventh off
Santana and Walker made it all the way to third in the eighth when
his long drive off Jon Rauch (3-3) glanced off the glove of center
fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis for an error and rolled to the wall. One
batter later, Barmes hit a fly to right and Walker just beat the
wide throw from Lucas Duda.

Jared Hughes (1-0) earned his first major league win in relief.
Joel Hanrahan worked the ninth for his 10th save.

David Wright had two hits for the Mets to lift his batting
average to a major league-best .415. Ex-Pirate Ronny Cedeno added
two hits but New York committed three errors and lost for the fifth
time in seven games.

Santana has shown flashes this season of the form that made him
a two-time AL Cy Young Award winner, though it has rarely
translated into victories. He began the night with five
no-decisions, tied for third-most in the National League.

The Mets, who have struggled scoring runs when Santana is on the
mound, staked him to a 4-0 lead in the second when Pirates starter
Erik Bedard temporarily lost the impeccable command that has given
the top of Pittsburgh’s rotation a steady presence this season.
Vinny Rottino, called up from the minors earlier in the day,
singled with one out and Cedeno _ a former Pittsburgh shortstop who
signed with the Mets in the offseason and was booed constantly _
doubled to right-center to give New York the lead.

Two walks sandwiched around a sacrifice bunt loaded the bases
and Justin Turner delivered a two-run single. Wright followed with
a RBI single and the Mets appeared in business against the Pirates,
who entered the game 6-20 when allowing an opponent to score at
least four runs.

Pittsburgh chipped away in the fourth thanks to three
consecutive doubles by Josh Harrison, Andrew McCutchen and Pedro
Alvarez _ who recorded just the fifth hit by a left-handed batter
off Santana this season.

Santana escaped the fourth when McKenry hit into a double play,
though the backup catcher atoned in the seventh, taking an 87 mph
fastball and drilling it into the seats in left to tie the game.
Santana gave up four runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings,
walking two and striking out seven.

The Mets then did their best to give it away.

Nieuwenhuis and Mike Baxter both entered as pinch-hitters in the
eighth and then moved to the outfield in the bottom half, with
Nieuwenhuis in center and Baxter in left.

Walker didn’t wait long to test them, hitting a long fly to
left-center. Nieuwenhuis appeared to call off Baxter but the two
outfielders were standing next to each other when the ball ticked
off Nieuwenhuis’ glove as Walker raced to third.

Rauch struck out Casey McGehee, but Barmes followed with a
sacrifice fly just deep enough to let Walker slide under the tag of
catcher Mike Nickeas.

NOTES: Mets C Josh Thole, on the 7-day disabled list with a
concussion, has been cleared to begin baseball activities but there
is no timetable for his return. … Pittsburgh starting pitcher
Jeff Karstens worked three scoreless innings in a rehab start at
Double-A Altoona. Karstens gave up two hits and had one strikeout.
Karstens has been on the disabled list since April 17 with right
shoulder inflammation. … The series continues Tuesday, with New
York knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (5-1, 3.75 ERA) facing Pittsburgh’s
James McDonald (3-2, 2.68).

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Dustin Pedroia had two RBIs and Mike Aviles scored the go-ahead
run in the seventh to help Boston secure its ninth win in 11 games.
The Red Sox are tied with the New York Yankees in the AL East
cellar but are at .500 (21-21) for the first time since April 30.

Chris Davis homered for the first-place Orioles, who swept a
three-game series in Fenway Park earlier this month. It was the
first meeting between the teams in Baltimore since the Orioles
ruined Boston’s chances of reaching the playoffs with a walkoff win
on the final day of the 2011 regular season.

Boston trailed 5-2 in the sixth before Ortiz launched a drive
that was so obviously gone that right fielder Nick Markakis didn’t
even turn around to see it become the 62nd homer in the 21-year
history of Camden Yards to land on Eutaw Street. Adrian Gonzalez
followed with a double and Daniel Nava hit a sacrifice fly before
starter Tommy Hunter balked in a run to tie it.

The Red Sox went up 7-5 in the seventh against Kevin Gregg
(2-2). Aviles hit a one-out single and took third on a double by
Pedroia before Ortiz received an intentional walk to load the
bases. Gonzalez followed with a sacrifice fly and Middlebrooks
added an RBI single.

Pedroia singled in a run in the eighth for a three-run lead.
In the bottom half, Matt Wieters snapped an 0-for-20 skid with
an RBI single off Rich Hill, whose run of eight straight hitless
outings ended. But with runners at second and third and one out,
Vicente Padilla retired Wilson Betemit on a short fly and struck
out Nick Johnson. Padilla has stranded all 15 inherited runners
this year.

Alfredo Aceves worked the ninth for his 10th save.
After Boston starter Clay Buchholz gave up five runs in 5 1-3
innings, Andrew Miller (1-0) retired all five batters he faced to
earn the win on his 27th birthday.

Boston used a run-scoring single by Aviles and Pedroia’s
sacrifice fly to take a 2-0 lead in the third.

Baltimore answered with four runs in the bottom half despite
hitting only one ball out of the infield. After Betemit singled to
right, a walk and Robert Andino’s bunt single loaded the bases.
Buchholz then walked in a run, gave up an infield single and issued
another bases-loaded walk. The final run came in when Adam Jones
hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

Davis hit his sixth home run, the first in three weeks, to make
it 5-2 in the fourth.

Notes: Boston OF Cody Ross has a fractured bone in his left foot
and could miss 6-8 weeks, GM Ben Cherington said. Ross is expected
to be placed on the DL on Tuesday. … Orioles 2B Brian Roberts,
who’s been sidelined since May 2011 with a concussion, said Monday
he could begin a minor league rehabilitation assignment within a
few weeks. Roberts has been taking batting practice and fielding
grounders, but said, “The biggest key is to start getting real
at-bats in a real atmosphere.” … The pitching matchups for
Tuesday night: Boston’s Felix Doubront (4-1) against Brian Matusz
(3-4). … Jones extended his hitting streak to 13 games, tying a
career high.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Ross has been out since fouling a ball off his foot Friday night
against Philadelphia. An X-ray showed no breaks, but an MRI on
Monday revealed a small fracture.

Ross will seek a second opinion in Baltimore but is expected to
be placed on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday.

Speaking before the Red Sox faced the Orioles on Monday night,
Cherington said Ross has a small fracture of the navicular bone in
his left foot.
“Six to eight weeks is the general framework,” Cherington
said. “He’ll get checked again in two weeks to see where he is
from there.”

Ross is batting .271 with eight homers and 28 RBIs, one behind
David Ortiz for the team lead. He would be the sixth Boston
outfielder on the DL, following Carl Crawford (wrist), Ryan Kalish
(shoulder), Jacoby Ellsbury (shoulder), Jason Repko (shoulder) and
Darnell McDonald (oblique).
“It feels like a lot of guys are banged up at once,”
Cherington said. “Our options are to keep playing. The guys that
are in the lineup tonight are the guys in the lineup tonight. We’ll
keep looking for reinforcements. We’ll likely have at least a move,
if not more, for (Tuesday).”

Third baseman Kevin Youkilis was headed to Baltimore for an
examination on his strained lower back and could be activated from
the DL. He’s been out since April 29.

In other news, right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka (elbow surgery)
was reinstated from his 30-day rehabilitation assignment and
returned to the 15-day disabled list with a right trapezius muscle
strain, Cherington said.

Matsuzaka received a shot on Sunday designed to help relieve
stiffness in the muscle. He must refrain from baseball activities
for seven days before he can start another rehab assignment.
“We expect this issue will resolve. He’s had it in the past and
it’s resolved,” Cherington said. “When that happens we’ll get him
right back out pitching again.”

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Police arrested 26-year-old Edwin Leon shortly after his girlfriend, 28-year-old Kris Ann Pouliot, was found dead in the home Leon shared with Pouliot and her mother.

Leon was arrested a short time after the shooting at another nearby home. In papers filed in court, police said Leon told investigators the shooting was an accident.

He is charged with murder, reckless endangerment, criminal use of a firearm, unlawful restraint, and carrying a dangerous weapon.

Leon’s public defender said the shooting was out-of-character for him, noting he has a steady job and a limited criminal record.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) _ Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and Rhode Island’s economic development agency met Monday to discuss the finances of his troubled video game company.

Schilling and the Economic Development Corp. board began a closed-door briefing on 38 Studios early in the evening.

Schilling last week briefed the Economic Development Corp. board on 38 Studios’ finances and asked for additional help to stay afloat after missing a $1.1 million payment to the state that was due on May 1.

The board has not acted on that request, but Gov. Lincoln Chafee, the board’s chairman, has said he doesn’t want to provide any more assistance to the Providence-based company.

“Ultimately, we want this to succeed,” Chafee said before Monday’s meeting.

38 Studios moved to Rhode Island from Massachusetts in 2010 after the state offered a $75 million loan guarantee that officials said would mean several hundred high-paying jobs and millions in tax revenue. It has received about $50 million of that money to date, and told state officials it has spent it all.

