their win on the jerry walker walkoff homer the last time they've been in postseason play. it's been a lost yankees and red sox and one dose of tampa bay since then. there they are. josh bard at third. harris at second with a double. anderson hernandez at first. infield obviously in and we'll see if jordan zimmermann can make some kind of contact here and get himself and his team the go-ahead run. >> rob: well, some kind of good contact. you don't want to night a double play right here and kill the rally. >> bob: ball one. falling behind in the count might help that. >> rob: maybe try to slap one between first and second. there's a huge gap between hill and overbay. >> bob: overbay is playing well off the line because of that. right side, zimmermann is really going to have to hurry. he is safe! >> rob: great job. >> bob: gets the rbi and the nationals take the lead! good hustle by the rookie pitcher. he hit it softly enough. >> rob: well, maybe hitting it to the right side is what the doctor ordered right here. he does hit a two-hopper to hill. hill makes a great flip over

he missed the last few games of their postseason series with the lakers because of a foot injury. the team physician tom clanton released a statement saying: >> baseball news. after going hitless in his first two game, manny ramirez went 2-2 with a home run in his last rehab start. the dodgers' slugger will play in his final minor league game tonight. he's expected to rejoin his teammates july 3rd when the suspension is lifted. every single at-bat you've been able to see and hear live on espnews. that not going to change. the at-bats tonight. we will have them once again, live at-bats from manny ramirez in his final rehab start on espnews. >> he's great. >> he's accurate. that's why. congratulations. >> you're saying cubs' fans are stupid? >> ozzie is not crazy. i agree with the portions about that being more of place to be, more of place to be seen and more of a place to go ahead and have party-like atmosphere than people being encouraged, than people actually caring about what happens on the field. >> in my opinion, i love to see the guy play baseball. he's a true genius. steroi

the rockets have played 19 postseason games in the last two years and he's missed 10. >> much more baseballon the way. the angels in arlington for a series with the rangers. at stake, first place in the a.l. west. >> and also, the mets trying to put a weeeekend sweep behind th to the yankees. their reward, a date with the first place brewers. the williams sisters have their sights set on another all family final. highlights straight ahead. and now that griffith is and now that griffith is officially a west coaster on welcome to the now network. population 49 million. right now, 1.5 million people are on a conference call. 750,000 wish they weren't. - ( phones chirping ) - construction workers are making 244,000 nextel direct connect calls. 1 million people are responding to an email. - 151 accidentally hit "reply all." - ( foghorn blows ) that's happening now. america's most dependable 3g network bringing you the first wireless 4g network. - sprint. the now network. - ( whoosh sound ) deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. come on. there for yo

the rockets have played 19 postseason games for the last two years and yao has missed 10. >> much more baseball yet to come. angels are in arlington for a series with the rangers. at stake, first place in the american league west. >> and the mets trying to put a weekend sweep at the hands of the yankees behind them. their reward, a date with the first place brewers and we have plenty more from wimbledon. the williams sisters have their sights on another family final. highlights from their matches straight ahead. and now that blake griffin is officially a west >> he was the number one overall pick by the clippers and on monday blake griffin was introduced to a nun of his newest admirers and fans. only the third number one pick in franchise history, he'll be called on early and often. >> i'm not nervous, i'm excited about it. >> with that comes responsibility, and it's something that i embrace, it will make me work harder and even more focused, so it's something that i welcome and i'm really looking forward to it. >> the past two weeks have been crazy. it's been a whirlwind but it's part

that was the month that propelled them into the postseason that year. >> aaron cook, you believe is a guy who could really help makeea or break a season? why? >> he's helping them now. i talked to him. he's hopeful about what he could accomplish this year. got off to a terrible start. his era was 8 and a half. but after his start for the i don't think rockies on april 24, he went back and looked at videotape, and he realized his arm angle had changed. he raised his arm angle up. improved his sinker again. since then he's got an era of 2.5. he's a different pitcher. we saw last year, he's basically not aall-star caliber pitcher. -- an all-star caliber pitcher. way, the rockies will have that anchor for the rotation they need going forward. >> the american league, twins and a's in the afternoon. oakland hoping for a split of the four-game set. we'll talk joe mauer in a little bit. first, bottom of the eighth. adam kennedy. oh, boy. you talk about a guy that's helped out. right now at his current pace, he would finish, based on a 32 games with oakland. he would hit 25 homers and drive in

