talked about his philanthropy and shared the story of her son, Will, who was born prematurely at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando. Will would not have lived, Sorenstam said, without the care he receiv

BALTIMORE -- Rick Porcello pitched a four-hitter for his major league-high 21st victory, David Ortiz and Mookie Betts hit two-run homers and the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-2 on Monday night to pad their lead in the AL East.Coming off a four-game sweep of the Yankees, Boston sustained its late-season surge in the opener of an important four-game series for both clubs. The Red Sox stand atop the division by a season-high four games.Adam Jones homered and Mark Trumbo picked up his 102nd RBI for the second-place Orioles, who started the day with a one-game lead over Toronto for the top AL wild card.Porcello (21-4) struck out seven and walked none in his third complete game of the year. Five days earlier against Baltimore, the right-hander gave up one run in eight innings but took the loss.Playing his final regular season series in Baltimore, the 40-year-old Ortiz connected against rookie Dylan Bundy (9-6) with a man on in the fifth for a 5-1 lead.CUBS 5, REDS 2CHICAGO -- Dexter Fowler hit a tiebreaking single with two outs in the seventh inning, and Chicago beat Cincinnati.Fowlers line drive into center field capped a three-run rally for the Cubs after they were shut down by Tim Adleman most of the night. It also made a winner of Jason Hammel (15-9), who pitched seven solid innings.Jason Heyward added a two-run homer in the eighth as the Cubs moved seven games ahead of Washington for the best record in the National League, lowering their magic number for clinching home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs to five. Thats the only major goal still out there during the regular season for major league-leading Chicago after it secured the NL Central title last week.BRAVES 7, METS 3NEW YORK -- Aaron Blair won for the first time in 13 major league starts, Freddie Freeman drove in three runs off a misfiring Noah Syndergaard and Atlanta slowed New Yorks wild-card chase.Freeman had four hits for the Braves, who have the worst record in the National League, and rookie Dansby Swanson had three hits and three RBI.New York had won 11 of its previous 14 games and led the NL wild-card race at the start of the night, one game ahead of San Francisco and two in front of St. Louis.Pitching on five days rest rather than four, Syndergaard (13-9) allowed five runs, eight hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings.Blair (1-6) gave up six hits in six innings and lowered his ERA to 7.71.MARLINS 4, NATIONALS 3MIAMI -- Giancarlo Stanton homered and Miami beat Washington.Christian Yelich, Ichiro Suzuki and Derek Dietrich also drove in a run for the Marlins and A.J. Ramos pitched the ninth for his 38th save in 41 chances.Brian Ellington (3-2) picked up the win with an inning of relief while Mat Latos (7-3) took the loss.ROYALS 8, WHITE SOX 3KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Yordano Ventura picked up his first complete-game victory, Kendrys Morales hit a three-run homer and Kansas City defeated Chicago.The Royals have won three straight, keeping their faint playoff hopes flickering with 12 games remaining. The Royals went 14-5 against the White Sox this year.Ventura (11-11) gave up nine hits, struck out five and walked one. His only other complete game in the majors was a loss July 28 at Texas.Morales homered off Carlos Rodon (7-10) in a four-run fifth. Morales homered in back-to-back games, bringing his total to 29. The last Royal to hit 30 home runs in a season was Jermaine Dye, with 33 in 2000. Wholesale Custom Coyotes Shirts . Detroit and Boston are deadlocked, 1-1, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland could be forgiven if he was caught rationalizing instead of dissecting how his club could blow a 5-1 lead late in Game 2. Custom Coyotes T-shirts .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. http://www.customcoyotesjersey.com/ . -- The plastic that was taped across the lockers in Oaklands clubhouse came down and the champagne that was on ice went back into the cooler. Authentic Custom Coyotes Jersey . Durant finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds, Jackson matched his career high with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and Lamb scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, lifting the Thunder to a 94-88 win over San Antonio and snapping the Spurs 11-game winning streak. Coyotes Jerseys China . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. LATROBE, Pa. -- Arnold Palmer didnt care for funerals. The ritual made him uncomfortable. He didnt see the purpose in so many solemn faces gathering together to mourn the dead, to reminisce about a lifetime of yesterdays. Unless he felt obliged to attend, he skipped them.He tried, instead, to see friends and family as often as possible while people were alive. This was the essence of the man. Indulging in nostalgia was fine, but he preferred to soak up the joys of the present. Palmer liked hugs, liked making eye contact, and he made a habit of putting his arm on whomever he was talking to, drawing that person fully into his orbit. He did this, in part, because his hearing was notoriously bad. But also because engaging with people, no matter their origin or status, is what made him feel alive.Palmer is gone now, heart disease having taken him from us Sept. 25 at age 87. His family and friends gathered together here Tuesday at the Saint Vincent Basilica to mourn him and remember him, and people from around the country watched the service as it was broadcast live on the Golf Channel, a network he cofounded. For two hours, people told