Melissa Chambers, a spokeswoman for the economic agency, said she didn’t know if the board would take action on Monday night.

The company finally made the overdue $1.1 million payment to the EDC on Friday. The company had delivered a check to the agency Thursday only to acknowledge soon after there wasn’t enough money in the account to cover it. The check was returned.

State officials say 38 Studios also notified them last week the company would not be able to meet payroll.

Schilling has declined to comment.

Chafee opposed the loan guarantee deal in 2010 when he was campaigning for governor, calling it “one of the biggest risks I’ve ever seen.” But he said Friday he recognizes the need to protect the already steep public investment.

“We’re in deep,” he said.

Keith Stokes, the executive director of the Economic Development
Corp., resigned last week. One member of the EDC board voted
against the loan guarantee in 2010.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Thirty-eight-year-old Eduardo Rosario of Groton was sentenced Monday in New London Superior Court on manslaughter and assault convictions stemming from the fight that killed Michael Halpert, who was stationed at the Groton submarine base.

Authorities said Rosario punched Halpert and another man at a Preston bar, after Halpert and three other sailors accused him of stealing $15 from the bar’s counter. Halpert died of a brain injury.

Rosario’s lawyer had said his client acted in self-defense. Rosario had faced up to 14 years in prison under a plea deal he made.

Rosario cried as he told Halpert’s family during Monday’s hearing that he didn’t mean to hurt Halpert.

The three are among twelve players chosen for the team,  which will take part in the U18 Championship, held in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, Aug. 15-19.

Committee chair Sue Donohoe said in deciding on the twelve,  they looked at those who could come together to make the best team.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ Former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays has made it official and filed the necessary paperwork to challenge former wrestling executive Linda McMahon in a Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
Shays submitted papers with the Secretary of the State’s Office in Hartford on Monday.

It comes a day after McMahon, appearing on WFSB-TV’s “Face the State,” said Shays should quit the race so Republicans can be unified against Democrats in the fall. McMahon won more than 60 percent of the 1,208 delegates at Friday’s GOP state convention.

Shays said getting on the primary ballot is the first stage of a three-step process. Next is winning the primary and then the general election.

A recent Quinnipiac  University poll showed him faring better against the Democratic candidates than McMahon, the GOP’s 2010 candidate.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Some drivers are doubling-down their savings.  They’ve stopped running higher-grade gas in favor of the lower-octane option.  Though as the Los Angeles Times cautions, saving a little now could come back to haunt motorists down the road.

Engine knock, characterized by a metallic pinging sound, can occur when an engine is under load and things get out of sync in the combustion chamber, with misfiring low-grade gas often the catalyst, so to speak.  It’s not a beautiful noise, and it’s not at all good for an engine’s health.

Cars today are equipped with knock sensors to prevent or least minimize this through dynamic engine timing.  So when an engine designed to benefit from premium fuel runs on regular, the immediate driver’s seat translation can be less responsive acceleration and slightly lower gas mileage.  Some drivers, having done the math, find they still come out ahead and are willing to sacrifice some horsepower in the process.

Long-term effects are less certain.  Knock sensors, however well they function new, may not perform to the same level after tens of thousands of miles.  Less effective engine management could open the door to internal damage.

Perfect opportunity for a large-scale experiment?  Possibly.  But as Harold Schock, director of the Engines and Automotive Research Labs at Michigan State University told the Times, don’t expect it to happen.  Even the EPA isn’t about to test how a couple hundred cars fare on different types of gas, short-term and long-term.

There’s nothing stopping consumers from trying it on their own cars, though.  The consensus is to check the owner’s manual first.  There, Schock says, you’ll find “the best set of practices for…the longest life and the best performance.”

If the manual suggests premium fuel is recommended, you can probably segue to the cheaper stuff without any drama.  If it reveals premium is required, you probably shouldn’t tempt matters.

If it’s any consolation–especially to the latter crowd–the interviewed engineers agree there’s more to be saved through proper maintenance and sensible driving than cheaper gas can deliver.  Besides, a 25-cent per gallon difference on a 15-gallon fill-up only amounts to $3.75.  Something to ponder over that $6 cup of coffee.

___________________________________

This story originally appeared at The Car Connection.

Briefly, stop-start technology automatically shuts off the engine during idle and restarts it when the brake pedal is released or the clutch engaged.

The survey, conducted in a series of eight focus groups in four U.S. cities, was commissioned by Johnson Controls, a leading supplier of automotive batteries.  Most of the respondents said they liked the idea of saving on fuel costs, while 25 percent said stop-start technology “just makes sense.”

How much were consumers surveyed willing to pay for such a system? More than one-third said that for a 5-percent improvement in fuel economy, they’d be willing to pay up to $500.

Vehicles With Stop-Start

As automakers try to comply with increasingly stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards – 35.5 mpg by 2016 and 54.5 mpg by 2025—the incorporation of start-stop systems in mainstream non-hybrid vehicles is likely to take hold.

Now, annual production is about 3 million, and that’s mostly in the European market. That’s expected to grow to 35 million worldwide by 2025.

Which vehicles are available today with the technology? Originally offered in some luxury models from BMW and Mercedes-Benz, stop-start technology will be available on the new 2013 Ford Fusion mid-size sedan and the 2013 Kia Rio subcompact. The 2013 Porsche 911 will also get the technology.

As for the price point of the system in mainstream cars, Auto Start Stop in the 2013 Ford Fusion costs $295 and is available as an option with the 1.6-liter EcoBoost engine. Fuel economy is projected to be 26 mpg city/37 mpg highway.

In the case of the Kia Rio, the technology was supposed to deploy in late 2012 model year, but has been moved to the 2013 Rio as part of the Eco package. Pricing for the Eco package is $400, but it also requires the $1,150 Convenience package. Fuel economy is 31 mpg city/40 mpg highway, although commuters navigating through highly congested stop-and-go conditions may see 10-percent improvement (compared to Rios without stop-start). Read more about the 2013 Rio in this review.

__________________________________

This story originally appeared at The Car Connection.

Reasons To Refinish

Houses are typically built around bathtubs during the initial construction. To start, most bathtubs are installed in a home during its initial construction. To remove an existing tub, finish items such as trim, bathtub surrounds and plumbing that are built up around the bathtub and will need to be removed. Depending on the tub’s size, it can also mean that removing a bathtub from a room may require cutting it into pieces to fit through a door frame. When installing a new replacement bathtub, the plumbing would have to be reconfigured to fit and all the surrounding trim would have to be recreated.

The costs, which may run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars, and headache involved with replacing a bathtub may it a project that many homeowners would rather avoid.

Refinishing a bathtub, on the other hand, offers a cost- and time-effective solution. Starting at less than $300 to $400 for a standard-sized bathtub, a bathtub refinishing company can add a brand-new coating to the bathtub, allowing it to be used again in two to four days without the additional delays caused by replacement.

Although there are DIY products are available, bathtub refinishing is a probably a job best left to the professionals. Stripping an old finish off a tub, repairing and patching holes or cracks, and ventilating a room to expel the fumes produced by the refinishing process are all steps better left to a trained professional.

And refinishing isn’t just limited to bathtubs, the process can be applied to sinks, wall tile, countertops, shower stalls and kitchen countertops of almost any material, including orcelain, cultured marble, fiberglass, acrylic, Formica and tile.

The Refinishing Process

While refinishing companies may have techniques or products that differ, the refinishing process itself is generally the same.

1. Site preparation - Because tub refinishing is messy, most companies will take adequate precautions to ensure dust and overspray from the refinishing process doesn’t reach other parts of the home. This can be accomplished by covering the bathroom with heavy duty plastic or sheeting attached via painters tape. Since bathtub refinishing does produce an odor that may irritate home occupants, part of the site prep will include ventilating the area with a fan or exhaust system to keep odors contained to the bathroom or expelled into the outdoors. What odor remains typically dissipates in a few days.

2. Sanding down the old bathtub finish - The first step towards applying the new finish is removing the old one. The existing finish must stripped off and then the surface sanded down to create a smooth surface for the new finish to adhere to.

3. Repairing chips, cracks or imperfections - After stripping and sanding, there may be imperfections such as cracks, chips or rust or weak spots still in the substrate that the new finish will be applied to.

4. Primer, new surface and top coat - Application techniques and methods vary, but generally a primer will be applied to the surface and allowed to dry. Then multiple layers of refinishing coating will be applied after allowing the preceding coat to dry or set. A sealing coat is then applied to finish the application process. Depending on the company and product, it will usually be about two to four days before you can use the bathtub to allow time for the product to set properly.

If applied correctly, a refinished bathtub should last 10 to 15 years before requiring another refinishing.

________________________________

This article originally appeared on Angie’s List.

Over the years since most of adult Americans were born, something changed rather dramatically. The streets became an unfriendly place for children, so much so that parents increasingly opted to drive their kids to and from every possible destination.

This may be having a profound effect in how today’s kids not only view their surrounding environment but also how they learn how to function in society.

