www.usatoday.com Baseball milestones, magic moments ' Buehrle’s gem among 10 highlights from the 2009 season, 5C Sports SECTION C

Monday, October 12, 2009 Perfect-game Mark Buehrle by Jim Prisching, AP Sportsline Scrappy Bengals top cats in AFC North

Baseball/ m4-6C Los Angeles 7, Boston 6New York 4, Minnesota 1 Cincy pulls October surprise, Hello, good byes m3, 5-6C The Philadelphia Eagles are Philadelphia at Colorado upsets Ravens in final minute 11-0 after a bye week under Football/NFL m2-3, 7-9C to lead rugged division at 4-1 coach Andy Reid. Pittsburgh 28, Detroit 20 N.Y. Giants 44, Oakland 7 Cleveland 6, Buffalo 3Dallas 26, Kansas City 20 (OT) By Jon Saraceno OT loss for Brady Minnesota 38, St. Louis 10 Cincinnati 17, Baltimore 14 USA TODAY Carolina 20, Washington 17 Philadelphia 33, Tampa Bay 14 New England Patriots QB Tom Atlanta 45, San Francisco 10 Seattle 41, Jacksonville 0 Brady was handed his first ca- BALTIMORE — A quick check of the standings in the Arizona 28, Houston 21 Denver 20, New England 17 (OT) reer overtime loss 20-1 7 by NFL’s AFC North reveals the defending Super Bowl cham- Indianapolis 31,Tennessee 9 the Denver Broncos. He’s 7-1. pion Pittsburgh Steelers are right where everyone thought Hockey/NHL m10C they would be ... ah, wait a minute. N.Y. Rangers 3, Anaheim 0 Vancouver 4, Dallas 3 (SO) Or is it the powerful Baltimore Ravens in control of the Peyton’s 300 club conference’s sledgehammer division in early October? The Indianapolis Colts’ Peyton Live NFL scores Don’t look now, but the Cincinnati Bengals (4-1 ) are in Manning joined Kurt Warner on your cellphone command — for now, anyway — and Steve Young as the only of one of pro football’s most bru- Send atext message to 44636 (4INFO) Cover story NFL passers to open a season with TEAM NAME (JAGUARS, RAVENS) tal divisions. Granted, it’s still by throwing for at least 300 or LEAGUE NAME (NFL). early, but if the Bengals’ inspiring yards in the first five games. 17-1 4 victory Sunday against the Ravens is any indication, Tiger perfect in Presidents Cup win the division’s old guard is in for a tussle. Pass-shy Browns Pittsburgh (3-2) and Baltimore (3-2), teams that tradi- SAN FRANCISCO — A perfect Tiger Woods exact- tionally have possessed two of the league’s strongest de- The Cleveland Browns’ two ed a measure of revenge Sunday in The Presidents fenses, played in the AFC Championship Game in January. completions in a 6-3 win vs. Cup. The International team did not. Woods be- The Bengals have defeated both this season. the Buffalo Bills are the fewest came the third player to go 5-0 in the brief history “We didn’t deserve to be talked about” going into this for a victorious team since the of the biennial match-play golf event, clinching the season, said quarterback Carson Palmer, who engineered Cincinnati Bengals did it in a 1 1 USA’s 19 ⁄2-1 4 ⁄ 2 win at Harding Park with a his third consecutive comeback win and capped an 31-21 win vs. Denver in 2000. 13th-hole birdie to close out a 6-and-5 thrashing of 11-play, 80-yard drive by throwing a 20-yard scoring dart Y.E. Yang, who came from behind in the final round to Andre Caldwell with 22 seconds left. “It’s nice to be the to top the world No. 1 in the PGA Championship in underdog. You don’t have that extra pressure. You surprise u5-0 start best ever August. The Internationals fell to 1- 6-1 in the series. for Favre. Replay, 3C “(Yang) got me there, and I figured I could get him Please see COVER STORY next page u here,” Woods said. “It certainly was not exactly the uBroncos’ McDaniels same atmosphere, but then it still was an important At nfl.usatoday.com beats mentor, 7C point. We played great as a team. ... And the guys By Rob Carr, AP uPhoto gallery of Week 5 highlights made putts this week.” — Steve DiMeglio Game-winner: The Bengals pulled out a 17-1 4 win on Andre uReview Sunday’s best and worst in uMcNabb returns to uWoods, Mickelson lead way, 9C Caldwell’s 20-yard touchdown catch with 22 seconds left. The Huddle blog lead Eagles, 9C Johnson wins, take Chase lead FONTANA, Calif. — Jimmie Johnson seized the Chase for the Sprint Cup points lead with his fifth victory of 2009, holding off Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon on a restart with three laps remaining Sunday at Auto Club Speedway. John- son’s No. 48 Chevrolet led a race-high 126 laps to give him a 12-point lead on teammate Mark Martin, who was fourth. “What an awesome car and an awesome day,” Johnson said. Juan Pablo Montoya (third) remained third in points. Gordon gained two spots to move into fifth with six races left in NASCAR’s 10-race title run. — Nate Ryan uChase shapes up as Montoya vs. Hendrick, 2C Florida, , Alabama stay 1-2-3 Voters in the USA TODAY Coaches’ Poll agree on the top three college football teams. Their order is not universal. Defending champ Florida made a strong case for maintaining the top spot it has occu- pied all season with a 13-3 win at then-No. 4 LSU. The Gators topped 53 of the 59 ballots to stay ahead of second-ranked Texas. But Florida’s grip loosened as No. 3 Alabama, equally impressive on defense in a22-3 victory at Mississippi, claimed five No. 1 votes and 11 No. 2’s. The Tide had one first-place vote last week. Alabama and Florida would meet in the Southeastern Conference title game if they win out. The Tide moved into a tie with Texas at No. 2 in the Harris Interactive poll. The coaches’ and Harris polls (along with six computer ratings) are part of the Bowl Championship Series formula that deter- mines the teams playing for the BCS title. The first BCS standings will be released Sunday. Florida would be the No. 1 team if the standings were re- leased this week, CollegeBCS.com analyst Jerry Palm said. — Eddie Timanus uComplete coaches’ poll, 10C USA books Cup trip to South Africa The U.S. men’s soccer team was filled with joy and consumed with relief Saturday after clinching a 2010 World Cup berth with a 3-2 win at Honduras. “Hopefully, the sky’s the limit for us. We’ve played big games in the last few years,” goalkeeper Tim Howard said. The berth is the USA’s sixth in a row. By Jim Rogash, Getty Images Turnabout: Teammates greet closer Brian Fuentes and catcher Jeff Mathis after the Angels avenged three recent AL Division Series eliminations by the Red Sox. Moeller tops Elder in Ohio battle No. 20 Elder (Cincinnati) was the only team in the USA TODAY Super 25 high school football rank- ings to lose during the weekend, falling 35-1 3 to Angels, Yankees sweep into ALCS Moeller (Cincinnati), which improved to 7- 0. uComing Tuesday: Super 25 rankings

