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ATLANTA -- Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons wasted no time recovering from a rare two-error inning. Rob Housler Jersey . "Its a tough when your errors are a little costly, but (Aaron) Harang picked me up and kept us in the game," Simmons said. "The other guys got on base and we ended up winning, so its a good day after all." Simmons drove in four runs, Harang won his third straight start and the Atlanta Braves beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-4 Saturday for their season-high ninth straight victory. Justin Upton added a two-run homer and a third RBI for the Braves, who have won 11 of 12 and are 11 games over .500 for the first time this season. Harang (8-6) has a 3.00 ERA over his last three starts after allowing nine hits and four runs with one walk and one strikeout in eight innings. Arizona, which has dropped eight of 12, lost its 53rd game, most in the majors. Simmons had an RBI single in the first and a two-run double in the fourth. He appeared to turn his left ankle while running the bases in the sixth but stayed in the game. He drove in his fourth run with a groundout in the seventh to make it 10-4. It marked the third time in his career and second time this season that he had four RBIs in a game. Simmons has four straight games with at least two hits. The Diamondbacks went ahead 3-0 in the first on Goldschmidts RBI double, Monteros RBI single and Gerardo Parras RBI single. Parra got an at-bat after manager Kirk Gibson successfully challenged that Aaron Hill, the previous batter, was safe at first on Atlantas double-play attempt. "We had a rough first inning there, but nobody panicked," Harang said. "Our confidence is real high right now, and everybodys feeling good about how were swinging the bats and playing defence. We knew guys were comfortable up there and knew that wed stay right in it." Simmons, named last years Platinum Glove winner as the NLs best defender, had two errors in the first. Simmons began the game with six errors this year. "I told him that how you bounce back from those is whats important," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "He made some great plays defensively after that inning and also swung the bat. He kept the line moving." After Simmons cut the lead to 3-1 in the first, the Braves made it 3-2 in the third on Jason Heywards RBI single. Atlanta took a 7-3 lead with a five-run fourth off Mike Bolsinger (1-5). Tommy La Stella scored from third when B.J. Upton reached on Didi Gregorius throwing error. Simmons two-run double was followed by Freddie Freemans RBI triple and Uptons sacrifice fly. Bolsinger, who had a 2.70 ERA in his previous three starts, gave up 10 hits, seven runs -- five earned -- and walked two in 3 2-3 innings. He struck out five. Ender Inciarte homered in the fifth to cut the lead to 7-4, but Upton hit 17th homer, a two-run, shot off Matt Stites to make it 9-4 in the sixth. The Diamondbacks, plagued by injuries all season, are reeling. "When we were at our place (last month), we played these guys really good," Gibson said. "Were capable of doing that." Notes: The last time Atlanta had a nine-game winning streak was during a 12-game streak that ended last Aug. 9. ... Goldschmidt went 1 for 4 and has reached safely in 26 straight games. Hes hitting .318 with nine doubles, four homers, 12 RBIs and 28 walks during that span. ... Heyward leaped to catch Goldschmidts fly ball at the top of the right-field wall in the eighth. ... Diamondbacks OF Mark Trumbo, recovering from foot injury, is 5 for 10 with two homers and six RBIs as a designated hitter during his rehab assignment. ... Before the game, Arizona acquired two minor leaguers, OF Zach Borenstein and RHP Joey Krehbiel from the Los Angeles Angels for LHP Joe Thatcher and minor-league OF Tony Campana. ... Diamondbacks LHP Eury De la Rosa, recalled from Triple-A Reno earlier in the day, gave up three hits and one run in the seventh and eighth. ... B.J. Upton has a career-best 11-game hitting streak. Alameda Taamu . Kingsbury, from Deux-Montagnes, Que., won gold with a score of 26.93, while Bilodeau, from Montreal, took silver with 26.54. Japans Sho Endo (25.24) placed third. Darnell Dockett . Stamkos suffered a broken leg 10 weeks ago and continues to rehab in hopes of returning to the Tampa Bay Lightning lineup before the Olympic break. As a result of the positive feedback from the X-ray, Stamkos will continue to ramp up both on- and off-ice workouts.CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Russ Smiths 18-foot jumper with 2.2 seconds left gave No. 11 Louisville a 58-57 victory win over No. 7 Cincinnati on Saturday, the Cardinals sixth straight win and 10th in 11 games. Louisville (23-4, 12-2 American Athletic Conference) started the winning streak after a last-second 69-66 home loss to the Bearcats (24-4, 13-2) three weeks ago. Cincinnati fought back from a 10-point second-half deficit to take a 55-52 lead with 90 seconds remaining in the game. Freshman Troy Caupain made two free throws with 12 seconds left to give the Bearcats a 57-56 lead. Terry Rozier passed the ball to Smith, catching the notoriously stingy Cincinnati defence off guard and he made the jumper. The Cardinals tipped the inbounds pass, giving Cincinnati no opportunity to get off a shot before the buzzer sounded. Montrezl Harrell, who was just 5 of 12 from the free throw line, led the Cardinals with 21 points, Rozier had 11 and Smith finished with 10 on 3-of-10 shooting. Sean Kilpatrick had 28 points for the Bearcats, who had won 19 straight at home. Feeding off of the intensity of a sellout crowd at Fifth Third Arena, the game started fast-paced and physical in a matchup of two of the nations best defences. Louisville held Cincinnati to 6-of-31 shooting and the Bearcats limited Louisville to 8-of-30 shooting from the field in the first half. Louisville had held seven of its last 10 opponents to under 40 per cent shooting from the field, and continued that trend Saturday. Unlike in the teams first matchup in January, when Cincinnati shot 48.9 per cent, the Bearcats started 3 of 27 from the field. Louisville swarmed the Bearcats, intercepting passes, swatting away shots and forcing Cincinnati to rush itss offence. Deone Bucannon. Cincinnati missed 13 straight field goal attempts over an 8:25 scoring drought as the Cardinals built a 21-9 lead. Louisville found success by driving inside, outscoring the Bearcats 14-2 in the paint before halftime. But down 12 points with 4:41 left in the half, the Bearcats outscored Louisville 8-1 the rest of the way before halftime, capping the half with a jumper by Caupain to make it 22-19. On the Bearcats first possession of the second half, GeLawn Guyn hit a 3-pointer to tie the game. The Bearcats, fourth in the nation in scoring defence (57.4 points per game), held Louisville to just 22 first-half points. The output was the Cardinals second-lowest in a half this season, slightly higher than the 20 points they had in the first half of the teams first meeting on Jan. 30. Louisville found its touch in the second half, shooting 14 of 25 from the field and again building a 10-point lead. Cincinnatis shooting woes -- with the exception of Kilpatrick -- continued. Kilpatrick made 15 straight Cincinnati field goals in the second half, taking more than three times the number of field goal attempts (26) as any of his teammates. But Kilpatricks scoring was all Cincinnati needed. The Bearcats went ahead 52-51 on a free throw by Kilpatrick with 2:20 left. Louisvilles Luke Hancock finished with two points, fouling out with 1:40 left and his team down 52-51. Mangok Mathiang fouled out with 2:20 left and finished with four points. Kilpatrick entered the game needing 10 points to reach 2,000 for his career. Early in the second half, he reached the milestone on a drive to the basket, joining Oscar Robertson as the only players in school history to score over 2,000 points. ' ' ' |
