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
ANAHEIM, Calif. - With the heart of the order hurting, the Los Angeles Angels got power from Kendry Morales and an unexpected source.
Erick Aybar matched Morales’ three-run homer and the Angels rallied to spoil Mark Teixeira’s first appearance in Anaheim with a 10-6 victory over the New York Yankees on Friday night.
Teixeira, who left in the offseason to sign a free-agent deal with the Yankees, went 1 for 5 and stranded four runners. He was showered by boos throughout the game.
Aybar, one of the smallest players in the Angels’ clubhouse at 5-foot-10, provided the spark for the Angels, who are missing Torii Hunter (adductor strain) and Vladimir Guerrero (strained muscle), who both went on the disabled list earlier in the day, and Juan Rivera because of injuries.
“You don’t see Erick hit home runs very often, you don’t see him miss one by a couple feet foul and then come back and hit one,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “Two good at-bats and we needed them.”
Alex Rodriguez homered for the Yankees, who failed to extend their eight-game road winning streak despite taking a 4-0 lead in the second and fell out of a first-place tie in the AL East with the Boston Red Sox.
“We swung a notch above and got back into the game,” Scioscia said.
Gary Matthews Jr. had an RBI single in the second for his 1,000th career hit, and Bobby Abreu drove in a run in the fifth to cut the Yankees’ lead to 5-2. Morales then hit the first pitch he saw from Yankees starter Joba Chamberlain over the wall in center field for his 15th homer, tying the game at 5.
Chone Figgins’ RBI triple in the sixth gave Los Angeles a 6-5 lead.
“How about that?” Matthews said. “I guess I only got 1,011 more to catch my dad. I should be about 46 by the time I get there.”
Chamberlain, coming off one of his worst starts of the season where he gave up a career-high eight runs, allowed the run in the second before imploding in the fifth.
He pitched 4 1-3 innings and gave up five runs — four earned — and nine hits.
“It’s frustrating. I’m letting my teammates down, so it’s kind of embarrassing, too,” Chamberlain said. “I’m doing everything I can between starts, going out every day and continuing to work my tail off to get better to help this team, and I’m not getting results. The last two starts is the best my stuff has been all year, which makes it even more frustrating.”
Mike Napoli reached when shortstop Derek Jeter dropped a popup in the seventh and Jeff Mathis was walked by Brian Bruney. With two outs, Aybar connected to deep right to make it 10-6 with his third homer of the season.
“I’ve never seen it, and I doubt we’ll ever see it again,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Jeter’s error. “It’s a first for me. I mean, he’s so great on popups. I was completely shocked. They ended up scoring three runs, and it looks like we’re out of the inning if we don’t do that. I mean, that makes it a big difference going into the ninth inning.”
Mark Melancon (0-1) took the loss for New York, with Jason Bulger (4-1) pitching an inning for the win.
Brian Fuentes struck out Jorge Posada with two runners on for his 25th save in 28 chances.
“We gave them extra outs. The extra outs killed us. When you’re playing that team, you can only give them three outs an inning,” Jeter said. “They took advantage of a couple of mistakes and scored a lot of runs. They’re not going to beat themselves. They put pressure on the defense and they pitch well.”
Angels starter Joe Saunders continued to struggle with his command, giving up the four early runs.
“I think it’s a step forward for Joe. I liked his stuff,” Scioscia said. “Hopefully he’ll be able to fine tune it a little bit and have it be a little more effective next start.”
Jeter, who was 4 for 5, hit the first pitch for a leadoff single in the first and Johnny Damon was walked after starting the at-bat with an 0-2 count.
Rodriguez hit a double to score both runners and Nick Swisher had an RBI single off Saunders, who gave up nine hits and five runs in five innings.
Damon drove in a run in the second, and Rodriguez hit his 15th homer in the fifth to make it 5-1.
Notes: Melancon was recalled from Triple-A Scranton before the game to replace RHP Jonathan Abaladejo. ... The Angels recalled INF Brandon Wood and C Bobby Wilson from Triple-A Salt Lake. ... Rivera left the game with tightness in his left quad and right hamstring.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
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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.