Sound far-fetched? According to a recent article in The Atlantic Cities, kids who get driven everywhere have difficulty connecting with their neighbors and community. The article goes on to say that these children don’t even know where they’re going, citing work by Bruce Appleyard, the son of urbanist researcher Donald Appleyard, who’s been looking into how children’s constant exposure to traffic affects their perception and understanding of their “home territory.”

Appleyard studied and worked with children in two suburban communities, one with light traffic and infrastructure conducive to the kids walking and biking to school on their own, and the other with heavy traffic where the kids traveled almost exclusively by car. Using a technique called cognitive mapping, Appleyard encouraged the children to draw maps of their neighborhoods, showing places like school and the houses of their friends, as well as marking places they liked or disliked.

Not surprisingly, the results of the study showed dramatic differences between the children’s perspectives. In heavy traffic neighborhoods, the kids expressed feelings of dislike and danger, drawing little detail of their surroundings. In contrast, kids in light traffic neighborhoods drew rich detail, more places they liked, and fewer cars or signs of danger.

What’s the take-away from this? Is there anything that can be done to change our high-traffic neighborhoods and encourage children to once again walk or bike to school? Appleyard points out that there are groups and programs committed to helping communities improve infrastructure and make streets and sidewalks safer for kids.

One such group is Safe Routes to School, which began research on children safely walking and bicycling to school in the early 1970s. The first modern safe routes to school program began in 1997 in the Bronx, New York.

In 2005, Congress passed federal legislation establishing a National Safe Routes to Schools program. The Federal Highway Administration administers the funds to states to use in infrastructure projects and non-infrastructure activities.

What programs such as Safe Routes to School can do is to help communities build sidewalks, pedestrian paths and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, reduce speeds in school zones and neighborhoods, address distracted driving among drivers of all ages, and educate generations on pedestrian and bicycle safety.

With a goal of creating safer and more pedestrian-friendly streets and neighborhoods for our kids, parents and communities can help children begin to view their home turf, at least, as a much more kid-friendly environment. If the research is on point, this small but very important change may give them a boost in learning how to be more functional members of society.

___________________________________

This story originally appeared at The Car Connection.

Installing New Cabinets

Replacing existing cabinets is a serious endeavor, and one that should be carried out by a professional or a seasoned do-it-yourselfer. Removing existing kitchen cabinets is at least a two-man job, as cabinets and countertops can be extremely heavy and bulky.

If the cabinets or countertops are to be reused in some fashion, it is vital to take extra care so as not to damage the materials upon removal. Also, in the case of a DIY project, special care should be made so as not to damage any of the surroundings that are to be salvaged, such as flooring, trim, and walls.

When purchasing new cabinets, the decision about whether to do a home install or to have the cabinets installed professionally should be based not only on skill level and desire but also on the amount of time available to finish the project as well as the cost.

The cost of new cabinets will depend upon the homeowner’s choices. Stock cabinets that are pre-fabricated generally cost a minimum total of around $4,000 for an average 10-foot-by-12-foot kitchen. These are the least expensive, but they limit the homeowner to a small number of choices.

Semi-customized cabinets offer a higher number of choices, but can also easily be double the cost of stock cabinets. Prices of fully customized cabinetry generlly start between $15,000 to $20,000, but these prices do not factor in countertops or labor.

Refacing Or Restoring

If the cost or time commitment of new cabinetry is prohibitive, an easier and less expensive way to update a kitchen is to install new cabinet doors and fronts, a process known as cabinet refacing.

In most cases, it is fairly easy to find cabinet doors that match the wood of the existing cabinets, or unfinished doors can be purchased and then stained or painted to match what is already in place.

Cabinet doors are available in a variety of styles. The most common are flat panel, routed panel, cathedral panel, arched panel, and framed. All of the styles of doors are offered in multiple wood tones or unfinished, which allows for a great deal of versatility.

The cost of most new cabinet doors can start at about $10 each, though the price can rise significantly depending upon the type of wood chosen and the amount of craftsmanship that is required for each door. Framed doors often require the additional purchase of glass.

Popular choice for homeowners is to choose framed glass doors for cabinets that contain glassware, bar supplies, or other items that are to be displayed to guests. Glass can be plain, frosted, or made with stained glass inlays. However, any additions to glass panels will add to the cost of the cabinet and may not be attractive to potential future buyers.

Drawers can also receive a facelift with new drawers or with drawer fronts. Prices for drawer fronts start at about $15.

Another way to give a kitchen a new appearance is to refinish, restain or restore the cabinets that are already in place. Some cabinets take well to a deeper stain, while others may need nothing more than a fresh coat of paint. Cleaning and refinishing cabinets takes time, but is far less expensive than replacing the cabinets. The cost of refinishing cabinets for an average sized kitchen can start at about $500.

New hardware can also transform the way a kitchen looks. Old, outdated handles and knobs can be replaced easily and relatively inexpensively. Cabinet doors and drawers that have no hardware only need a drill and a bit of elbow grease to allow for new hardware. The cost of knobs and drawer pulls vary significantly. Expect to spend $2-$10 per knob and $5-$25 per drawer pull.

________________________________

This article originally appeared on Angie’s List.

1.  What is your process for staying within the budget?

With so many variables in the construction or remodeling of a home, costs can quickly exceed your budget. A reputable architect should be able to help you closely estimate overall costs, including materials and labor, and help you make the tough budget choices about where to cut if and when unexpected expenses arise.

2.  Can you show me your work?

Make sure the architect has completed projects that are comparable in scale and style to the plan you propose.

3.  Do you have at least three references?

As you interview previous clients, make sure you ask how well the architect communicated with them, stayed within their budgets and met their overall expectations.

4.  What challenges do you anticipate?

Anticipating complications is one key in determining if there may be some unforeseen issues with your project and, as a result, additional expenses.

5.  How realistic is my proposed vision for the project?

An experienced and reliable architect should be willing to candidly discuss any limitations with your project.

6.  What is your project management style?

Ask if the architect will manage the entire project, from hiring all contractors to making design adjustments as the work progresses, reviewing and paying contractor invoices, and obtaining required permits.

7.  How do you charge?

It’s important to establish upfront how payments will be made. Many architects will request a substantial deposit at the beginning of the project and set a payment schedule as the work progresses to completion. Make sure you are comfortable with the payment plan. Establish ahead of time how payments will be handled if any issues arise.

________________________________

This article originally appeared on Angie’s List.

But along with those joys comes another, less pleasant first: the very first breakdown. How will your teen driver perform in the face of adversity? The folks at AutoMD put together a quick checklist to help them through the rough patch, and we’re going to share it with you, along with a suggestion of two of our own.

(Note: This list is directed at novices, but it really applies to drivers at every level of experience. Have a look. You might learn something.)

1. First things first: get your car off the road. Even when things go seriously wrong, moving vehicles don’t usually stop working entirely, so hopefully, you’ll have some time and momentum to get your car to the side of the road. (If not, turn on your hazard lights and skip to step 2; don’t get out of the car while it’s stranded in traffic, especially if you’re stuck on a busy highway.) When you reach the side of the road, put the car in park, engage the emergency brake, and spin your steering wheel away from the road. That way, your car won’t accidentally roll out into oncoming traffic. Turn on your hazard lights, too.

2. Call for help. According to the Pew Research Center, about 77% of American teens have cell phones, so odds are good that this won’t be a problem. (For the remaining 23% of teens, parents might consider stowing a limited-function feature phone in the glove box, just for emergencies. Or you could purchase a roadside assistance device like OnStar FMV, which is now on sale for $99.)

3. Let other drivers know that you’re in trouble. Hazard lights are a start, but they don’t necessarily shout to the world that you’re having car problems. (For example, you might’ve pulled over to take a call.) If you can get out of the car safely and if you have road flares available, place a couple of them about 50 feet behind your car. Raising the hood isn’t a bad idea, either.

4. Stay with the car. For at least two reasons, it’s usually best if you stay with your vehicle. First, if you’ve called AAA or another roadside service, they typically can’t do anything to a vehicle without the driver present. And second, as we mentioned above, roadways are dangerous places for people on foot — in fact, about 4,000 pedestrians are killed each year in the U.S. The situation is far more deadly when cars are flying by at 60 or 70 miles per hour.

5. Now probably isn’t the time to take a blind stab at auto repair. If you’ve got some tinkering experience, you might be able to identify a loose battery cable, but if your problem is a flat tire and you’ve never changed one before, leave it be unless the situation becomes desperate. Changing tires can be tricky, even under ideal conditions — and frankly, perched on the shoulder of a highway isn’t what we’d call “ideal”. If you do know how to change a tire, proceed with caution. In the best of all possible worlds, you’d wait until a police officer shows up, just to help slow down traffic.

6. Use common sense. Every breakdown is different, depending on where you are, what you’re driving, the time of day, the underlying problem, and so on. For example, if you’re on a quiet stretch of road and you know what’s wrong — say, for example, you ran out of gas and you’re certain there’s a gas station nearby — it’s probably okay to ignore item #4 and hoof it. Just exercise caution, and don’t exit the car on the same side as traffic is flowing.

