Monday Night in Sports

* The Capitals finally won a playoff OT game against the Penguins! The Caps finally beat the Pens in a playoff game when they had to!

Washington forced a seventh game with Pittsburgh--which will be held in the Verizon Center on Wednesday--by winning 5-4 in OT.

The Caps led 4-3 in the third period, only to see Sidney Crosby score his 10th goal of the playoffs at 15:42, stunning the visitors.

Pittsburgh, who has already won two OT games in this series, looked to knock the Caps out of the postseason--again.

But Dave Steckel's goal 6:22 into the extra period extended the series to seventh game showdown.

* The Blackhawks beat the Canucks in Game Six of their Western Conference Semi-Finals, by a score of 7-5!

Vancouver had a lead in all six games, but it's Chicago moving on.

The Canucks' defense was horrible, and captain Roberto Luongo allowed seven goals on 30 shots. This after proclaiming (ie. Luongo) after their Game Five loss that they should have won the previous two games at the United Center (they went 1-1) and were going to in the sixth game.

Well, they can go play golf now.

* If Randy Johnson of the Giants can beat Johan Santana of the Mets in his next start, it will be The Big Unit's 299th career win. Significance? That means he'll go for win # 300 in Seattle next.

Chances are he won't be able to do it... Santana is off to a terrific start.

But knowing baseball, knowing how sometimes things are aligned in this universe, knowing how Santana has had tough luck this year (see below)... who knows? Maybe it might happen.

Somehow I don't think it will.

* Santana was pulled with the score 1-1 between the Mets and Braves in the seventh inning, after he'd put a runner on base.

Then a single and flyout happened to make it two outs in the inning.

Alas, Brian McCann reached on an error by SS Jose Reyes, loading the bases.

The next batter singled to score two runs, with the go-ahead run charged to Santana.

The Mets lost 8-3.

That go-ahead run was unearned thanks to the two-out error. But the first run he allowed was also unearned, thanks to David Wright's error in the first inning.

Thus, Santana allowed ZERO earned runs and still lost.

He had already lost earlier in the year in Florida, 2-1, with both runs charged to him unearned.

So, it was the second time that he's allowed ZERO earned runs and still lost.

He has also won a pair of 1-0 games this year (both times he pitched seven innings).

Santana's stats: 4-2 record, 0.78 ERA.

His mound opponent on Monday, Derek Lowe: 5-1, 3.80.

* Speaking of pitchers with a lot of wins and a high ERA: On Monday, the Reds beat the D-Backs 13-5 in Arizona.

The winning pitcher, Bronson Arroyo, gave up 10 hits and five runs in seven innings. He is now 5-2 with a 7.02 ERA.

In his two losses this season, Arroyo gave up nine runs in each outing.