Compiled from staff and wire reports L.A.’s 3-run 9th Today’s NL Division Series game finishes Red Sox; uPhiladelphia Phillies at , 6:07 p.m. ET, TBS Our view N.Y. ousts Twins Friday’s AL Championship Series game uLos Angeles Angels at , time TBA, Fox uKeeping Score: Drew Sharp: Past shows the NFL will embrace Limbaugh despite his words, 3C By Mike Dodd USA TODAY At baseball.usatoday.com See how high school football teams from uThe -Colorado Rockies game was our national Super 25 rankings fared during The New York Yankees took the weekend at preps.usatoday.com not over in time for this edition; get highlights and afamiliar path to the Ameri- game results online can League Championship Se- uUSA TODAY’s Mr. October tracks this postseason’s ® ries on Sunday night, setting most prolific pressure performers USA TODAY Snapshots up a matchup with the Los uSee a photo gallery of division series action Angeles Angels, who used Postseason goose eggs ninth-inning drama to break a history of heartbreak. (another day). Half an inning us a lot of momentum.” Josh Beckett has earned a reputation for coming up big in the playoffs by tossing three postseason Los Angeles rallied to beat later, you’re going home.” The Twins’ had shutouts. Most postseason shutouts: the 7- 6 in Papelbon had never yield- an RBI single in the sixth in- Christy Game 3 of their AL Division ed a run in 17 postseason ning, but and Mathewson Series at , aveng- games. Jorge Posada hit seventh-in- 4 ing three consecutive playoff “This is one of the best ning home runs for New York. Josh Beckett series losses to the Red Sox. By Eric Miller, Reuters games of my life,” said Angels “You talk about putting a 3 3 The Yankees beat the Minne- Got him: The Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez exults after tagging out right fielder , team together — pitching, de- sota Twins 4-1 to give the the Twins’ at third base in the eighth inning. whose two-out in the fense, hitting, we’ve got all 3 Yankees three division series ninth drove in the first run of that,” Yankees Joe Mordecai wins vs. the Twins since 2003. were down to their last strike “The season doesn’t wind the three-run rally. Girardi said. “Our defense was Brown They will play the Angels in with Red Sox closer Jonathan down — it just comes crash- “Part of it is Boston; they’re excellent, and we’re going to abest-of-seven series begin- Papelbon on the mound. ing to a halt,” Red Sox man- adeep club. We didn’t match need that to move forward.” ning Friday at Yankee Stadi- Three times, the hitters ager said. “You up well with them a couple of um. The Angels might still be reached base, setting up Vla- go into the top of the inning years,” Angels manager Mike Contributing: Mel Antonen Source: Baseball-reference.com buzzing from Sunday’s win. dimir Guerrero’s two-run excited because you think Scioscia said. “The way we from Minneapolis; Dodd re- By Matt Eppers and Veronica Salazar, USA TODAY Three times, the Angels bloop single for the sweep. you’re going to keep playing did it in the sweephas to give ported from Boston

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