7. Be wary of strangers. Your parents probably told you that a thousand times when you were young, but it bears repeating. There are plenty of good Samaritans out there, eager to help folks in trouble. However, there are also a handful of bad eggs that can really spell trouble. If a stranger pulls over and offers help, it’s probably best to remain in the car with the doors locked. Roll down the window a bit and tell them that help is on the way. Call the police if need be. Sorry if it seems that we’ve lost all faith in humanity, but if you’ve ever been to a cutthroat garage sale, your views are probably a little jaundiced, too.

Got any other tips for folks experiencing their first breakdown? Drop us a line, or leave a note in the comments below.

___________________________________

This story originally appeared at The Car Connection.

Interior designers may also perform the interior decorating work on the spaces they design. An interior decorator, by contrast, does not design the space in which he or she works. Instead, interior decorators focus on the furnishings, wall and floor treatments and artistic touches that provide ambience and atmosphere to the interior space.

Differences Between Hiring A Designer Vs. A Decorator

Most interior design professionals are employed by construction or architectural firms and work in conjunction with builders and architects to design usable spaces for a variety of human activities. In other cases, interior designers may be called upon to create a functional and beautiful set of interior spaces for a private home. Generally, however, interior design experts work for builders and contractors rather than directly for private individuals.

Interior decorators are typically hired by homeowners to improve the aesthetic appeal of an existing space. These interior decor experts usually specialize in commercial or residential spaces and may use lighting, wall treatments, flooring, furnishings and accessories to create a look pleasing to the owner or manager of the space in question.

Benefits Of Hiring A Decorator Or Designer

The services of a qualified interior designer are crucial in order to create usable spaces for working and living. Contractors and builders depend on these professionals to provide advice on a variety of ergonomic and acoustic issues and to help in the design of lighting and traffic flow patterns that make sense in the specific interior environment.

Homeowners can benefit significantly by enlisting the help of an interior decorator when remodeling or revamping their living and working areas. Interior decorators are knowledgeable about the effects of color and the right use of accessories to create an illusion of greater space or to provide a cozy, comfortable environment for everyday living.

________________________________

This article originally appeared on Angie’s List.

Shane Doan scored two goals, Mike Smith made 36 saves in his third playoff shutout, and the Coyotes emphatically avoided playoff elimination with a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Sunday.

Ray Whitney and Antoine Vermette had assists for the Coyotes, who escaped a series sweep by snapping the eighth-seeded Kings’ eight-game winning streak in front of long-suffering fans denied the chance to celebrate Los Angeles’ first berth in the Stanley Cup finals since 1993.

Phoenix was better from the opening faceoff, dominating an opponent that had been on an 11-1 run through the postseason.

Doan scored on a power play in the first period and on a deflected shot in the second, silencing the crowd at the Kings’ first loss since April 18.

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Phoenix. Los Angeles is 7-0 on the road in the playoffs.

Jonathan Quick stopped 19 shots with little help from his Los Angeles teammates, who were shut out for the first time in the postseason while hitting a bump in what had been one of the most impressive playoff runs in NHL history.

The Kings have reached the Cup final just once in 44 seasons of existence, but their worst game of the postseason prevented them from claiming just the second conference title in franchise history — and becoming just the second No. 8 seed to win three playoff rounds.

The resilient Coyotes are no strangers to adversity after making the playoffs in three straight seasons without an owner or impressive fan support. Asked by Doan and coach Dave Tippett to show their pride in Game 4, the Coyotes showed they’re not done with the longest playoff run in franchise history.

Smith, who has all three of his shutouts on the road, made several impressive saves while outplaying Quick for the first time in the series. Phoenix still must win three more games to become just the fourth team in NHL history to rally from an 0-3 series deficit, but the Coyotes finally regained the form they showed in knocking off Chicago and Nashville in the first two rounds.

With NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in the house to present the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl to the Western Conference champion, the scene was set for a Kings crowning at Staples Center — but only the Coyotes played with a passion befitting the situation.

And Doan, the Coyotes’ captain since 2003 and the sole remaining member of the Winnipeg Jets team that moved to the desert in 1996, provided all the offense necessary.

With its fans standing and cheering from pregame warmup onward, Los Angeles showed only flashes of its usual aggressive forechecking and speed in Game 4. Phoenix managed just two shots in the first 14 minutes, but Doan still put the Coyotes ahead late in the period, skating out from behind the net and flicking a backhand past Quick.

Doan’s first goal in five games snapped Phoenix’s 0-for-22 power play drought and ended the Kings’ streak of 30 straight penalties killed, dating to Game 5 of the first round against Vancouver on April 22. Los Angeles also fell behind in a game for just the second time since the second-round opener against St. Louis.

After Tippett complained about the officiating in Game 3, inferring the Kings are rewarded for embellishment and lamenting his own team’s excessive punishment, officials whistled six minors in the first period. That included an unusual goalie-interference penalty against Justin Williams leading to Doan’s first goal.

Doan scored again midway through the second period with a deflected shot after Vermette won a faceoff. Doan’s shot ricocheted off the camera inside the net, and play briefly continued while the Coyotes raised their arms.

The Kings were awful in the second period, with a failing forecheck and poor passing. Smith nearly gifted a goal to the Kings with a turnover behind his net, but the 40-year-old Whitney dived to deflect Dustin Brown’s shot on an open net.

Los Angeles finally played with passion in the third period, pressing the attack and crowding Smith, but got none of the fortunate bounces that have repeatedly led to postseason goals.

Although a confluence of big sporting events in downtown Los Angeles threatened to affect the day for Kings fans, they weren’t deterred by the traffic nightmares threatened by the Tour of California cycling race outside and a Clippers evening playoff game.

Kings fans began arriving shortly after dawn, with thousands of black-jerseyed faithful seemingly outnumbering cycling fans as they formed lines outside pubs and thronged the streets outside Staples. Most of the seats were already filled by the warm-up, which began at almost the exact moment Peter Sagan won the Tour’s final stage on the street outside.

The NBA worried a multiple-overtime playoff game might force a delay of the Clippers’ Game 4 against the San Antonio Spurs, or even force a postponement to Monday.

The Coyotes avoided all overtimes — and all celebrations.

NOTES: Martin Hanzal returned to the Coyotes’ lineup after sitting out Game 3 under suspension for boarding Brown. Veteran D Adrian Aucoin also returned for Phoenix after missing the series’ first three games with an injury. … Several Kings greats watched the game together in a luxury suite, including Rogie Vachon, Butch Goring, Glen Murray and Ian Turnbull. … Rainn Wilson, Matthew Perry and David Beckham attended the game.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

CLICK HERE to Enter To Win!

About Big Y’s All Natural Angus Beef:

**Always a product of the USA

**USDA Choice and all Natural

**Humanely Handled and minimally processed

**Never contains hormones, artificial ingredients or antibiotics

**All the beef at Big Y is always All Natural Angus Beef so you’ll never compromise

**Big Y All Natural Angus Beef is from the Naturewell Beef Program, delivering healthy, wholesome beef and ensuring a fulfilling lifestyle for today’s communities, future generations, and the world we share.

About Six Flags New England:

The Six Flags New England Season Pass is your ticket to Unlimited Fun!

A season pass includes unlimited park visits all season long, admission to all Six Flags theme parks, and more! You can get a 2012 Six Flags New England Season Pass for as low as $59.99 when you purchase 4 or more now through 6/17/12 at your neighborhood Big Y World Class Market Customer Service Desk.

You’ll get to enjoy a whole Season of great rides and family fun and entertainment… including the NEW Goliath Coaster– 20 stories high, with 6 inversions forward & backward, this roller coaster will thrill you at speeds up to 65 miles per hour!!

CLICK HERE to purchase your Six Flags New England Season Passes or pick them up at any Big Y location.

For Official Contest Rules, Click Here.

(credit: Rainier Ehrhardt/Getty Images)

While Ryan Briscoe was taking the pole for the Indianapolis 500, Danica Patrick was busy gearing up for her first appearance at Iowa.

The weekend started off well for Patrick, finishing ninth in the only practice and qualifying ninth in a field that included only one Cup driver (Kurt Busch). The Cup regulars and Truck series drivers were in Charlotte, so many chose not to pull double duty.

Elliott Sadler took the pole for the second time this year with points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. starting third. Stenhouse, who is the defending race-winner, quickly took over the race lead and reminded everyone why he’s won the last two races at the track.

Patrick, meanwhile, fell back quickly. She was a lap down but received the “lucky dog” during the first caution on lap 83. But the luck didn’t matter, as tire wear was becoming an issue and her No. 7 GoDaddy machine fell victim. After the right front tire went down, Patrick hit the wall and took the car to the garage on lap 113.

According to Goodyear, the tire went down because of a melted bead, something that was plaguing the field.

Patrick said she had no warning or feeling the incident was coming.

“It just blew,” she said. “We were pretty tight in the first run, that’s why we dropped back. I had a little brake vibration and (they) covered the holes. I think we went too far.”

Patrick felt the change was what caused the wreck, but Goodyear said it was the melted bead.

“The Goodyear guys know more than I do. We were on a good roll,” she said. “We were up to the lead lap cars and it would have been nice to have made one or two more changes. These are things that happen. You have 34 weekends and they’re not always going to go perfect.”

