♪ ♪ >> coming up on espnews. a rocky mountain rally gives colorado some much-needed breathing room in the wild card standings. the lions took matthew stafford with the number one overall pick but he might not even be detroit's number one quarterback, and the world's fastest man looks forward to slowing down but not before grabbing another gold for the road. espnews, now. ♪

>> rangers and rays both chasing the red sox in the a.l. wild card race. texas a game out entering saturday. tampa three out. big game for carlos pena. hit two home runs. 16th career multi-homer game leads the league with 34. marlon byrd, his 15th of the year. rangers tie it at 4-4. we go to the 10th. pena, his third hit of the game. josh hamilton can't get evan longoria at the plate and the rays win in walk-off fashion 5-4. for pena, his seventh career walk-off hit. tampa has won 6-7. the rangers have lost 4-5 so texas now trails boston by two

games in the wild card, the rays remain three back. we welcome you in to the espnews studios, will selva, anish shroff. the giants had a chance. >> san francisco can pull into a tie with colorado for the wild card lead for the first time since august 9. the giants have won 4-5. jorge de la rosa entered saturday 9-1 in his last 11 starts, ryan garko obviously didn't read the clippings, third contrary multi-homer game for garko. ian stewart a three-run shot. later in the sixth. seth smith lines one down the line. yorvit torrealba, former giant scores. 10 rockies record a hit, the rockies recording seven runs in the sixth inning, they win

14-11. de la rosa got the win and improves to 5-request -- five in a row all time against the g-men and he's won 10 of his last 11 decisions. ian stewart on a good win for the rockies. >> i felt real good tonight. we just played a lot better as a team. a lot of timely hitting tonight, and as for me, i just try to go up there and be aggressive, i felt good, we had some early work, early b.p., got my work in, felt good, came into the game feeling good and things -- things worked out tonight. >> ted lilly serves up a tasty meatball to matt kemp. traveling an estimated 455 feet, longest home run at dodger stadium this year, 1-0 dodgers. bottom three. brad ausmus the fly to left. sam fuld, grab that net and catch that beautiful butterfly. the cubs end up losing 2-0.

knuckleballer charlie haeger wins for the first time since september 23rd, 2006 when he pitched for the white sox. lilly loses for the first time in his career against the dodgers. >> yanks spanked the red sox 20-11 friday. a.j. burnett, kevin youkilis 3-5, two homers, six r.b.i.'s, big papi 2-4, a homer, three r.b.i.'s. that's his 20th of the year. eighth straight season where he's hit at least 20. burnett a contrary high nine home runs in five -- nine runs in five innings asking "why, why do you throw that?" junichi tazawa -- remember, he was the pitcher who gave up the walk-off homer to a-rod in the 15-inning game.

>> afterwards, jorge posada and a.j. burnett were asked if they were on the same page. >> we throw the ball. we throw what we want to throw, so it's definitely not him, i had a good hook today and i felt like i should have used it more. >> early in the game they were on the curveball so wanted to throw a couple more pitches so they could get away from the curveball. >> he's fine back there. it's a matter of me throwing what i want to throw. you don't throw a pitch unless you're 100% behind it. >> we didn't get on the same page. it's a matter of executing, and location really killed us. >> as a blue jay, last season, a.j. burnett dominated the red sox at fenway park. that hasn't been the case this year. burnett has allowed eight-plus earned runs this season. he's done it at fenway park. it's happened twice. his other fenway start, he didn't last past the third inning. >> hut one, hut two.

rookie matthew stafford got the starting nod against the browns, first offensive play for the lions and the rook, stafford, rolling out, the right idea, wrong person, eric wright the lucky recipient, put some moves on, changes direction, returns it to the lions five. browns get a field goal on the ensuing possession. stafford didn't look as sharp as he did a week ago. off the play action, stafford has a man open but overthrows adam jennings. stafford 5-13 for 35 yards and that one pick. espn's tim hasselbeck on how stafford looked on saturday night. >> matthew stafford's first start for the detroit lions did not go well. he turned the football over. he was inaccurate. and at times, he looked confused. i would have to see drastic improvement in his game to feel comfortable starting him in the season opener.

