31.   One foul drifted a few feet up the first-base line and should have been an easy out to end the inning.

32.   Orlando Merced and Biggio followed with easy outs.

33.   Otherwise, calling in the IMF will seem like an easy out to countries that overspend, overborrow and overbuild.

34.   Out of position means lazy fly balls and easy outs, said Jackson.

35.   Puzzled, distressed and caught in a cacophony of agendas, we look for an easy out.

36.   Rivera got two easy outs in the ninth.

37.   Sadler, however, sprinted for third and was an easy out for Bordick, who flipped to third baseman Jeff Reboulet.

38.   That action, the three judges said, provided an easy out.

39.   The easy out is to blame Erickson.

40.   The easy out was going to Oregon.