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06/01/2010 - Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Neil Walker's two-run home run in the eighth inning, the first of his career, gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs in the second contest of a three-game set.
Garrett Jones also homered for the Pirates, who have won the first two games of this series after dropping their previous five contests.
Jeff Karstens lasted six innings in the start and was charged with two runs on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Joel Hanrahan (2-1) got the win for throwing a perfect eighth.
Xavier Nady went 4-for-4 with a two-run home run for the Cubs, who have dropped four of their last five. Ted Lilly (1-5) lost his fifth straight decision as he was charged with three runs on six hits with four walks and six strikeouts over 7 2/3 innings.
Trailing by a run in the eighth, the Pirates took the lead. With one out, Andrew McCutchen drew a walk to put the tying run on base and Walker followed by clubbing an 0-1 pitch over the fence in left for a 3-2 lead.
Octavio Dotel worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 12th save of the season.
The Cubs struck in the third inning to take the lead. Kosuke Fukudome led off with a triple, and after Starlin Castro flied out, Nady clubbed a 2-1 pitch over the left field wall for his third home run of the season.
Pittsburgh got a run back in the fourth when Jones led off the frame by drilling a 2-0 pitch just over the wall in right.
With two outs in the Pirates fifth, McCutchen walked and quickly swiped second to get into scoring position, but Walker struck out to end the inning.
Lilly retired the Pirates in order in the sixth and got Ronny Cedeno to ground into a double play in the seventh after giving up a single to Andy LaRoche.
Game Notes
Jones leads the Pirates with seven home runs on the season...The Pirates have homered in a season-high four consecutive games...Lilly has not won a game since April 24 at Milwaukee, a span of seven starts. He is 4-4 in 15 career games -- 13 starts -- against Pittsburgh...The Pirates have won nine of their last 10 games against the Cubs...The Cubs left eight men on base.
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Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday
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Vancouver, BC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The British Columbia Lions extended the
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Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Billy Butler and David DeJesus each drove
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Stadium
NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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