Herzlich Willkommen » They were sharp

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Angels had just won the opener of a pivotal three-game series against the team theyre chasing in the AL West, yet manager Mike Scioscia was still fuming about a replay reversal that took a home run away from Mike Trout. Trout ended up with an RBI double and Garrett Richards had another impressive outing, leading the Angels over the Oakland Athletics 4-1 Monday night for their fourth straight victory. The Angels pulled within 3 1/2 games of the As in the division. Oakland manager Bob Melvin challenged first base umpire Bob Davidsons home run call on Trouts towering drive to right field in the fifth inning, believing the ball was touched by a fan at the top of the 18-foot wall. After the call was overturned, Scioscia came out to argue and was ejected by Davidson. "I dont know how they overturned the home run. That ball was over the yellow line when it hit that guys glove. Theres no doubt," Scioscia said. "I dont know what they saw in New York -- and thats part of the frustration that I have with this whole system. Theres no way thats indisputable evidence that that was not a home run." Trout was running too hard to notice what happened. "I really didnt think I got enough of it to go out. I was thinking three bases the whole time," he said. "Running around second, I thought it hit high off the wall so I just put my head down and was busting it to third." Trouts only hit of the game drove in Hank Conger, who had bunted his way on and continued to second on the first of three throwing errors by third baseman Josh Donaldson -- two of which led to unearned runs. "Its just one of those things where it just kept building," Donaldson said. Richards (6-2) allowed a run and four hits, struck out four and walked none. The right-hander, who pitched four-hit ball through eight innings last Wednesday in a 4-0 win at Houston, gave up just two harmless singles over his final 5 1-3 innings against an offence that came in leading the majors in runs and on-base percentage. The last time Richards faced the As on May 30, he gave up five runs and got only two outs. He entered Monday 0-3 with a 7.50 ERA in his six previous career starts against the As. "I wasnt really thinking about it too much," Richards said. "But in the back of your mind, you want to do better than you did. ... I felt like this time was my turn to come out and show them what Ive got." Joe Smith pitched a perfect eighth inning and Ernesto Frieri struck out the side in the ninth for his 11th save. Jesse Chavez (5-4) allowed three runs -- two earned -- and eight hits in six innings with five strikeouts. It was the ninth time in his 13 starts this season that he yielded fewer than three earned runs, but his record in those games is only 4-2. The Angels, coming off sweep of the Chicago White Sox, were out to avenge a three-game sweep by the Athletics 1 1/2 weeks earlier at Oakland. They broke a 1-all tie in the fourth with a bloop RBI single by Raul Ibanez. Ibanezs hit drove in David Freese, who drew a leadoff walk after walking all four times up in Sundays game. Stephen Vogt and Yoenis Cespedes each had two hits against Richards. Vogt opened the scoring in the second inning with a two-out RBI single after a double by Cespedes. Chavez hit Conger on the right elbow with his first pitch of the third, after Richards plunked John Jaso on the left foot with two out and the bases empty in the top half. Conger hustled to third on Kole Calhouns bloop single to left-centre and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly by Trout, who was robbed of extra bases on a leaping catch by centre fielder Coco Crisp a few feet in front of the fence. Conger added an RBI single in the eighth against Jim Johnson. Scioscia said before the game that Tuesday nights scheduled starter, Tyler Skaggs, will go on the 15-day disabled list because of a right hamstring strain. Hector Santiago was expected to be recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake to make the start. NOTES: Scioscias ejection was his first this season and 37th since becoming Angels manager in 2000. ... The Athletics failed to hit a home run after getting at least one in each of their previous 16 games (27 total). ... Richards next start will be in Atlanta next weekend. He has allowed no more than two runs or five hits in any of his six road starts this season. ... Oakland 1B Alberto Callaspo, whom the As acquired from the Angels in July 2013, was 0 for 3 is hitless in 13 career at-bats against Richards. Chance Sisco Jersey . The league announced Thursday that Tom Higgins is leaving that post effective immediately. Mike Mussina Jersey . Sami Salo scored two goals as the Canucks overcame a hat-trick from Edmonton Oiler rookie sensation Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to win 4-3 in NHL action Saturday. https://www.cheaporioles.com/1398i-mike-...ey-orioles.html. However, it wasnt a problem on Monday night. Evgeni Nabokov made 23 saves for his 56th career shutout in the New York Islanders 3-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night. J.J. Hardy Jersey . The 10-horse field of 3-year-old pacers will leave the starting gate at approximately 10:14pm et. Co-owned and trained by David Menary, Hes Watching will be driven by Tim Tetrick and is the 5-1 fourth selection in the field. Pedro Severino Jersey .Y. - Rob Manfred was promoted Monday to Major League Baseballs chief operating officer, which may make him a candidate to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner. ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild were denied at the net by Semyon Varlamov time after time, a 44-shot barrage in regulation that resulted in, alas, zero goals. Coach Mike Yeo jokingly wondered aloud at the third intermission whether his team was "psychotic" to put itself through such angst. After all, the way this sport often goes, the next score in the scoreless game had the strong potential to be one of those bad-bounce goals that make a night of domination go for naught. Mikael Granlund made sure that didnt happen. Granlunds diving goal 5:08 into overtime gave the Wild a 1-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 on Monday. Minnesota pulled within 2-1 in the best-of-seven series after Varlamov stopped 45 of 46 shots, a franchise playoff record for shots on goal by the Wild. "You see it so many times where teams do so well and get chance after chance after chance and then a fluky one goes in against you. Luckily. that wasnt the case," said Wild left wing Zach Parise. Granlund, who had a career-high seven shots on goal, sliced toward the crease and moved parallel to the net with some slick stick work. Avalanche defenceman Erik Johnson, who saved Game 1 by racing to swat away a shot on an empty net, lost his balance and tried unsuccessfully to dive at Granlund, who then began to fall forward. Granlund extended his stick to knock the puck in, and the celebration ensued. "We were playing really good. We were creating chances. We got rewarded. We need to just keep playing like that," Granlund said. Game 4 is at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday, when the Avalanche will be without defenceman Tyson Barrie. He took a knee-to-knee hit in the second period that yielded a penalty for Matt Cooke and a medial collateral ligament injury for Barrie. Coach Patrick Roy said hell be need four to six weeks to recover. "Knee on Tyson Barrie is without a doubt the play of the game. We lost our best offensive defenceman," Roy said, expressing confidence the NHL will suspend Cooke. Darcy Kuemper made 22 saves, and the Wild goalie in his first career playoff start was juust as good as Varlamov.dddddddddddd He said he had a feeling this would be a one-goal game. "I just tried to stick with it and make the saves I had to," Kuemper said. "My teammates were obviously playing unbelievable and making it easy on me. I was just trying to do my job and stay sharp." After the Avalanche line of Nathan MacKinnon, Paul Stastny and Gabe Landeskog combined for 17 points and seven goals over the first two games, the Wild kept them from doing any damage. The Wild shuffled their lines, with veteran Dany Heatleys move off the scratch list the most notable change, and played their style. They didnt get enough guys to the net for long rebounds Varlamov has a tendency to produce, but they completely controlled the flow, even if there wasnt much to show for it. "We were a little on our heels. We couldve been a little bit better, played a little more simple," MacKinnon said. After wasting a 4-2 lead in Game 1, giving up the tying goal with 13 seconds left to Stastny, as well as the overtime winner, the Wild badly needed to recapture some energy. They did from the opening faceoff, firing up a crowd thats been waiting 11 years for a playoff series victory. The Wild finally figured out how to contain the super-fast MacKinnon, forcing the 18-year-old wonder to have to stay in his own zone. They had the Avalanche on their heels for the majority of regulation. Cooke was all over the ice in his 100th career playoff game, colliding with just about every white Colorado jersey. "We didnt play up to what were capable of, theres no doubt. But Id rather give them credit. They played well. They were sharp. They were the better team on the ice," Roy said, adding yet more praise for Varlamov. Thanks to Granlund, the Wild avoided the huge hole. "Lets not kid ourselves. This is a huge win for us, not only to get the win but the way that we played the game, the way that we played our game," Yeo said. "We know that next game is going to be even bigger and a tougher test, and were going to have to be real good. But theres no question that we needed this one." ' ' '