San Francisco’s Rich Aurilla hit a lead off homer in the 7 th inning and the Giants added another run in the 8 th to beat the Cardinals 5-3 and take two out of three from St. Louis Sunday afternoon by the bay. Adam Wainwright took the loss.
The Cards finish their road trip 3-3. After taking a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth, the Giants scored two runs to tie the game after Wainwright gave up a single and double to start the inning. Nick Stavinoha led St. Louis with two RBIs. Brendan Ryan had three hits and scored twice.
Wainwright is now 5-3 after going seven innings while allowing four runs on 10 hits and two walks while striking out three. This was not one of Wainwright’s better starts in recent history. In his last three starts, he had given up just 12 hits and gave up more runs in this start than in his past 23.2 innings.
The Cardinals come back home to host Cincinnati. The Cardinals are 2.5 games ahead of the Reds.
Cards drop series finale at SF
Mizzou’s baseball season over
Mizzou baseball lost 11-6 to Western Kentucky on Sunday in the NCAA Oxford Regional as the Tigers were beat for the second time this weekend by the Hilltoppers. WKKU scored seven runs in 1.2 innings against Tiger starter Ian Berger.
WKU scored seven runs in the first two innings of Sunday’s game, including three in the first, thanks to an RBI single from Chad Cregar, and a two run single from Terrence Dayleg. Cregar hit a three run homer after a sac fly in the second. Cregar drove in five runs in the game, finishing 4-for-5 with three runs scored.
The Tigers tried to chip away in the third with RBI singles from Greg Folgia and Aaron Senne. Mizzou added another in the fifth on a RBI single from Steve Gray to make the score 7-3. Western Kentucky scored three more in the bottom of the sixth and added an sac fly RBI from Dayleg in the 8 th .
Mizzou scored three in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough for the Tigers who lost both of games in this Oxford regional to Western Kentucky. Mizzou finishes the 2009 season 35-27. This is the seventh straight year of 35 wins or more and 30+ in 13 of Tim Jamieson’s 15 years as Head Coach.
Royals, with Greinke on the mound, bow to White Sox
The Kansas City Royals sent their best pitcher to the mound and they lost just the same. The Chicago White Sox topped the Royals 7-4 at Kauffman Stadium, disappointing many of the 19,855 in attendance and allowing the Sox to sweep the weekend series.
Starter Zack Greinke pitched 7 innings, leaving with the score tied, getting no decision. On the day he allowed 4 runs, 3 of them earned, on 8 hits, striking out 7 batters, and allowing no walks. Greinke’s earned run average now stands at 1.10.
The White Sox got to Greinke in the 1st inning as lead off batter Scott Podsednik tripled and came home on a Jim Thome single to give Chicago the early 1-0 lead.
Kansas City jumped into the lead in the 2nd as Mark Teahen and Miguel Olivo, each of whom had singled, scored on a David DeJesus double. DeJesus then crossed the plate on Mitch Maier’s two out, pop fly behind second that was lost in the sun and dropped to the ground for a double. The Royals led 3-1 after 2.
KC made it 4-1 in the 3rd as Olivo stroked a single to left field to bring home Mike Jacobs who had led off the inning with a double.
Chicago closed the gap in the 4th as Thome, who had singled, and A.J. Pierzynski, who had doubled, scored on a Josh Fields single to make it 4-3 for KC.
The White Sox tied the score at 4 in the 5th as Podsednik doubled and scored on a Jermaine Dye single.
Kansas City failed to take advantage of its opportunites the rest of the way, but Chicago cashed in on Royal pitching problems in the 9th to score 3 runs with Chris Gets getting a bases loaded single to drive in a pair of runs. Getz then scored on a Podsednik hit to make the score Chicago 7, Kansas City 4. That’s how it ended.
Matt Thornton (2-1) got the win while Bobby Jenks earned his 12th save. John Bale (0-1) took the loss. The Royals record on the season is now 23-27.
Download/Listen: Zack Greinke’s post game comments (4:00 MP3)
Education officials review positives and negatives in FY 2010 budget
The State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is among the state departments and agencies that have been studying the budget in the weeks since the 2010 fiscal year budget passed the General Assembly, trying to determine the impact of 2010 spending plans. And DESE sees both positives and negatives.
Geri Ogle, an Associate Commissioner with DESE, says a positive is an increase in the school funding formula.
“The Legislature approved a $63-million increase for the basic state aid formula, also called the foundation formula, for school districts.” said Ogle. “Almost a $16-million increase for transportation to help school districts transport students to and from school.”
But not all is rosy.
“There are some cuts to staffing levels in the Department of Education and in our state schools for severely disabled, blind, and deaf,” Ogle told the Missourinet. “So, we will be dealing with those reductions in the coming weeks.”
DESE is also concerned with continuing cuts to critical needs funding, which includes money for professional development as well as providing assistance to struggling school districts.
“We’ve had $20-million in FY ’08 that was reduced to $15-million in FY ’09 and to $7-million in FY ’10,” said Ogle. “So that is a disappointment.”
The Department of Education will look for items for which to propose supplement budget funding as well as items to propose for the 2011 fiscal year budget, which must be submitted to the Governor by October 1st.
Cardinals remained tied for first after 6-2 win
Chris Carpenter moved to 3-0 on the year pitching six innings while allowing just two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out five. The Cardinals finally got to Giants starter Barry Zito and the San Francisco bullpen in the seventh for a 6-2 victory.
Down 2-1, the Cards scored five runs in the final three frames. The Cardinals took the lead in the seventh when Chris Duncan doubled off the lefty Zito to score Skip Schumaker with two outs. That came after Schumaker doubled home Nick Stavinoha who doubled with one out.
St. Louis rallied for two more runs in the eighth with two outs when Brian Barden singled to keep the inning alive. Joe Thurston tripled and Schumaker singled him home.
Suspect defense again by Duncan led to a double and eventual run in the third after a double and triple in the second gave the Giants a 2-0 lead. After that, Carpenter settled down as he allowed just one hit in the middle innings, that being a single by Zito.
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