Patrick leaves Iowa 10th in points and has now recorded her second DNF in 2012. She was officially recorded in 30th position, having finished 113 of the 250 laps.

“The most important thing for me is not to get to the end and get results but to be competitive. To run well,” Patrick said. “We couldn’t quite close it out.”

Stenhouse won the race, making it three in a row at Iowa, after leading 209 of the 250 laps. He now has a 28 point lead over Elliott Sadler.

The series next heads to the hub of NASCAR at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Patrick will pull double duty, driving in both the HISTORY 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race and the Coca-Cola 600.


Farrah Kaye is a NASCAR columnist for CBS Local Sports and is a member of the NMPA. Her previous articles have appeared on SPEEDtv.com, newsweek.com and she holds a degree in Journalism. Follow her on Twitter @Farrah_Kaye.

Each week we’ll be providing you with insight into the best (and worst) baseball players to play in your fantasy baseball league.

It’s a common truism in sports: you don’t win a game in the first quarter, but you can lose one. We’re right about at the first quarter line for the 2012 MLB season. Sitting in first place? Don’t get cocky. We’ve got a long way to go. Sitting in deep last place in a keeper league? Might be time to sell early and get the biggest value out of your trade chips. Regardless of where you fall, here are five players trending upward as we hit the second quarter of the baseball season:

5 UP

1. Max Scherzer, SP, DET: Scherzer has been occasionally finding his way onto waiver wires thanks to his poor start to the season – he owned a brutal 6.26 ERA heading into Sunday’s start against the Pirates. Good things come to those who wait, though, and Scherzer delivered a 15-strikeout, two-run, four-hit performance with his fourth win of the season to patient owners Sunday. If Scherzer somehow sits on waiver wires or becomes available for cheap on a trading block, snap him up now. His 12.61 K/9 leads all major league starters – expect his ERA to trend towards his 3.74 FIP, if not lower.

2. Jon Lucroy, C, MIL: In Lucroy’s first two years as a major leaguer, he made a bigger impact with his defense than with his bat. His third season in the show has seen the power in his bat come alive – Lucroy owns a .185 ISO so far, his highest since 2008 in Double-A. He makes contact at an excellent rate, which would allow him to put this power to use, and even if his current .342 average is unrealistic, he provides pop at position which doesn’t usually offer it, and for that he deserves a longer look even in standard mixed leagues.

3. Matt Adams, 1B, STL: Lance Berkman was hardly off the disabled list before a new injury placed him right back there, and this one (a knee injury) could be career threatening. The beneficiary is Adams, last year’s St. Louis Minor League Player of the Year. The 23-year-old Adams hit .300/.357/.566 in Double-A last season and elevated to .338/.373/.597 in his first 36 games at Triple-A. He makes good contact and hits for power. His only statistical blemish as a minor leaguer was a lack of discipline – something that doesn’t matter as much for a fantasy player in a standard league. He’s a must-own in NL-only formats and should be watched in mixed leagues.

4. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C, BOS: J.P. Arencibia of the Blue Jays has been the hot add among AL catching sluggers this weekend, but if you missed out, take a look at Salty. The 27-year-old is showing the power potential that made him the centerpiece the Rangers coveted in the ill-fated Mark Teixeira deal, mashing eight home runs in his first 112 plate appearances. He’s still striking out a ton (29.5% of plate appearances) and shouldn’t be expected to maintain a .280 average, but he can hit the ball out of the park, and should have a shot at a 20 home run season, with the help of the Green Monster in Boston.

5. Felipe Paulino, RP, KC: Paulino was ejected from the Astros organization two years ago despite showing a rare live arm that could throw starter innings – he averaged over 8.0 strikeouts per nine innings each year, but failed to live up to FIPs under 3.70 in both 2010 and 2011. So far, Paulino has managed to put it all together with the Royals, striking out 21 in three starts (18.2 innings) and owning a sparkling 1.93 ERA. A 2.41 BB/9 is his best ever and may not be realistic, but his strikeout potential and what it could lead to make him worth an add in deeper or AL-only leagues, and worth watching in shallower mixed leagues.

Meanwhile, these five players have seen significant hits to their value in recent times. Don’t let them be one of the players who derails a hot start, or turns a poor start into a slide into last place.

5 DOWN

1. David Freese, 3B, STL: Freese opened the 2012 season as he closed the 2011 World Series, spraying line drives across the field and fly balls over the fences. On April 11th, he owned a .444/.464/.778 line, including three homers in six games. Since then, Freese has hit just .223/.296/.411 with five home runs in over five times as many games. This isn’t to say Freese is this bad – selective endpoints like these typically aren’t predictable. But it does help to show that such hot streaks, as the one Freese rode into the season, will inevitably cool off and occasionally turn into cold ones of their own. Expect Freese to settle somewhere around the midpoint of the two – his current .266/.327/.482 line sounds about right.

2. Rafael Dolis, RP, CHC: Dolis opened up hot, but he gave up his 13th run of the season in just 25 appearances Sunday to raise his ERA to 3.96 on the season. Predictably, this appearance included a walk – he now has 12 on the season, two more than his strikeout total. As such, with Kerry Wood out of the picture and James Russell largely used as a matchup lefty, the closer job could go back to Carlos Marmol as soon as he’s off the disabled list – if nothing else, it would give the Cubs another chance to inflate Marmol’s trade value come the deadline.

3. Derek Lowe, SP, CLE: Derek Lowe has done one thing absurdly well so far in 2012: get ground balls. Over two in every three balls in play off the 38-year-old has been a grounder, and as a result it’s actually conceivable Lowe could maintain an ERA in the 3.00s despite actually walking more batters than he has struck out at the moment. But the problem is, as a fantasy player, it still won’t be good enough to justify owning in standard mixed leagues. It’s easy to just look at ERA and wins, but Lowe is a black hole in two of the four categories a starting pitcher contributes to. His 2.37 K/9 would be the lowest since Nate Cornejo’s 2.13 mark for the 2003 Tigers (Cornejo took 17 of their 119 losses) and he hasn’t managed a WHIP below 1.35 since 2008 with the Dodgers.

4. Dee Gordon, SS, LAD: Owners drafted Gordon thinking he could single-handedly win him or her the steals category. Sure enough, Gordon has 12 stolen bases, but now he’s been benched for “a few games” by Don Mattingly and ostensibly could be sent down to the minors, should his incredibly cold season continue – he owns a .494 OPS in his first 155 plate appearances. Compounding the problem, there’s little reason to expect a significant rebound – Gordon’s .776 OPS in the PCL last year was actually significantly below average for a player in the hitter’s haven that is Triple-A Albuquerque.

5. Carlos Pena, 1B, TB: Pena opened the season on a hot streak but hasn’t homered since May 5th, dropping his average and slugging to .209 and .353 respectively. He still has been a disciplined hitter at the plate (15% walk rate), but he still strikes out too much to ever hit for a solid average. As such, unless the power is truly elite (like when he hit 46 home runs for Tampa in 2007), he isn’t worth playing every day. He still holds some value if owners can afford to platoon him and bench him against lefties, but otherwise the batting average hit is just too much to take with too little reward.

Jack Moore is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in Mathematics and Economics. His work can also be found at FanGraphs.com, DisciplesOfUecker.com, RotoWire.com, AdvancedNFLStats.com and ESPN. Follow him on twitter at @jh_moore.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., who was successfully sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally sharing music on peer-to-peer networks. In 2009, a jury ordered Tenenbaum to pay $675,000, or $22,500 for each song he illegally downloaded and shared.

A federal judge called that unconstitutionally excessive, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the penalty at the request of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Brothers Records Inc. and other record labels represented by the RIAA.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Stephen Breyer did not participate in this decision.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Russell Westbrook scored 10 of his 37 points during a stirring fourth-quarter comeback, Kevin Durant added 31 points and hit the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds left, and the Oklahoma City Thunder seized control of the second-round series with a 103-100 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4 on Saturday night.

Tim Duncan scored 21 points, Tony Parker added 17 and the Spurs beat the Los Angeles Clippers 102-99 on Sunday night to win their second-round matchup 4-0 and advance to the Western Conference finals.

“They played great, they made it tough on us,” Parker said. “The last 2 minutes we got the stops we needed. Everybody did something.”

The Spurs extended their winning streak to 18 games and their playoff record to 8-0, tying the third-best postseason streak in franchise history.

“Until we go all the way, I can’t compare this team,” said Parker, who has won three NBA titles with the Spurs. “We’re just trying to stay focused.”

Danny Green and Gary Neal added 14 points each, andManu Ginobili and Thiago Splitter had 11 each.

“We needed a game like that. It arrived at the perfect time,” Parker said. “We battled. We executed our plays, made big baskets.”

San Antonio could find out as soon as Monday night who it will play next. Oklahoma City leads the Lakers 3-1 in their series, with Game 5 on Monday.

“We haven’t done anything yet. We’ve won two rounds,” Duncan said. “We haven’t done anything so you can’t qualify or classify our team as anything other than that we’ve gotten this far.”

