felipe lopez

Position players Lopez, Mather pitch
Infielder hurls scoreless 18th; outfielder gives up game-winner
The Cardinals knew Felipe Lopez and Joe Mather were versatile, but this may fall in the realm of the ridiculous. Or at least, the sublimely ridiculous.

The Cardinals used all seven of their relief pitchers in the first 17 innings of Saturday’s 2-1 loss against the Mets, so utility man Lopez came in to pitch the 18th. And then Mather, something of a Swiss Army Knife type of player himself, pitched the 19th — switching places with Lopez, who took Mather’s previous spot at third base.

Lopez said he hadn’t pitched in a game since Little League. For Mather, it was high school — but still plenty long enough.

“I was just trying to play catch with [catcher Yadier Molina],” Lopez said. “That was it. I wasn’t trying to throw hard or anything.”

Lopez did quite well, though. He allowed a single to Mets pitcher Raul Valdes, but Valdes was erased when he tried to take second base on Brendan Ryan’s wild throw. Albert Pujols threw to Mather, covering second base, and Mather tagged Valdes for the out. Lopez went on to walk Angel Pagan, but he got out of the 18th inning when Mike Jacobs flied out. Lopez reached the high 70s to low 80s mph with his pitches.

In the 19th, Mather issued a leadoff walk, and after a sacrifice, he intentionally walked David Wright. He hit Jason Bay with a pitch, and Jeff Francoeur gave the Mets the lead with a sacrifice fly, which was wiped out after Yadier Molina tied it in the Cards’ half with an RBI single. But Mather ended up as the losing pitcher when he allowed a sacrifice fly to Jose Reyes in the 20th.

“Sophomore year of high school,” Mather said when asked the last time he pitched. “That’s quite a few years ago. Unfortunately being a little wild was the problem then. So I think I honestly did a little better tonight.”

As part of the sequence, Cards pitcher Kyle Lohse played left field, because not only had St. Louis run out of pitchers, it ran out of position players as well.

“I know we lost, but it was pretty fun going out there and doing that,” said Lohse, who recorded two putouts. “Pretty crazy. I tried to pretend like it was BP. It was a little nerve-wracking. I just didn’t want to drop it.
source http://mlb.mlb.com

klm

KLM pushes to resume passenger flights after tests
AMSTERDAM — KLM, the Dutch subsidiary of Air France, said Sunday it wants to resume passenger flights in Europe as soon as possible after it flew a plane through the cloud of volcanic ash covering much of the continent without suffering any damage.

KLM carried out the test flight above Dutch airspace Saturday. It said initial inspections afterward showed no damage or irregularities from the ash in the air that has led to a ban on air travel over much of Europe since Friday.

The airline says it now plans to return seven airplanes without passengers to Amsterdam from Duesseldorf Sunday.

“We hope to receive permission as soon as possible after that to start up our operation and to transport our passengers to their destinations,” said Chief Executive Peter Hartman, who was aboard Saturday’s flight.

Germany’s Lufthansa flew 10 empty planes to Frankfurt from Munich at low altitude on Saturday under so-called visual flight rules, in which pilots don’t have to rely on their instruments.

But the KLM flight, a Boeing 737, flew up to 41,000 feet (13,000 meters), the maximum altitude at which the aircraft is certified to fly.

“We observed no irregularities either during the flight or during the initial inspection on the ground,” Hartman said in a statement.

The flight ban has caused massive delays to people and goods, and has left thousands of passengers stranded across the globe.

Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf quoted Hartman as having said at a news conference late Saturday that the airline has been “begging” the European air navigation safety agency Eurocontrol to consider lifting the ban, but the agency has so far refused to discuss the matter.

KLM spokeswoman Saskia Kranendonk said she could not confirm those remarks, but said the company does wish to resume flying passengers in most parts of Europe as soon as possible.

The Dutch Transport Ministry Sunday said national airspace will remain closed to passenger traffic until at least 2 p.m. local time, but confirmed it is allowing further test flights.

“The goal of these test flights is to make measurements in Dutch airspace about the possible consequences of the ash on the airplane parts, the ministry said in a statement.

Southern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH’-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) volcano began erupting for the second time in a month on Wednesday, sending ash several miles (kilometers) into the air. Winds have pushed the plume south and east across Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and into the heart of Europe.

Scientists say volcano ash can be catastrophic to plane engines.

In 1989, a KLM Boeing 747 that flew through a volcanic ash cloud above Alaska temporarily lost all four motors. The motors restarted at a lower altitude and the plane eventually landed safely.

The volcanic eruption is ongoing and forecasters said light prevailing winds in Europe — and large amounts of unmelted glacial ice above the volcano — mean that the situation in the air is unlikely to change in the coming days.

jason miller

The hottest MMA video to hit the Internet has finally been made available on YouTube. In case you missed the ridiculous conclusion of “Strikeforce: Nashville” on Saturday night, this is a must see.

After dominating veteran Dan Henderson for a unanimous decision victory to retain his middleweight crown, Jake Shields took the mic to address the Bridgestone Arena crowd, however wasn’t able to get too far with his celebratory speech.

Jason “Mayhem” Miller, the man Shields defeated for the open 185-pound title in November, lived up to his nickname by jumping in and stealing the champ’s spotlight by asking for a rematch.

Shields didn’t take too kindly to Miller’s antics and pushed him. Miller charged back but was rudely greeted by Shield’s entourage — that included Strikeforce champs Gilbert Melendez and Nick Diaz — which incited the worst riot in mixed martial arts history.

During the post-fight press conference, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker promised there would be repercussions for the embarrassment that took place inside his cage.

Bobby Clarke,Bobby Orr

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