Detroit

The Blast's drive toward a playoff berth hit a detour last night and the return of Adauto Neto was not sufficient to put the team back on course. Second-place Detroit capitalized on its long-range shooting and a number of narrow misses by the Blast to score an important 10-6 victory, its eighth in the past 11 games. The result left the expansion Ignition with a 4-1 advantage in the season series, including two wins at 1st Mariner Arena. Neto, the Major Indoor Soccer League's Most Valuable Player last season, made his 2007 debut by taking regular shifts, but did not score as the Blast's two-game winning streak ended.

The 1st Mariner Arena isn't Wrigley Field, but it certainly has been the friendly confines for the Blast this season. When the team plays at home tonight for the first time in nearly a month, it will be seeking to protect an unblemished (4-0) record here that has served as a counterpoint to the opposite results on the road. The disparity has the Blast (4-5) floating in the middle of the Major Indoor Soccer League standings, so protecting its turf is essential until there is a turnaround in games elsewhere.

WITH LAST WEEK'S news that Toyota had surpassed General Motors as the world's most prolific carmaker, and the coming 40th anniversaries of many of the urban riots of the 1960s, I decided to reread Thomas Sugrue?s The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. First published in 1996 by Princeton University Press, and reissued two years ago, the widely acclaimed book is about the erstwhile Motor City but has broader applications; as Sugrue wrote in the original version, "Detroit's journey from urban heyday to urban crisis has been mirrored in other cities across the nation."

PLYMOUTH, Mich. -- For 47 frustratingly fruitless minutes last night, the Blast tried to find its goal-scoring groove. But as time wore on, shot attempt after shot attempt missed its mark, clanking off the post or sailing high. During the Blast's scoring drought, the Detroit Ignition took advantage of defensive miscues, turning an early two-goal deficit into an 11-4 win at Compuware Arena, ending Baltimore's five-game winning streak. Mike Apple's third-quarter power-play goal broke a 4-4 tie before Matt Johnson's three-point goal and Ryan Mack's empty-netter capped Detroit's fifth win in its past six meetings with the Blast.

DETROIT -- News that DaimlerChrysler AG was discussing the possibility of selling the Chrysler unit to General Motors Corp. cheered its mostly German stockholder base yesterday, but drew jeers elsewhere. Analysts and industry executives questioned why GM, whose own turnaround efforts are still under way, would use some of its $26.4 billion in cash raised by selling profitable assets such as GMAC to buy another unprofitable North American automaker. The companies declined to comment on the reports.

DETROIT -- As Detroit manager Larry Parrish filled out his lineup card yesterday, he scribbled Gregg Jefferies' name as the designated hitter. Upon further review, however, he decided to use Bill Haselman because of his career numbers against Orioles starter Mike Mussina.Granted, Haselman's .308 average was built in only 13 at-bats, but Parrish was desperate for an edge, something the Tigers never seem to have when facing Mussina.Especially not here. And not even when Mussina is slightly off his game.

DETROIT -- Despite the disappointment of barely missing the NPSL playoffs, the Blast ended the 1998-99 campaign on a high note, thanks to Mark Thomas.Playing in just his 13th game of the year, Thomas scored with 17.4 seconds left to give the Blast a 15-14 win over the Detroit Rockers in the season finale for both teams, before a crowd of 6,963 at Joe Louis Arena.With the Blast trailing 14-13 in the final minute, Thomas was stationed just off the left post as teammate Danny Santoro looked for an opening.

As Ravens officials were courting Detroit Lions quarterback Scott Mitchell over dinner last night, one of the team's best players, defensive tackle James Jones, already had found his meal ticket in the city Mitchell is trying to leave.In a stunning development, the Ravens lost out in their bid to re-sign Jones, an unrestricted free agent, who has agreed in principle to a six-year deal with the Lions worth an average of $3.9 million that includes a $4.3 million signing bonus. The contract has option clauses that could end it after four years, according to a league source.

It was happening to Mike Mussina all over again. He wasn't giving up much last night, but he also wasn't getting enough support. And lurking in the shadows was another crushing defeat, the kind that flattens a potential 20-win season and makes a pitcher question his fate.The hammer fell in the seventh inning when a double by Detroit's Brad Ausmus scored Kimera Bartee with the go-ahead run. It struck even harder in the eighth when Mussina served up two homers on consecutive pitches in the Tigers' 4-3 victory over the Orioles that ended a nine-game losing streak before 41,708 at Camden Yards.

DETROIT -- Given medical clearance on Tuesday to do "whatever you can handle," Will Clark has been running and taking ground balls as he readies for a return from the fractured left thumb that forced him onto the disabled list retroactive to April 19.Orioles manager Ray Miller said the first baseman also is supposed to start hitting off a tee, but Clark still is dealing with some swelling that affects his grip.Clark said the thumb wasn't as tender to the touch yesterday as on Friday. However, he couldn't project when he'd be able to swing a bat, let alone reclaim his position in the lineup.

