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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
TORONTO - After a brush with perfection in his previous start, Andy Pettitte had to battle in this one. He still came out a winner.
Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano homered, Pettitte won his fourth straight start and the New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-4 on Saturday.
The AL East leaders, who had a seven-game winning streak snapped Friday, have won 15 of 19 on the road.
“It was a real important game for us to win because you don’t want losing streaks to become two,” manager Joe Girardi said. “You want to stop it after one and get on another roll. We have a chance to win the series tomorrow and that’s what you want to do.”
Pettitte is 5-2 following a Yankees loss this season and 81-42 in such situations during his New York career.
Toronto dropped to 4-11 against the Yankees this year and has lost 18 of 24 overall.
Pettitte (13-6), who took a perfect game into the seventh inning in his previous outing against Baltimore, extended his unbeaten streak to eight starts despite not making it past the sixth inning in this one. The lefty allowed four runs and four hits, walked five and struck out three.
“I actually felt pretty good to start the game off but just got out of rhythm and really just struggled,” Pettitte said. “It was a struggle all day. I wasn’t locating my fastball to either side of the plate and I was having trouble getting my breaking ball over.”
Girardi praised Pettitte for “keeping the damage to a minimum.”
“The walks hurt him today,” Girardi said. “He hasn’t walked a lot of people lately and today they kind of bit him.”
David Robertson worked the seventh, Brian Bruney got two outs in the eighth and Phil Hughes closed it out for his third save.
All-Star closer Mariano Rivera threw a bullpen session before the game and reported no pain in his sore left groin, meaning he might be able to return to the mound Sunday.
“It’s not very often you get to save games on the Yankees if your name’s not Mariano,” Hughes said. “It’s been nice. I think we have the depth and the arms in the bullpen to pick up the slack if he needs a break.”
Derek Jeter returned to the lineup after a day off and got two hits, leaving him seven shy of breaking the Yankees record held by Lou Gehrig (2,721).
Cano hit a leadoff homer to right in the fourth, his 23rd, and Teixeira led off the fifth with a shot to left, his team-leading 33rd.
Both homers came off rookie left-hander Brett Cecil (6-4), who allowed three runs and seven hits in 4 2-3 innings while losing for the third time in four starts.
Pettitte retired his first 20 batters Monday night at Baltimore before an error by third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. ended his bid for perfection. Pettitte gave up a single to his next batter, Nick Markakis.
This time, Pettitte walked leadoff hitter Marco Scutaro to begin the first inning.
Leading 1-0 on Melky Cabrera’s RBI single in the second, Pettitte appeared to give up his first hit in the bottom half when rookie Randy Ruiz hooked a 1-0 pitch down the line in left.
Third base umpire Jeff Nelson ruled it a home run but, after Ruiz circled the bases, the umpires huddled near third base before three jogged off the field and under the first-base stands to watch a replay, the first video review at Rogers Centre.
After about 5 minutes, they emerged and waved Ruiz back into the batter’s box. Television replays indicated that the ball was indeed foul.
“I had the best look at it,” said Hairston, who was playing left. “It was a tough call. It was really, really close. I saw it hit a fan in foul territory. That’s why I was kind of adamant.”
Ruiz ended up grounding out but homered to left-center in his next at-bat.
Pettitte walked the next two batters before John McDonald dropped a single into short right that rolled past a charging Eric Hinske, scoring Edwin Encarnacion. Cano retrieved the ball and fired it to the plate in time to nail Jose Bautista, who was trying to score from first. Bautista appeared to slide home ahead of the tag from catcher Jorge Posada but was called out by plate umpire Tim Tschida.
“It was a lot closer than I thought it was going to be,” Pettitte said. “I thought he was going to be out by a mile.”
Leading 3-2 on Teixeira’s homer, New York added two more in the sixth off reliever Casey Janssen on RBI singles by Alex Rodriguez and Posada.
Notes: Posada and Rodriguez are expected to get the day off Sunday. ... Encarnacion was activated from the 15-day disabled list before the game. ... McDonald made his first career start in left field.
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.