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 for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
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.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
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.
AP
HOUSTON - When the Houston Astros finally scored some runs for Roger Clemens, their bullpen gave them all away.
Conor Jackson hit a go-ahead homer off Brad Lidge in the ninth inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks rallied after Clemens left the game, beating the Houston Astros 7-6 Sunday.
Clemens had a season-high nine strikeouts in seven sharp innings and left with a 5-1 lead. But Jeff DaVanon hit an RBI single and Eric Byrnes added a three-run homer off Chad Qualls in the eighth to tie it.
“This was tough,” manager Phil Garner said. “We give them six runs the last two innings and that’s tough, particularly after Roger pitched so well and things looked like they were on our side.
“It was another masterful game by Roger and we finally put some runs on the board. I really thought he had that one.”
Clemens had perhaps his best game of the season, allowing two hits and one unearned run just five days before his 44th birthday.
The Astros had not scored a run while he was in the game in Clemens’ four losses and were averaging a team-low 2.45 runs of support in his previous seven starts. But Clemens would not address any personal frustration afterward.
“There’s not a whole lot to take from this game,” said Clemens, who has a 2-4 record and lowered his ERA to 2.09, which would be the NL’s best if he had enough innings to qualify. “The only positive I can take is the game calls that (catcher) Brad (Ausmus) and I had. It was probably in the top three or four games since I’ve been here for seeing hitters the same way and I was executing my pitches when he called them.”
Ausmus shrugged off his role in Clemens’ impressive performance.
“Things went pretty smoothly but the guy knows what he’s doing,” Ausmus said. “He was outstanding. His splitter was as good as it’s been all year.
“This is just an awful loss. It doesn’t get any worse.”
The Diamondbacks were duly impressed with Clemens.
“He was great,” Shawn Green said. “He had everything working. He was throwing strikes and he wasn’t leaving any pitches over the heart of the plate. He’s been pretty good for about 20 years but he definitely threw a good game. As he gets older, he just keeps adapting to what kind of pitches he has working.”
Jackson hit a two-run homer off Lidge and Jorge Julio allowed Adam Everett’s RBI double in the bottom half before finishing up for his 13th save.
Lidge has now given up seven home runs, two more than he allowed all of last season and just one short of his career high in 2004.
Lidge, whose ERA ballooned to 5.77, had no excuses.
“All losses are tough,” he said. “But this is obviously frustrating after Roger threw such a great game.
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“If you pitch at the end of the game, that’s just part of it when you’re struggling. You don’t want to be struggling for our team now but I am doing that right now.”
Ausmus doesn’t know what Lidge’s problem is.
“I don’t know whether it’s mental or physical,” Ausmus said. “But it’s got to get corrected. We need him to return to pitching the way he did last year.”
Arizona manager Bob Melvin was amazed by his team’s comeback.
“After Rocket did what he did to us and to come back to a position to where we’re tied almost felt like a victory at the time,” Melvin said. “Rocket really had us in his hand. He had unbelievable command of his fastball and a great split.”
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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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.
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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.
