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"Sports Quote of the Day"
"Make each day count by setting specific goals to succeed, then putting forth every effort to exceed your own expectations." ~ Les Brown, Motivational Speaker, Author, Radio DJ, Former Television Host, and Former Politician
TRENDING: Chicago Bears 19 Tennessee Titans 7. (See the football section for Bears news and NFL updates).
TRENDING: Chicago Bears 19 Tennessee Titans 7. (See the football section for Bears news and NFL updates).
(Photo/abc7chicago.com)
TRENDING: Blackhawks Talk Podcast: Jonathan Toews' offseason changes, projected lines, Eddie Olczyk. (See the hockey section for Blackhawks updates and NHL news).
TRENDING: Bulls vs. Celtics: Which team is rebuilding? (See the basketball section for Bulls news and NBA updates).
TRENDING: Lackey, Cubs unravel in fifth in loss to Phils; Grabbing first big league win, Lucas Giolito shows he belongs in future-rotation conversation. (See the baseball section for Cubs and White Sox updates).
TRENDING: Johnson stuns Spieth, wins Northern Trust playoff; U.S. Women's Open
TRENDING: Lackey, Cubs unravel in fifth in loss to Phils; Grabbing first big league win, Lucas Giolito shows he belongs in future-rotation conversation. (See the baseball section for Cubs and White Sox updates).
TRENDING: Johnson stuns Spieth, wins Northern Trust playoff; U.S. Women's Open
champ Park adds Canadian title; Kelly wins Boeing Classic for first Champs. title; Suri wins in Denmark as Daly fades in final round. (See the golf section for PGA news and tournament updates).
TRENDING: Jeremy Clements scores first Xfinity win. (See the NASCAR section for NASCAR news and racing updates).
TRENDING: Veljko Paunovic after Fire's continued slide: 'It's the mental thing'; Arena names 26 to latest USMNT roster for 2018 WCQ. (See the soccer section for Fire news and worldwide soccer updates).
TRENDING: Japan wins 2017 Little League World Series. (See the third article from the end of the blog below for news and LL World Series updates).
TRENDING: Mayweather vs. McGregor fight results, Money wins via 10th-round TKO. (See the last article on this blog for fight news and updates).
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!!! Mike Glennon answers a question, but Cameron Meredith’s injury asks another one.
TRENDING: Jeremy Clements scores first Xfinity win. (See the NASCAR section for NASCAR news and racing updates).
TRENDING: Veljko Paunovic after Fire's continued slide: 'It's the mental thing'; Arena names 26 to latest USMNT roster for 2018 WCQ. (See the soccer section for Fire news and worldwide soccer updates).
TRENDING: Japan wins 2017 Little League World Series. (See the third article from the end of the blog below for news and LL World Series updates).
TRENDING: Mayweather vs. McGregor fight results, Money wins via 10th-round TKO. (See the last article on this blog for fight news and updates).
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!!! Mike Glennon answers a question, but Cameron Meredith’s injury asks another one.
(Photo/USA TODAY)
Mitch Trubisky offered differing evaluations of his play and that of Mike Glennon after the Bears’ 19-7 win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
“I thought he balled out today, which is awesome to see,” Trubisky said.
The Bears’ quarterback competition, as it pertains to Week 1, is over. Mike Glennon not only avoided a disastrous game — which could’ve thrown his status for Sept. 10 into question — but played well, completing 11 of 18 passes for 134 yards with a touchdown and a quarterback rating of 102.5. Glennon looked poised and confident while driving the Bears 96 yards for a touchdown on their first possession of the game, and didn’t make the kind of catastrophic mistakes that marred his prior to preseason contests.
That doesn’t mean Trubisky can’t keep the heat on Glennon. Ideally for the Bears, he will, because Glennon played well after losing some first-team reps to Trubisky in practice last week and on Sunday.
“These guys are all competitors and we try to build competition,” coach John Fox said. “You want guys to respond to that. … I think Mike did that.”
If the Bears are thinking optimistically about their 2017 outlook — and what we’ve seen from Glennon so far — it’s that the 6-foot-7 quarterback needed two preseason games to shake off the rust that had built up in his final two years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, during which he only threw 11 regular season passes.
“I feel like I have plenty of reps in practice and you get good at that, but there’s nothing that you can replicate that is a real game situation,” Glennon said. “Would I liked to have played better early on? Of course. But I think that’s just part of it. I haven’t played in two years, so these reps are extremely valuable and I’m glad we took a step forward today.”
The positivity about the Bears’ first team offense in the first half — all of which came under Glennon — was undercut by the grisly injury suffered by Cameron Meredith late in the first quarter. The Bears believe it’s an ACL injury, but haven’t conducted an MRI on their leading receiver from last year (66 catches, 888 yards). Either way, the discussion about Meredith was mostly conducted in the past tense about his 2017 season, dealing a brutal blow to the Berwyn native who appeared ready for an even more productive year.
Losing Meredith creates an added challenge for Glennon that played out on Sunday. After Meredith’s injury, Glennon completed only three of eight attempts for 34 yards, and he failed to connect with an open Deonte Thompson near the goal line on a pass that could’ve resulted in a touchdown just before halftime.
“Obviously Cam was a huge part of our offense,” Glennon said. “I’m pulling for him, but guys just have to step up. Unfortunately that’s just sometimes the reality of football, guys go down. I think what we kind of talked about is we have a deep group of receivers and a lot of guys that can play.
“A lot of guys, there’s an opportunity for someone in that room to really go grab that new open spot. It’s unfortunate but I think we have a deep group at receiver.”
Glennon showed a good connection with Kendall Wright early, finding the former Titans receiver for three third down conversions on that lengthy opening drive. The Bears need more of that, whether it’s from Kevin White (four targets, two receptions, 30 yards), Zach Miller (two targets, one catch, nine yards), Markus Wheaton (who hasn’t played in a preseason game yet and hasn’t practiced much due to an appendectomy and broken finger) or perhaps someone from outside the organization.
Ideally, that reliable replacement for Glennon would be White, the seventh overall pick in the 2015 draft who’s shown modestly encouraging signs in the last few days. White had a strong practice on Wednesday — Glennon said he “had one of the best days I’ve seen him have,” — and caught a 19-yard pass over the middle on Sunday, for what it’s worth.
But can White be the guy who Glennon, while under pressure, trusts to catch a pass even while blanketed in man coverage (as Meredith did for 28 yards on Sunday)? White said he’s not putting added pressure on himself to be that guy, but trusts he — or one of his teammates — can be.
The Bears now need to see that optimism translate into production.
“I always want to do my job and do it at a high level,” White said. “Us as receivers, everybody’s gotta step up when guys go down. We’ll do that, we’ll be all right.”
Bears react to gut punch of Cameron Meredith’s injury: ‘It sucks’.
By JJ Stankevitz
(Photo/USA TODAY)
The gigantic video boards at Nissan Stadium showed a replay of nearly every play during Sunday’s preseason game, no matter how inconsequential it was, or if it cast the Tennessee Titans in a negative light.
One play, noticeably, was not shown on the video board. And that’s a good thing, because Cameron Meredith’s gruesome, brutal knee injury didn’t need to be shown again.
The Bears suspect Meredith has an ACL injury, though the third-year receiver hadn’t undergone an MRI as of John Fox’s postgame meeting with the media. Not only did the Bears lose their leading receiver from 2016 (66 catches, 888 yards), they lost one of their best, most feel-good stories: A local kid from Berwyn who attended St. Joseph High School, went on to help Illinois State nearly win an FCS Championship, clawed his way onto the 53-man roster as an undrafted free agent and looked primed for an even more productive 2017.