that's hardly new to orlando this postseason.nd company have trailed in the series three times and each time they've responded by winning the next game to even their series. kobe bryant now answering questions on what he expects from orlando in game two. >> you expect them to bounce back pretty strongly tomorrow? >> absolutely. absolutely. you know, we'll have to face many games in this series when they shoot lights out. this is a team that made 23 for 34 from the three-point line against sacramento in one game. they can get blistering hot. we understand and know that and we have to be ready for them. >> howard is always that threat inside, which is -- that's a 60% conversion. he gets the ball inside. he's going to shoot 60%. he's close enough he can finish. he leads the league in dunks. those things are devastating to defense. >> we could have done what we did a lot harder and a lot better. and so i think we've got to be careful and we're certainly not going to make wholesale changes. i think there are things we can adjust or be

palmer was fortunate enough as i hope some day a lot of these guys are fortunate enough to play in postseason, so i think it's just really a neat thing for baseball to be able to do it. get the best against the best. guys get it play guys they don't very often. the fly ball out by huff, two away. markakis goes back to first base. that will bring melvin mora up. >> should we let you give some signs? >> i gave one, did you see my leg up? you saw nicky go. >> now i got to stop it. i'm hoping melvin hits a gaper, nick scores from first. >> two down here. mora will take it outside. just explain that, skip, one last question, what you said about mora. the sequence you're looking for here with melvin at the plate. >> he's going to get a breaking ball at some point in time. if he gets it, i would expect he's going to bought hurting on it. and that would be a great time for nicky to run. there it is. >> nick's got the green light down there in these situations? >> well, he did, but i just took it off. because back-to-back pitches redding is usually the slide step. sandly alomar is over in that dugout,

east, boston, yankees and ray, but you can only pick two to get to the postseason, which of those two of the three? >> i still think the bullpen for the rays will rear its ugly head somewhere. they don't have a closer yet. they're using j.c. howe there now. i think that will be a concern down the stretch when their pitchers start getting tired and they can't go deeper into games. i think the rays will be the odd team out, but don't ever count them out. that's tough to do. but i'm doing it. >> you've done it all you life. , no i'm just kidding. the talk continues on "baseball tonight" at 10:00 eastern tonight. >> top stories coming up, including a look at what's going on in wimbledon. another williams-williams final just two wins away. plus on the eve of nba free agency, we ask who is the biggest difference maker available. opinion coming up on "aircheck." opinion coming up on "aircheck." creer we only shoot beautiful things you see. action. cut. mmm...she's had work done. cut it. take it all back to one. i yell cut. i know. shhh. excuse me. you've changed and i love it. here's another

at times during the postseason the lakers haven't handled prosperity very well. >> just when you start believing in the lakers, they'll lay an egg and lose by 20 point pps? >> but you see them motivated tonight? >> i see them motivated. >> we shall see. avery johnson, you can see more on him on fastbreak tonight. here on espnews, a busy day in the world of sports. tony stewart had to start from the back at pocono but you won't believe where he ended up or maybe you will because he's the points leader. also coming up, we hadn't talked about brett favre in about a week? we're talking about him right now. he had a procedure done last month. we'll tell you all about i >> back here on espnews, mike yam and mike hill with you. we'll bring you the postgame news conferences. we'll do that after game two tonight. both of the coaches when the game is over, no other place you'd rather be than espnews. >> just when all was quiet on the brett favre front, we've got this news, still currently retired quarterback had surgery on his shoulder last month. this could be huge news because it might mark th

you can't play like that and expect to win a division or get into the postseason.ou just gave a runaway right there. >> jim: instead of it being at least a 4-2 game, orioles still down by a run. here is wieters. tough night at the plate, 0-2 with a couple of strikeouts. nolasco stays on. he has struck out seven. his spot will leadoff in the seventh inning, bottom half. if he gets through the top half, likely he'll be lifted for a pinch-hitter. good eye, ball three. wieters, andino and pitcher's spot is due here in the seventh inning. matt wieters took strike all the way. >> buck: one thing about a baseball game, when you're involved in a play you always have someplace to be. there's renyel pinto who pitched in last night's game f you're a defender, you can backup a play f you're a second base runner, you can follow the play and anticipate the lead. >> jim: wieters a-high pop shallow right center field and that ball falls in! hermida very late getting in on the ball. uggla back on it, but he was waiting to be called off and didn't give it much of an effort. that bal