>> the football giants, big blue against jay cutler and the bears, much better from the get-go this time around, that's earl bennett, 27 yards and a first down, his first pass of the game, bennett, cutler's former vandy teammate, the first drive ended with a field goal. second bears drive, matt forte. that capped an 80-yard drive. 32-yard t.d., forte nine rushes, 55 yards. cutler can't find anybody, runs for the first down himself, a 12-yard scamper keeps the drive going. later, cutler to desmond clark capping a 92-yard drive, cutler 8-13, 121 yards and a touchdown in a bears win. >> usain bolt has singlehandedly raised the bar for human physical achievement. incredibly, the world's fastest man has emerged from the world championships even faster. he shattered his own world

records in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash. now he said he wants to slow down, bolt wants to go on vacation, go clubbing, go to the beach, he said, "i just want to party." before he can do that he had one final gold medal to win. running for jamaica in the 4x100-meter relay. gets the handoff. the second leg, bolt around the turn leading the pack with those gigantic strides. he would hand off to usafa powell. powell streaks to the finish line. jamaica wins the gold -- a third gold for usain bolt. 37.31 seconds, just off the world record of 37.1 seconds. >> he's like roadrunner. >> he doesn't slow down. go on vacation, go party, go to the beach because he's got three gold medals. he set a world record in his individual races. didn't set the world record in

the team relay but guess what. he actual he did with jamaica at the 2008 beijing olympics. >> still to come, albert pujols and company suffering a rare loss in the season opener. how they bounced back in a major way in san diego. michael vick working his way onto the field thursday night. who says he has more work to do off of it. plus, running full-throttle under the lights, who wrecked and which driver took advantage of a late pile-up. take the road less traveled.

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see i told you there were forty shots in there. but you also said there'd be a reverse ventriloquist act here. excuse me guys. (announcer) calling all captains. drink responsibly.

>> nascar sprint cup making a stop in bristol -- that's tennessee, not connecticut. mark martin won the pole. starting his 1,000th race. lap 11, this was the view from joey logano's car. reed sorenson in the 43 car fighting for position with logano, bumps logano from behind, logano spins out and bumps into the wall, he would head to the garage for repair. lap 256, kurt busch on pit road, his crew can't get the tear-off off the windshield before busch drives away, then it comes off and starts blowing in traffic, blows away before doing any damage to the other cars. lap 317, jimmie johnson battling with mark martin for the lead, johnson passes martin on the outside so johnson is the new race leader. lap 423, johnson's crew having issues in the pits, they drop a jack while adjusting his right-rear tire. johnson a bit wobbly coming out

of the pits, almost collides with david reutimann. johnson would have to repit and falls to 21st due to the mistake. two laps to go, kyle busch in the lead but look at martin. tries to pass him on the inside. but busch holds him off -- fourth win of the season for busch, martin finishes second despite leading 240 laps. busch happy about the win on saturday night. >> it's awesome. racing the sprint cup series with all of these guys is really an honor, and mark martin, what a class act. he deserved to win this race and i'm sorry he came home in second. i know how he feels. but man, i drove as hard as i could and he had a chance, he could have done it but he didn't, he raced me clean and we didn't have the best car tonight but we had a car capable enough of doing it. >> so kyle busch is the first driver to sweep at bristol since his brother, kurt busch, did so in 2003.

>> welcome to miami. dolphins hosting the panthers -- dolphin is a mammal, don't let anybody fool you. >> thank you, professor anish shroff. >> that was just for you. chad pennington, last year's comeback player of the year to ronnie brown for the score. deangelo williams. how about him here -- can't take him down. reverses field and he was third in the nfl in rushing last year. that's a 25-yard run. put a star next to that one. fins win the game 27-17. >> steelers and redskins, big ben made the trip but did not play with the aggravated achilles' tendon. first play from scrimmage for the skins, jason campbell under pressure underthrows malcolm kelly and troy polamalu nearly picks it off. campbell 1-7 for 10 yards.

clinton portis runs straight up the gut, bounces to the outside, an 11-yard pickup. portis five carries for 26 yards. skins win it 17-13. >> bills and the packers, first preseason home game for green bay, trent edwards, meet the tundra -- not yet frozen. edwards 7-11, 45 yards in interceptions. two plays later on third and long, edwards under pressure. that's not good either. he loses the football, a.j. hawk recovers. fumble, five turnovers, three footballs, two picks. ensuing possession, aaron rodgers to greg jennings. they hooked up nine times last year, aaron rodgers 8-9, two t.d.'s, packers roll. >> the eagles and philadelphia animal-rights groups will be meeting monday afternoon to talk about finding a local partnership for michael vick. vick is not scheduled to attend, and the leaders of these groups

want to keep it that way. they don't want vick's appearance to be misinterpreted as their approval of the plan for his rehabilitation. however, vick's teammates and head coach are accepting. andy reid says the plan is to have vick start on thursday night. vick's fellow eagles get the sense that number seven can't wait to get on the field again. >> i definitely got a sense -- he's been off for two years, he's a passionate player, when he played the game he was passionate and anytime you have that kind of passion and feel for the game you definitely want to get out there and play, and i'm looking forward to seeing him make plays. >> you know -- being out of football for so long, you know he wants to play and we're just excited about that. there is no sign of turning back for him. he's a great guy. the guys around love him in the locker room. we accept him as a brother. he's smiling. he's joking. he's being humble. >> the eagles will host the jags, and per roger goodell's reinstatement terms for vick he will be able to play in each of