“It was definitely tough — he was playing so well,” quarterback Mike Glennon said. “He had the catch on the first drive and then the catch obviously right then. It’s just all Cam. He’s been one of our go-to guys. Again, I know we talk about it, but a guy who was on the incline, always getting better. It’s unfortunate at some point that would happen.”
That catch Glennon referred to was a 28-yarder on the Bears’ 96-yard scoring drive in the first quarter, on which Glennon — while under pressure — found Meredith, who was blanketed in man coverage, for an impressive reception. Meredith was injured when he went across the middle for a 16-yard reception later in the first quarter, and was carted off with an air cast on his left leg.
“We’ll miss Cam, we love Cam,” fellow wideout Kendall Wright said. “He’s a warrior out there.”
“Cam’s a great guy, a great teammate,” added wide receiver Kevin White. “He works his butt off. It’s always a little sad, a little emotional when a good guy like that goes down.”
Football players are conditioned to think in terms of “next man up” given the frequency of injuries in this sport. The impact of losing Meredith will be significant on the Bears’ offense, which now has a void to fill with guys who haven’t proven themselves yet (like White) or were productive, but a few years ago (like Wright, Markus Wheaton and — if he makes the team — Victor Cruz).
The circumstances and potential severity of Meredith’s injury, though, are best summed up by left tackle Charles Leno: “It sucks, man.”
“He’s been working hard this offseason, had a great camp, been a great competitor for us,” Leno continued. “It’s just tragic, man. Young player, too. We all gotta rally behind him and keep building him up because he is a big focal point for our offense. It sucks.”
What you need to know from Bears-Titans: Mike Glennon is your Week 1 starting quarterback.
By JJ Stankevitz
(Photo/abc7chicago.com)
Mike Glennon, in completing 11 of 18 passes for 134 yards with a touchdown Sunday afternoon against the Tennessee Titans, ended any discussion of who the Bears’ starting quarterback will be Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons. It’s him.
Does that mean Glennon is guaranteed to be the team’s starting quarterback for the entire season? No. But Glennon was confident and poised in the pocket early, assuredly leading a first quarter 96-yard scoring drive which included a trio of third-down completions to Kendall Wright. It was the kind of drive, with the kind of passes thrown by Glennon, the Bears envisioned when they signed him back in March.
Glennon’s production waned after Cameron Meredith’s gruesome leg injury, though, with just three completions in eight attempts for 34 yards. He missed linking up with Deonte Thompson at the end of the first quarter for what could’ve been a touchdown (Thompson was open), but didn’t make any egregiously bad throws, as was the case against the Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals earlier this month.
Said Glennon last week of his Week 3 goals, which he went on to accomplish: “I think ultimately, be kind of the commander on the field. Get the ball in the playmakers’ hands. Get a lot of completions. Protect the football. And put together a few scoring drives.”
If Glennon’s first half was the best-case for him, that’s fine — not great, but fine. And if this is the Glennon that shows up Week 1, the Bears can feel confident in their plan to let Mitch Trubisky slowly develop and ultimately force his way into a starting job.
Mitch Trubisky showed his age
This sequence of events during Trubisky’s second drive with the first-team offense was a reminder that the rookie quarterback still is, well, a rookie: The Bears burned a timeout to avoid a delay of game, Trubisky tripped and put the ball on the ground (the Bears recovered), and then nearly was picked off. He completed a 13-yard pass to Thompson on third-and-long, but then took a delay of game penalty on fourth-and-short to back the Bears into a punt.
That came on the heels of a three-and-out to begin the second half on which Trubisky sailed an incompletion to Wright and threw high to White (the ball tipped off White’s fingers, for what it’s worth).
But the physical talents of Trubisky weren’t marred by his early sloppiness: He found undrafted rookie Tanner Gentry off play action for a gorgeous 45-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter (against the Titans’ backup defense, but it still was an outstanding connection). His final line was good, too: 10/15, 128 yards, 1 TD.
The bigger issue, though, was with Trubisky’s operation of the first-team offense. That’s the kind of stuff on which he still needs to improve, and it was apparent on Sunday.
Cameron Meredith’s injury is a massive blow
Meredith’s torn ACL, as reported by Pam Oliver on the Fox broadcast of the game, is a significant blow to a Bears offense that already needed to see more out of its pass catchers. Meredith showed the most reliable connection with Glennon in practice from Day 1 of training camp, and looked to be ascending a year after leading the Bears with 66 catches for 888 yards.
During Glennon’s prior preseason struggles, the Bears stressed the entire offense needed to do better in addition to Glennon. Someone has to catch the ball on this team. Kevin White, the former seventh overall pick who’s still working his way back from a pair of debilitating injuries, will be under more pressure to produce.
Getting back Markus Wheaton, who hasn’t practiced much due to an appendectomy and broken finger, will help, as would reliable play from veterans Kendall Wright and Victor Cruz (if Cruz makes the team). Deonte Thompson probably has a better chance of making the team now, too, as does Zach Miller, though Adam Shaheen’s inclusion on special teams was probably a signal his spot was fairly safe already.
The Bears have two weeks to see if someone can step up to fill Meredith’s production. Otherwise, even if Glennon proves to be reliable, the offense may not be without help around him.
Briefly
— Once again, the Bears’ defense put together a solid game. Akiem Hicks and Willie Young notched sacks, and Tennessee’s first-team offense didn’t score against the Bears’ first-team defense. The only blemish was Eddie Jackson, Quintin Demps and Cre’von LeBlanc failing to tackle Taywan Taylor on a third-and-31 the Titans wound up converting. While the secondary still has some question marks, that’s now three good games by the Bears’ defense this preseason, which backs up the low-key optimism that’s came from this group for the last few months.
— Jeremy Langford, playing his first preseason game of 2017, played a little better than his final stat line showed (five carries, 18 yards; two receptions, 19 yards). He’s probably not on the roster bubble with Ka’deem Carey undergoing wrist surgery, but could’ve been in trouble if he didn’t show much on Sunday. He did, and remains a valuable backup to Jordan Howard.
— Cruz caught a pass with the first-team offense after Meredith’s injury, but while with the backups dropped a pass from Trubisky — who impressively evaded pressure and scrambled outside the pocket — that hit him in the chest. He’s one to keep an eye on next weekend when rosters are reduced to 53.
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Blackhawks Talk Podcast: Jonathan Toews' offseason changes, projected lines, Eddie Olczyk.
By CSN Staff
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
On the latest Blackhawks Talk Podcast Pat Boyle, Tracey Myers and Charlie Roumeliotis discuss Jonathan Toews, his offseason workout changes, worrying less about defense, and concentrating more on offensive production.
The crew also plays the game, forward lines roulette.
Plus, they discuss Eddie Olczyk’s medical battle and they answer some listener questions.
Listen to the latest Blackhawks Talk Podcast right here.
Just Another Chicago Bulls Session..... Bulls vs.Celtics: Which team is rebuilding?
By Mike McGraw
One way to pass the time before NBA season begins is to peruse the list of Eastern Conference teams and try to identify which ones are rebuilding.
It's a bit tougher than it sounds. The Boston Celtics, after reaching the conference finals, have just four players left from their playoff roster. The Bulls, meanwhile, will have nine leftovers once Nikola Mirotic signs the qualifying offer or accepts whatever contract the Bulls put on the table this summer.
Of course, the Bulls are the rebuilding team after trading all-star Jimmy Butler to Minnesota. Boston may have upgraded its roster, but the Celtics seem to be building for the near future.
After acquiring Kyrie Irving from Cleveland, the Celtics basically have a starting lineup of Irving, second-year Jaylen Brown and free-agent addition Gordon Hayward at the wings, rookie Jayson Tatum at power forward and 31-year-old Al Horford at center. Brown, Horford, Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier are the four players left from the end of the playoffs.
