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MILLER TAKES LOSS AS PADRES BEAT CARDINALS 4-2

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 11:13 Published in Sports
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- With the St. Louis Cardinals leading the San Diego Padres 2-1 in the sixth inning, manager Mike Matheny had seen enough of Shelby Miller.

The rookie right-hander had just walked his second batter of the inning, with two outs, on his 107th pitch. The Padres scored twice to take the lead, sticking Miller with the loss in a 4-2 defeat.

"He hit some real good spots," Matheny said. "But it was one of those games where they fouled off a lot of pitches to get his pitch count up. It was too high to really get himself out of trouble late in the game."

Jason Marquis combined with four relievers on a four-hitter to win his fifth straight start and Will Venable homered to lead the San Padres.

Marquis (6-2) has won five consecutive starts for the first time since 2007 with the Chicago Cubs. He allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits in six innings while striking out three and walking four.

Chris Denorfia went 3 for 3 with an RBI for the Padres, who have won three straight and five of seven. Huston Street pitched the ninth for his 11th save in 12 chances.

Venable homered into the Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Deck atop the right-field fence leading off the seventh, his seventh. It came on the second pitch from Mitchell Boggs, who just returned from a demotion to Triple-A Memphis.

Miller (5-3) allowed three runs and five hits in 5 2-3 innings, struck out five and walked three.

"It was more just missing my spots and them not swinging," Miller said. "When you face a good-hitting offense, it's not going to be easy to throw it and have them swing at it every single time. It's something I have to realize just to get the ball around the zone."

The Padres scored two runs in the sixth on three walks, one hit and a hit batter.

After Miller was pulled, Denorfia greeted Fernando Salas with an RBI single. John Baker walked to load the bases and Salas hit pinch-hitter Jesus Guzman with a pitch to bring in another run.

"It seems like 20 pitches every single inning, every single outing, back-to-back starts," Miller said. "Throwing so many pitches in back-to-back games is not good. It accumulates with a little bit of everything. My curveball wasn't really good tonight. Neither was my changeup. My fastball wasn't really there. Multiple things were off."

Miller entered with a 1.40 ERA, tied with Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the lowest in the majors. It went up to 1.74. Two starts earlier, Miller allowed a single to start the game and then retired the next 27 batters in a 3-0 home win against Colorado.

Miller's scoreless streak of 14 2-3 innings ended in the first when Everth Cabrera hit a leadoff single and scored on Chase Headley's one-out single.

The Cardinals tied it in the second when Headley, San Diego's Gold Glove third baseman, booted Miller's bases-loaded grounder for an error, allowing Yadier Molina to score. The Cardinals added a run in the third when Carlos Beltran hit a leadoff double, advanced on Matt Holliday's single and scored on Allen Craig's double-play grounder.

San Diego had a prime opportunity to score in its half when Cabrera hit a leadoff triple to right-center. But he was stranded when Miller struck out Will Venable and Headley before Carlos Quentin popped up.

NOTES: Cardinals 3B David Freese was a late scratch due to getting three stitches in the base of his right thumb after getting spiked by Milwaukee's Norichika Aoki while tagging him out during a rundown Sunday. Freese was replaced by Ty Wigginton, who grew up in suburban Chula Vista. ... Marquis has a 2.27 ERA during his five-game winning streak. ... The series continues Tuesday night when St. Louis RHP Adam Wainwright (5-3, 2.51 ERA) faces RHP Edinson Volquez (3-4, 5.55).

© 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.

RED WINGS BEAT BLACKHAWKS TO TAKE 2-1 SERIES LEAD

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 11:10 Published in Sports
DETROIT (AP) -- The Chicago Blackhawks were controlling the puck and dominating play early in the second period. It took all of a half-minute for the Detroit Red Wings to swing the momentum.

Gustav Nyquist and Drew Miller scored 31 seconds apart midway through a previously scoreless game, helping the Red Wings beat the Blackhawks 3-1 on Monday night for a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference second-round series.

The top-seeded Blackhawks refused to roll over, pulling to 2-1 on Patrick Kane's goal 4:35 into the third period, and were a judgment call away from tying it about a minute later. Andrew Shaw's goal, however, was waved off because he was in the crease, the officials ruling he interfered with Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard.

Chicago coach Joel Quenneville disagreed.

"He didn't touch the goalie," Quenneville said simply.

Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford couldn't touch Pavel Datsyuk's shot 6:46 into the final period, which had already come back out of the net before Crawford saw it.

Howard stopped 39 shots, while Crawford finished with 27 saves.

As good as seventh-seeded Detroit looked - scoring six straight goals to earn momentum in the series - its hard-driving coach isn't ready to celebrate.

"We haven't done anything yet," Mike Babcock said.

If the Red Wings keep playing this way, though, the Blackhawks will have a long offseason to wonder what went wrong in a season that looked as though it was going to be special.

On Thursday night at home in Game 4, Detroit has a shot to put Chicago on the brink of elimination.

"A lot of guys in this room have been in tough positions before in the playoffs and that's never stopped us," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "We know this is a long series and we're going to be fighting until the end."

Chicago's chances will improve if Toews can end his goal-scoring drought. Toews doesn't have a goal in nine playoff games, dating to last year, despite matching Patrick Kane with a team-high 23 goals in the 48-game, lockout-shortened season.

Toews did have a game-high seven shots in Game 3, but Howard and his back-checking, shot-blocking teammates wouldn't let him end his drought.

