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.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had 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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Daisuke Matsuzaka has been as good as advertised. If Boston would just score some runs for him, he’d have the record to prove it.
Dioner Navarro, B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena homered during a five-run seventh inning and the Devil Rays beat the Red Sox 5-2 on Sunday to stop an eight-game losing streak.
Matsuzaka took a six-hit shutout into the seventh before being lifted after allowing Navarro’s solo homer on an 0-2 pitch and a one-out single to Josh Wilson. Dice-K was charged with two runs and eight hits.
“Dice-K was so good,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “His off-speed all day was sharp. He left a split up to Navarro.”
Manny Delcarmen replaced Matsuzaka and got Akinori Iwamura to ground into a fielder’s choice for the second out. But Brendan Harris singled and Upton hit a three-run drive to make it 4-0. Pena followed Upton with his 25th of the season.
The Red Sox have scored two runs or less while Matsuzaka (12-8) has been in the game in 10 of his last 12 starts. The right-hander threw seven shutout innings in his previous outing, a 1-0 victory at Cleveland on Tuesday.
“When our lineup is unable to produce runs, my job is to hold the other team to zero runs,” Matsuzaka said through an interpreter.
Gary Glover (4-3) pitched 2 1-3 innings to get the win. He allowed consecutive homers to Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis in the eighth.
“I got a little frustrated because we scored two runs and I was like, ’Man, take away those runs, we’re up by one,”’ Delcarmen said. “If I could take them back, I would.”
The Boston bullpen allowed three runs in two innings. It had given up just five earned runs over 33 2-3 innings in the previous 11 games.
Ramirez has hit 40 homers, including 25 at Tropicana Field, against the Devil Rays. He has 1,584 RBIs, which ties him for 32nd place on the career list with Rogers Hornsby and Harmon Killebrew.
Boston, which lost for the second time in 10 games, leads the AL East by eight games over the New York Yankees, who beat Baltimore 10-6. The Red Sox went 5-2 on a road trip that included taking three of four at Cleveland.
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“If we do that, we’re going to be fine,” Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell said. “I don’t think we can have any complaints.”
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Scott Kazmir allowed six hits over six innings for Tampa Bay. He struck out eight and walked one during his 97-pitch outing.
“Dice-K threw a great game today and Kaz did too,” Upton said. “We knew it was going to be that type of game, and I think we knew that Navy’s home run wasn’t going to be enough with the bats hitting out of that lineup.”
Kazmir worked out of early trouble by holding Boston hitless in three at-bats with runners in scoring position and inducing two double-play grounders from David Ortiz during the first three innings.
“I know you can’t give up much when you’re facing a guy like Dice-K,” Kazmir said. “He’s one of the best arms in baseball.”
The Devil Rays loaded the bases with two outs in the second, but failed to score when Wilson grounded out. Tampa Bay were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position through five.
Notes: Ortiz was hitless in three at-bats and is 5-for-32 (.156) overall against Kazmir. Ramirez has four hits in 34 at-bats (.118), including an 0-for-3 performance Sunday, against the Devil Rays left-hander. ... Ortiz went 0-for-4 overall to snap his 13-game hitting streak. ... Tampa Bay All-Star LF Carl Crawford (sprained right wrist) was out of the starting lineup for the second consecutive game. Crawford said he will undergo an MRI exam Monday. ... Tampa Bay optioned RHP Jae Kuk Ryu to Triple-A Durham to make room for RHP Dan Wheeler, who was acquired from Houston on Saturday and will join the team Monday.
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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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.