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.
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.
AP
ST. LOUIS - Spurred by the antics of an overly excited Milwaukee Brewers reliever, the St. Louis Cardinals jumped back into the wild-card scrum.
Carlos Villanueva’s arm-raising, in-your-face gesture after escaping a bases-loaded jam in the seventh woke up the Cardinals against a team that’s handled them all year, leading to a four-run rally in the eighth inning of a 5-3 victory against the Brewers on Wednesday night.
Ryan Ludwick lacked a triple for the cycle and drove in two runs, including Albert Pujols to start the big comeback. Pujols had taken a few menacing steps toward the celebrating Villanueva before being steered away by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi, and then he answered with a double off David Riske (1-2) to open the eighth.
“When you start pointing to the dugout and saying all the things that he was saying, a guy that respects the game like I myself, I didn’t appreciate it and I had to let him know,” Pujols said. “I guess he did us a favor. He woke up a sleeping giant.”
Rebounding from a 12-0 rout Tuesday, the Cardinals pulled within 3½ games of the Brewers for the NL wild-card lead. That’s where they were starting a two-game series that was their final shot against Milwaukee.
The Brewers took the season series 10-5 and had won seven in a row against the Cardinals before Wednesday.
“There’s days we’re not good enough, but we really try,” manager Tony La Russa said. “We have more talent than people think.”
The Cardinals were held to four hits in the first five innings and had a scoreless streak of 19 innings against Milwaukee pitching dating to July before Ludwick’s 32nd homer off Manny Parra in the sixth. They left the bases loaded in the seventh when Joe Mather fouled out against Villanueva, who celebrated demonstratively while facing the St. Louis dugout.
Villanueva said he was not trying to show anybody up.
“I was caught up in the heat of the moment, got excited a little bit and they took offense to it,” Villanueva said. “A couple of words were said back and forth, but I’m not going to be intimidated by anybody.
“I may have looked over there, but I didn’t look at anybody in particular.”
Like Pujols, Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright thought it was the turning point.
“We had some tempers flare and it probably helped us, it probably woke us up a little bit,” Wainwright said. “Sometimes it takes something like that to really get the juices flowing.”
Ludwick made it 3-2 with a double to score Pujols in the eighth and scored on a game-tying single by Troy Glaus, who took second on the throw home. After moving to third on a groundout, Glaus slid in just ahead of catcher Jason Kendall’s tag with the go-ahead run when shortstop J.J. Hardy short-hopped his throw to the plate on pinch hitter Aaron Miles’ grounder against a drawn-in infield.
“You don’t have to do stupid things like that to disrespect this game,” Pujols said. “Like I said, he did us a favor and we pulled through and I’m glad he did that.”
Ryan Franklin (5-5) worked a scoreless eighth with a walk and strikeout and rookie Chris Perez finished for his sixth save in seven chances with three strikeouts in the ninth, allowing only a one-out double to Hardy. Perez is 6-for-6 since being recalled from Triple-A Memphis in early August to replace Jason Isringhausen as the closer.
“This is great. Coming to the ballpark every day and fighting for a playoff spot makes it even better,” Perez said.
Hardy had three hits and an RBI for the Brewers, who had outscored the Cardinals 42-7 during their streak. Milwaukee is 58-6 when leading after seven innings and the Cardinals are 5-39 when trailing after seven.
Wainwright allowed three runs, two earned, and threw 89 pitches in his second start coming off the 15-day disabled list from a finger injury that sidelined him for two months. Parra allowed a run on six hits, departing after allowing a single to Yadier Molina to open the seventh.
In the third, the Brewers took a 1-0 lead on three infield hits and a Wainwright throwing error trying to get an out on one of them. They scored when Hardy barely beat out a slow roller to short after Cesar Izturis’ barehand grab and throw.
Milwaukee opened the fourth with consecutive doubles by Corey Hart and Mike Cameron, and Jason Kendall added an RBI single for a 3-0 lead.
Notes: Pujols was 2-for-4 and is batting .357, a point ahead of Atlanta’s Chipper Jones in the NL batting race. ... La Russa’s season-long strategy of batting the pitcher eighth backfired in the second when Molina and Nick Stavinoha singled with two outs and Wainwright grounded out for the third out. ... Josh Phelps, whose contract was purchased from Triple-A Memphis by the Cardinals earlier in the day, had a pinch-hit single off Villanueva in the seventh. ... Ryan Braun was 0-for-4 and hit by a pitch, hitless for only the second time in 13 games against the Cardinals. He still ended with a .459 average, seven homers and 13 RBIs against St. Louis.
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.
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.
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.