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CHICAGO —Jarrod Saltalamacchia was struggling, so Bobby Valentine did
something drastic. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . Bench him? Nope.
Instead, he started him in the cleanup spot for the first time in his career,
and for one night, at least, it worked. Saltalamacchia homered to back a strong
start by Jon Lester, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs 4-3 on
Saturday. “Sometimes crazy times ask for crazy measures,” Valentine said. And
the way he saw it, batting Saltalamacchia in the fourth slot was one. He came
into the game mired in an 0-for-17 slide but broke out of it with two hits,
including a two-run drive in the fourth, and Boston came out on top after
dropping eight of 11. Scott Podsednik and Mike Aviles had two hits apiece, and
Podsednik and Will Middlebrooks each drove in a run. Lester (4-4) and the Red
Sox were leading 4-0 when the Cubs rallied in the seventh. Jeff Baker led off
with a bloop double and Welington Castillo walked with one out. Then
Luis Valbuena belted a three-run homer for his first hit with Chicago. Lester
struck out David DeJesus before Scott Atchison retired Reed Johnson on a
grounder to end the inning. Vicente Padilla worked the eighth and Alfredo Aceves
finished for his 16th save in 19 chances. Pinch-hitter Steve Clevenger started
the Cubs ninth with a single, but Aceves struck out Bryan LaHair and got
Castillo to bounce into a game-ending double play. Lester gave the Red Sox just
what they needed on the same day Josh Beckett went on the 15-day disabled list
with right shoulder inflammation, the latest in a long line of injuries for
Boston. The veteran allowed seven hits, struck out eight and walked one against
a team that came in with a .222 average against left-handers, third lowest in
the National League. Jeff Samardzija (5-5) struck out six in 5 1-3 innings for
the Cubs after getting roughed up in a loss to Minnesota in his previous start.
He was charged with three runs and four hits. Samardzija was lifted after he
issued consecutive walks to David Ortiz and Saltalamacchia. Randy Wells came in,
and Middlebrooks drove in Ortiz with a single. Samardzijas only other glitch was
the drive to right by Saltalamacchia on a 1-2 splitter. “It felt good,”
Saltalamacchia said. “I talked to (Valentine) as I was walking out (Friday)
night and thats exactly what he said. He said Theyre gonna start falling because
youve been swinging the bat well.” The Cubs threatened with two out in the
sixth, but a breakdown by Alfonso Soriano helped end it. With runners on first
and second, Middlebrooks dropped his hard liner to third. Soriano never ran,
though, and was thrown out at first. A crowd that had seen lapses from him
before let him have it on the way to the dugout and when he trotted back out to
left field. There were more loud boos when he struck out in the eighth. But the
way Soriano sees it, he didnt deserve that kind of treatment. He said the boos
were unfair and there really wasnt much he could do on that play. “I think that
they dont understand the game,” Soriano said. “Its a line drive, nothing you can
do about it. If its a ground ball and I dont run, they can do whatever they
want. But a hard line drive right at the glove? I dont know what they want.”
While the fans made their feelings clear, so did the Cubs. Put simply, they had
Sorianos back. “Its one of those things where 100 per cent every player in the
history of baseball would do the same thing,” manager Dale Sveum said. “I did it
a lot, a lot, of times.” Soriano is a lightning rod for fans, though—fair or
not. “Sori takes a lot of heat for a lot of things,” Samardzija said.
“Obviously, it is what it is. Theres not one guy in that locker room that has
anything bad to say about him.” NOTES: With Beckett going on the DL, Boston
recalled right-handed reliever Clayton Mortensen from Triple-A Pawtucket.
Beckett was scheduled to start Sunday. Instead, LHP Franklin Morales (0-1 with a
3.04 ERA in 22 relief appearances) will pitch in his place, with Paul Maholm
starting for the Cubs. ... OF Carl Crawford (sprained ulnar collateral ligament
in left elbow) “threw the ball really well” from 110 feet, Valentine said. He
also took batting practice for the second consecutive day. ... Red Sox RHP
Aaron Cook (left knee laceration) will make his first rehab start on Monday with
Triple-A Pawtucket and is scheduled to throw 50-75 pitches. ... Valbuena was
promoted from Triple-A Iowa on Thursday. ... Actor Vince Vaughn threw out the
first pitch and led the seventh-inning rendition of “Take Me Out to the
Ballgame.” Wholesale Jerseys China . The Baltimore
Orioles second baseman will have season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum
in his right hip. Wholesale Super Bowl Jerseys . The
29-year-old Scott started 14 games and three playoff games during his two
seasons with the Steelers. http://www.wholesalenfljerseyclub.com/ .
