Sports – Wednesday June 27th
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(Kansas City, MO) — Jeff Francoeur clubbed a three-run homer and Yuniesky added a two-run shot, as the Royals crushed the Rays, 8-2. Alex Gordon drove in a run and scored twice for the Royals. Royals starter Bruce Chen says he was really able to settle in after his team gave him a lead in the third inning. Chen gave up two runs, just one earned, while striking out five over seven innings as he improved his mark to 7-and-6.
Brooks Conrad hit a solo homer for Tampa, which lost for the fifth time in seven games. Chris Archer fanned seven in five-and-two-thirds frames, but allowed three earned runs to fall to 0-and-2.
The Royals will try to sweep that three game series with the Rays this afternoon at 1:10.
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St. Louis scored five unearned runs in the first and held on for a 5-2 win over the Marlins. Yadier Molina had the big blast with a three-run homer while Carlos Beltran added an RBI single. Redbird starter Kyle Lohse pitched seven-and-a-third strong innings, allowing just two runs to improve to 7-and-2. Jason Motte earned his 16th save for the Cardinals, who ran their winning streak to five.
Carlos Zambrano went six-and-two-thirds innings and allowed the five unearned tallies to suffer the loss. Giancarlo Stanton hit a solo homer and Greg Dobbs added a sac-fly for Miami, which continued its June freefall by dropping to 5-and-18 this month.
The Redbirds take on the Marlins again tonight at 6:10.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — College football will finally have a playoff. Come 2014, the BCS is dead.
A committee of university presidents on Tuesday approved the BCS commissioners’ plan for a four-team playoff to start in the 2014 season.
The move completes a six-month process in which the commissioners have been working on a new way to determine a college football champion. Instead of simply matching the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country in a championship game after the regular season, the way the Bowl Championship Series has done since 1998, the new format will create a pair of national semifinals. No. 1 will play No. 4, No. 2 will play No. 3.
The winners will advance the national championship game.
The sites of the semifinal and national championship games will rotate among the Rose, Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls, along with two other venues to be determined.
The teams will be selected by a committee, similar to the way the NCAA basketball tournament field is set.
There are still some details to work out, but all the decision-makers are on board.
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — University of Missouri curators quickly approve a request to borrow $72 million to add 6,000 seats to the football stadium in Columbia.
The move comes as Missouri prepares to enter the Southeastern Conference, where eight schools have stadiums that hold at least 80,000. Memorial Stadium has a capacity of 71,004.
The university’s governing board approved the 30-year debt financing plan on Tuesday. The expansion will consist of 5,200 bleacher seats on the stadium’s east side and 800 to 900 premium seats, along with new restrooms, lounges and concession stands.
The financing plan will also allow Missouri to improve its tennis and golf facilities as well as its softball and baseball stadiums.
Missouri also announced a $30 million donation from the Kansas City Sports Trust for further football facility upgrades.
