the annual appearance by the commissioner

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LOS ANGELES -- Francisco Liriano finally got that long-awaited first victory of the season. Liriano pitched in and out of trouble in his duel with Josh Beckett, and Ike Davis homered to help the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 Friday night. Liriano (1-5) scattered five hits over 5 2-3 scoreless innings. After entering with a 5.06 ERA, he struck out eight and walked two in his 12th start of the year. "It was a great feeling to get that first win out of the way," said Liriano, a 16-game winner for Pittsburgh last season. "It was a long time, and I felt like I wasnt doing my job. I just want to try to go deeper into the game my next time out." Beckett (3-2) allowed two runs and five hits in five innings, five days after pitching the first no-hitter in the majors this season during a 6-0 win at Philadelphia. Yasiel Puig reached base for the 31st straight game, getting an infield single in the fourth and continuing to second on Lirianos throwing error. He came up with the bases loaded in the fifth and popped up on a changeup for the third out, making him 0 for 5 in those situations. "Francisco pitched out of the stretch most of the night, and the leadoff hitter reached base in five of those six innings," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle pointed out. "To get Puig, thats just a classic matchup on a Friday night in front of 47,000 -- thats good stuff. There were so many important pitches in that sequence, but he stayed focused and was aggressive. He had eight strikeouts, and a lot of them were with guys on second." Despite Lirianos record, hes been able to keep his team in games more often than not. The Pirates have won all six of his no-decisions. "Thats what we continue to tell Frank," Hurdle said. "Fortunately, hes been around. Hes had to battle through so many things, and this is just the next thing hes going to get challenged by at the major league level. Hes kept his composure and his confidence, so well see where he can take it. I just believe its going to get better and better for him." Beckett was removed for a pinch-hitter after 88 pitches -- the 34-year-old righty threw a career-high 128 in the first no-hitter by a Dodgers pitcher since 1996. "Physically, I felt fine. I took care of myself in between starts, and I was ready to go out there," Beckett said. "I didnt feel any different between this start and my last one. I mean, if you look at those 128 pitches in nine innings, its only 13, 14 pitches per inning." Pirates second baseman Neil Walker robbed Matt Kemp of an RBI single in the sixth with a diving stop toward the middle and threw him out, after Hanley Ramirez led off with a double. Liriano faced one more batter, striking out Scott Van Slyke with his 100th pitch. Justin Wilson then fanned Andre Ethier. Mark Melancon gave up an RBI single to Ramirez in the eighth, but retired pinch-hitter Adrian Gonzalez on a grounder with the potential tying run at second. Jason Grilli pitched a perfect ninth for his sixth save. Beckett retired the side in order only once. He hit Starling Marte with a 2-2 pitch to open the third and Clint Barmes followed with a walk. Marte was picked off second, but the Pirates overcame that miscue with singles by Josh Harrison and Walker, whose hit to right field drove in Barmes with the games first run. Davis led off the fourth with a drive to centre that travelled an estimated 453 feet. It was his fourth home run of the season, including two grand slams against Cincinnati. "Beckett was on the corners all night and his stuff was good, but that fastball caught a little more of the plate and I was able to get the good part of the bat on it," Davis said. "We really didnt do too much off him, but we scored just enough runs. Its hard to beat the Dodgers only scoring two runs, but our pitchers were ..... tonight." Drew Butera, who caught Becketts no-hitter, also was behind the plate for Lirianos no-no with Minnesota on May 3, 2011, against the White Sox in Chicago. He threw out Russell Martin and Harrison on stolen base attempts for the third out in the second and fifth innings, respectively. NOTES: It was the 19th time since 1900 that a pitcher made his first start following a no-hitter against an opponent who also had pitched one. The last time that happened was May 7, 2012, when Jered Weaver of the Angels faced Liriano and beat Minnesota for the second time in five days, 8-3. ... Dee Gordon stole two more bases to raise his major league-leading total to 34, and the Dodgers total to 64 -- also tops in the majors. ... Pirates LHP Tony Watson extended his scoreless streak to 15 2-3 innings with a perfect seventh. ... Cincinnati LHP Johnny Vander Meer (1938) remains the only pitcher to throw no-hitters in consecutive starts. Willie Brown Raiders Jersey . -- League scoring leader Anthony Mantha had two goals and two assists to lead the Val-dOr Foreurs over the Blainville-Boisbriand Phoenix 6-3 on Wednesay in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League play on Wednesday. T.J. Carrie Raiders Jersey . TSN platforms