Runaways

The Seattle Mariners didn't have to travel to Southern California for an interleague weekend series with the Padres to hear the Angel footsteps more clearly.

The San Diego Padres have extended their lead in the NL West by winning even when they're not at their best. The Padres blew a six-run lead on Sunday--Greg Vaughn's fourth homer of the series provided the early cushion--then rallied with Tony Gwynn's sacrifice fly in the eighth inning for 7-6 victory and three-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.

OK, so maybe the New York Jets aren't that bad, after all. And maybe the San Diego Chargers aren't quite that good. At any rate, the reeling Jets got better in a hurry with a 44-13 rout Sunday of the AFC-leading Chargers, who came dressed in their powder-blue throwback jerseys and left looking like powder puffs.

Last March the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies 40% of the world's oil, agreed to cut production by about 6% in an effort to boost crude oil prices. To everyone's surprise, including possibly its own, OPEC has managed to maintain its output ceiling, taking 4.3 million barrels a day out of production. Coming at a time of rising oil demand as Asia's recession-stricken economies are recovering and U.S.

Runaway Irish turned back challenges from the far turn to the wire and won the $29,500 feature on the grass Tuesday at Gulfstream Park. Vanities finished second by a nose over favored Adoring. Ridden by Juan Cintron, the winner ran one mile in 1:37 4/5 and paid $34.80.

Nine people were injured when a motorist apparently lost control of his car and it plowed into a crowd leaving an outdoor passion play performance, officials said. The 73-year-old driver was not arrested or ticketed after the accident Saturday night, authorities said.

Salvage crews managed to cap a runaway oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and divert the oil and gas to a burner set up nearby, thus keeping pollution to a minimum, the state petroleum monopoly Pemex said Wednesday.

As the growing number of day-trading companies describe it, playing the stock market by making dozens, sometimes hundreds, of trades a day is the golden path to getting rich. They lure customers to their special computer screens with exaggerated claims of success, keeping silent about the true odds, which heavily favor failure. In addition, some of them are breaking rules on lending practices so they can keep the trades--and commissions--coming.

Ocean Runaway, the 7-5 favorite, earned his second Grade I win of 2004 with a decisive victory in the $1-million Golden State Futurity on Sunday night at Los Alamitos. Owned by Gary Muller, who had never had a starter in a $1-million race, and trained by Dennis Ekins, the 2-year-old gray son of First Down Dash drove under Alex Bautista to beat Like Frankie And Me, the 7-2 second choice, and eight others for his third win in eight starts.

Lakewood Artesia High turned a nine-point halftime lead into a runaway victory Tuesday night, defeating Simi Valley, 70-45, in a Southern Section Division I-AA semifinal at Long Beach City College. Top-seeded Artesia used a 12-1 third-quarter run en route to the victory. Artesia will play Long Beach Poly, a 84-71 winner Tuesday over Etiwanda, for the championship Saturday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. "They were relentless," Simi Valley Coach Dean Bradshaw said of Artesia.