Cardinals

ST. LOUIS From his customary open-air perch high above the Busch Stadium playing field, Mike Shannon was putting his own folksy finishing touch on another St. Louis Cardinals broadcast Thursday afternoon. It was a beautiful day at the ballpark, full of high skies, gentle breezes and good baseball, and you could hear Shannon's unmistakable voice cackling throughout every loudspeaker in the stadium's broad corridors. He sprinkled that familiar "Heh, hehh, hehhh," into every segment of the radio broadcast, then finished the day with a big and satisfied grin as the Cardinals completed a series sweep of the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates.

1 Run Stephen Davis. They need to run Davis 37 times the way they did against the Cardinals to keep Peyton Manning off the field.2 Avoid interceptions. Brad Johnson has thrown 10 in the past six games after throwing just two in the first seven games.3 Contain Manning. The Redskins can't stop him, but they'll try to slow him, as the Patriots did last week.

Throwing 90 mph doesn't guarantee victory, even in high school, as Mount St. Joseph sophomore right-hander Gavin Floyd found out yesterday.Floyd (9-1) suffered his first loss by 11-5 to No. 3-ranked Calvert Hall. The top-ranked Gaels' ace, Floyd (9-1) also found out that good hitters hit the heat when it comes in straight.He had velocity but little movement yesterday, and Calvert Hall jumped on him for eight hits and eight runs in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference contest.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- An NCAA reprieve and tradition weren't enough to carry Louisville yesterday.The seventh-seeded Cardinals blew a halftime lead for only the third time this season and watched their chance for a meeting with Maryland disintegrate in a 62-58 upset loss to Creighton before 10,032 fans in the first round of the South Regional.Louisville (19-11) had a 40-27 advantage and the game in control with 16 minutes remaining when Bluejays coach Dana Altman pulled the master stroke, shifting into a zone press, then backing his team into a matchup defense after the Cardinals had crossed half court.

Quote: "It's a situation where you can't expect to win day-in and day-out if you don't play steady ball. We're just not playing solid, steady ball."Kevin Brown, losing pitcher for the Dodgers, who have lost seven of nineIt's a fact: The Marlins have hit 27 home runs on the road and just 12 at home.Who's hot: The Pirates' Jason Kendall has reached base in 21 of his past 29 plate appearances.Who's not: Cardinals rookie pitcher Jose Jimenez is 0-5 with a 9.49 ERA his past five starts.On deck: Kent Bottenfield of the Cardinals goes for his eighth win of the season tonight.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Arizona Cardinals are a good story.The Minnesota Vikings are a good football team.That's why today's divisional playoff game between the Vikings and the Cardinals isn't even expected to be a speed bump on the Vikings' road to the Super Bowl.The 10-7 Cardinals are the feel-good story of this football season, but they don't figure to be a match for the 15-1 Vikings.The Vikings, favored by 15 1/2 points, are the highest-scoring team in NFL history, while the Cardinals are 21st in defense.

QuestionsWhat's up with Titans RB Eddie George? He's averaging 2.9 yards a carry this season, gained only 26 yards on 15 carries against the 49ers, and has almost as many yards receiving (181) as rushing (222).Are the unbeaten Rams for real? We'll know shortly. They play San Francisco on Sunday and are 1-17 against the 49ers this decade with 17 straight losses.What has happened to Cardinals QB Jake Plummer? In four games, he's completing 48.9 percent of his passes with only two touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

PHILADELPHIA -- Like so many former Orioles, Heathcliff Slocumb is getting the last laugh. But the veteran reliever still can't believe that his career with the Orioles lasted only 8 2/3 innings."

Norv Turner, who has nothing to lose but his job, can't afford to play it safe today.That's because the Washington Redskins' coach, hanging onto a tenuous, one-game lead in the NFC East, finds himself going against the NFL's version of Houdini when his team plays host to the Arizona Cardinals.He's Jake Plummer, who can be handcuffed underwater in a straitjacket and still emerge in the end zone.In 33 NFL appearances, Plummer has directed the Cardinals to 11 comeback wins after his team was tied or trailing in the final quarter.

EastThe Cardinals have won four straight regular-season games, their longest winning streak since 1988. They have won 10 of their past 17, seven on game-winning kicks. In 10 of 26 career starts, Jake Plummer has led the Cardinals back from fourth-period deficits. Plummer faces a Miami team the Cardinals have not beaten in seven tries. The last time the Giants got more than one touchdown without the offense scoring one before last Sunday in Tampa was in 1951, when Tom Landry got one of them on a 9-yard fumble recovery.

