Ejection

Orioles right-hander Kevin Millwood pitched into the seventh inning in his first outing in more than two weeks, outlasting his first baseman, his manager and his pitching coach. Heading into the bottom of the seventh in Thursday night's 5-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins, the Orioles had as many hits as ejections: Three. On a steamy, muggy Baltimore evening, the spirited crowd of an announced 20,108 witnessed Earl Weaver -like rants from interim manager Juan Samuel and first baseman Ty Wigginton, ignited by a questionable call that the umpire later acknowledged he missed.

Baltimore City firefighters responded Sunday to a single-vehicle accident on Perring Parkway in which several passengers, including teenagers and children, were ejected from a sport utility vehicle and had life-threatening injuries. Eight medic units from Baltimore County and the city went to Perring Parkway and Woodburn Avenue about 6 p.m. and began treating eight patients who were scattered around the scene, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Department.

It took more than two periods and the ejection of their best player for the Washington Capitals to get fully invested in the game. But when they awoke, Nicklas Backstrom and his teammates finally looked like the NHL's best team. Backstrom scored two of Washington's four unanswered goals, including one late in overtime, to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3, in a game that might well have been a preview of this year's Stanley Cup Finals. Thanks to another controversial hit by two-time NHL Most Valuable Player Alex Ovechkin, however, Backstrom's end-to-end rush in the extra session wasn't the focus after the league-leading Capitals humbled the league's third-ranked team before a national television audience and a capacity crowd at United Center.

Monterrey La RaZa has been highly competitive in the indoor soccer leagues since joining three years ago, but the one thing it hasn't been able to figure out is how to win at 1st Mariner Arena. That trend continued Saturday night as the Blast hung on to defeat Monterrey, 12-11, despite losing goaltender Sagu to a third-period ejection in a penalty-filled, emotion-racked marathon. With a fifth consecutive victory, the Blast (10-7), wearing retro uniforms to celebrate its 30th anniversary, assumed sole possession of second place in the Major Indoor Soccer League while La RaZa (9-8)

Capitals star Alex Ovechkin was ejected in the third period Wednesday night against Buffalo after drawing a major penalty for boarding. The banishment came 3:38 into the third period when he ran Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta into the boards opposite the benches. It was the second career ejection for Ovechkin, and both have come against Buffalo at Verizon Center. The first was Dec. 2, 2006, when he checked Daniel Briere from behind. Ovechkin scored his team-leading 17th goal in the first period.

It wasn't that another early lead quickly was turned into a deficit or that his offense again failed to build on a hot start that drew the ire of Orioles manager Dave Trembley on Tuesday night. Trembley was incensed by a seventh-inning balk called on reliever Jamie Walker that wiped away a pickoff of designated hitter Maicer Izturis and led to two Los Angeles Angels runs, and he let plate umpire Angel Hernandez know how he felt in an animated chest-to-chest conversation. Trembley's first ejection of the season couldn't stop the Orioles' 7-5 loss to the Angels before an announced 11,857 at Camden Yards.

A slap to the face was just what struggling Ohio State needed. The contact during a scrum last night prompted the ejection of the Miami Hurricanes' scoring leader Jack McClinton (Calvert Hall), and the Buckeyes went on to erase a 14-point second-half deficit and beat the 21st-ranked Hurricanes, 73-68. "Jack is a big leader for us," teammate Lance Hurdle said. "It's tough losing Jack." Sophomore Jon Diebler scored a career-high 20 points and Evan Turner had 19 for the Buckeyes (4-0), who won for only the second time in seven games in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Shaquille O'Neal made an early exit from Amare Stoudemire's 26th birthday party. Stoudemire and the rest of the short-handed Phoenix Suns did just fine without him last night. Stoudemire had 29 points and 11 rebounds and the Suns overcame O'Neal's second-quarter ejection to beat the visiting Detroit Pistons, 104-86. "It's good to see our guys come out and jump on a very good basketball team," Phoenix coach Terry Porter said. Steve Nash, back from a one-game suspension for his part in a skirmish with several Houston Rockets on Wednesday night, added 17 points and seven assists for the Suns.

VIENNA, Austria - North Korea kicked U.N. weapons inspectors out of a plant that previously produced weapons-grade plutonium and notified the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would restart operations as early as next week, the nuclear watchdog said yesterday. The moves mean the North could be reprocessing plutonium in a matter of months. This latest provocation by North Korea kills what little hope remained that the U.S. could complete a denuclearization deal in President Bush's remaining months in office.