will broadcast 75+ live games per season – tripling the networks current slate of MLB games. With the new deal TSN retains rights to ESPNs SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL and, for the first time, acquires rights to ESPNs MONDAY NIGHT BASEBALL and WEDNESDAY NIGHT BASEBALL. http://www.cheapraidersjerseyspro.com/Elite-John-Matuszak-Raiders-Jersey/ . The 25-year-old Brazilian player has only made four Premier League appearances for United this season and underwent a medical test in Italy on Friday. Donald Penn Raiders Jersey . Each day, TSN.ca provides the latest rumours, reports and speculation from around the NHL beat. Defensive Depth TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun is reporting the Toronto Maple Leafs have considerable interest in unrestricted free-agent defenceman Dan Boyle. Reggie Nelson Raiders Jersey .C. -- Duke sophomore Rodney Hood is entering the NBA draft.PHOENIX - No, Roger Goodell is not going to give himself a pay cut. Wont trim even a measly $1 million off his $44 million salary.Not voluntarily, anyway, even after a disastrous year that shook the NFL to its core.Hes also not going to resign and, no, he doesnt expect to be fired.Does that surprise you? he asked the questioner.It didnt, and not much else did Friday as the embattled NFL commissioner put on a show of not being embattled at all at his annual State of the NFL presser.To call this a dog and pony show would be insulting to dogs and ponies everywhere. Nothing about the format was conducive to getting actual answers rather than the talking points the commissioner had long ago committed to memory.A few miles down the road, Tiger Woods was explaining as only he can about how he could shoot 82 on a relatively easy resort course and miss the cut in his first tournament of the year. Goodell took the podium at about the same time to explain why the NFL was going to wait until after the Super Bowl to determine whether the New England Patriots were conspirators in a scheme to deflate footballs.Neither of them were terribly insightful, but at least Woods had an excuse. He had been out playing in the rain for five hours, and was just hoping to get somewhere dry.Goodell, meanwhile, spent the morning working out, presumably while studying the talking points his aides had surely drawn up for any question that might come up. Like Woods, he had an answer for everything, even for the cute little kid who warned his question about league-sponsored exercise would be a tough one.Not for the Teflon Commissioner, it wasnt. Goodell informed the kid that not had he already done Play 60 for the day, but actually did 65 minutes on the elliptical.Goodell was so on point that the only question that seemed to throw him for the slightest moment came from a Las Vegas television reporter who wanted to know about prospects for a team in that gambling city (not good).To be sure, the annual appearance by the commissioner rarely offers much insight into the operations of Americas most popular sports league. The supremely insularr NFL prefers it that way, and without follow up questions the questions bounce around from topic to topic with no clear theme.ddddddddddddThis year, though could have been different. This year should have been different, if only because of two big controversies that cast doubt about fair and just the league really is.Goodell had a chance to go deeper into the deflated ball controversy, and didnt. He could have directly answered why his friend, New England owner Robert Kraft, wants an apology for the way the league has handled it, and didnt.He could have talked more about the whole Ray Rice affair, and didnt.Instead he talked in generalities about winning trust from fans every day and making enormous progress on social issues.The NFL is made up of good and caring people, he assured us at one point.That may be true, but for now were going to have to take Goodells word for it. Were also going to have to believe him when he says that the events have recent months have humbled him.It might be easier, though, if those responses didnt seem as scripted and full of generalities as his thoughts about players safety (hes for it) and earlier kickoff times for games in London - giving the networks yet another 3-hour block of NFL television (terrific).Listen, it has been a tough year, Goodell said. It has been a tough year on me personally. Its been a year of what I would say humility and learning. We obviously as an organization have gone through adversity, but more importantly it has been adversity for me. That is something where, we take that seriously. Its an opportunity for us to get better. So weve all done a lot of soul searching, starting with yours truly. And we have taken action.Speaking of action, Mr. Commissioner, how about that pay cut?Thats up to the owners, Goodell said. They evaluate my performance. They evaluate my compensation every year. And I dont argue.Come to think of it, after a year like the last one silence might be Goodells best option.____Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg Wholesale NFL Jerseys cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '