in his last eight starts, john lester is 5-1 with a 1.48era.the way, the royals acquired shortstop betancourt from the mariners for a pair of minor league pitchers. >> john lester hasn't allowed a run in 17 straight innings against kansas city. and his era is now 1.20. that's easily his best against any opponent he's faced at least three times. >> mariners running high following their come from behind win over texas thursday night. they're on the short end of a 4-2 score right now against the rangers. bottom five. hank blalock, and michael young have both homered. franklin gutierrez has now continued to hit the cover off the ball. he continues with an r.b.i. double in the first inning. >> first place cardinals with a chance to put the cubs and sweet lou in a bigger hole. bottom three, one of the few mistakes chris carpenter made. derrek lee up, up and out of here. 17th home run of the season. that tied the score at 3. the top knive, same score, albert pujols. , for the 32nd time this season. 351st time in his career. that ties ralph kiner for m

. >> john lester facing the royals for the second time since he no hit them last season.ing miguel owe leave aswinging. mark kotsay in a jam here between first and second. billy butler going home because ellsbury's there. and he called out. else bury can't believe it. hits daryl cousins. bottom o of the eighth. still scoreless. 7 and 2/3 of scoreless baseball. then dustin pedroia goes off the wall with his 28th double. that is the difference. gets the w. and red sox get the win, 1-0. jonathan papelbon, his 23rd save in 25 chances. for less terks he is now the sixth pitcher to win at least 20 of his first 25 decisions at fenway park. and look at his turn around. first ten starts this season, he was awful. era over 6. in his last eight starts, he's now with a 1.48er aa. holding opponents under .200. and he's bhiffing over 11 batters per nine innings. >> yankees up 3-0. tied for first place in the american league east. the yanks jumpped on joe saunders early. a-rod, a two-run single. #e nick swisher, and the yanks have not trailed the last 67 innings on the road. >> rays fou

. >> reporter: john hopkins professor lester spence said enough blame to go around. >> i understand that police have a difficult job to do, but the members of the police department once they realized that gates -- he actually owned the home they were investigating, they should have been able to let cooler heads prevail even if gates acted a fool. >> reporter: gates' experience is not unlike what african- american men experience every day he says. >> officer crowley teaches a course to police officers how to avoid racial profiling. >>> governor martin o'malley wants your help cutting back the state budget, the governor needs to cut more than $400 million of state spending and he is asking to you go online and weigh in on what heads to the chopping block. governor o'malley says the only thing not on the table is education funding. so head to www.maryland. gov and give your two cents. >>> starting today the minimum wage is veil higher including here in maryland bumped up to $7.25. in maryland a jump from the old minimum wage of $6.55. >>> well, the government is giving you cash for your clu

john, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, lester.> the president's been welcoming in ghana, other places, nigeria, kenya to name a few saying, hey, what about us? why ghana? >> i think, lester, what the president wanted to do, try to send a message of identification with africa, but with the kind of africa that he wants to model for the rest of the world and the rest of the continent. a country that as savannah guthrie just said had a peaceful transfer of power in a democratic electoral process and one that's done a good job, relatively speaking, cracking down on corruption, holding back so many other countries on the continent. >> this trip is steeped in symbolism, the first african-american president making a trip to ghana. does this represent a move and active engagement in areas the u.s. has not previously been? >> well, the president announced before he left italy, $20 billion in aid to try to develop food resources for africa, but, look, if you are the first african-american president and your message is one of hope and change,

john yang, nbc news, england. >>> and that's "nightly news" for this saturday. i'm lester holt reporting from new york.rrow morning on "today," then right back here tomorrow evening. happy fourth. tomorrow evening. happy fourth. good night, everyone. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

john yang, nbc. >> that's "nbc nightly news" for this sunday. brian williams will be here tomorrow. i'm lesterolt reporting from new york. from all of

john and joel are two of the men seen in that video, they're with us exclusively. good morning to both of you. thanks for coming on. >> good morning, lester. >> we should note that the 4-year-old is listed this morning in critical condition and, john and joel, i see you both have bandages on your hands. you were both badly burned. how you doing? >> we're doing just fine. we're doing just fine. >> we'll be okay. hanging in there. >> we heard in the set-up that you both get this call from your wives who were near by. you were seconds away. described what you witnessed when you got there, john. >> well, when we turned the corner on to where the vehicle was, we saw that it was fully engulfed in flames. there were a number of bystanders around the vehicle, trying to break the front windshield and then we -- when we arrived on scene, that's when i exited my brother's vehicle and ran to the front windshield, assessing the situation and realizing that with the people screaming that there's still somebody inside, that we needed to remove the windshield so we can gain access. >> at this point had the mother and the first child already exited? >> th

lester was so good against the orioles, never lost against him. his debut with the red sox, he was gone. a two-run shot. boston wins it 7-2. john lesser, a is for as raven, paul kruger second round pick out of utah, he is a high motor guy. . he has come to terms with a four year contract. he is locked up for the next four years, at least he will be on monday when he signs a contract. that leaves just one rookie not sign. not many first rounders have assigned. ravens are optimistic they can get a deal done with him before training camp begins. mark cavan kia had a pretty decent day. the pitch for birdie did not go in. a pga tour record to go nine in a row. he should 65. the other guy making big noise, leif olson. sets up a nice dirty. it helps when you can play pain palm -- ping-pong. his reaction was priceless. he just won himself a new bmw roadster. i will be back tonight at 6:00 p.m.. >> john is too busy to eat -- eating to talk. jennifer says goodbye, thanks for joining us. timothy dean, >> i have a gift for you. will you use it? >> i do. before they get me in trouble, have a great day, everybody. they have alzheimer's and h

lester? >> mark potter in pensacola. thank you. >>> the bloody u.s.-led offensive in the drug-producing region of jorn afghanistan claimed more american lives as two marines were killed in bomb explosions. as john yang reports, the new reality on the ground there is giving way to calls within the military for even more boots on the ground. >> reporter: marine master sergeant john hayes, husband, father of three, and one of the 104 american troops killed in afghanistan this year, a record pace. randy johnson was a high school classmate. >> he was the kind of person that always cared about other people. >> reporter: hayes was killed wednesday in the u.s.-led effort to push the taliban out of afghanistan's opium poppy growing region. in a british television interview, president obama warned things could get worse. >> we knew that this summer was going to be tough fighting, that there was an interest in the taliban exerting control. they have, i think, been pushed back, but we still have a long way to go. >> reporter: mr. obama's already ordered 21,000 more troops to afghanistan to provide security for next month's presidential election, but military officials tell nbc news general stanley mccrysta