Alfonzo missed 48 games—the final 15 of last season and the first 33 of this
year. Brauns 50-game suspension for a positive drug test was overturned in
February by arbitrator Shyam Das after Brauns lawyers argued his urine sample
was not handled in the manner specified by baseballs drug agreement. Wholesale
Super Bowl 47 Jerseys . The first-place Giants used 11 pitches,
matching a major league record for extra-inning games. They remained 4 1/2 games
ahead of Los Angeles in the NL West because the Dodgers also lost at home in
extra innings, to San Diego. Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping . —The
Kansas City Royals had never seen Wade Miley pitch before Sunday and are happy
they wont see him again anytime soon.HARRISBURG, Pa. —For months, the identity
of the boy who was sexually assaulted in the locker room showers by Jerry
Sandusky was one of the biggest mysteries of the Penn State scandal. Now, for
the first time, a man has come forward to claim he was that boy, and is
threatening to sue the university. The mans lawyers said Thursday they have done
an extensive investigation and gathered “overwhelming evidence” on details of
the abuse by Sandusky, the former assistant football coach convicted of using
his position at Penn State and as head of a youth charity to molest boys over a
period of 15 years. Jurors convicted Sandusky last month of offences related to
so-called Victim 2 largely on the testimony of Mike McQueary, who was a team
graduate assistant and described seeing the attack. “Our client has to live the
rest of his life not only dealing with the effects of Sanduskys childhood sexual
abuse, but also with the knowledge that many powerful adults, including those at
the highest levels of Penn State, put their own interests and the interests of a
child predator above their legal obligations to protect him,” the lawyers said
in a news release. They did not name their client, and The Associated Press
generally does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent. The
university said it was taking the case seriously but would not comment on
pending litigation. University President Rodney Erickson and the board of
trustees “have publicly emphasized that their goal is to find solutions that
rest on the principle of justice for the victims,” a school spokesman said. The
statement from the mans attorneys said Victim 2 suffered “extensive sexual abuse
over many years both before and after the 2001 incident Michael McQueary
witnessed.” McQueary testified in December at a hearing that he had seen
Sandusky and a boy, both naked, in a team shower after hearing skin-on-skin
slapping sounds. “I would have described that it was extremely sexual and I
thought that some kind of intercourse was going on,” McQueary said. McQueary,
who estimated the boy to be around 10 years old, reported the abuse to school
officials, including longtime coach Joe Paterno, but none of them told police.
In a recent report conducted by former FBI Director Louis Freeh and commissioned
by Penn State, the investigators excoriated Paterno and the other administrators
for not attempting to identify Victim 2, saying it showed “a striking lack of
empathy.” Trustees fired Paterno, who has since died, because he failed to do
more about claims against Sandusky, and the scathing independent review said
several top school officials looked the other way because they were afraid of
bad publicity. The NCAA has vacated 112 Penn State wins. In a pair of voicemails
recorded last year, released with the statement and posted online by the
lawyers, a voice thats purportedly Sanduskys expresses his love and says he
wants to express his feelings “up front.” The voicemails are dated Sept. 12 and
Sept. 19, less than two months before the former Penn State coach was arrested
on child sex abuse charges. Sandusky was convicted in Juune of 45 sex abuse
counts and awaits sentencing. Nike NFL Jerseys. The second voicemail asks
whether Victim 2 would like to attend Penn States next game. The attorneys said
Sandusky left “numerous” voicemails for their client that fall. Sandusky, who
acknowledged he showered with boys but denied molesting them, has said very
little publicly since he gave interviews in the weeks after his arrest and did
not testify at his trial. His wife, Dottie Sandusky, testified that she never
saw him doing anything inappropriate with boys he took to their home. On
Thursday, she told a reporter for the Centre Daily Times that she still loves
her husband and that “hes not who they say he is.” Before the trial, defence
attorney Joe Amendola said he had met with a man he believed he might be Victim
2 and the man told him he had not been abused by Sandusky. Amendola said he was
not convinced and did not intend to subpoena him, but also said Sandusky himself
was insistent they had the right person. The statement from Victim 2s lawyers
leaves many questions unanswered, including whether he had been in contact with
prosecutors before or during the trial, whether he remembers McQueary, and
whether he is the same person who met with Amendola. “Jerry Sanduskys abuse of
Victim 2 and other children is a direct result of a conspiracy to conceal
Sanduskys conduct and the decisions by top Penn State officials that facilitated
and enabled his access to victims,” the statement read. “We intend to file a
civil lawsuit against Penn State University and others and to hold them
accountable for the egregious and reckless conduct that facilitated the horrific
abuse our client suffered.” The statement did not say when the lawsuit would be
filed or contain details on what redress the plaintiff is seeking. The lawyers
said they would not have further comment, and messages left for their spokesman
were not immediately returned. Several messages seeking comment from Amendola
and Sanduskys other lawyer, Karl Rominger, were not immediately returned.
Prosecutors had said on several occasions they did not know the identity of the
boy, and they offered no reaction to the lawyers announcement Thursday. The
attorneys who released the statement include several based in Philadelphia and
in State College, home to Penn States main campus, where McQueary says the
shower assault took place. They also represent three other young men Sandusky
was convicted of abusing but have not filed any lawsuits. A second accuser has
filed paperwork indicating an additional complaint is in the works, while other
lawyers also have indicated they represent young men with potential claims. This
week Penn States general liability insurer sought to deny or limit coverage for
Sandusky-related claims. Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association Insurance argued
that Penn State withheld key information needed to assess risk. In June, after
Sandusky was convicted, the university said it hoped to quickly compensate
victims and would reach out to their lawyers. Penn State spokesman Dave La Torre
declined to comment on anything related to the victims and any settlement
discussions. ’ ’ ’