Andanh.com

Shockers can't close deal

A team that closes games by committee often doesn't really own a closer.

No. 14 Wichita State proves that baseball theory. The Shockers blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning and lost 8-7 to Indiana State on Sunday at Sycamore Field. The Sycamores won the game on a wild pitch by the third reliever trying to protect WSU's lead.

"We've got to be more clutch in those situations," said sophomore Dusty Coleman, one of three pitchers who failed to get the outs. "Having a three-run lead going into the ninth should be game over every time."

It wasn't for a variety of reasons in an inning that spoiled the weekend for the Shockers (33-9, 11-4 Missouri Valley Conference). They blew a chance to add to their MVC lead with Northern Iowa coming to Eck Stadium on Friday. Instead, the Panthers, who lost two of three over the weekend, are tied with the Shockers in first.

The one certainty about the NFL Draft is you just never know how it's going to turn out.

Take, for example, Sunday's final day of the 2008 draft.

Former Kansas tight end Derek Fine heard he might be drafted in the sixth or seventh round. Instead, he went in the fourth to the Buffalo Bills -- the same round in which Missouri All-American tight end Martin Rucker was selected.

Ex-Jayhawk offensive tackle Anthony Collins was sure he would be a first-rounder, the second round at the lowest. Instead, Collins had to wait until the Cincinnati Bengals took in with the 13th pick of the fourth round.

Marcus Henry, KU's 1,000-yard wide receiver last season, was certain he wouldn't dip below the fourth round -- his agent told him so. But Henry wasn't taken until the New York Jets made him the fifth choice of the sixth round.

Yankees 1, Indians 0 -- Chien-Ming Wang shut down Cleveland for seven innings and outpitched C.C. Sabathia, whose lone mistake turned into a homer by Melky Cabrera, to help New York end a three-game slide.

• Wang (5-0) allowed four hits, struck out a season-high nine and joined Arizona's Brandon Webb as the majors' only five-game winners.... Wang got help from reliever Joba Chamberlain, who pitched a perfect eighth in his first appearance in Cleveland since Game 2 of last year's playoffs when tiny insects called midges swarmed him and the Yankees in the late innings.

Rays 3, Red Sox 0 -- James Shields threw a two-hitter for his first career shutout, Evan Longoria homered off Josh Beckett and Tampa Bay complete its first three-game sweep of the Red Sox.

• Tampa Bay has won six straight for its longest winning streak since a six-game run July 28-Aug. 3, 2005. The Rays (14-11) are three games over .500 for the first time since starting the season 3-0 in 2002. It's also the latest in the season the Rays have ever been three games above .500.

Athletics 4, Mariners 2 -- Emil Brown had a broken-bat, two-run single in Oakland's four-run eighth inning.

Sunday's box score

E -- McKeever, Hoch, Brumagin. DP -- ISU 2. LOB -- WSU 10, ISU 12. 2B -- Dirks (13), McKeever (6), Williams Jr. (10), Brown (1), Del Real (12). S -- Strausborger, Brumagin, Caple. SB -- Dirks (20), Schmidt (15), Ciolli (6). CS -- Dirks, Hall.

He can run a little

In romantic comedies, a clear Hollywood hierarchy is at work.

There's the guy who gets the girl. And there's the other guy, the one she abandons for Mr. Right.

Patrick Dempsey has been on both ends of that pecking order. Long before he became "Grey's Anatomy's" "McDreamy," he was the dreamboat, junior edition, that assorted starlets floated off into the sunset with in movies such as "Can't Buy Me Love."

And then all that went away.

"You stop getting the opportunities," Dempsey, now 42, says. "You haven't lost your skills. You just aren't 'hot' any more."