Cleveland remains the prohibitive favorite. Facing the prospect of an unhappy Irving spoiling an already delicate team chemistry, the Cavs did pretty well in landing all-star guard Isaiah Thomas, defensive specialist Jae Crowder, young big man Ante Zizic, plus Brooklyn's first-round pick in 2018.
Thomas may start the season on the sideline due to a hip injury suffered late in the playoffs. Don't forget, Cleveland signed Derrick Rose this summer as an extra point guard. Rose is always an injury risk, but he averaged 19.8 points while shooting 51 percent for the Knicks last March before his season ended with a knee issue. Rose can still play.
Here's the overwhelming problem facing the Cavs and every NBA team: The Golden State Warriors can play a fast-tempo, high-scoring style at historic levels and do it with three excellent defenders on the floor in Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala. Kevin Durant can also be a tough defender with his long arms, and Steph Curry isn't awful at the defensive end.
Last year's Cavs lineup had essentially one player who tried to play good defense -- LeBron James. Crowder isn't a great player, but James could use a defensive grinder to help him out. Thomas and Rose aren't going to lock anyone down, but neither is Irving, and that pair can probably exceed Irving's offensive production.
So while Boston remains an emerging threat, the Cavaliers probably widened their lead as best team in the East.
Dare to compare
One popular topic after the Irving trade broke was why the Celtics didn't offer next year's Brooklyn pick for Jimmy Butler?
The likely answer requires a trip back to early June, when no one foresaw Irving making a trade demand. The Celtics didn't seem interested in Butler because they had their mind set on signing Hayward as a free agent. Trading for Butler would have complicated Boston's cap situation. General manager Danny Ainge figured why trade for Butler when there's a good chance of snaring Hayward for nothing.
The Celtics probably needed to include next year's Nets pick to complete the deal with Cleveland because Isaiah Thomas is a double risk. He's coming off a hip injury and will be a free agent in 2018. Irving is signed through 2019 with an option for the following year.
Wave to Wade
A potential buyout of Dwyane Wade by the Bulls is certainly not breaking news. That move has been inevitable since the Jimmy Butler trade.
As written here many times, the most likely scenario is for Wade to play for the Bulls through the trade deadline, then be set free to join the playoff team of his choice. It's not a terrible situation for Wade. He can grab plenty of rest since the Bulls aren't trying to win games, then scan the NBA landscape in February for his best chance at a playoff run.
He could leave now and join ex-teammate LeBron James in Cleveland. But what if this is the one time James experiences a serious injury? Wade might as well wait it out before deciding on a new team.
Also, for the Bulls to agree to a buyout now, they would want significant savings on Wade's $23.8 million salary. NBA players rarely give up guaranteed money. They usually have their agent figure out what they could get from a new team, subtract that from the base salary and arrive at a buyout amount.
It still seems likely Wade will begin his second season with the Bulls in October.
CUBS: Lackey, Cubs unravel in fifth in loss to Phils.
As written here many times, the most likely scenario is for Wade to play for the Bulls through the trade deadline, then be set free to join the playoff team of his choice. It's not a terrible situation for Wade. He can grab plenty of rest since the Bulls aren't trying to win games, then scan the NBA landscape in February for his best chance at a playoff run.
He could leave now and join ex-teammate LeBron James in Cleveland. But what if this is the one time James experiences a serious injury? Wade might as well wait it out before deciding on a new team.
Also, for the Bulls to agree to a buyout now, they would want significant savings on Wade's $23.8 million salary. NBA players rarely give up guaranteed money. They usually have their agent figure out what they could get from a new team, subtract that from the base salary and arrive at a buyout amount.
It still seems likely Wade will begin his second season with the Bulls in October.
CUBS: Lackey, Cubs unravel in fifth in loss to Phils.
(Photo/thephilliesroom.blogspot.com)
"What a game, I think the key to the game was when I put on the triple play sign. That was huge, I just saved it for that moment," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin joked after the game, adding that the play flipped the game's momentum "without question."
Minutes later, in the home half of the inning, the Phillies struck for five runs, powering them to a 6-3 win over the Cubs, their first series win against an above-.500 team since July 21-23 against the Brewers, and just their third such series win all season (Marlins, April 26-27; Nationals, April 7-9).
With the loss, the Cubs' lead over the Brewers in the National League Central was cut to two games.
Freddy Galvis had a two-run single in the fifth to tie the game, and rookie outfielder Nick Williams followed with a two-run homer, his eighth of the year, to put the Phillies ahead for good. Hoskins added a late insurance run with another record-setting homer -- his fifth in as many days and 11th in just 18 Major League games, an all-time record.
"It was a huge momentum boost for us, and we went out there and did the right thing," Pivetta said of his club's response after the triple play. "We scored five runs. That was a good thing to end on, and the bullpen came in right after me and just shut it down."
Cubs starter John Lackey struck out the first five batters he faced but was chased after the fifth. Lackey gave up four earned runs on six hits and one walk.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Bryant's blunder: After making two nice plays in the fourth inning, Kris Bryant had a ground ball go under his glove in the fifth. Bryant was ready to start a double play when Cameron Rupp sent a grounder to third, but instead he made his 16th error of the season. Instead of nobody on with two outs, the Phillies had runners on the corners with no outs on their way to a five-run frame.
"I should've totally stayed back on it knowing the speed of the runner. Usually [our pitchers] are able to get us out of that, but not today," Bryant said. "I feel terrible about it."
Pivetta limits the damage: The first three Cubs to come to the plate Sunday all scored, two on hot-hitting first baseman Anthony Rizzo's single. It looked like Pivetta, who lasted just 1 1/3 innings in his last start, could be in for another short outing. But with the bases loaded and one out, Pivetta struck out Rene Rivera and got Lackey to ground out to end the jam. The right-hander pitched four scoreless innings after the first to get the ball to the Phillies' bullpen.
"I feel like I really needed to step up here and I really needed to throw some shutout innings, especially after that three-run first," Pivetta said.
"He kept battling," Mackanin said. "He didn't feel sorry for himself, he goes out there and he competes. … He missed location quite a bit, the error to start the game didn't help, that got us off on the wrong track. Nevertheless, he came around and once again gave us five innings, which we sorely needed with our bullpen."
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
The triple play was doubly important, both killing the Cubs' potential lead-extending rally and getting Pivetta through five innings of work and saving a taxed bullpen. Philadelphia's relievers have thrown the second-most innings (50 1/3) in the last two weeks entering play Sunday, with the sixth-highest ERA (6.22) in that span.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW
Rizzo had an interesting time on the bases in the fifth inning. Rizzo was called out at first base on a pickoff attempt from Nick Pivetta only to have the call overturned by a replay review. This came after Pivetta threw over to first with Rizzo standing firmly on the base earlier in the same at-bat. Rizzo's adventure on the bases ended when he was thrown out as part of the Phillies' triple play.
QUOTABLE
"Their guy is going to go in the Hall of Fame next week. [He] makes a play. He beats us with the bat, he beats us with the glove. He made an error, finally, at first base to show finally he is human." -- Cubs manager Joe Maddon, on Hoskins
WHAT'S NEXT
Cubs: The Cubs head back to the Windy City to face the Pirates on Monday at 7:05 p.m. CT in the start of a seven-game homestand. Left-hander Mike Montgomery will get the start against Trevor Williams.
Phillies: Aaron Nola takes on the Braves in Monday's series opener at 7:05 p.m. ET at Citizens Bank Park. Nola has faltered his last two times out, allowing 12 earned runs in 11 1/3 innings after allowing just 13 earned runs in his previous 10 starts (68 1/3 innings).
