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
MINNEAPOLIS - The Minnesota Twins fell flat again, forcing themselves into another white-knuckle night of keeping tabs on the Chicago White Sox as the AL Central race that nobody has taken charge of crawls to a finish.
Hmmm. Perhaps the Kansas City Royals could petition to represent the division in the playoffs.
Ryan Shealy blooped a two-run single over a drawn-in infield for the lead in the seventh inning, and the surging Royals handed the suddenly sputtering Twins a second straight defeat, 4-2 on Saturday.
“All the things that go for us went against us, the bloops and the choppers and the off-the-gloves,” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. “They did to us what we do to a lot of other people.”
The Twins remained a half-game ahead of Chicago, which lost 12-6 to Cleveland. They can clinch the division title Sunday with a win and a White Sox loss.
But thanks to a bunch of missed chances by the batters and a letdown by the bullpen, the Twins failed to follow through on another opportunity to open some breathing room. Instead, they became big Indians fans again.
Nobody was very eager to watch the White Sox game, though. The TVs were turned off in the clubhouse. Gardenhire had no interest. Denard Span planned to catch some college football. Justin Morneau was noncommittal.
The possibility of a one-game tiebreaker to determine the division champion increased.
“If we end up having to go to Chicago on Tuesday, we end up having to go,” said Morneau, who grounded into one of Minnesota’s four double plays. “Right now, the first thing we’ve got to do is win that ballgame tomorrow. Then we’ll see what happens.”
Down the hall, the Royals were in a much better mood. They’ve won 13 of their last 15 games, including eight straight on the road. Their 18 victories in September are the most in the season’s final month since the 1985 World Series champions, and the current winning streak away from home is their longest since 1975.
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Gil Meche (14-11) pitched into the seventh, getting two innings to end on double plays. The Twins left 11 runners on base and grounded into two more against Royals relievers.
In the eighth, Carlos Gomez’s drive to left-center with two outs and two on hung in the air a little too long and Mark Teahen caught it to end the inning.
Joakim Soria pitched the ninth, walking Span and Alexi Casilla. But Joe Mauer bounced into — what else? — a double play. With a runner at third, Morneau flied out to Teahen to end the game and give Soria his 42nd save.
“It was a good win. We kept scrapping away,” Meche said. “It’s been a fun September.”
In the second season of his $55 million, five-year contract, Meche has thrived in the second half — going 11-3 with a 3.09 ERA over 134 innings and 21 starts since June 10. He had runners on in each inning except the sixth, but escaped and struck out seven with only two runs allowed — one of them earned.
The seventh inning was the most egregious waste of opportunity for Minnesota, when Gomez reached on a throwing error by third baseman Alex Gordon and Span followed with a walk.
Casilla, who hit the winning single in the 10th inning of Thursday’s 7-6 comeback win over the White Sox, popped up his bunt attempt for the first out after John Bale relieved Meche. Mauer walked to load the bases, but Morneau — 3-for-20 on the homestand — hit a bouncer to shortstop on the first pitch — a fastball — for a routine double play. The Twins left eight runners on against Meche.
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.