DETROIT -- Orioles players and management knew that by handing the ball to a youth movement this season, especially for the perpetually brutal second-half schedule, the club's win-loss record could end up unseemly. If the first 20 games after the All-Star break are any indication, however, the Orioles could continue to teeter on a near-historic line of futility for the franchise. After losing, 7-3, to the Detroit Tigers Thursday afternoon, the Orioles have dropped six of their past seven and 15 of 20 since the All-Star break.

DETROIT - - Officially, the Orioles lost their fourth straight Monday night, when Clete Thomas' 426-foot missile landed over the center field wall for a 6-5 Detroit Tigers victory in the bottom of the ninth. In reality, the Orioles handed the game over in the first, when their right-handed phenom struggled to preserve a five-run lead and their offense couldn't keep piling on after initially bashing one of baseball's best pitchers. The Orioles (44-61) have lost 13 of their 17 games since the All-Star break, and nine have come by two runs or fewer.

MLB Orioles draft picks (Rounds 31-50) No. Player Ps. Sch. 926. Flacco 3B Catonsville CC 956. Nadolski P a-Casa Grande 986. Naquin RF b-Klein Collins 1016. Clpsddl P c-Oviedo HS 1046. Lucas C d-West Vigo 1076. Firth P e-Stevenson 1106. Rogers P f-Chatfield HS 1136. Dowdy P Appalachian St 1166 Alexander P c-Taravella HS 1196. Shore P Palomar Col 1226. Magleby P a-Del Oro HS 1256. Velleggia C ODU 1286. Decater SS Cuesta Col 1316. Westwd P c-Palm Harbor 1346. Rivera LF Francisco Oller 1376.

Baltimore may lose a No. 1 ranking, and city officials have no problem relinquishing the title. Detroit police said Thursday that their 2008 homicide total reported by the FBI this week was incorrect, an error that had given Baltimore the distinction of being the most murderous large city in the country. Rod Liggons, a Detroit police spokesman, said the city in January reported 339 homicides to the state of Michigan, which submits figures to the federal government. But the number that the FBI distributed this week as part of its annual crime report was 306, a difference of more than 11 percent.

Detroit beat the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday to win the three-game series. The Tigers have won nine of their past 12 games since they were swept by the Minnesota Twins in the middle of the month. A major reason has been the performance of their pitching staff, which entered play Wednesday with a 3.88 ERA. Ace right-hander Justin Verlander, whom the Orioles will see Saturday, has won his past five decisions and given up one earned run or fewer in four of them. Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera leads the American League with a .374 batting average to go along with 10 home runs.

While one can make a reasonable argument that the recent bailout of the financial sector was necessary to prevent a massive blow to the national and global economies as a result of a situation that came about unexpectedly and had to be handled decisively, one cannot make that argument about the U.S. auto industry ("Saving the Big Three," editorial, Oct. 25). General Motors, Chrysler and Ford have spent the last four decades fighting the kind of innovation that would have made them viable, profitable car producers today.

DETROIT - It started early with the first five Orioles to bat getting hits, and it didn't let up until the scoreboard was so saturated with crooked numbers that it looked like it belonged next door at Ford Field, the home of the defensively challenged Detroit Lions. By the end of the fifth inning at Comerica Park yesterday, the Orioles had scored 13 runs and collected 14 hits. By the end of the sixth, all nine starters had batted at least four times and gotten at least one hit, making Garrett Olson's latest outing, which manager Dave Trembley described as "disturbing for me to watch," an afterthought for at least a couple of hours.

With the raid of Mayor Sheila Dixon's house, the complicated financial investigation that has bubbled through Baltimore news cycles for years officially jumped the local threshold. Political and public relations experts say this whiff of scandal will likely be an investigative cloud hovering over Baltimore's executive office, taking time and attention from pressing city business and potentially thwarting Dixon's agenda for progress. Though Dixon has not been charged with any wrongdoing and an investigation involving government contracts hardly tips the public's meter for salaciousness - as has, for instance, the sex scandal involving Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick - political watchers say it doesn't take being caught in a hotel room with a crack pipe, as Washington's Marion Barry was, to tarnish a city's reputation or to hobble its renaissance.

Game 5 ended too late to be included in this edition. Go to www.baltimoresun.com for coverage. DETROIT --Plan B has worked out pretty well for the Detroit Red Wings. The NHL's top-seeded team planned to put Dominik Hasek in goal during the playoffs and keep him there. "Dom is not going to struggle," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said the day before the postseason started, attempting to shoot down a question about the possibility of playing Chris Osgood. But when Hasek struggled against the Nashville Predators, Babcock benched the six-time Vezina Trophy winner in favor of Osgood during Game 4 of the first round.

The Blast fell into a gigantic hole last night at 1st Mariner Arena and couldn't dig all the way out. As a result, Detroit beat the Blast for the second time in eight days, riding a big halftime advantage to a 19-11 Major Indoor Soccer League triumph before 8,228. A trend that began in the Ignition's first season last year continued as its lead in the series ballooned to seven wins to one. The defeat was the third straight for the Blast after the team opened the season with five consecutive victories.