Watch: Cubs on wrong end of confusing triple play.
By Dan Santaromita
Triple plays are rarely straightforward, but the one the Cubs were on the wrong end of on Sunday definitely qualifies as a weird one.
Javier Baez was up to bat in the of the fifth against the Phillies with Anthony Rizzo on second base and Tommy La Stella on first with no outs. Baez lined a ball to left field where Rhys Hoskins made a sliding catch to rob Baez of a single and perhaps even an RBI.
That's where things got weird. Hoskins just got there in time before the ball hit the ground and dragged his glove behind him as he completed his slide. He dropped the ball on the exchange, which further confused Rizzo and La Stella on the bases.
Hoskins threw the ball into the field and both baserunners were easily doubled and tripled off. The play was reviewed and it showed that it was a good catch and the inning ended with the Cubs wondering what the heck just happened.
It went down as a 7-4-3 triple play.
Watch the full play and the review here:
(You Tube Video/MLB)
WHITE SOX: Grabbing first big league win, Lucas Giolito shows he belongs in future-rotation conversation.
By Vinnie Duber
(Photo/USA TODAY)
Lucas Giolito was the No. 11 prospect in baseball when the White Sox acquired him in an offseason trade with the Washington Nationals, and you’d think bringing in such a highly rated pitching prospect would generate feverish excitement.
But Giolito hasn’t been talked about with the same rosy optimism as some of the other cornerstones of the White Sox rebuild.
That can be credited to performance, of course, as a short stint in the bigs at the end of last season went poorly, with Giolito posting a 6.75 ERA in six games (four starts) for the Nationals. The beginning of this season didn’t start so hot, either, with Giolito’s ERA sitting at 5.40 through his first 16 starts at Triple-A Charlotte.
He dropped from the No. 11 prospect in baseball at the beginning of the season to the No. 59 prospect in the game at midseason.
That had some White Sox fans leaving him out of the team’s 2020 starting rotation, with minor league stars like Michael Kopech, Alec Hansen, Dane Dunning and Reynaldo Lopez earning those far-off spots in the minds of daydreaming wannabe general managers.
But Giolito might be working his way back into those rotation projections with what he’s done in his first two starts with the big league White Sox. The first, coming earlier this week against the Minnesota Twins, wasn’t anything to scream about. He allowed four runs in six innings. But Sunday he spun a gem, shutting out the visiting Detroit Tigers over his seven innings of work during the White Sox 7-1 win.
Giolito allowed just three hits and no runs — helped out by umpires getting a call right when they changed Jose Igelsias’ seventh-inning grand slam to a foul ball.
“He used his breaking ball more effectively for strikes, threw first-pitch strikes, used his changeup very well, his fastball was still good,” manager Rick Renteria said. "Obviously, he didn’t get into any trouble until the last inning of work, which he was able to finish Iglesias to get the final out. I thought he looked just the same today, he just didn’t get any balls out over the plate that they could get to.”
“We did a good job of filling up the strike zone with honestly all four of my pitches,” Giolito said. “For the most part, throwing the slider pretty well. It was actually a pretty good swing-and-miss pitch at times. It was one of those days where I was able to get all four of my pitches working for a strike and then being able to throw that good one down when I needed it. It all worked together.”
It’s a continuation of him getting things righted at the minor league level. After those first 16 starts yielded unwanted results, Giolito posted a 2.78 ERA over his last eight starts at Charlotte before getting the call to the majors. Sunday was his best effort yet, shutting down a big league lineup for more than three quarters of a game.
It was his first big league victory. An improvement over his first outing with the team, yes, but an even bigger improvement since last year and over the course of this season.
“It’s a huge relief,” he said. “Last year didn’t go the way I wanted it to. And now I get the opportunity back up here again, I just want to take that opportunity and do everything I can to take advantage of it. I’m very happy I was able to get the first ‘W,’ and I’m looking forward to more.”
As mentioned, Giolito had himself a big league moment Sunday. After recording the first two outs of the top of the seventh inning, he loaded the bases, walking two of those three batters. Renteria visited the mound and opted to leave his young pitcher in the game. The next pitch was blasted down the left-field line and initially ruled a grand slam off Iglesias’ bat. But an umpire conference overturned the call. Giolito induced a grounder to end the inning and keep the Tigers off the scoreboard.
“When Ricky came out there, he said, ‘How are you doing? How are you feeling?’ I said, ‘I’m good, ready to go.’ I really appreciate that I got that opportunity to finish that inning right there, and luckily we were able to get the groundball and get out of it,” he said. “It’s good. I felt confident, and luckily it worked out.”
There’s still a long time before the White Sox rebuild reaches its apex and the team is assembling a rotation for a contending club. But thanks to Rick Hahn’s efforts in loading the organization’s farm system, the White Sox hope to have plenty of arms to choose from.
Giolito should be one of those candidates, and it’s up to him to show he’s still the pitcher that earned such a high rating before the season began.
“The name of the game is consistency, so I’ve got to see him more and more,” Renteria said. “Obviously, he just got here. I still think he previous outing was good, obviously this outing was good, the outcome was a little different. … I think what we’re looking for him to do is do what he did today. Continually attack the zone, continue to mix in his pitches the way he did, effectively for strikes when he needs to, just continue to eat up innings and outs.”
“Just (want to show) the fact I’m going to go out there and compete every five days. When I take the mound, I want to give the team a really good chance to win the game. So that means going out there, getting Strike 1, getting ahead of guys, filling up the strike zone and putting up zeroes on the board,” Giolito said. “Happy we were able to do that today, going to build off of that and continue to work on it.”
Forced time off for Yoan Moncada, Nicky Delmonico the latest wrinkle in White Sox waiting game.
By Vinnie Duber
(Photo/AP)
Any notion of instant gratification for the White Sox took a couple blows this weekend.
Everyone knows this rebuild is nowhere near complete, with much of the team’s projected future roster still developing in the minor leaguers and contending still a couple years off. But the dual excitements that accompanied Yoan Moncada’s promotion to the big league roster and Nicky Delmonico’s smoking start to his major league career were slowed with both youngsters hitting the disabled list during this series with the visiting Detroit Tigers.
Now, because of the well-known timeframe for the rebuild, there is no panic in the streets over Moncada and Delmonico forced into time off. Their absences at this time of year won’t affect a pennant race or be the difference in a postseason berth.
But how does this time off, at this specific time in their early tastes of big league baseball, affect their development moving forward?
“You’re hoping that they’re healthy and they’re able to continue their development by being out there between the lines and playing,” manager Rick Renteria said ahead of Sunday’s game. “Hopefully it doesn’t affect them too much. You want them to be in there and get as many at-bats as possible and the experience. Each person’s different in how it will derail or affect their continued progress in most instances. … Hopefully it doesn’t affect either one of them.”
Renteria says that because in his mind, both guys were playing well before they were put on the shelf.
That’s demonstrably true of Delmonico, who was nearly unstoppable during his first 22 games in the majors. Delmonico wasn’t expected to be a huge part of the White Sox future — and even this hot start hasn’t moved him into the projected 2020 lineup yet — but he’s been a very pleasant surprise, showing that there could perhaps be an embarrassment of riches in the highly rated White Sox farm system.
Delmonico went to the DL with a .307/.429/.573 slash line. That’s a 1.002 OPS for the non-math majors out there. He’s got six homers, 12 RBIs and 15 walks compared to 14 strikeouts. He was tearing it up.
The concern, of course, is that this undesired stretch of time off could slow down that promising start.
“It is (frustrating),” Delmonico said Sunday. “Nothing I can do but try to treat it as much as I can and get ready to get back out there.”
