Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox (4:05 p.m. EDT). The Windy City rivals begin a three-game interleague set. The two teams split their series at Wrigley Field last week with one game also getting rained out.

STARS

Thursday

-Chris Davis, Rangers, matched a career high with four hits, including the winning two-run homer in the 12th, as Texas defeated Arizona 9-8.

-Scott Podsednik, White Sox, lined a two-out RBI single in front of diving center fielder Matt Kemp in the 13th inning to give Chicago a 6-5 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

-Lance Berkman, Astros, homered twice and drove in four runs to help Houston overcome an error-filled day and beat Kansas City 5-4.

-Denard Span, Twins, tripled, walked three times and scored three runs in his first game back from the disabled list, and Minnesota topped Milwaukee 6-4.

-Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners, lined the 29th leadoff homer of his career into the right-field seats and finished a triple short of the cycle as Seattle beat San Diego 9-3.

-Hanley Ramirez, Marlins, hit a grand slam as Florida cruised past Baltimore 11-3.

-Joey Votto, Reds, had a tiebreaking home run among his four hits and Cincinnati avoided a sweep by beating Toronto 7-5.

STATS

San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez walked in the seventh inning of the Padres' 9-3 loss at Seattle on Thursday, breaking the franchise record for walks in June. He has been given 28 free passes this month. ... Detroit beat the Chicago Cubs to improve to 23-11 at Comerica Park for its best 34-game mark at home since the 1984 world championship team had the same start. ... Tampa Bay's Jason Bartlett extended his career-best hitting streak to a franchise-record 19 games in the Rays' 10-4 victory over Philadelphia.

SILENT MANNY

Manny Ramirez made himself scarce in the clubhouse and didn't talk to reporters as he came out for warmups for his final game with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes on Thursday night. Later, with the start of the contest delayed by rain, Ramirez wore street clothes when he walked through a back door of the clubhouse, stepped into a sedan with an associate and a Dodgers' security official and drove away.

MILESTONES

Alex Rodriguez tied Reggie Jackson with his 563rd home run, and Mariano Rivera earned his 499th career save in the New York Yankees' 11-7 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night. Rodriguez's 10th homer in the first, a solo shot, tied Jackson for 11th place on baseball's career list. ... Texas shortstop Omar Vizquel singled in the first inning of the Rangers' 9-8 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in 12 innings for his 2,678th career hit, the most by a native of Venezuela. The 42-year-old Vizquel moved ahead of Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio, who played in 107 fewer games.

SMOLTZ STRUGGLES

Boston's John Smoltz (0-1), who spent his previous 20 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, needed 34 pitches to get through the first inning of Washington's 9-3 win Thursday night. He settled down after that, giving up a run in the third but retiring the side in order in the second, fourth and fifth. His final line: five innings, seven hits, five runs, one walk, one hit batter and five strikeouts in 92 pitches.

EARLY PROBLEMS

Johan Santana went to 3-0 counts on four of his first 11 batters - something he hadn't done in an entire game in six years, not counting intentional walks - in the New York Mets' 3-2 win over St. Louis on Thursday. Santana (9-5) bounced back and gave up two runs - one earned - and seven hits in seven innings to win for the first time in three starts and lower his ERA to 3.08.

GRAND, GRAND SLAM

Hanley Ramirez hit his third grand slam of the season in the Florida Marlins' 11-3 win over Baltimore on Thursday night, tying him for the single-season franchise record with Cody Ross (2009), Jeff Conine (2004) and Bobby Bonilla (1997).

TURNING IT AROUND

Victor Martinez went 2 for 3 with a home run and scored twice in Cleveland's 3-2 loss at Pittsburgh on Thursday night. He entered the game hitless in his past 18 at-bats, but reached base three times. He was 3 for 42 against the National League this season, but singled, walked and led off the sixth with his 13th home run.

MAGS TAGS ONE

Magglio Ordonez ended a career-worst 40-game drought without a home run by connecting for the go-ahead shot, leading Detroit over the Cubs 6-5 on Thursday for its seventh straight victory. Ordonez connected for a two-run homer in the fourth inning.

FILLING IN

Willy Aybar, starting because Evan Longoria was resting a sore left hamstring, had a solo homer in the second and a two-run single in the sixth to lead Tampa Bay past Philadelphia 10-4. Rays, who dropped the World Series to the Phillies in five games, won two straight after dropping the opener of this week's rematch 10-1.

FIRSTS

The Cubs' Jake Fox hit his first homer in the majors, a three-run shot in the first inning of Chicago's 6-5 loss to Detroit on Thursday. ... Milwaukee's Mike Burns made his first career start, giving up four runs and six hits over 5 2-3 innings of a 6-4 loss to Minnesota. Burns was called up from Triple-A Nashville to replace Dave Bush, who went on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with a micro tear of the right triceps.

B-BOY MILESTONE

Houston's Lance Berkman homered twice and drove in four runs in the Astros' 5-4 win over Kansas City on Thursday to pass 1,000 RBIs. Berkman entered needing to drive in one run to become the third player in franchise history to reach 1,000. He did it on his first at-bat, a two-run shot that gave Houston a 2-1 lead and put him with fellow "Killer Bs'' Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio as the only Astros to reach the mark.

