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 three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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 title chances now.
CFT: Jordan Jefferson makes it clear he wasn't happy with LSU's game plan in the Tigers' BCS Championship Game loss to Alabama.
Move over, Hollywood and NFL types, golf's two real A-listers take center stage Sunday at Pebble Beach, both in need of a win.
The United States swept favored Switzerland out of the Davis Cup on Saturday when Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Luis Suarez's refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra overshadowed Manchester United's 2-1 win over rival Liverpool that lifted the defending champions to first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Marlies Schild of Austria won her sixth World Cup slalom of the season Saturday after overall leader Lindsey Vonn and defending champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch crashed out in the opening run on the windy Pyrenees course.
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
SAN DIEGO - Phil Nevin finally delivered something San Diego had missed most of Friday night: a timely hit.
Nevin lined a one-out, bases-loaded single in the 15th inning to lift the Padres to a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, who had their six-game winning streak snapped.
“We just needed some guys to step up with some timely hits,” Nevin said. “We had a lot of hits, but not too many of them were timely.”
Nevin, who earlier extended his career-high hitting streak to 13 games, lined Brandon Lyon’s fastball into left field to score Xavier Nady.
“If that one got away, that would be hard to take,” Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. “Especially with the great pitching we had.”
The Padres had a season-high 20 hits, but stranded 19 runners, also a season high. San Diego’s bullpen was stellar in extra innings, as Chris Hammond (2-0) and three other relievers combined to retire the final 16 Arizona batters.
The winning rally started when Nady drew a leadoff walk against Lyon. Dave Roberts laid down a sacrifice bunt and Mark Loretta then blooped a single to center field. Luis Terrero dove for the ball but could only field it on a hop. Lyon intentionally walked Brian Giles before Nevin hit a 1-1 fastball.
Lyon (0-2), the major league leader with 10 saves, was the seventh Diamondbacks pitcher.
“You don’t want a leadoff walk,” he said. “You still have to go out and get three outs and give your team a chance to win. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that tonight.”
Loretta tied his career high with five hits.
Hammond pitched two perfect innings and combined with relievers Scott Linebrink, Rudy Seanez and Akinori Otsuka to allow just one hit with six strikeouts and one walk in six innings.
“If you lose, you lose, really,” Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said about the end of his team’s winning streak. “It hurts because we used our whole bullpen.”
Arizona tied the game in the ninth. Shawn Green drew a one-out walk off Trevor Hoffman and moved to second on a groundout before pinch-hitter Tony Clark lined a double down the right-field line to tie the score at 4-all.
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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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
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.
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.