The story is different for Moncada, at least from a statistical standpoint. He’s slashing just .188/.328/.356 in his 30 games since joining the White Sox.
But Renteria thinks the DL stint comes at an unfortunate time for Moncada, too, considering he, in the manager’s opinion, was just starting to turn it on at the plate.
“I still say that Moncada’s approaches have been really good, it’s just a matter of starting to understand a little bit more and recognition of the softer secondary pitches that he’s been swinging and missing at in the zone,” Renteria said.
“Ironically, the day we brought him out (of the game with shin splints), he hit a breaking ball right-handed, it was an off-speed pitch down the left-field line to kind of get going. And he scored on that particular play later on.
“He’s starting to find that slot, that place where he’s recognizing pitches a little better, especially the secondary pitches. He definitely knows the strike zone. It’s not like this guy’s chasing pitches. This guy knows the strike zone, and it’s just a matter of getting more and more comfortable recognizing the secondary pitches that he can do damage with.”
White Sox fans are plenty aware that the organization is in the middle of a long-term waiting game. But now, with two youngsters on the DL — much-heralded pitching prospect Reynaldo Lopez is on the major league disabled list, too — it's clear there will be bumps along the road to the apex of the rebuild.
What Carlos Rodon hopes to accomplish by altering his pre-start routine.
By Dan Hayes
(Photo/USA TODAY)
Throughout his career, Carlos Rodon’s fastball velocity has increased as games wore on, sometimes by as much as 2-3 miles per hour late in the contest. Rodon and the White Sox altered the pitcher’s pregame routine on Saturday night in an attempt to reach that increase earlier.
While the White Sox pitcher was OK with how the adjustment worked, overall he had an off-night in a 6-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field. Rodon allowed five earned runs in five innings pitched, his shortest outing in a month. But Rodon said it wasn’t the change in tactics that did him in as he lost for the first time since July 25.
“Just today wasn’t very good,” Rodon said. “They hit the ball well and made me pay on some pitches I missed on.
“Felt pretty good. Decent. Thought command was somewhat there. They swung the bat good, some homers, and made me pay when they got guys on.”
This season, Rodon has averaged 93.7 mph with his four-seam fastball, according to Brooksbaseball.net. Rodon’s fastball normally starts in the 93-mph range and usually experiences an uptick in the fourth or fifth inning. The average increases to more than 94 mph by the fifth inning and he reaches his high of 95.8 mph in the seventh.
The White Sox wanted to try and help Rodon -- who had a 2.25 ERA and 37 strikeouts in his last 36 innings -- tap into his velocity earlier. With that in mind, Rodon walked out to the field for his pregame warmups about 40 minutes before first pitch. Normally, Rodon heads out 30 minutes before the game.
“We’re trying to make an adjustment with him just to see if we can spike his ability to be a little more explosive earlier,” manager Rick Renteria said.
Rodon touched 95.5 mph, according to MLB Stat Cast, in the first inning and averaged 93 miles overall. But from there he dropped down to an average of 91.5 mph the next two innings before regaining some velocity. He averaged 92.7 mph overall for the game, his lowest average since July 9 at the Colorado Rockies.
Similar to that outing, Rodon wasn’t as sharp as he has been.
Justin Upton drove a fastball that caught too much of the plate out to right field for a game-tying two-run homer in the third inning. And while Rodon thought he made a good pitch to Miguel Cabrera, the slugger followed Upton by blasting a 1-1 changeup for a go-ahead solo homer to right.
Detroit scored twice more in the fourth inning on RBI singles by Ian Kinsler and Dixon Machado to grab a 5-2 lead. Rodon allowed seven hits, walked one and struck out four in an 89-pitch effort.
“He was a little erratic,” Renteria said. “Not as good as he’s been the last couple of outings. He ended up just getting a little fatigued, so he was good after five.
“Even after the third inning we were looking for everything to get back up and didn’t quite get there today. So hopefully the routine he goes through in his next start will hopefully put him in a better place and we’ll be able to see that spike in velocity and crispness that he shows after about three innings, which has been the last four-to-five outings I think.”
Rodon said he intends to try a similar plan in his next outing (likely Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays) with a few tweaks. Even though Rodon had been on a roll before Saturday, he’s not worried about the it-wasn’t-broke-don’t-fix-it theory. He realizes that tapping into his better velocity can be a good thing.
“As a player and as an athlete you have to adapt and make those changes,” Rodon said. “It’s something I’m going to learn how to do.
“Just a little different trying to get going early in the first and have that velo jump. Started off good, but just make some tweaks in the next one and go from there.”
Golf: I got a club for that..... Johnson stuns Spieth, wins Northern Trust playoff.
By Will Gray
(Photo/Golf Channel Digital)
What once appeared like a walk in the park for Jordan Spieth quickly became anything but. Here's how things ended up at The Northern Trust, where Dustin Johnson rallied down the stretch to catch Spieth and then beat him in a playoff:
Leaderboard: Dustin Johnson (-13, won on first extra hole), Jordan Spieth (-13), Jhonattan Vegas (-9), Jon Rahm (-9), Paul Casey (-6)
What it means: Spieth started the day with a three-shot lead, and his advantage ballooned to five through just five holes of the final round. But Spieth rinsed his tee shot on No. 6 en route to a double bogey, and by the 10th hole Johnson had drawn even. The two remained deadlocked down the stretch, with Spieth making an 18-footer for par on No. 17 only for Johnson to return the favor with an 18-foot par save on the 72nd green. It sent the tournament to overtime, where Johnson birdied the first hole for his fourth win of the season and first since a back injury led to his withdrawal from the Masters.
Round of the day: For the second time in three days, Vegas posted a 5-under 65 to race up the leaderboard. Vegas birdied two of his first three holes and made it around Glen Oaks without dropping a shot, jumping from the fringe of the top 10 into a tie for third to essentially secure a spot on the International Team at next month's Presidents Cup.
Best of the rest: Webb Simpson went low out of the gates, recording birdies on six of his first 13 holes en route to a 65 that matched Vegas and Charley Hoffman for the day's low total. Simpson made his lone blemish on the fifth hole and despite closing with five straight pars he moved up 28 spots into a tie for sixth.
Biggest disappointment: Spieth seemed unstoppable through 54-holes, and his record of closing out final-round leads included only a single blemish. But a few early falters mixed with some impressive play from Johnson, who forced overtime in improbable fashion and then closed out Spieth in style on the first extra hole. For Spieth, it's not of the same magnitude as the 2016 Masters collapse, but it was a surprising result given where he started the day.
Shot of the day: With Spieth already in the fairway on the first playoff hole, Johnson uncorked a 341-yard bomb over the lake that guards the 18th fairway. it proved to be the longest drive of the week and gave the world No. 1 an easy wedge from just 95 yards, which he played to within a few feet to seal the win.
Quote of the day: "It was a little bit easier coming in with a 60 degree here on 18." - Johnson, who had to lay up after driving it into the rough on No. 18 during regulation.
U.S. Women's Open champ Park adds Canadian title.
By Associated Press
(Photo/Golf Channel Digital)
Sung Hyun Park added the Canadian Pacific Women's Open title to her U.S. Women's Open crown with a comeback victory Sunday at Ottawa Hunt.
Park birdied the final hole for a 7-under 64 and a two-stroke victory over fellow South Korean player Mirim Lee. Four strokes behind leaders Nicole Broch Larsen and Mo Martin entering the round, The 23-year-old Park finished at 13-under 271. She won the U.S. Women's Open last month in New Jersey for her first LPGA title.
''I can't think of anything. I can't believe this,'' Park said. ''I think it was a perfect game today. Everything was. There were no mistakes today, and I think it was perfect.''
