rain continues to call nationals park. the rain began about 9:30. the ground crew got the tarp on the field. we hope to come back with you real shortly. it's the bottom of the 9th. elijah duke at 1st base, nobody out. cincinnati has a 2-0 lead. we'll take you right back now to espn news. >> right now on "espnews" big poppy and the red sox have their eyes on the prize, unbeaten, 6-0, so far against the yankees, game seven tonight. the phillies have been struggling as of late. cole hamels takes on the mets going for his fifth win in a row. an emotional phil mickelson prepares to rejoin the pga tour

as he and his family prepare to face their toughest test yet. brad childress speaks at least about the brett favre situation. he now says there was never a deadline. >> good evening, welcome to "espnews" where we keep you current with the latest breaking news, scores, highlights, everything, all in hd. along with mark morgan, i'm michelle lafontaine. mark, is it over? red sox-yankees? >> not yet. it almost is. game two of a three-game set between the yankees and red sox, tied for the lead in the a.l. east, the yankees 0 for the season against their arch rivals. let's set the scene. posada at the plate, runner on second, top nine, papelbon is in

for the red sox. they're trying to close the deal. boston going back to last season has beaten the yankees seven straight times trying to make it eight, that would be 7-0 this season, posada fouls one off, the game may be moments away from concluding, and we will show you highlights as soon as it's over. the angels and rays are complete in tampa. john lackey got bounced around. rays up 5-3, pena, that is an opposite field shot. solo homer, 18th of the season, rays up by a score of 6-3. runner on, bottom five, for willy aybar, nice effort in this one, that is a shot to right, a two-run homer, his fifth home run of the season, lackey, eight earned runs he allowed in five innings pitched. coming in seven straight wins against the rays, 9-1 lifetime against tampa bay, this one 9-5 is your final.

and after losing three in a row tampa bay has now won a game. that losing streak by the boards. evan longoria struggling for tampa bay. remember in april, a .369 batting average? things have changed since then. .296 in may. he's yet to get a hit this month. his current streak of 18 at-bats without a hit is the longest drought of his career. mariners and orioles in baltimore as we continue to swing around the majors. that's jorse lopez, the second home run of the game, eighth of the year, the ms win it, ichiro suzuki on a 14-game hitting streak, against the orioles. seattle has won six of its last seven, hernandez gets the win, 4-0 in his career at camden

yards, and the ms win it 4-1. let's go to fenway. tying run on second, top nine, papelbon, posada. flies out to left. and that is that. papelbon with the save, the red sox have beaten the yankees seven times this season without a loss, eight times overall in a row dating back to last season, 6-5 is your final, papelbon with 15 saves on the season. you see all the home runs, youkilis goes yard, so does lowell, teixeira a big night, damon and posada also with home runs. royals and indians in cleveland, that's gil meche, 4-9 in his career against the indians, looking good there, shin-soo choo swinging, mark derosa looking, for meche, 11 ks in

seven innings of work. alberto callaspo crushes one, this blast came with the bases loaded, and we call that a grand slam. his first career slam since may 5th, olivo with a home run, the 11 ks for meche is a career high. just the fourth win in the last 19 games overall for the royals. >> and updating you, phillies-mets, they've got to extra innings, bottom of the tenth, and we have one out, and they are 4-4, cole hamels gave up four runs to the mets, 11 hits, five innings of work, in the bottom of the seventh, the mets got three runs against sean green who just relieved mike pelfrey to tie it up, the mets frustrating fans, they granted 15 base runners through the

first nine innings, a season high, so 15 hits so far, but only four runs. pirates-rays, dog night at turner field. some barking going on. >> dog night? >> didn't you see the little doggies. >> i did. i find that an odd promotion. >> all right. a key player here, nate mclouth coming up throwing, laroche trying to score from second, and the throw cut off by first baseman greg norton, laroche is scoring on the plate, and the pirates go on to this, after giving up a two-out homer, matt capps gets norton to fly out and end the game and the danger, 14th save for capps, and the pirates snap their three-game skid, laroche drove in two of the three winning runs. bly the way, pittsburgh starter charlie morton left after pitching only one inning due to tightness in his right hammy,

the braves, their three game winning streak comes to an end. colby rasmus hitting cleanup for the cards, 12-6 in his last eight games, top first, two on, one out, rasmus with a three-run homer to right field, his seventh homer of the year, and the cardinals go on to win 13-4, rasmus extends his hitting streak to nine consecutive games, and the cards score a season high 13 runs to snap their season. and some drama in houston. geoff blum singles in miguel tejada, and it's a walk-off, and the cubs lose after having gotten the early lead in the second inning from geovany soto, a homer, and so the astros take

this one 2-1. sampson, the winning pitcher, he improves to 3-0, two innings in relief, and so the astros have the winning way in this one. >> yes, they do. ed werter saying the vikings moving off their move toward brett favre. >> was there a deadline or not placed on brett favre to report this week to practice? >> absolutely not. maybe by deanna or somebody like that, but certainly not from me, not even close. don't know where that would have dropped out of the sky from. >> would it be safe to say that there will be a later date where this will resume in a more serious manner? >> i don't know. i'm not into predicting the future. we'll just have to see what's around the corner tomorrow.

he was a great player. he obviously had a setback last year. he was playing very well early. and if in fact he's had that surgery, i'm anxious to see just exactly what he's got left in that cannon because he had a pretty good arm, as we know. >> on their roster these are the quarterbacks, jackson, rosenfels, and booty. they continue to wait on brett favre. ed continues his tireless reporting. >> he's being disingenuous, so the fact of the matter is childress has had direct communication with favre, he wanted him at the beginning of otas, when favre declined to

make that appearance childress through the vikings' management informed brett favre's agent that the team was prepared to move on, they encouraged favre to continue his rehab and indicated they might reconsider their position at some point in the future. as for favre i fully expect he'll continue his rehab, and as long as he doesn't have second thoughts about whether this is the right thing for him to do he'll be ready to make the decision the vikings want in late june. >> elsewhere, the new york jets have reached a contract agreement with quarterback mark sanchez out of usc. the deal worth $50 million over five years, $28 million in guarantees. >> the sacramento kings hired paul westphal as their new coach for two years plus an option for three years. sources told espn.com that the kings offered the job to kurt rambus, but he declined.

>> coming up, after winning game three, the magic may have sent a message. don't count us out yet. full coverage from orlando is on the way. also ahead, phil mickelson. two beers! you got it! are you insured? do you know when your beer is perfectly cold?

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>> all right. and updating you in the national league, some games have gone final. the pirates beating the braves 3-2, cards battering the marlins, 13-4, the astros, a

dramatic win 2-1 on a geoff blum rbi, but the phillies and mets continue to battle it out, top of the 11th inning, tied at four. bobby parnell on the mound. they just hit a home run. the phillies have. and so we have a 5-4 lead in that one in the top of the 11th inning. at least breaking that 4-4 tie, 2-0 reds-nationals, and they're three outs in the win, but in a rain delay. will they get to finish that one? >> more updates for you. looking to win his seventh straight decision. he was stellar. fourth inning, jermaine dye swinging at a curve, jim thome, looking at a curve. fifth inning. paul konerko, what do you have? fastball, strike three. tigers up 2-1, verlander going for the complete game, thome

strikes out, wow, verlander nine ks, one earned run in the complete game, his fifth career complete game, verlander 7-0 in his last nine starts with an e.r.a. of -- pause for dramatic effect -- 1.10, this is his first career win at u.s. cellular field, tigers take it 2-1. posada flies out to left field, the last out of the game, papelbon gets his 15th save of the season, the red sox hang on to win it 6-5. here's rick sutcliffe. >> red sox continue to have the new york yankees' number, it's odd, sut, a team the caliber of the yankees, they have not been able to beat them once. >> it's the second straight night that the yankees have struggled with their starting rotation, the pitching not what they had hoped it would be. we talked about chien-ming wong, and for him to regain the form

of a 19-game winner, he's not a finesse type guy. he needs 93 or more miles per hour. 94, 95. a lot of success. but all of the sudden whether the velocity started to drop, so did his success. 92 miles an hour. george kottaras with an extra base hit. 92, again, by mike lowell, that ball reached the seats. he's a guy who's had a lot of success in the past, but you wonder if he is healthy enough right now to help the yankees. >> 2 2/3 after a.j. burnett went very short last night, plenty of offense as there always seems to be when it's the yankees and the red sox. and in the third inning, the red sox got it going with mike lowell. >> it's never disappointing. you expect both of these teams to score, five combined home runs, exciting baseball, all the way around, j.d. drew finding the green monster, that was off philip hughes, he had come in to put out the fire, but then he made one mistake. that was the home run ball to kevin youkilis, that was in the

fourth inning, that was the difference in the ball game. the yankees climbed back in it, johnny damon hit a homer in the top of the seventh, the very next hitter, mark teixeira, back-to-back home runs, they close within one, but obi, that was the best they could do. >> papelbon put on the tying run, but posada flied out, the red sox won what turned out to be a thriller of a game 6-5. they will not meet again until august. what do you expect from now until then? >> i'm really surprised. these two teams are so close, it's hard to imagine that the red sox have won seven straight ball games from these two teams, but the yankees are going to go to bed tonight, they've lost this ball game, papelbon with a terrific job, but when they wake up tomorrow, one game is all that separates these two teams. we might be talking about this late into the month of september as well. >> yep, and the yankees have cc sabathia on the mound tomorrow in the concluding game trying to