. >> the players say he's the only way they can make it to the postseason. as you would expect, they believe they can go quite the distance without him and play good ball. actually they've shown that since the suspension started. they were not quite as strong as they were when they first broke camp. but they're still pretty good. >> on the other hand, they find a lot of the discussion about manny to be a moot point. it's not like he has an injury where it's all speculative as to when he'll return and how good he'll be. because they know they're going to get him back. they find a lot of the questions sort of beside the point. >> jim, good enough to stop by with us here on espnews. thanks so much. >> you're welcome,. >> still to come, roger federer is one of the all time greats, but he's never won a french open title. title. (marco andretti) i race to win. i know when it's the perfect time to change my tires. when it comes to shaving i know when to change my blade. (announcer) gillette fusion's indicator strip fades to white when it may be time to change. fres

tall lot scored 8-24 goals this postseason. late there are the w period, johann a hard check of sidney crosby. he would leave the game. but he would return. late there are the second, talbot again. led this one 2-0s in after two periods. we head to the third, lord stanley's cup putting on silver shine. was in eight david ortiz like salam, but that i had faith that our economy and david ortiz would be hitting home runs again. unfortunately the "boston globe" ran an editorial the next day questioning my judgment and linking david ortiz's recovery to the american economy. that night david ortiz hit a home run. last night david ortiz hit a home run. today and yesterday we received all of this new positive commentary about the american economy. i am not saying it is directly related to my speech on monday, however i do believe that, and i thank you for pointing this out that my comments were acrid so please continue and we will add back the time to your statement. >> i will see if i can remember the original. there was what i think

not too many guys hit the ball during that postseason. >> gary: here is the 2-2 delivery.hat's fouled back. >> jim: that's the changeup. he got it up. brian schneider comes right out and says wait a minute. the orioles just trying to get somebody on. it is a difficult place for a young hitter, but the one thing about nolan reimold, you talkedabout it before the game. it looks like he's got a pretty good idea at the plate for such a young guy. not even closing in on 100 at- bats in the major league -- at the major league level. >> gary: he doesn't chase pitches. >> jim: from time to time, everybody does. even pujols swung at a ball out of the zone, didn't he? >> gary: that kind pavin, sometimes young players will go after it and he's inclined not to. >> jim: he has a very quick bat and a great hitting instructor with great drills. terry crowley. you can wait a little bit longer. obviously, you don't want to wait too long. i think also his ability to hit the ball over the ballpark. >> gary: 3-2 count. runners at first and second base. reimold draws the walk! rodriguez comes

>> first of all, a lot of it for us in the postseason was sort of dictated by necessity, suspendingsy's injury. we were into the boston series then and we didn't change, but it wasn't a long-standing lineup with j.j., so it was fairly easy to make moves. and i think... i'm like every other coach quite honestly. i would rather never change a lineup or a rotation, but at the same time, when you have a feeling and really have a strong feeling on what would be best for your tame, give your team the best chance to win, i mean, you've got to do it. and i think any coach would, too, so that's precip tainted with everything we've done. >> jonathan? >> you mentioned after the last game your guys got ample looks, good, open looks. >> i didn't really say that. i said we got better looks. they're still doing a very, very good job defensively, and obviously 20 turnovers, we've got some... i just want to make that clear. i didn't say we had ample looks. >> obviously removing the turnover, as well. if you were to get roughly the shots you were getting last game, if you were to know, that would you

this year's team has as much if not more talent than the '05 squad, the last group to go to the postseasonob holtzman, what's behind his complete attitude reversal from a season ago. >> chad ochocinco looks happy and fast and interested on thursday, exactly the opposite of how he looked at last june's minicamp when he was so disgruntled he didn't even tie his shoes. ochocinco now admits he made a lot of mistakes last year and says he didn't realize it until he ran into actor denzel washington at a laker game and got a tongue lashing. >> denzel washington, man, you know who that is? man, for real, man. i don't got no choice but to perform with him in my ear. the perspective he put it in about the things i can control and the way i embarrass myself, my teammates and the organization, it's one of the reasons, you know, on the outlook that i have right now. >> ochocinco, who didn't talk to quarterback carson palmer the entire off season, now says he's planning to live with palmer for a couple of weeks in july, news that made it to palmer's wife before palmer could. >> as soon as i walked in th