Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
Reuters
NEW YORK - Forty-nine pitches. Joe Nathan hadn’t thrown that many in more than four years.
It didn’t matter that Torii Hunter hit a go-ahead home run in the 12th inning, Nathan couldn’t hold the lead.
“I probably left him out there too long,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire admitted. “But, really, the options, I didn’t like them too well, either.”
Eight times in a row, Minnesota won the first game of a playoff series. And for the fourth straight series, the Twins lost Game 2.
Alex Rodriguez followed a pair of walks in the bottom half with an RBI double on Nathan’s 49th pitch, and Hideki Matsui’s sacrifice fly off J.C. Romero gave New York a 7-6 win Wednesday night that sent the best-of-five series back to Minneapolis tied 1-all.
In Boston, leaving a pitcher in too long is a fireable offense. Just ask Grady Little.
In Minneapolis, the reaction figures to be more muted.
Nathan hadn’t thrown as many as 49 pitches since Aug. 20, 2000, when he threw 55 for San Francisco against Atlanta, according to STATS Inc. Back then, he was mostly a starter. He hadn’t even pitched more than two innings since May 3, 2003, the Elias Sports Bureau said, and had made 43 straight appearances since June 17 of one inning or less.
“For us to have a chance to go up two games, 2-0, that was a tough one,” Nathan said softly in the Twins clubhouse. “I’m really disappointed with the walks, the two walks obviously ended up hurting us.”
He entered with the score 5-all Wednesday night, didn’t allow a hit in the 10th inning, didn’t allow a hit in the 11th.
Then, sitting on the Twins’ bench, he watched Hunter homer off Tanyon Sturtze in the 12th. Minnesota was three outs from coming home with a 2-0 series lead.
Nathan had thrown 32 pitches already and had been in the dugout for 17 minutes while the Twins batted, but Gardenhire decided to leave him in.
“We did have that long inning, but I felt good and I felt like I had pretty good pitches out there,” Nathan said.
After striking out John Olerud on a checked swing, Nathan started Miguel Cairo off with a strike. Then he threw nine straight balls, walking Cairo and Derek Jeter, and falling behind A-Rod 1-0.
“I just lost it for a couple of hitters and that’s what ended up costing us,” Nathan said.
Rodriguez was wary of Nathan.
“The previous at-bats, both Jeter and I looked foolish up there,” Rodriguez said.
He took a strike, then sent the next pitch soaring to Death Valley in left-center. The ball bounced over the wall, and the Yankees had runners on second and third.
Nathan stayed around to intentionally walk Cairo, and Romero came in to face Matsui.
“He was still throwing the ball 95, 96 miles an hour,” Gardenhire said. “He told us he wanted it.”
Gardenhire, an outstanding manager who has led the Twins to three straight AL Central titles, weighed his options.
“The choices are J.C., who has been kind of struggling, and (Jesse) Crane, the kid out there, and I didn’t want to put him in that situation. And Joe was still flipping the ball pretty good.”
Romero didn’t last too long, Matsui lined his first pitch to right, and Jeter slid home ahead of Jacque Jones’ throw.
Twins starter Brad Radke, last year’s Game 2 loser, took some of the blame. He left after 6 1-3 innings trailing 5-3 after allowing home runs to Jeter, Rodriguez and Sheffield and an RBI single by A-Rod.
“I didn’t make a whole lot of good pitches tonight,” Radke said.
Even before they left Yankee Stadium, the Twins looked ahead to Friday’s Game 3, when Carlos Silva pitches against Kevin Brown.
“1-1 is way better than 0-2,” Hunter said philosophically. “We’d rather have 2-0, but we’ll take it.”
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.