DRUG INVESTIGATION

Major League Baseball is cooperating with a federal investigation into where Manny Ramirez got the performance-enhancing drug that resulted in his 50-game suspension. The Drug Enforcement Administration is checking whether a doctor in Miami and his son were the source of the drug, ESPN reported Thursday. MLB president Bob DuPuy confirmed that baseball's department of investigations was working with the DEA. Ramirez was suspended in May for violating baseball's drug rules and can rejoin the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 3.

SORRY SOTO

Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto will not be suspended by Major League Baseball or his team after testing positive for marijuana at this year's World Baseball Classic. Soto, last season's NL Rookie of the Year, drew a two-year ban from international competition by the International Baseball Federation.

SIDELINED

Arizona's Eric Byrnes will require surgery after breaking his left hand and could miss four to eight weeks. Byrnes fractured the fifth metacarpal in his left hand when he was hit by a pitch in the second inning of the Diamondbacks' 9-8 loss to Texas in 12 innings. ... Seattle placed shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt on the 15-day DL with a strained hamstring. He could be out until after the All-Star break.

SPEAKING

"On the triple, I almost died because I hadn't played in 2 1/2 weeks, so I'm a little out of shape.'' - Minnesota's Denard Span who had been on the disabled list with an inner ear infection. Span tripled, walked three times and scored three runs in his first game back Thursday.

"If I had hair like that, I'd still be single.'' - Detroit manager Jim Leyland on outfielder Magglio Ordonez, who cut his flowing locks - which are being auctioned off on eBay for charity.

SEASONS

June 26

1916 - In a game against the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians appeared on the field with numbers on their sleeves. It marked the first time players were identified by numbers corresponding to the scorecard.

1938 - Lonny Frey of the Cincinnati Reds had eight hits in a doubleheader split with the Philadelphia Phillies. Frey had three hits in a 10-3 opening-game loss and collected five in the nightcap, which the Reds won 8-5.

1944 - In an effort to raise funds for war bonds, the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees played against each other in a six-inning contest at the Polo Grounds. More than 50,000 fans turned out. Each team played successive innings against the other two teams then would sit out an inning. The final score was Dodgers 5, Yankees 1, Giants 0.

1962 - Earl Wilson of the Boston Red Sox pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against the Los Angeles Angels at Fenway Park. Wilson also homered in the game.

1970 - Frank Robinson hit two grand slams in the Baltimore Orioles' 12-2 victory over the Washington Senators.

1976 - Shortstop Toby Harrah played an entire doubleheader for the Texas Rangers without handling a batted ball from the Chicago White Sox.

2000 - Minor league sensation Alex Cabrera hit a two-run homer in his first major league at-bat for Arizona as the Diamondbacks beat the Houston Astros 6-1.

2006 - Oregon State beats North Carolina 3-2 for its first College World Series title.

2008 - Matt Garza struck out 10 in a one-hitter, leading Tampa Bay to a 6-1 victory over the Florida Marlins.

Today's birthdays: Elijah Dukes 25; Luis Hernandez 25; Derek Jeter 35; Jason Kendall 35.



source : http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Shouldn’t summer vacation be over already? Our kids have work to do.

Do kids really need a three-month summer vacation? Or a puny six-and-a-half-hour school day? For some kids, sure, free time is great: Every moment is packed with camps, museum visits, picnics, tennis lessons and trips abroad. But for most, life is way duller. Hard times mean that ever more Houston kids are stuck home alone, unsupervised, their brains marinating in video games and cable TV. If ever there were a time to discuss extending school hours, this is it.

In March, President Obama started that conversation. He called not only to extend after-school programs, but to increase the number of hours in the school year. “We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day,” he said. “That calendar may have once made sense, but today, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children spend over a month less in school each year than children in South Korea. That is no way to prepare them for a 21st-century economy.”

Extra school time particularly helps minority and low-income kids. During summer vacation all kids tend to forget what they’ve learned. Academics call that well-documented slide “summer learning loss,” and studies show it’s greatest for the kids who can least afford it.

More school time is among open secrets behind the success of Houston’s KIPP and YES Prep charter-school systems, both of which have shown remarkable ability to propel low-income and minority kids into college. KIPPsters typically attend school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each weekday — plus go to school some Saturdays and for a few weeks each summer. During those extra hours, KIPP provides its students not only with more classes, but also with sports, art and field trips — the kind of enrichment that upper-class kids get at home.

Could the Houston Independent School District try something similar? The question strikes home for school board member Natasha Kamrani: She’s married to Chris Barbic, the founder and head of YES Prep, and she’s seen the effect those extra hours can have.

Kamrani is quick to point out that longer hours are expensive — teachers have to be paid — and that they aren’t a cure-all: Good stuff has to happen during those extra hours. In classes with the worst-performing teachers, Kamrani notes, students actually lose ground as the school year wears on. “Kids in those classes,” she says, “might be better off if they spent less time at school.”

But what if HISD were very careful in its approach? Kamrani is appalled by HISD’s dropout rate: Roughly 40 percent of HISD’s freshmen fail to graduate from high school. She notes that the district’s data shows that most dropouts have something significant in common: They start falling behind in fifth grade.

What if, she asks, the district made an all-out push to stop their fall as soon as it began? What if, in sixth grade, kids at risk were assigned the district’s most talented teachers? And what if those teachers had more hours to work their wiles? Would that be enough to turn the kids’ entire lives around?

The idea needs to be tried. And it needs to be tried immediately, before another class of sixth-graders slides out of reach.



source : http://www.chron.com