the two final preseason games. the regular season starts at carolina. vick will have to wait for goodell's decision which could come no later than week six. >> take us to queens -- the mets hosting the phils at citi field. will self ayou know about the thrill of the chase, mr. utley his sixth of the year -- you're married. >> absolutely, i'm not dead. >> marlins and braves jostling for position in the n.l. wild card race. first inning, 2-0 braves, yunel escobar, two-run home run caps off a four-run first inning, tommy hanson wins his fourth straight start. braves win 4-3. taking a look at the n.l. wild card race, as it stands the rockies take a two-game advantage on the giants while the marlins and braves sit at four games back. the cubs are seven games back of the leaders. >> we're in the presence of

holiness -- cardinals-padres. matt holliday has been on fire since coming over to st. louis. that is his sixth homer as a cardinal, 17th of the year, hitting .406 with st. louis. cards blank the padres 7-0. >> angels and blue jays. vladimir guerrero praying in the dugout before the game. his prayer was answered in the top of the sixth. vlad doesn't get cheated very much. >> that one reached the heavens. >> solo shot, ervin santana wins his fourth straight start. he's 6-2 on the road this season. >> up ahead on espnews, tim tebow and the gators your preseason number one in the a.p., lou holtz breaks down the rest of the top 10. and, when the saints and texans practiced thursday jeremy shockey got tossed. wait until you see what shockey did when the two teams played saturday.

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♪ >> surprise, surprise. the a.p. released its preseason rankings saturday -- really no surprise, defending champ

florida your number one. the gators got 58 of 60 first-place votes. that's good for 96.7% of the vote -- a new a.p. preseason poll record. we asked lou holtz, to you, what stands out in the top 10? >> when i look at the top 10, the first thing that jumps out at me is three teams from the big 12 are ranked in the top 10. i'm telling you, the big 12 south -- texas, oklahoma and oklahoma state are all from the big 12 south. they're going to have to play one another. who is the best team in the big 12 north? kansas, which comes in at number 25. that doesn't seem fair to me. >> thank you, dr. lou.

>> professional football, jeremy shockey and the saints taking on texas, shockey got into a training-camp scuffle with the texans. shockey can work and play well with others. shockey, look at that, hurdling a defender on the way to a seven-yard gain. later in the second quarter, mike bell takes the handoff then takes off, finding a seam through the right side, runs 46 yards -- it's an open house and everyone is invited, saints blow out the texans 38-14. >> semifinal, cincinnati masters, roger federer against andy murray, murray has won four in a row against roger. when roger was told about the streak, he said, "when my game is on, i know i can beat any player in the world." it's not cocky. he has the cool confidence. >> never joking around. >> murray backhands it into the

net, hits his knuckles against his racket. the knuckles would bleed. he would be treated on the sideline, play would resume. murray with the backhand down the line for the winner. the tiebreak, murray serving to stay alive, first serve out, next serve -- you don't want to do that either, double fault, federer wins in straight sets. he advances to the finals sunday. he won this event in 2005 and 2007. >> in the other semifinal, number three, rafael nadal, and fourth-ranked novak djokovic, and djokovic came out aggressive, first set up 3-1. djokovic hit the forehand winner. wins the first set 6-1. he had 21 winners. second set, match point, number two for djokovic and he takes care of it. he will face roger federer in the final. djokovic ends his own five-match losing streak against nadal. thursday at noon, espnews airs the u.s. open draw show.

>> a former hockey coach has pulled off the unlikeliest of hat tricks. ernie "punch" mclean cheated death for the third time. mclean was found alive and well in a remote region of british columbia. he was missing for four days in mountainous terrain with no food. in 1972, mclean survived a plane crash. he also survived being run over by a bulldozer. >> i don't know how you top that. >> no. >> matthew stafford, number one pick in the draft but not exactly making a strong push to be the team's number one quarterback. and in the american league wild card chase, carlos pena providing some tropicana thunder for the rays.

forty see i told you there were forty shots in there. but you also said there'd be a reverse ventriloquist act here. excuse me guys. (announcer) calling all captains. drink responsibly.

>> seahawks beat the broncos 27-13. chris simms, though, limped off the field. more on his status when we find out further. kyle orton 18-26, 182 yards, a

touchdown. he was also picked off. a little more than 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. little league world series, canada against mexico in williamsport, pennsylvania. we've got all three countries. >> it comes full circle. >> mario cardena, the chopper back to the pitcher, checks third and throws to first with nobody covering. oscar nogelas scores. take another look. the first baseman came over but then didn't get back to cover the throw. mexico wins 2-1. >> the guys who get paid, mariners and indians dripping with drama in extras, bottom 11, tied at 3-3, luis valbuena, first career walk-off for the indians, their fourth win in the last 10 games.