In a topsy-turvy season in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference, fourth-ranked Calvert Hall remained steady with a complete performance Friday against No. 13 Loyola. The Cardinals suffered two losses earlier in the week but dominated the visiting Dons for a 4-0 victory. Pete Caringi led the Cardinals with two goals, and he said his team is formidable when it plays hard for 80 minutes. With the victory, Calvert Hall took over sole possession of second place behind McDonogh.

Tagged as the team to beat from the start in the country's finest boys lacrosse league, No. 1 Gilman stayed on course and saved its best for last in Monday's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship against No. 2 Calvert Hall. With balanced scoring, gritty work in the middle and stingy play in back, the Greyhounds came away with a 13-7 win over the Cardinals before an estimated 4,500 at Towson University's Johnny Unitas Stadium. It's the fourth MIAA championship for Gilman, which finished the season with a 15-1 mark.

Second-ranked Calvert Hall had not beaten No. 5 Loyola in lacrosse since 2003 going into Friday's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference matchup, so the Cardinals' seniors talked this week about ending that drought. However, it was junior Phil Castronova who stopped the frustration. He scored three goals, including the game-winner with 1:49 remaining, to give the host Cardinals a 9-8 victory in front of an estimated 2,000. Calvert Hall, which overcame a three-goal deficit at halftime, remains tied with Gilman for first place in the A Conference.

Mostly quiet in the first half yesterday against No. 4 Boys' Latin, the No. 2 Calvert Hall boys lacrosse team found its mark on offense in the third quarter. In the fourth, the host Cardinals slammed the door. Senior attackman Patrick Fanshaw scored four goals - the last two early in the pivotal fourth, as the Cardinals shook off the Lakers, 12-8, in Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference play. Calvert Hall (5-1) improves to 2-0 in the league, handing Boys' Latin (7-1, 1-1)

[1] Maryland women vs. [3] Louisville What: Raleigh Regional final When: 7 p.m. Where: RBC Center, Raleigh, N.C. TV: ESPN Contrasting styles: Jeff Walz spent five seasons assisting coach Brenda Frese at Maryland before taking the head coaching job at Louisville. But as he pointed out yesterday, their two teams have different philosophies: "Maryland does an outstanding job on the offensive end," Walz said. "They can score points as fast as anyone I've seen. ... Defensively, I think we can do a pretty good job of making it tough for teams to score."

Angel McCoughtry and Candyce Bingham remembered the crushing feeling they had in the locker room last year after Louisville blew a huge lead and lost in the NCAA tournament. This time, the Cardinals gathered at midcourt to celebrate with a few screams of joy after the horn. McCoughtry (St. Frances) had 22 points and 12 rebounds, and Bingham sparked the decisive second-half run to help the Cardinals beat Baylor, 56-39, on Saturday, sending them to the first regional championship game in school history.

The crushing full-court press wasn't getting anything done against unflappable Siena. A double-digit lead had evaporated. And, from those black folding chairs on the Louisville bench to the plastic red-and-blue seats all around the arena, it was clear to everyone that the top-seeded team was starting to panic. Coach Rick Pitino called a timeout and made a challenge. "You've got to prove to yourselves now you're a great basketball team," he told his rattled players. His carefree senior got the message.

DIG THE LONG BALL The Orioles had 14 hits in their first Grapefruit League victory yesterday, and the three most memorable ones were delivered by Justin Christian, Nolan Reimold and Scott Moore. Christian tied the game in the second inning with a two-run homer off Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse. Two batters later, Reimold drove a pitch by Lohse over the left-field wall for another two-run homer. Moore hit a three-run shot off Brad Furnish in the sixth inning. AN IMPRESSION Reimold and Brandon Snyder, two of the organization's top prospects, had productive afternoons.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -The Orioles yesterday sent to the mound three pitchers who were coming back after long injury layoffs and got mixed results, but nobody was complaining after the team hammered the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-3, for its first victory of the Grapefruit League exhibition season. Matt Albers, who has been rehabilitating a labrum tear since the middle of last season, pitched two perfect innings of relief, which has to be very encouraging after months of wondering whether he could come back from the shoulder injury without undergoing surgery.

The Cardinals fired defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast yesterday, less than a week after Arizona played the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. "Like every decision, it comes down to what's best for the team and what gives us the best chance to win," coach Ken Whisenhunt said in a statement released by the team. Pendergast's departure leaves the team without two coordinators. Offensive coordinator Todd Haley was named coach of the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday. Pendergast, 41, was hired by Dennis Green in 2004 and stayed on when Whisenhunt took over in 2007.