The Spurs trailed much of the fourth until tying the game twice in the final 3:32 before their 30-something trio of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili took over most of the scoring.

“Their experience showed with their execution,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro. “Tim looks great and the rest of the guys are feeding off that.”

Chris Paul had 23 points and 11 assists, Blake Griffin added 21 points, and Eric Bledsoe had 17 for the Clippers, who blew a six-point lead in the fourth quarter when Paul faltered in the final two minutes, usually a time when the All-Star guard is at his best.

“We had our opportunities and we couldn’t convert,” Del Negro said. “We made our mistakes at some key moments and that was the difference.”

Both nursing injuries, Griffin and Paul combined to score 21 of the Clippers’ 28 points in the third quarter when they took their first lead of the game. In the fourth, Bledsoe came up big, scoring 11 in a row, to extend the lead to 90-85 with 5:38 remaining.

After Reggie Evans missed two free throws, Green hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 92.

Duncan’s hook put the Spurs in front 96-94 before Paul tossed up a one-handed shot that rose to the top of the backboard before dropping straight in as he crashed into a baseline photographer. He made the free throw to put the Clippers ahead by one.

Parker scored consecutive baskets and the Spurs regained the lead, 100-97, with 1:47 left.

Paul’s two free throws drew the Clippers within one. After a timeout, Paul drove the basket and lost the ball. He fouled Green, who made the first and missed the second to keep the Spurs ahead for good.

“I messed up, bad decisions,” Paul said, holding his 2-year-old son on his lap. “I should have shot it and I missed the shot, all on me.”

Paul then missed another shot, and Mo Williams fouled Parker, who missed the first and made the second with a second left.

“To let my team down in that situation is probably the toughest part of the season,” Paul said. “We scrapped, we played hard. At the end of the day, playing hard isn’t always enough. You got to execute. On that last play, at least we could have gotten a shot off and I turned the ball over.”

DeAndre Jordan added 10 points. Paul had best performance of the series after sub-par efforts in the first two games. He’d been playing with a strained right hip, while Griffin has a sprained right knee, an injured left hip and got stitches for a cut lip in the first half.

Neither team led by more than five points in the third period. Duncan had 10 points for the Spurs. Bledsoe’s putback slam dunk gave the Clippers 75-74 lead going into the fourth.

The Spurs stretched their lead to 12 points with Duncan sitting out the opening 7 minutes of the second quarter.

The Clippers closed on a 14-6 run to trail 51-47 at halftime. Paul got it started with a 19-foot jumper and ended it with a 3-pointer. Early in the spurt, Griffin ran into Ginobili’s shoulder, fell and one of his top teeth went through his lip. He left the court with 2:20 remaining to get two stitches on the inside and outside of his lip.

Los Angeles began the game on a 9-4 run before San Antonio scored 14 unanswered points, reminiscent of its 24-0 third-quarter spurt Saturday that led to the Spurs’ eventual 10-point victory in Game 3.

Notes: Duncan, Parker and Ginobili played in their 130th postseason game together, the most played as an active trio in the league. … Duncan finished with nine rebounds, just short of notching his 135th career playoff double-double. … The Clippers have lost all seven of their playoff series after losing Game 1. … The Spurs had a 40-36 edge on the boards, while the Clippers outscored them in the paint, 56-50.

With Chris Bosh injured and back in Florida, the James-Wade tandem saved the Heat, who will host Game 5 on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.

James was at his MVP best, adding 18 rebounds and nine assists and refusing to let Miami’s season slip away. Wade rebounded from the worst playoff game of his career, shaking off a 1 of 8 shooting start and adding nine rebounds and six assists.

Danny Granger scored 20 to lead the Pacers.

Slideshow: Heat Beat Pacers In Game 4

(©2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

The Sixers were a team reborn in the second half and played like a squad that refused to roll over for the championship-tested Celtics. They tied the series at 2-2 and guaranteed a return home for one more game.

Iguodala, one of the more maligned athletes in recent Philadelphia history, put the Sixers ahead 85-83 and buried a 3-pointer for a five-point lead.

Game 5 is Monday in Boston.

Iguodala scored 16 points, Evan Turner had 16 and Lou Williams added 15.

Kevin Garnett had his first bad outing in an otherwise monster series with nine points. With Garnett in a funk, so were the Celtics.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The prosecution and defense in the case of 26-year-old Michael Koistinen began choosing jurors Monday in Hartford Superior Court after a lawyer for Koistinen entered a not guilty plea. Testimony is scheduled to start June 19.

Police say Koistinen struck 15-year-old Henry Dang in Windsor Locks on the night of Oct. 30, 2010. Authorities say Koistinen had been drinking and was speeding when he hit the Windsor Locks High School sophomore.

Koistinen was later fired. His father, former Windsor Locks police Sgt. Robert Koistinen, also was fired and awaits trial on a charge of hindering the investigation.

     (Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

The New Haven Register reports the June hearings in Enfield, New Britain and North Haven are part of the environmental assessment of the proposed 62-mile rail line.

The state Department of Transportation has prepared a report outlining the potential impact of the project on noise levels, air quality, water quality and cultural and recreational resources along the corridor.

A 45-day comment period began May 8.

The state hopes to begin at least some service on the line by 2016.

___
Information from: New Haven Register, http://www.nhregister.com

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tim Duncan scored 19 points, helping engineer a 24-0 run in the third quarter after the Spurs trailed by 24 points, and San Antonio defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 96-86 on Saturday to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their second-round playoff series.

Tony Parker added 23 points, rookie Kawhi Leonard 14 and Manu Ginobili 13 to help the top-seeded Spurs win their 17th in a row and improve to 7-0 in the playoffs.

Blake Griffin had 28 points and 16 rebounds, and reserve Mo Williams added 19 points for the Clippers, who face some daunting NBA history heading into Game 4 on Sunday at Staples Center. No team has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a series.

Playing with a left hip injury and a sprained right knee, Griffin missed just three shots in the first half, when he scored 20 points and the Clippers led by 24. Slowed by a strained right hip, Chris Paul finished with 12 points and 11 assists after two previous sub-par efforts in the series.

After a quiet first half in which he scored eight points, Duncan helped the Spurs control the third quarter when they outscored Los Angeles 26-8.

The Spurs took their first lead during a 23-0 run on a fadeaway jumper by Duncan, who scored nine points in the outburst that put them ahead for good. Danny Green added seven and Leonard five. The Clippers’ defense completely faltered and they piled up miss after miss on the offensive end.

The Clippers scored the final four points of the period, which ended with a turnover by Mo Williams, to trail 69-61 heading into the fourth.

San Antonio led by 11 points early in the fourth before the Clippers got within seven on consecutive baskets by Williams. Gary Neal hit a 3-pointer to launch a 13-9 spurt, capped by Parker’s 3-pointer, that extended the Spurs’ lead to 89-78. Paul, so dominant in the final period during the regular season, was limited to four points.

Reggie Evans, a defensive spark for the Clippers off the bench, missed 6 of 8 free throws in the final 3:42.

The Spurs were 9 of 22 from 3-point range, with Leonard hitting three.

Los Angeles came in 2-1 at home in the playoffs and 24-9 during the regular season. With their red-clad sellout crowd on its feet, the Clippers were still shooting 63 percent midway through the second quarter, when Griffin’s one-handed dunk kept them ahead by 20 points.

The Spurs closed the half on a 15-5 spurt, with Parker and Ginobili scoring five each, to trail 53-43 at the break. Griffin missed just three of his 13 shots in the first half, when the Clippers controlled the boards and the paint.

The Clippers opened the game with a rush, outscoring the Spurs 33-11 while shooting 64 percent. Los Angeles ended the first quarter on a 20-2 run, including 14 in a row. Griffin scored 12 points in the spurt, hitting eight straight while the Spurs committed six turnovers and made just five of 20 field goals.

Notes: The Clippers have lost 29 of 33 games against the Spurs dating to Dec. 1, 2003. … The Clippers have dropped all three games in the series by double digits. … The Clippers have lost all six of their playoff series in franchise history after losing Game 1. … The teams were even in the paint with 44 points each after the Spurs had dominated there in Game 2. … The Clippers controlled the boards, 44-41, after being outrebounded in seven of their previous nine playoff games.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kobe Bryant didn’t miss on 18 free throws and scored 14 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter, and the Los Angeles Lakers rallied late for a 99-96 victory over Oklahoma City in Game 3 on Friday night, cutting the Thunder’s second-round series lead to 2-1.

Metta World Peace swiped the ball from Kevin Durant and hit two free throws with 12.9 seconds left for the third-seeded Lakers, who shook off the memory of their late collapse in Game 2. When Kevin Durant missed a 3-pointer, and Andrew Bynum blocked Serge Ibaka’s shot at the buzzer, the Lakers’ frenzied crowd celebrated their second win in the last six playoff games.

Durant scored 31 points before missing his last shot for Oklahoma City, which could have moved to the brink of its second straight trip to the Western Conference finals.

Game 4 in this back-to-back set is Saturday night.

