Kanadesaga

Mets edge Sox in Civil Rights Game
Contest in Memphis caps historic and uplifting weekend
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Baseball brought fans to the ballpark, but the sport played just a bit part in what was a bigger mission Saturday for the 7,717 fans at AutoZone Park.

For the second year in a row, Major League Baseball celebrated the historical role the sport played in the struggle for equal rights in America.

On a rain-chilled afternoon, the Mets beat the White Sox, 3-2, in the second annual Civil Rights Game, sponsored by AutoZone.

In the final exhibition game for both teams, their pitchers looked sharp early. Neither Mets right-hander John Maine nor White Sox right-hander Jose Contreras allowed runs until the bottom of the fourth inning.

Those first runs came off Contreras, who served up a two-run homer to Carlos Beltran. But with Maine in the Mets' clubhouse, the Sox evened the score in the seventh. Pablo Ozuna singled with the bases loaded to tie the ballgame.

The game didn't stay tied long.

In the bottom of the seventh, reliever Scott Linebrink, an offseason pickup for the White Sox, gave up two singles and Raul Casanova's RBI groundout.

It gave the Mets the lead for good.

Their win capped a weekend of events that the city of Memphis is using as a jumping-off point for its 40th-year remembrance of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was killed on April 4, 1968.

Baseball has made the game its salute to the past, said Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's Executive Vice President for Baseball Operations. Solomon expressed his optimism about the future of the game, though he stopped short of promising the game would forever remain a Memphis fixture.

"I think Memphis has a particular appeal," he said. "But there are other cities that have the same appeal, and I've been very clear that cities like Atlanta, cities like Dallas and Arlington, cities like Kansas City all have particular appeal to us, too.

"But Memphis right now is where we are, and, of course, we'd like to stay here in Memphis. We'll see."

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Kanadesaga

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Kanadesaga

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Kanadesaga

Mets......7.....10......0



Marlins...2....5......1

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Sean

and now Pedros' gone; won't be back in time to make it for the CUbs games either! I've got tix to the second game of that; possibly Santana pitching???

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Kanadesaga

Mets.......4


Marlins....5 (10)

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Kanadesaga

Mets.............13........17........1



Marlins..........0.........6........0

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Kanadesaga

Perez, Mets cruise in finale in Miami
Lefty tosses six scoreless frames; Wright, Church go deep
By Charlie Nobles / Special to MLB.com

MIAMI -- Left-hander Oliver Perez pitched six scoreless innings and the Mets' offense exploded for 17 hits Wednesday night in a rollicking 13-0 victory over the Marlins.

Carlos Beltran had three doubles, one of them driving in a run, and David Wright added a three-run home run in the sixth inning, a shot estimated to travel 433 feet. Wright extended his hitting streak over two seasons to 20 games with a third-inning single.

The Mets scored three runs in the second, two on a home run down the right-field line by Ryan Church, and produced runs in the third and fifth, but blew the game open with a six-run sixth.

Meanwhile, Perez, who was 15-10 last season, stopped the Marlins on five hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out eight.

The easiest kind of victory allowed the Mets to take the season-opening series, 2-1. They had lost the second game, 5-4, in 10 innings and saw their No. 2 starter, Pedro Martinez, placed on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain

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Kanadesaga

Rain.

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Kanadesaga

Mets.........5

Braves.....11

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