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
NEW YORK - Justin Verlander followed the trajectory of the ball and watched helplessly as Alex Rodriguez’s opposite-field fly settled softly into the second row of right-field seats.
All of a sudden, after six dominant innings, Verlander was losing.
Welcome to the new Yankee Stadium.
CC Sabathia beat Verlander in a prime pitching matchup that lived up to its billing, and Rodriguez’s pop-fly homer sent the New York Yankees to a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday.
“It’s very frustrating,” Verlander said. “It’s very disappointing to throw the ball as well as I did and come away with a loss.”
Sabathia (9-6) tossed seven shutout innings, working out of trouble all afternoon for his eighth victory in 11 decisions. Mariano Rivera got three quick outs for a save and Derek Jeter made an outstanding defensive play in the ninth.
“The game had a feeling that one mistake, one pitch, one swing was going to be the difference,” Rodriguez said.
Melky Cabrera legged out an infield single to drive in the second run against Verlander (10-5), who took a three-hit shutout into the seventh before running into some tough luck.
Rodriguez led off with a high fly toward Yankee Stadium’s short right-field porch. Verlander watched it the whole way, then smiled in disbelief after the ball carried over the fence.
“If it went out by 10 rows, all right. But just scraping the back of the wall is frustrating. I’d rather a guy hit it 10 miles,” Verlander said. “I didn’t think he hit it very well, but it had the right trajectory and he hit it to the right part of the field.”
It was Rodriguez’s 571st home run, two behind Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew for ninth place.
“He’s throwing 98 (mph),” Rodriguez said about Verlander, coming off his second trip to the All-Star game. “I think he supplied a lot of the power.”
Robinson Cano singled with two outs and went to third on Nick Swisher’s soft double inside the left-field line. Cabrera hit a slow roller to shortstop, with Swisher doing all he could to distract Adam Everett as he crossed over to third.
“Very smart baseball,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
Everett’s throw appeared to beat Cabrera by the slimmest margin, but he was called safe by first base umpire Jeff Nelson. Cabrera clapped his hands as Cano scored, putting New York ahead 2-0.
Marcus Thames homered in the eighth off Alfredo Aceves, who struck out two to set up Rivera for his 507th career save and 25th in 26 chances this season.
Jeter made a signature jump throw from deep in the shortstop hole to get Brandon Inge for the second out of the ninth.
“That was an incredible play,” Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said. “He made such a strong throw. It was perfect.”
The Yankees, who have won 15 of 20, are 40-22 since Rodriguez came off the disabled list May 8 — the best record in the majors. New York also improved to 18-5 against AL Central teams.
The first-place Tigers fell to 4-12 against the AL East.
“Hopefully, sweep them tomorrow,” Sabathia said.
Verlander beat Sabathia on April 27, pitching seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts and no walks to start his seven-game winning streak.
This time, the right-hander yielded only two hits through his first 5 2-3 innings — singles by Jeter in the first and fourth.
“That’s as good as we’ve seen him. He was throwing every pitch for strikes. He’s added a slider to his repertoire,” Rodriguez said. “You just hope for a mistake. These guys, it’s hard to score three or four runs against guys like CC and Verlander. We knew one or two runs would win the game.”
A gritty Sabathia allowed five hits and three walks but stranded seven runners. Pitching like the $161 million ace the Yankees were counting on when they signed him, the big lefty also induced a pair of double-play grounders.
With runners at second and third in the sixth, Sabathia retired Ryan Raburn on a shallow fly and Inge on a soft looper.
“We had CC on the ropes a couple of times,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “We just couldn’t capitalize. Most people talk about guys who have high on-base percentages, but I’d rather take the guy who will drive them in.”
Notes: David Cone threw out the first pitch on the 10th anniversary of his perfect game against the Montreal Expos at old Yankee Stadium. His catcher in that game was the same one as Saturday: Girardi. ... New York reliever Damaso Marte (left shoulder inflammation) pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts in his second rehab appearance for the Gulf Coast League Yankees.
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.