The school will confer degrees on more than 1,200 students in ceremonies on Monday morning.

As is tradition, the main graduation speech came Sunday, during Class Day festivities on the Old Campus.

Students heard from journalist Barbara Walters, who talked about finding her bliss and learning from failure.

Several students also received honors, including Brett Smith a former football player who was seriously injured car accident on Interstate 95 as a freshman in 2003. Four other Yale athletes were killed in that crash.

Smith, who suffered a brain injury and was in a coma after the accident, defied doctors’ predictions and has earned a bachelor’s degree in history.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

NEW YORK (AP) _ A former Goldman Sachs board member brazenly committed securities fraud by feeding confidential information about the investment bank to a high-flying hedge fund manager, who used it to make a killing on the stock market, a federal prosecutor said Monday at a closely watched insider trading trial.

Rajat Gupta “threw away his duties, threw away his responsibilities and broke the law,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Reed Brodsky told jurors in federal court in Manhattan.

In his opening statement, Broadsky recounted how the hedge fund manager, Raj Rajaratnam, earned close to $1 million after Gupta allegedly told him that Goldman had received an offer from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to invest $5 billion in the banking giant in 2008.

“That was trading on secrets coming from someone who actually knew what was happening in the confines of the board room,” Broadsky said. “That’s called insider trading and that’s a serious crime.”

The jury, which includes a grade school teacher, a psychiatric nurse and a nonprofit executive, was selected Monday morning.

Before the jurors were picked, prosecutors said they planned to call Bill George, a Harvard Business School professor who serves on Goldman’s board, as a government witness.

The 63-year-old Gupta is also a former director of Procter & Gamble Co., one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average and the owner of many well-known brands including Bounty, Tide and Pringles.

The Westport, Conn., resident has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and five counts of securities fraud stemming from his communications with convicted former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. His lawyer was to give his opening statement later Monday.

A key to the case is a July 29, 2008, phone call between Gupta and Rajaratnam that began with the old friends exchanging mild pleasantries, but then quickly turned serious and _ by the government’s account _ criminal.
Rajaratnam asked about a rumor that Goldman Sachs “might look to buy a commercial bank.” On the other end of the phone, Gupta confided there was a “big discussion” on the subject at a recent meeting.

Prosecutors will try to convince a jury that the intercepted call show and other evidence shows Gupta was providing inside tips that gave Rajaratnam an illegal edge in massive stock maneuvers. The tips from Gupta were like “getting tomorrow’s business news today,” Brodsky said Monday.

As a Goldman board member, Gupta had intimate knowledge of the confidentiality standards, the prosecutor added.
“He broke the very same rules he put in place,” he said.

Defense lawyers say they’ll argue Gupta was a straight arrow who only shared public information with the billionaire hedge fund boss. They also say he was devoted to raising money for charity as to Goldman’s bottom line.

The 24-minute phone call that’s central to the Gupta case helped convict Rajaratnam last year in the same courthouse.

The Galleon founder is serving an 11-year prison sentence, the longest ever given in an insider trading case.

Rajaratnam, who was born in Sri Lanka, has been the biggest catch so far in a wide-ranging insider-trading investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara that’s resulted in more than two dozen prosecutions of white collar defendants. But based on Gupta’s standing in the world of finance, his trial could draw more attention, and a potential conviction could resonate farther.

Aside from his role at Goldman Sachs, the Indian-born Gupta is the former chief of McKinsey & Co., a highly regarded global consulting firm that zealously guards its reputation for discretion and integrity.

Prosecutors in effect previewed their case against Gupta at the Rajaratnam trial.

Jurors in that case heard testimony that at an Oct. 23, 2008, Goldman board meeting, members were told that the investment bank was facing a quarterly loss for the first time since it had gone public in 1999.

Prosecutors produced phone records that they said show Gupta called Rajaratnam 23 seconds after the meeting ended, causing Rajaratnam to sell his entire position in Goldman the next morning, saving millions of dollars.

Also played at trial was the tape of Rajaratnam grilling Gupta about whether the Goldman Sachs board had discussed acquiring Wachovia or an insurance company.

“Have you heard anything along that line?” Rajaratnam asked Gupta.

“Yeah,” Gupta responded. “This was a big discussion at the board meeting.”

Prosecutors sought to maximize the impact of the Gupta tape by calling Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein to testify that the phone call violated the investment bank’s confidentiality policies. Prosecutors say Blankfein will return to the stand at Gupta’s trial.
___
Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

The Small Woodland Association of Maine and the Viles Arboretum in Augusta say John Chapman will attend a special planting ceremony to be held at the arboretum on Tuesday.

Chapman, of Athens, is a direct descendant of the original Johnny Appleseed, whose real name was Jonathan Chapman. The younger Chapman is donating an apple tree as part of his effort to disperse graftings and seeds of trees descended from early 19th century stock.

Johnny Appleseed was born in Leominster, Mass., in 1774. There are many different accounts about his travels. The most common has him walking barefoot along the trails and roads of early America and planting apple trees.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Baxter had a career-high three hits and came within a home run
of the cycle, Dillon Gee won for the first time in four starts and
the New York Mets held on to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 on
Sunday.

The Mets had lost four of five, but avoided a sweep by improving
to 12-6 in day games.

“When you come back and take the third game of a series like
that with pretty much a total team effort today, it’s a great way
to leave town and it’s a good note to go to Pittsburgh on,” Baxter
said. The Mets open a three-game series against the Pirates on
Monday night.

Baxter was called out at second base trying to stretch a double
in the ninth inning of Saturday’s loss, left frustrated about a
phantom tag from Toronto’s Yunel Escobar that denied New York a
chance for a late rally.

There were no such frustrations Sunday. Baxter doubled and
scored in the first, tripled home a run in the second and singled
and scored in the fifth. He had two chances to complete his cycle,
but he grounded out in the sixth and walked in the eighth.

“It crossed my mind, but I didn’t really want to get away from
what I’ve been doing,” Baxter said. “I just want to try and keep
the same approach. I don’t want to start messing with it.”

Baxter said he once hit for the cycle in the minor leagues,
rounding the bases on an inside the park home run.

With a major league-best eight pinch hits in 17 at bats, Baxter
has been a key weapon off the bench for Mets manager Terry Collins.
He’s starting to prove himself just as valuable in the starting
lineup, going 7 for 15 in his past five games.

“His bat is speaking for itself and when you’ve got a red-hot
bat like his, you’ve got to get him in there,” Collins said.

New York third baseman David Wright, who missed Saturday’s game
due to illness, returned to the lineup and went 2 for 4 with two
RBIs and a walk, raising his majors-leading average to .412. Wright
also struck out twice, once with the bases loaded.

Jose Bautista homered for Toronto, his 11th, but the Blue Jays
failed to extend their season-high four-game winning streak.

Gee (3-3) allowed three runs and five hits in 6 2-3 innings,
leaving for reliever Bobby Parnell after Bautista’s RBI single in
the seventh. He walked four and struck out six.

After allowing seven runs in a loss to Milwaukee last week, Gee
said he was “effectively wild” against Toronto.

“I was all over the place today,” Gee said. “Last game I felt
great and I gave up seven runs. Today I felt terrible, like I
couldn’t throw a strike, and I give up three. I don’t know. It’s a
crazy game.”

Parnell worked one inning, Tim Byrdak got one out in the eighth
and Frank Francisco finished for his 10th save in 12 chances.

Escobar walked to begin the ninth and moved to second on
Bautista’s single, but Francisco ended it by striking out Edwin
Encarnacion, J.P. Arencibia and Eric Thames.

“When Jose got the hit I said `Oh boy, let’s see what happens
here,”’ Collins said. “He reached back for a little extra.”

Francisco, who blew four saves while with Toronto last season,
was booed when he took the mound. Asked afterward about the hostile
reception, he explained it with a humorous reply.

“They love me and I left,” Francisco said.

New York opened the scoring with three runs in the first. Wright
doubled in two with a shot to center. Two outs later, Wright scored
when center fielder Colby Rasmus couldn’t hold on to Kirk
Nieuwenhuis’ bloop double, with the ball dropping out of his glove
after a sliding catch.

Manager John Farrell came out to argue with umpire Mark Wegner,
but the call stood.

The Mets added one more in the second on Baxter’s RBI triple to
right.

Toronto answered in the bottom half on an RBI single by Yan
Gomes, and cut it to 4-2 on Bautista’s leadoff drive to left in the
third.

New York pushed its lead back to four and chased Blue Jays
starter Henderson Alvarez with a two-run fifth. Daniel Murphy
grounded an RBI single to center and Ike Davis drove in a run with
a fielder’s choice.

Bautista chased Gee with an RBI single in the seventh and
Toronto closed to within 6-5 by scoring twice off Parnell in the
eighth. Arencibia and Thames hit consecutive doubles and Colby
Rasmus snapped an 0-for-20 slump with an RBI single.

Alvarez (3-4) lost his second straight start and matched a
career-high by giving up six earned runs, as many as he’d allowed
in his previous five starts combined. Alvarez allowed nine hits in
a season-low five innings, walked two and struck out three.

