ewski picked up his third foul with 5:13 to go, leaving the Wildcats without their 7-fo

DENVER -- Juan Nicasio bounced back nicely from his first loss of the season. Bobby Tolan Cardinals Jersey . Carlos Gonzalez homered before leaving with a finger injury, Nicasio pitched seven scoreless innings and drove in three runs, and the Colorado Rockies beat the New York Mets 7-4 on Thursday night. "All my breaking balls worked today and I had good command of my fastball, too," said Nicasio, who was dinged for a couple of home runs by the Los Angeles Dodgers while struggling with his location last time out during a 4 1-3 inning outing. "Thats why I was good today," Nicasio said. "I threw a lot of sliders for strikes, my fastball was down in the zone. When Im pitching good, I have command of my fastball, and keeping the ball down. I lost my command (last time out)." New York manager Terry Collins said Nicasio kept Mets batters guessing. "He moved the ball in and out," Collins said. "He threw strikes." Corey Dickerson added three hits, including an RBI triple and Nolan Arenado singled leading off the third to extend the majors longest active streak to 21 games. Hes tied for the fourth-longest hitting streak in Rockies team history. Gonzalez connected for his sixth home run of the season in the first inning, driving a 3-2 offering from Bartolo Colon (2-4) off the right-centre field facing just below the second deck. He was lifted in the fourth inning, replaced by pinch hitter Brandon Barnes, because of a bruised left index finger. His playing status was listed as day to day. "I dont think hes going to miss a lot of time," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "It was encouraging that the swelling was going down already." Colon allowed seven runs on 10 hits in 4 2-3 innings, his shortest outing of the season. He walked one and struck out three. "Bartolo left pitches over the plate. And we ran into a hot team," said Travis dArnaud, who homered in the ninth off reliever Chad Bettis. But Nicasio (3-1) was effective at the plate and on the mound. After allowing a one-out single in the second to Chris Young, Nicasio retired 12 batters in a row before issuing his lone walk in the sixth inning. The only extra base hit he allowed was a double leading off the game to Juan Lagares. He was activated prior to the game after spending the previous two weeks on the disabled list because of a strained right hamstring. "Its a good step for him," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "Weve seen Juan real good in the past, saw him good early and hopefully he gets on a roll." Nicasio also was a central figure in the Rockies offence. "We preach a lot to our pitchers if they can execute the game offensively theres probably a few Ws in there for them," Weiss said. Dickerson and Charlie Culberson hit successive two-out singles in the second and, running on the pitch, they both scored when Nicasio followed with a single that rolled to the right field corner. He added a sacrifice fly in the Rockies three-run fourth. Arenado also had a sacrifice fly and Charlie Blackmon an RBI single in the inning. Dickersons two-out triple in the fifth scored Justin Morneau, who was aboard with a single. The Mets avoided their third shutout of the season when Lagares, doubling for the second time in the game, hit a drive off Bettis in the eighth to the right centerfield gap to score pinch hitter Bobby Abreu from first. Bettis surrendered a two-out, three-run homer to dArnaud in the ninth before retiring Ruben Tejada on a fly ball to right. NOTES: Four of the seven home runs Colon has given up this season have come in the first inning. ... Colons four-pitch walk to Wilin Rosario leading off the fourth represented his first walk in 14 innings. ... Arenados 21-game hitting streak is the longest in the majors this season. ... Nicasios last multi-RBI game was June 14 against Philadelphia. ... The Mets Daniel Murphy went 0 for 4, snapping a 10-game hitting streak. ... Rockies catcher Rosario was back in the lineup after missing the previous four games with a left hand injury. Lane Thomas Cardinals Jersey . They know how difficult it is to beat the San Antonio Spurs. George scored 28 points and Indiana defeated San Antonio 111-100 on Saturday night, snapping an 11-game skid against the Spurs. Brett Cecil Jersey . Blown save in the ninth inning? No problem. https://www.cheapcardinalsonline.com/ . Old times for a defence that has looked just plain old recently? "No," safety Ryan Clark said. "We used to be much better than that.ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Nick Johnson put an awful first half behind him and came up big for Arizona in the final 2:45. The Pac-12 player of the year scored all of his 15 points over that span after missing his first 10 shots, and helped Arizona hold off San Diego State 70-64 on Thursday night to reach the final eight of the NCAA tournament. "When I hit one shot it just started to feel a little bit better," he said. "I just kept on hitting shots." Mostly, Johnson hit free throws, making all 10 of his attempts to go with a field goal and a 3-pointer after the Aztecs shut him down for the first 37 minutes. "He just exploded in the second half," said San Diego States Dwayne Polee, who guarded Johnson. "I cant say that we didnt play hard defence, but he just made a lot of good shots." Aaron Gordon and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson scored 15 points each for the top-seeded Wildcats (33-4), who will try to win a West Regional final for the first time in Anaheim. Theyre 0-3 at Honda Center going into Saturdays game against second-seeded Wisconsin (29-7). Arizona coach Sean Miller joined his brother Archie in the final eight. The younger Miller coached Dayton to an 82-72 victory over Stanford of the Pac-12 in the South Regional semifinals. "We watched the game in our locker room," Miller said. "The fact that two of us are in the Elite Eight is a very unique situation, but well see." Xavier Thames scored 25 points and Dwayne Polee added 13 points for the Aztecs (31-5). Those two tried to bail out SDSU in the final minute, each hitting 3-pointers before Thames basket cut the deficit to 65-61 with 38 seconds left. The drama wasnt over yet in a game featuring tenacious defence and rabid intensity by both teams. SDSU got called for a 10-second violation, and the Wildcats regained the ball. Johnson got fouled and made both for a 67-61 lead with 26 seconds to go. Thames got fouled on a 3-point attempt, and he sank all three shots to leave SDSU traiiling 67-64. Ken Boyer Cardinals Jersey. The Aztecs had Johnson trapped near their bench, but he passed out of the double team and Gabe York got fouled at the other end. He missed the first and made the second, keeping Arizona ahead 68-64. Thames missed, and Johnson went to the line again where he ended the scoring with two free throws. San Diego State led by eight points early in the second half after leading by that many just before halftime. The Aztecs controlled the boards 37-29, with three of them often battling at once on the defensive end. Josh Davis had 14 rebounds for SDSU. The Aztecs were trying to reach the final eight for the first time in school history under 69-year-old coach Steve Fisher. "One of these days were going to get to a Final Four," Fisher said. Johnsons 2 of 12 shooting wasnt the Wildcats only problem. Kaleb Tarczewski returned late in the game with four fouls and Hollis-Jefferson fouled out with 4:42 to play. But Johnson made his first basket a couple minutes later and carried the Wildcats across the finish line after they trailed much of the second half. "Its amazing for a kid to be able to do that after not making shots for about 25, 30 straight minutes," Miller said. T.J. McConnells layup gave Arizona its first lead, 50-49, of the second half after the Wildcats got within one three times. SDSU answered with baskets the first two times, but couldnt stop McConnell, who finished with 11 points. The Wildcats started getting some of the offensive rebounds that eluded them much of the game, and Tarczewski scored after his teammates grabbed two on the same possession to keep Arizona ahead 54-51. Polees defence helped keep Johnson scoreless in the first half, when he went 0 for 7 and missed all three of his 3-point attempts. He finally hit a jumper at the buzzer, but typical of Arizonas early luck, it was ruled no good. Tarczewski picked up his third foul with 5:13 to go, leaving the Wildcats without their 7-footer to protect the basket. ' ' '