Park had five birdies in an eight-hole stretch on Nos. 3-10, and also birdied the par-4 16th before her closing birdie on the par-5 18th.
''I think this golf course fits my game,'' Park said. ''My shots and putting were good. I think this week was just perfect for me. That's how I got the confidence on this golf course.''
Lee had two eagles in a 68.
Michelle Wie withdrew before the round and was taken to Ottawa Hospital for surgery to remove her appendix. Wie was tied for 23rd, six strokes back entering the day.
Larsen had a 70 to drop into a tie for third at 10 under with Cristie Kerr (69), In Gee Chun (70), Shanshan Feng (68) and Marina Alex (68). Martin was another stroke back after a 72.
''I really enjoyed this week,'' Chun said. ''Today is Sunday, so a lot of spectators come out here. I really like their support for the players. I really appreciate it. Sung Hyun had a really good round today. But I don't know, my game was not really bad, so I'm happy for her to win this week. I'll just keep going to next week.''
Alex had her best career finish.
''I thought the overall setup was great,'' Alex said. ''I thought they set the course up perfect today.''
Canadian star Brooke Henderson followed her course-record 63 with a 71 to tie for 12th at 7 under. The 19-year-old major champion is from nearby Smiths Falls.
''These crowds were so incredible,'' Henderson said. ''I just could never have imagined this many people coming out to watch me play golf. It's amazing. Definitely a week I'll remember forever.''
Park joined her countrywomen In-Kyung Kim (three victories) and So Yeon Ryu (two) as the only multiple winners this season. Park has 10 career Korea LPGA victories.
She was looking forward to see her dog Ato at her Florida base during a two-week break.
''It's been awhile since I've seen my dog, so I'm planning to play with my dog during my vacation,'' Park said.
Kelly wins Boeing Classic for first Champs. title.
By Associated Press
(Photo/Golf Channel Digital)
Jerry Kelly won the Boeing Classic on Sunday for his first PGA Tour Champions title, closing with a 6-under 66 for a one-stroke victory over Jerry Smith.
Kelly tied Smith for the lead with a birdie on the par-4 16th and moved ahead with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th. After Smith left an 8-foot birdie try short on the par-5 18th, Kelly pulled his 3 1/2-foot birdie attempt to the left and tapped in for the winning par.
Kelly had a tournament-record 19-under 197 total at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge. He opened with a 65 for a share of the lead and had a 66 on Saturday to take a three-stroke advantage into the final round. The three-time PGA Tour winner from Madison, Wisconsin, was making his 13th senior start after turning 50 in November.
Smith closed with a 64.
Bernhard Langer (65) and Billy Mayfair (66) tied for third at 16 under. Langer won the event in 2010 and 2016. He has a tour-high four victories this year, winning three of the tour's five majors.
Colin Montgomerie (66) was fifth at 15 under.
Local favorite Fred Couples tied for 20th at 8 under after a 70.
Suri wins in Denmark as Daly fades in final round.
By Associated Press
(Photo/Golf Channel Digital)
Julian Suri carded a final-round 64 to win the Made in Denmark event on Sunday and claim his first European Tour title in just his seventh appearance.
The American fired seven birdies and no bogeys at Himmerland Golf and Spa Resort to finish 19 under and four shots clear of overnight leader David Horsey, who triple-bogeyed the final hole.
''This is the reason why you get up early every morning to practice, go to the gym and get prepared to succeed,'' said the 26-year-old Suri, who won the D+D REAL Czech Challenge in May and becomes the third American to win on the European Tour and Challenge Tour after U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka and Peter Uihlein.
Chris Paisley, Steve Webster and Ben Evans shared third place at 13 under and 51-year-old John Daly, who was trying to become the oldest winner in European Tour history, finished in a tie for 10th after a closing 71.
The American fired seven birdies and no bogeys at Himmerland Golf and Spa Resort to finish 19 under and four shots clear of overnight leader David Horsey, who triple-bogeyed the final hole.
''This is the reason why you get up early every morning to practice, go to the gym and get prepared to succeed,'' said the 26-year-old Suri, who won the D+D REAL Czech Challenge in May and becomes the third American to win on the European Tour and Challenge Tour after U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka and Peter Uihlein.
Chris Paisley, Steve Webster and Ben Evans shared third place at 13 under and 51-year-old John Daly, who was trying to become the oldest winner in European Tour history, finished in a tie for 10th after a closing 71.
The final round developed into a head-to-head battle between playing partners Horsey and Suri, who began the day two shots behind but raced into the lead with five birdies in a front nine of 31.
Horsey, who was looking to win the event for the second time in three years, got back on level terms with birdies on the 11th and 12th and both birdied the 14th to remain well clear of the chasing pack.
Suri then struck the decisive blow with a birdie from 20 feet on the 15th hole and victory was assured when Horsey lost a ball following a wild drive on 18 and found a water hazard with his second attempt.
''To have seven birdies and be bogey free in the final round was really solid,'' Suri said. ''There was no wind and with all the rain last night there were going to be a lot of birdies. I have an aggressive mentality so I feel like that played right into my hands.
''I feel like my game belongs at the top of the game. This is definitely something I've worked for and kind of expected for a long time. But to finally come out and do it, especially after the string of good finishes this summer, is really special.''
''I feel like my game belongs at the top of the game. This is definitely something I've worked for and kind of expected for a long time. But to finally come out and do it, especially after the string of good finishes this summer, is really special.''
NASCAR: Jeremy Clements scores first Xfinity win.
By Daniel McFadin
(Photo/nbcsports.com)
Jeremy Clements won the first Xfinity Series race of his career after an accident with race leader Matt Tifft coming to the white flag of the Johnsonville 180 at Road America.
Clements, 32, earned the win in his 256th start in the series.
Clements took the lead after he made contact with Tifft in the final turn of the road course, causing both to spin. Both drivers recovered, but Clements was quicker, taking the white flag first in his No. 51 Chevrolet.
Michael Annett, who was running in third, was too far back to take the lead. He managed to finish second ahead of Tifft.
Clements is the fifth driver to qualify for the Xfinity playoffs.
“I don’t even know what to say, I’m just shocked,” Clements told NBCSN. “This is a car built in 2008. Everything we’ve got is old and used. I just can’t believe it. I’m just, is this real? … It’s a total team effort. I’m just so happy. It’s pretty neat to win at Road America. It’s one of my favorite road courses. I want to say sorry to Matt Tifft. I definitely didn’t mean to spin him out there. I got in hot there and he kind of came down and I was there. We collided.
“I’m just so shocked.”
Jeremy Clements Racing is an independent, family owned team that was started in 2010. His father, Tony Clements, is the owner.
“My gosh, it’s crazy,” Jeremy Clements said. “Our budget a year is a fraction of a big teams’. This is just a dream come true. I want to drive for a big team, but it hasn’t been the way it’s gone. I try to keep doing this, to keep my name out here getting as much experience as I can in case I do get the call. To any big team guys. Look at me. Let’s go.”
Tifft, 21, had led six laps before the accident. He was searching for his first Xfinity win and the first for Joe Gibbs Racing at Road America.
“Obviously, no matter what it’s tough,” Tifft told NBCSN. “I wish we could have raced it out till the last lap. We were struggling on old tires. I don’t know if he had fresher tires there. He had a lot of speed there at the end. … It’s tough to come that close. But we’ll keep knocking on the door, it’s all we can do.”
STAGE 1 WINNER: James Davison
STAGE 2 WINNER: Daniel Hemric
WHO HAD A GOOD DAY: Michael Annett finished second for his career-best finish in the Xfinity Series in 186 starts. His previous best was third in July 2012 at Daytona and at Dover in Sept. 2012. … Brendan Gaughan finished fifth for his second top five of the year … Casey Mears finished ninth in his first start at Road America … NBCSN analyst Parker Kligerman finished 10th.