“He was so strong coming out of the bullpen that he was almost
throwing through his sink,” Farrell said. “Some fastballs
straightened out, they got up in the zone.”

The slumping Davis went 1 for 4 with a double, raising his
average to .163, but was replaced by pinch-hitter Scott Hairston
with men at first and second in the ninth.

“With the Ike Davis we know he can be, I wouldn’t (pinch hit)
there,” Collins said. “I just wanted to add on.”

NOTES: Wright’s first-inning single was the 1,301st career hit,
moving him past Jose Reyes into sole possession of second place on
New York’s all-time list.The Mets placed RHP Miguel Batista (back)
on the 15-day DL and recalled RHP Chris Schwinden from Triple-A
Buffalo. … Rasmus returned to the lineup after failing to start
the past two games. … Bautista started at DH Sunday, with Ben
Francisco starting in RF. Francisco was replaced by Rajai Davis in
the sixth after complaining of a tight left hamstring. … Blue
Jays 1B Edwin Encarnacion fell into the camera bay next to the
visitor’s dugout while catching a foul pop up by Cedeno for the
final out of the fifth. … The crowd of 41,867 was Toronto’s
biggest since an opening day sellout.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

NEW YORK (AP) _ The Cincinnati Reds discovered a new, winning
way to wrap up their extended stay in New York.

They brought in Aroldis Chapman, their closer for a day _ and
maybe longer.

Johnny Cueto pitched effectively into the eighth inning, Ryan
Ludwick delivered two big hits and the Reds turned it over to
Chapman to finish off Sunday’s 5-2 victory over the Yankees.

The Reds rallied late against CC Sabathia, sending the Yankees
to their fifth loss in six games. Cincinnati took two of three at
Yankee Stadium, right after splitting a pair at Citi Field against
the Mets.

“Time to go home,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said.

Might be time to anoint Chapman, too.

The Reds have tried for three seasons to find the right fit for
their rocket-armed pitcher from Cuba. They considered making him a
starter, and have used him as a lefty specialist and a setup man.

But with closer Sean Marshall struggling, now might be Chapman’s
opportunity to move from the eighth to the ninth.

“Either inning for me is the same,” Chapman said through a
translator. “Maybe one day things will get complicated and I’ll
get some pressure, but I don’t feel that.”

Chapman has a 0.00 ERA in 22 1-3 innings this season, striking
out 39. Pitching for the fourth time in five days, he reached 99
mph on the stadium scoreboard radar gun.

Chapman got the grounds crew to fix two dirt holes on the mound,
then worked a hitless ninth for his first save of the season and
second of his major league career.

So, skip, is he the closer?

“I don’t want to be answering that question today,” Baker
said.

Cueto (5-1) gave up a two-run homer to Raul Ibanez in the sixth.
The Yankees had plenty of traffic against him, but couldn’t score
more.

Baker mixed and matched his bullpen the rest of the way, using
Marshall and Logan Ondrusek to get through the eighth. The Reds
held on when Alex Rodriguez’s bid for a go-ahead, two-run homer
seemed to get held up in the wind and was caught on the warning
track.

Cincinnati had been blanked on two singles before Ludwick
homered on Sabathia’s first pitch of the seventh. An out later,
Ryan Hanigan tied it when he crushed an 0-2 pitch deep to
left-center for his first homer of the season.

“Home runs are American League baseball. Everyone’s going to
give them up. That’s the bottom line,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi
said.

Zack Cozart followed with a one-hop single off Sabathia (5-2).
And with two outs, the big lefty suddenly lost the plate, walking
Drew Stubbs, Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips on a full count to
force home the go-ahead run.

That bout of wildness marked only the third time in Sabathia’s
12-season career that he had walked three batters in a row, STATS
LLC said.

“He wasn’t wild until the last inning. He was pretty darn good
before that, so I wouldn’t make too much of it,” Girardi said.

Ludwick had a single in the eighth, and lined a two-out, two-run
double off the glove of diving left fielder Dewayne Wise in the
ninth. Ludwick had missed the past two games with a bruised left
elbow after being plunked by Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.

Ibanez, who had faced Cueto more than any other Yankees hitter
from his days in the NL, broke up a scoreless game by pulling a
two-run homer into the second deck.

New York hitters had been in a 5-for-57 rut with runners in
scoring position when Ibanez homered one out after Robinson Cano’s
leadoff double.

It was Bat Day at Yankee Stadium _ for the fans, not the hitters
in the early going. Through the middle innings, the Cueto-Sabathia
duel was as good as advertised.

Sabathia didn’t allow a hit until Todd Frazier grounded a single
in the fifth. Chris Heisey popped up and stranded two runners that
inning, and Phillips grounded into a double play with two on and no
outs in the sixth.

Cueto gave up exactly one single in each of the first five
innings. Yet only once did the Yankees get a runner past first base
in that span _ after a pair of four-pitch walks, Rodriguez flied
out on the first pitch to end the third.

NOTES: Sabathia walked five, his most since April 2010. …
Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira didn’t start in the series as he tries to
shake his persistent cough. He pinch hit in the ninth and reached
on an error. … Yankees OF Brett Gardner (strained right elbow)
isn’t expected to pick up a bat until Thursday. … Reds INF Wilson
Valdez turned 34. … RHP Mike Leake (0-5) starts for the Reds at
home Monday night vs. Atlanta LHP Mike Minor (2-3). … Yankees RHP
Hiroki Kuroda (3-5) starts at home Monday night vs. Kansas City RHP
Felipe Paulino (1-1).

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Mike Aviles also homered and drove in two runs for Boston, which
has won eight of 10 games overall after taking the final two of
this three-game series.

Beckett (4-4) was booed off the mound May 10 when he allowed
seven runs in 2 1-3 innings following news that he had played golf
while skipping a start to rest a strained lat muscle _ but he has
been spectacular since.

After shutting out Seattle in a home win on May 15 by pitching
seven scoreless innings and giving up four hits with nine
strikeouts and two walks, Beckett allowed one run on seven hits
Sunday while striking out five and walking two.

His only blemish was Juan Pierre’s sacrifice fly in the eighth
that gave Philadelphia its only run.

Adrian Gonzalez went 2 for 4 and now is 9 for 16 lifetime
against Phillies lefty Cliff Lee.

Lee (0-2), making just his sixth start of the season after
spending time on the DL with a strained oblique, had his worst
start of the year. In seven innings, he allowed five runs on nine
hits _ both season highs. He struck out six and walked one.

The three-time All-Star and 2008 AL Cy Young winner has been
pitching well this season, entering with a 1.95 ERA, but has not
been getting run support some of the time or bullpen support other
times.

The Phillies’ offense didn’t help Lee, once again, but this time
the left-hander wasn’t able to keep Philadelphia close.

Aviles led off with a homer for the second straight game,
ripping Lee’s 1-1 cutter into the seats in left.

After Aviles’ RBI single in the second gave the Red Sox a 2-0
lead, Boston went ahead 5-0 in the third inning on Saltalamacchia’s
three-run homer that cleared the seats in center field and reached
Ashburn Alley, the fan walkway behind the outfield seats.

Lee settled down after that, retiring the next 11 batters before
Beckett’s single off the wall in center to lead off the seventh.
But the damage had been done.

Beckett was in total command against a Phillies lineup that had
15 hits the previous night. Other than the third inning, the
right-hander allowed just two runners to reach second base prior to
the eighth.

The Phillies threatened in the third, putting runners on second
and third with one out after Lee doubled, but Jimmy Rollins
grounded out to third and Pierre lined out sharply to first to keep
Philadelphia scoreless.

Philadelphia scored its run in the eighth on Pierre’s sacrifice
fly to left that scored pinch-hitter Pete Orr, who doubled. Boston
manager Bobby Valentine lifted Beckett after the right-hander
walked Shane Victorino to put runners on first and second. And the
bases were loaded when reliever Vicente Padilla walked Hunter
Pence. But Padilla got Ty Wigginton to ground out to second to
escape the jam.

The Phillies were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position
Sunday, and now are 3 for 21 in their last two games.

Notes: Phillies GM Ruben Amaro defended the club’s use of a
cortisone shot last Sept. 18 on Ryan Howard’s injured left foot.
The reaction was in response to a Philadelphia Inquirer story
Sunday suggesting that the cortisone shot may have contributed to
Howard’s Achilles’ tear last Oct. 7. … Boston OF Cody Ross didn’t
play for the second straight game after fouling a ball off his left
leg on Friday. … The crowd of 45,586 was the 225th straight
sellout and 241st counting postseason play. … Philadelphia RHP
Kyle Kendrick (0-3, 5.96), filling in for injured right-hander
Vance Worley (elbow), is scheduled to face Washington left-hander
Gio Gonzalez (5-1, 2.22) on Monday night when the Phillies host the
first of a three-game series. … Boston RHP Clay Buchholz (4-2,
7.77) opposes Orioles RHP Tommy Hunter (2-2, 4.78) when the Red Sox
travel to AL East-leading Baltimore on Monday.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)