win for the first time since the red sox in 2009. for rick sutcliffe, i'm dave o'brien, let's toss it back to the studio. >> thanks so much. this is the second time in which the red sox have won at least the first seven games of the season against the yankees. the other was in 1912 when they won the first 14 meetings. >> and some drama going on at citi field. tied at four and in the top of the 11th inning, bobby parnell came in this relief, first batter, chase utley, 3 for 5, two home runs, bringing his total to 15. right now two outs in the top of the 11th inning, can the mets come back? they have a two-game deficit at the top of the nl east.

we'll see what happens. >> phil mickelson is returning to the pga tour for the first time since he and his wife, amy, has discovered that she has breast cancer. mickelson who expects to play at bethpage next week is making his emotional speech in memphis. >> we're going through a tough time right now. we won't get started on our treatment until july 1, and in the meantime, we're fortunate that we believe we caught it early enough to where we don't have to rush into decisions and we can make some good long-term decisions, decisions that will hopefully prevent this from recurring as well as decisions that will hopefully beat this quickly, and we're getting ready to get started. in the meantime, i'm going to play these two weeks -- these

last three weeks have been -- kind of an interesting thing is that i've never felt this emotional. i've never been that -- this emotional where if i'm driving alone or what have you, i'll just start crying. it's kind of a weird thing. but i'm looking forward to having a four or five-hour mental break, if you will, where i kind of force myself to focus on something else, and i'm looking forward to that. >> on the golf course, you have no fear. if there's a tree in front of you, you're in the thickest of rough, you really play fearless. you can see it in your eyes. can you talk about the fear of going through this and how you're dealing with that? >> well, we're scared, yeah. i think a lot of it is the unknown. we've learned a lot in the last couple of weeks. and although we believe we have incredible doctors, we believe

that we've caught this early, we won't know this until a week or two after surgery and until some more pathology tests have been done, but we're certainly scared. i don't think it's going to affect how i play. i mean i'm going to still play aggressively, but that's not really -- there's not really a carryover effect there. it's just that off the course, i've never felt something like this. i think it's as hard or harder for somebody on the side. i would much rather be going through it and doing it myself than seeing somebody i care about so much go through it, and i think that's difficult, yeah. >> mickelson has won as many tournaments as he did last year, even though he's played in 11 fewer events. he's currently fourth on the money list and sixth in the fedex cup point standings. >> it's an 11-inning

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>> updating you here on "espnews," the pirates beat the braves 3-2 with two rbis from adam laroche. the reds over the washington nationals. meanwhile the phillies and mets -- the phillies have taken a 5-4 lead on a chase utley top

of the 11th inning solo shot, so the mets have three outs to come back. the cards breaking out of their five-game slump in style, 13-4 over the marlins. colby rasmus, a three-run shot in that one, cups over the brewers, and the astros get the win over the cubs. >> the war of words between new jets head coach rex ryan and channing crowder continues. it all started last week when crowder spoke out about ryan's competence during organized activities saying ryan was the ota winner. ryan said if he were younger he'd probably handle crowder himself. the 26-year-old crowder said i'd have beat the hell out of that big old joker. >> channing crowder had a rebuttal. i love it.

the only thing i can say is let's see if he can top this one. i've walked over tougher guys going to a fight than channing crowder. the dude's going to kill me. we'll make that trade. they'll throw us both out. we'll make the trade. i don't think it would hurt that much anyway. you can't hit what you can't see. i'll tell you that. >> it's a yuck fest, isn't it? the jets and dolphins square up twice in the first half of the upcoming season in week five in miami, three weeks later in east rutherford. >> world cup qualifier england at wimbley, david beckham starting his first competitive match in two years. glen johnson finds brian rooney for the header, england up early. already 2-0. johnston to rooney who gets his

second goal of the game, 3-0 against the 198th ranked andora. jermaine defoe with a cleanup rebound, second goal of the match for defoe, 6-0, and england remains undefeated atop group six, a win away from clinching a berth for south africa in 2010. >> coming up we'll let you know whether the yan ♪ ah, that hits the spot. it's drinkability. it means bud light is good where ever you are. if you're at a party. or, playing golf. like those guys. or, in a bar. [ old timey western bar music ] draw another door. don't say draw. never filling, always refreshing. bud light. the difference is drinkability.

seven aces.