WHO HAD A BAD DAY: Ryan Reed was involved in multiple accidents, going off course more than once and continuing on. He finished 35th … On the last lap of Stage 2, Ross Chastain turned Justin Marks, who collided with James Davison. Davison then made contact with and spun Austin Cindric when he came back on track in Turn 6. Davison’s day ended in the garage with a cracked radiator. He finished 37th … Daniel Hemric won Stage 2 but finished 15th after he was caught speeding during a Lap 28 pit stop.
NEXT: VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 2 on NBCSN.
Jeremy Clements fifth Xfinity driver to qualify for playoffs.
By Daniel McFadin
(Photo/nbcsports.com)
With his win Sunday at Road America, Jeremy Clements locked himself into the Xfinity Series playoffs.
The driver of the independently owned No. 51 team is the fifth to qualify for the playoffs and the fourth to do so via a win.
He joins William Byron, Ryan Reed, Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler. Sadler locked himself into the playoffs based on points last week at Bristol.
Three races remain in the regular season.
Click here for the full points standings.
SOCCER: Veljko Paunovic after Fire's continued slide: 'It's the mental thing'.
By Dan Santaromita
(Photo/USA TODAY)
Entering Saturday, the Chicago Fire’s skid of five losses in six games featured disappointing results and performances, but nothing shocking or embarrassing.
That may have changed after the 2-1 loss to Minnesota at Toyota Park. The Fire entered with a 10-1-1 home record and the Loons came in winless on the road and tied for the fewest points in the league.
If nothing else, both the performance and the result proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the Fire are not playing as well as they were a couple months ago. Coach Veljko Paunovic doesn’t think it’s physical issues, but rather a drop in confidence and mentality within the team.
“I think it’s the mental thing,” Paunovic said. “We are now in a situation where we are actually running a lot, we are doing a lot, but we are not sharp, we are not efficient. Then it always goes back to the confidence. It always goes back to the mentality. When it’s difficult, you see how everyone behaves against adversity.”
The immediate reaction was a Fire locker room that was more upset than after any home game this season or last. Even last week’s home loss to Toronto there were positives the team could draw from the performance.
After losing to an expansion team that has struggled this season, walking into the locker room was more of a ‘if looks could kill’ situation.
“Right now, I think I’m happy to see that our team is reacting,” Paunovic said. “I’m sure with that mentality and with that mindset at one point we will get the good result that will bring the confidence back. We will have to stick together like I said and keep working until that moment comes.”
Midfielder Dax McCarty has gone on long-winded explanations about what the team needs to improve, and sometimes that came after wins. Even McCarty was short on words with the frustration from another loss fresh in his mind.
“Nobody likes losing so everyone is frustrated, but we’re going to try to stay positive and get out of this,” McCarty said.
McCarty agreed with Paunovic’s assessment that it’s the mental side that is hurting the team right now.
“Yeah, sure, I agree with that a little bit,” McCarty said. “You got to have confidence to score goals and we can’t score goals right now so that’s the frustration.
“If you give the other team breakaways and tap-ins, you’re going to concede goals.
On the other end if it takes you 25 shots to score one goal, that’s not a recipe for winning many games.”
The two issues McCarty pointed to, mistakes and turnovers leading to goals and failing to convert opportunities, have plagued the team in recent weeks. Defensively, none of the Fire’s three injured starters, Brandon Vincent, Matt Polster and Joao Meira dressed for the game. On top of that, one of the replacements, Christian Dean, was subbed out at halftime with a left foot injury and was on crutches after the game. Dean has missed time each of the past two years with injuries to that foot.
Nemanja Nikolic’s goal drought extended to eight games. David Accam scored to get the Fire back within a goal after the team trailed 2-0 at halftime and Accam is now two goals behind Nikolic with 14 on the season.
“It doesn’t go so easy like before,” defender Johan Kappelhof said. “Before the first chance was a goal and now we have to work hard for the chances and we don’t finish them and we give too easy (of) goals away. Now it’s a tough time, but we have to regroup and give everything we have to repair.”
Nemanja Nikolic’s goal drought extended to eight games. David Accam scored to get the Fire back within a goal after the team trailed 2-0 at halftime and Accam is now two goals behind Nikolic with 14 on the season.
“It doesn’t go so easy like before,” defender Johan Kappelhof said. “Before the first chance was a goal and now we have to work hard for the chances and we don’t finish them and we give too easy (of) goals away. Now it’s a tough time, but we have to regroup and give everything we have to repair.”
Arena names 26 to latest USMNT roster for 2018 WCQ.
By Andy Edwards
(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
10 days from now, the U.S. national team could be all but officially qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
On Sunday, Bruce Arena named the 26 players he’ll require to secure six more points and send the USMNT onto 14 points, which would then require just a single point from the final two games of the Hex to secure a top-three spot and automatic qualification for next summer’s tournament.
FULL ROSTER
Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Atlanta United), Tim Howard (Colorado Rapids), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake).
Defenders: DaMarcus Beasley (Houston Dynamo), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Omar Gonzalez (Pachuca), Matt Hedges (FC Dallas), Eric Lichaj (Nottingham Forest), Tim Ream (Fulham), Jorge Villafaña (Santos Laguna), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City).
Midfielders: Kellyn Acosta (FC Dallas), Paul Arriola (D.C. United), Alejandro Bedoya (Philadelphia Union), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Fabian Johnson (Moenchengladbach), Dax McCarty (Chicago Fire), Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders).
Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes), Bobby Wood (Hamburg)
Spurs 1-1 Burnley: Wood’s late goal adds to Wembley woes.
By Nicholas Mendola
Debutant Chris Wood scored in the second minute of stoppage time as Burnley came from behind to snare a point against Tottenham Hotspur in a 1-1 draw on Sunday at Wembley Stadium.
Dele Alli fittingly needed two-straight bites at the cherry to give dominant Tottenham Hotspur its lone goal.
Hugo Lloris made two solid interventions against Wood in the final minutes, but couldn’t manage a third.
Spurs sit 8th with four points, while Burnley’s four-point squad sits behind on goal differential.
Spurs probed the Burnley end early yet saw a Robbie Brady hybrid cross-shot turn into the moment’s first scare. Tapped out by Hugo Lloris, a corner came to nothing.
An 18th minute Ben Davies free kick went off a pair of heads, including Harry Kane‘s, and out for a goal kick.
Davies then spied Kane in the 38th minute off a Dele Alli started combination, but the England striker’s attempt was blocked out for what would be an unsuccessful corner kick.
Spurs finally found their way through the pesky Claret maze when Eric Dier‘s back flicked header of a corner came to Dele, who had two shots at it and buried the second effort.
Kane continued to be snake bit in August, hitting a shot through traffic and wide of the far post from well into the 18.
Lloris made a strong flying save on Brady to keep it 1-1 in the 72nd minute. At the other end, Heaton got low to slap away a Kane effort and then had to leap for Eriksen’s audacious outside of the boot shot.
Heaton had another stop on a partial Kane breakaway in the 76th.
Burnley didn’t quit, and Lloris slid to make an outstanding tackle outside his 18 on charging substitute Chris Wood. He’d late find his mark, and get the Clarets another point.
Liverpool 4-0 Arsenal: Reds trample Gunners underfoot.
By Nicholas Mendola
Liverpool is second in the Premier League table heading into the international break after embarrassing rivals Arsenal 4-0 at Anfield on Sunday.
Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, and Daniel Sturridge scored for the Reds, with Firmino and Salah also registering assists.
