By Ethen Lieser
What a battle it was between baseball’s top two teams, the Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Twins, this year’s Cinderella team. The two teams split the two-game series at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, with both games decided by one run. In the second game, Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki shut down a Twins rally in the eighth inning, when the 6-foot-4 righthander struck out Jacque Jones and sawed off A.J. Pierzynski with the bases loaded to notch his 18th save in 20 opportunities and to preserve the 5-4 victory … Even with his 23-game hitting-streak down the tube, Ichiro Suzuki seems to be getting hotter and hotter, if that’s even possible. The right fielder slashed out three more hits against the Twins’ pitching staff and is hitting a cool .362, good enough for third in the American League batting race … Arizona Diamondbacks reliever Byung-Hyun Kim looks to be back on track after he faltered in the second-half last year. The 22-year-old Frisbee thrower is 2-1 with an ERA of 2.96 and has registered 37 strikeouts in only 27 innings … Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park (4-4) ran into some tough luck last week when he lost two straight decisions, even though he pitched his way into the sixth and seventh innings against the Expos and Mets, allowing two and three runs, respectively … Tiger Woods will be getting a bigger paycheck these days, as if he really needs it, when he signed a five-year endorsement contract with Upper Deck, which will give the sports trading card company the right to produce Woods’ autographed memorabilia. Though Woods has participated in only nine PGA tournaments this year, he has already won $3.5 million, tops on the tour. Phil Mickelson is second on the money-list at $2.7 million in 13 tournaments … Korean-born golfer Grace Park shot an impressive 273 and finished third in the LPGA Corning Classic last weekend, three shots behind tournament champion Carin Koch.
Reach Ethen Lieser at elieser@asianweek.com. |