"If he keeps playing like that, it'll find a way to get in," Quenneville said.

Chicago has lost consecutive games for the first time in nearly two months. The Blackhawks began the season by setting an NHL record with at least a point in their first 24 games, ended it with a league-high 77 points and avoided any three-game losing streaks.

"The team is facing a little adversity and I am on a personal basis," Toews said. "Not going to let that stop us or me."

After a scoreless first period in a hot and steamy Joe Louis Arena, Detroit took a 2-0 lead with a pretty goal and a gritty one.

Nyquist patiently carried the puck from right to left and waited for defenseman Brent Seabrook and Crawford to sprawl out before shooting the puck into the open net.

"He's real good at hanging onto the puck," Babcock said.

Miller crashed the net to stuff the puck in after Patrick Eaves got to his own rebound to keep pressure on Crawford. Blackhawks defenseman Michal Rozsival started the sequence with a turnover in the Chicago zone.

It was a sixth straight unanswered goal in the series for the Red Wings, who lost the series opener 4-1 and gave up the first goal of Game 2 before going on to even the series with a 4-1 victory.

"They're a real good team and they're going to carry the play at times," Babcock said. "We're a good team and we're going to carry the play at times."

NOTES: Chicago hasn't given up a power-play goal in its first eight playoff games, matching the 2001 St. Louis Blues for the longest such streak since 1988, according to STATS. ... Babcock won his 77th postseason game, matching Quenneville for the most among active coaches. They both trail Pat Burns by one for eighth place on the NHL's all-time list. ... The Blackhawks put Viktor Stalberg back in the lineup and scratched Daniel Carcillo. Stalberg got shook up early in the game, missing a check and going head first into the boards.

© 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.
LONDON (AP) -- More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of now discredited research that linked the vaccine to autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease.

This year, the U.K. has had more than 1,200 cases of measles, after a record number of nearly 2,000 cases last year. The country once recorded only several dozen cases every year. It now ranks second in Europe, behind only Romania.

Last month, emergency vaccination clinics were held every weekend in Wales, the epicenter of the outbreak. Immunization drives have also started elsewhere in the country, with officials aiming to reach 1 million children aged 10 to 16.

"This is the legacy of the Wakefield scare," said Dr. David Elliman, spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, referring to a paper published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues that is widely rejected by scientists.

That work suggested a link between autism and the combined childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, called the MMR. Several large scientific studies failed to find any connection, the theory was rejected by at least a dozen major U.K. medical groups and the paper was eventually retracted by the journal that published it.

Britain's top medical board stripped Wakefield of the right to practice medicine in the U.K., ruling that he and two of his colleagues showed a "callous disregard" for the children in the study, subjecting them to unnecessary, invasive tests. As part of his research, Wakefield took blood samples from children at his son's birthday party, paying them about 5 pounds each ($7.60), and later joked about the incident.

Still, MMR immunization rates plummeted across the U.K. as fearful parents abandoned the vaccine - from rates over 90 percent to 54 percent. Wakefield has won support from parents suspicious of vaccines, including Hollywood celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son.

Nearly 15 years later, the rumors about MMR are still having an impact. Now there's "this group of older children who have never been immunized who are a large pool of infections," Elliman said.

The majority of those getting sick in the U.K. - including a significant number of older children and teens - had never been vaccinated. Almost 20 of the more than 100 seriously ill children have been hospitalized and 15 have suffered complications including pneumonia and meningitis. One adult with measles has died, though it's unclear if it was the disease that killed him.

The first measles vaccines were introduced in the 1960s, which dramatically cut cases of the rash-causing illness. Since 2001, measles deaths have dropped by about 70 percent worldwide; Cambodia recently marked more than a year without a single case.

Globally, though, measles is still one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 and kills more than 150,000 people every year, mostly in developing countries. Measles is highly contagious and is spread by coughing, sneezing and close personal contact with infected people; symptoms include a fever, cough, and a rash on the face.

Across the U.K., about 90 percent of children under 5 are vaccinated against measles and have received the necessary two doses of the vaccine. But among children now aged 10 to 16, the vaccination rate is slightly below 50 percent in some regions.

To stop measles outbreaks, more than 95 percent of children need to be fully immunized. In some parts of the U.K., the rate is still below 80 percent.

Unlike in the United States, where most states require children to be vaccinated against measles before starting school, no such regulations exist in Britain. Parents are advised to have their children immunized, but Britain's Department of Health said it had no plans to consider introducing mandatory vaccination.

Last year, there were 55 reported cases of measles in the United States, where the measles vaccination rate is above 90 percent. So far this year, there have been 22 cases, including three that were traced to Britain. In previous years, the U.K. has sometimes exported more cases of measles to the U.S. than some countries in Africa.

Portia Ncube, a health worker at an East London clinic, said the struggle to convince parents to get the MMR shot is being helped by the measles epidemic in Wales.

"They see what's happening in Wales, so some of them are now sensible enough to come in and get their children vaccinated," she said.

Clinic patient Ellen Christensen, mother of an infant son, acknowledged she had previously had some "irrational qualms" about the MMR vaccine.

"But after reading more about it, I know now that immunization is not only good for your own child, it's good for everyone," she said.

--- Online: Public Health England's Measles website: HTTP://WWW.HPA.ORG.UK/TOPICS/INFECTIOUSDISEASES/INFECTIONSAZ/MEASLES/ --- AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report. © 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.

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