stories, sang songs, wiped away tears and remembered. But putting him in context, measuring his impact -- not just as the founding father of modern golf, but as a businessman, a family man and beyond -- was almost impossible.How do you tell the story of a man, and an era, in two hours?Perhaps you start with Palmers ethos. He wasnt the greatest golfer who ever lived. No one could credibly argue otherwise. He won a lot, but others won more. He hit the ball with ferocious power and delicate precision, but players soon came along who hit it farther and better. Its almost pointless now to list how many tournaments he won or majors he claimed. Stats always have been the wrong way to understand him. Palmer was an unflinching artist of blue-collar aggression, a man who preferred the adrenaline rush of a bold swing, even if it cost him, to the smart but timid play.His close friend Charlie Mechem, the first speaker at the memorial, remembered a lunch he had at the Masters several years ago with Palmer when the subject of course strategy came up. Had Palmer, Mechem wondered, ever considered laying up on Augusta Nationals 13th and 15th holes? Instead of taking on the two challenging par-5s with a long and perilous second shot to greens guarded by water, what if he had instead been tactical?Do you know how many times Ive finished second at the Masters? Palmer asked, by way of explaining.No, Mechem admitted.Neither do I, Palmer said.Its easy to understand why he became a magnet to whom so many felt drawn. The son of a greenskeeper who grew up in a house that lacked indoor plumbing, Palmer had no use for golfs aristocratic roots. He didnt play the game so much as he tried to make every hole surrender to his will. He came along at a time when America was booming, changing so fast it was bursting at the seams, and to a generation of working-class sports fans, Palmer became the embodiment of an idea: Why shouldnt your reach exceed your grasp?He was an everyday man, everyones hero, said Jack Nicklaus, getting choked up as he spoke to those inside the church. Arnold managed to remove the I from icon and instead let the world share his greatness.They were not friends. Not at first. They were too different, too competitive, both wrestling for pieces of history. But over time, they warmed to one another. They began to realize they needed one another. For anyone whoo has ever loved golf, Im not sure who needed the other the most, Nicklaus said.dddddddddddd Lets just call it a love affair to last a lifetime. The game gave so much to Arnold, but he gave back so much more. Arnold came along when golf needed him most, when TV first embraced the sport of golf. They had a swashbuckling hero, with Arnold as its face.Theres no denying it was primarily Palmers influence that brought golf to the masses. Golfers of every generation that followed him happily acknowledge the debt they owe him, which is part of the reason Phil Mickelson, Curtis Strange, Nick Faldo, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and dozens of others were in attendance Tuesday. Davis Love III even brought the Ryder Cup the United States won over the weekend to the service, something he believes Palmer would have loved. I got to see him in his office in Bay Hill this year, said Love, the U.S. captain. He was just as adamant we bring back the Ryder Cup. He said, Youre the right man for the job. Ill carry that with me always.Mike Davis, the director of the U.S. Golf Association, pointed out that if you go back 100 years in the United States, the vast majority of golf courses were private playgrounds for the wealthy. Now, 78 percent of the courses in the country are public access, the highest percentage in the world.You have to think Arnold Palmer had a lot to do with that, Davis said. Arnold made the game cool. We can argue about who is the greatest golfer of all time is, but I dont think there is any argument on this: No one did more than Arnold Palmer for the game. When he came on the scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, men wanted to be like him. Women loved looking at him. He could relate to the country club set, to world leaders, to business leaders, but he could also relate to the guy cutting grass or playing at his local municipal course. When all of us are long, long gone, people will still be talking about him and what a wonderful man he was.Palmer loved flying, logging nearly 20,000 hours as a pilot during his life, and as a tribute, his personal jet circled the memorial several times at low attitude, its big engines roaring while a bagpiper played Amazing Grace. Musician Vince Gill, a good friend of Palmers and frequent golf buddy, played a cover of James Taylors Youve Got a Friend. Annika Sorenstam talked about his philanthropy and shared the story of her son, Will, who was born prematurely at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando. Will would not have lived, Sorenstam said, without the care he received, and he eventually grew to think of Palmer as an uncle.But it was Sam Saunders, Palmers grandson, who told a story that seemed to best encapsulate the man people so frequently referred to as The King. Palmer, Saunders said, liked talking on the phone to his grandkids. And Saunders, also a professional golfer, would often call him from tournaments around the country, just looking to catch up. Palmer had a funny habit of asking Saunders, every time he got on the phone, Where are you? It was one of his most endearing quirks. One day, Saunders called Palmer and flipped the question back at on his grandfather.Where are you? Saunders asked.Im with the president, Palmer said.The president of what? Saunders asked.Of the United States, Palmer answered.Why did you answer the phone? Saunders said.Well, Palmer said. I wanted to talk to you. ' ' '