Arsenal started Alexis Sanchez but it made little difference as the Gunners lost their second in three to fall into 16th.
Mohamed Salah showed some early wizardry that failed to find a receiver, and moments later Emre Can headed wide of the far post in a bright start for the hosts.
Petr Cech made a back post recovery to thwart Salah’s assumed goal. A better shot should’ve been proffered, but that hardly makes the save less outstanding.
Sadio Mane’s electric left wing play earned a penalty shout one minute and a corner kick the next, the latter played short and handled by Arsenal.
That’s when Firmino made it 1-0, using his head to pound a cross off the ground and past a diving Cech.
Jordan Henderson couldn’t convert from an extremely tight angle with a chance to make it 2-0 in the 19th minute.
Salah forced Cech into another save in the 25th minute.
Mane then punished Rob Holding for given him time and space with a simply marvelous curling finish around Cech in the 40th minute.
Arsenal’s first moments of the second half were promising, and Liverpool was more of a countering side when Salah was stopped by Cech before Henderson blazed over the bar.
Salah didn’t miss with his next chance, a 80-plus yard breakaway began by a cleared Arsenal corner. Hector Bellerin made an absolute mess of the ball, and Cech couldn’t low fast enough to swat away the ex-Roma man’s strike.
Wenger inserted Alexandre Lacazette and Olivier Giroud with about a half hour to play.
Sturridge added the fourth in the 78th on another counter attack, an unreal cross from Salah that the English striker barely had to stoop to meet.
West Brom 1-1 Stoke City: Spoils split at Hawthorns.
By Nicholas Mendola
West Brom is no longer perfect but remain unbeaten after a 1-1 draw against Stoke City at the Hawthorns on Sunday.
It took until the hour mark for West Brom to get a shot on target, but Jay Rodriguez made it count for the Baggies lone goal.
Stoke needed miscommunication between West Brom backstop Ben Foster and center back Ahmed Hegazi to level it late through Peter Crouch.
Stoke rises ninth with four points, while West Brom remains in the Top Four with seven.
A pair of early corners came West Brom’s way, but James Morrison grounded the second wide of the goal.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was felled in the box by a clever Chris Brunt to not avail, and Bruno Martins Indi came close to hooking a loose ball in for an opener in the 10th minute.
Kurt Zouma dribbled to 22 yards out before lashing a deflected shot that Ben Foster did well to tip over the bar.
A dangerous swooping 38th minute free kick from Chris Brunt went through the hands of Jack Butland thanks to some back post contact and was called a foul.
Rodriguez finally snapped a goal into the proceedings at the hour mark, a diving back post header making it 1-0.
Stoke capitalized on a massive error to make it 1-1, with Crouch nabbing his 199th career goal off an Ahmed Hegazi error.
Choupo-Moting saw a back post effort blocked by Allan Nyom in the 87th minute as the Potters looked for a winner.
Chelsea 2-0 Everton: Morata, Blues cruise to win.
By Nicholas Mendola
Cesc Fabregas and Alvaro Morata helped Chelsea to its second win of the season with a 2-0 win over visiting Everton at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Chelsea moves fifth with the win, on six points, while Everton drops into 10th with four.
The Toffees looked like a team that played Thursday in the UEFA Europa League, while Chelsea looked rested and ready.
Free-flowing football welcome the start of the match, and a lively Alvaro Morata cued Pedro up for a 10th minute bicycle kick that flew over the bar.
David Luiz showed a willingness to dribble into danger areas, and saw his low 13th minute shot saved by Pickford. Pedro was saved by Jordan Pickford moments later.
Chelsea went ahead with a 27th minute goal after Willian held the ball well deep in the right corner before finding Fabregas for a combination with Morata.
The striker found his second goal of the season when he stationed himself in front of Michael Keane and moved a step to nod Cesar Azpilicueta’s shot beyond Pickford.
Chelsea was lively to start the second half, though Everton saw a Wayne Rooney-produced chance cut out in the 50th minute.
Pedro was especially a threat for Chelsea, but the Blues had a hard time finding that third goal to bury Everton.
An old Swansea connection nearly gave Everton a surprise lifeline, but Ashley Williams‘ header of a Gylfi Sigurdsson cross bounded wide of the far post.
And Courtois was troubled by Idrissa Gana Gueye’s shot over the bar after Rooney and Aaron Lennon led an expedition into the Chelsea 18.
PL roundup: Man Utd stays red hot; City wins controversially.
By Nicholas Mendola
United’s Romelu Lukaku fails to score a penalty shot past Leicester’s Kasper Schmeichel, who remarkably became the first Schmeichel to make a PK stop at Old Trafford. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Both sides of Manchester saw victories in Premier League play on Saturday, though one in much easier fashion than the other.
Elsewhere, Huddersfield Town continued its unbeaten run to start life in the Premier League, while Newcastle United exploded for its first win of the season by keeping West Ham amongst the ranks of the pointless.
All that and more in our PL roundup.
Manchester United 2-0 Leicester City – RECAP
Jose Mourinho’s men failed to hang a third successive four-spot on the scoreboard, but looked as dominant as the first two wins of the Premier League season. Romelu Lukaku had a penalty stopped before substitutes Marcus Rashford and Marouane Fellaini scored to lift United to a 3-0 record.
Bournemouth 1-2 Manchester City — RECAP
Few were left entirely satisfied with the end of this one, even after Manchester City nipped all three points through Raheem Sterling‘s winner in the seventh minute of stoppage time.
Bournemouth was angry with the foul that led up to the goal and Mike Dean’s time-keeping after five announced minutes of stoppage. Man City was furious after Sterling earned a second yellow card from Dean for celebrating with visiting fans.
And Sergio Aguero was dealing with an assault complaint from a steward, though City is reportedly “confident” there’s nothing to it.
Newcastle United 3-0 West Ham United — RECAP
Rafa Benitez‘s men got off the mat after an 0-2 start; Slaven Bilic‘s men are still laying on the ground, now 0-3.
That’s the verdict from Newcastle’s runaway with at St. James Park, as Joselu, Ciaran Clark, and Aleksandar Mitrovic scored to lead the Magpies to a much-needed three points.
Crystal Palace 0-2 Swansea City — RECAP
Frank De Boer‘s Eagles are now 0-2 after Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham and teammate Jordan Ayew buried goals for the visiting Welsh side.
Huddersfield Town 0-0 Southampton — RECAP
Both sides remain unbeaten on the season, though Saints probably had the better of play at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Watford 0-0 Brighton and Hove Albion — RECAP
Miguel Britos’ vicious tackle of Anthony Knockaert sent Watford down a man for more than an hour, but Chris Hughton‘s men couldn’t get past Heurelho Gomes and the Hornets.
Serie A: Inter throttle Roma; Juve come back on Dybala’s hat trick.
By Associated Press
(Photo/Simone Arveda/ANSA via AP)
Roma 1-3 Inter Milan
New Inter Milan coach Luciano Spalletti had a fruitful return to the Italian capital on Saturday, as his Nerazzurri side came from behind to win at Roma 3-1 in Serie A.
Mauro Icardi scored twice in the second half as Roma was made to pay for its profligacy, having hit the woodwork three times.
Spalletti left Roma by mutual consent at the end of last season and joined Inter shortly afterward, along with sporting director Walter Sabatini. He has two league wins out of two for Inter, after they beat Fiorentina 3-0 in their opener. Icardi also scored two then.
It appeared as if their return would be a miserable one after Edin Dzeko, last season’s top goal-scorer, gave Roma the lead. He chested down Radja Nainggolan’s pass and volleyed it home.
Aleksandar Kolarov hit the post seconds earlier and Roma hit the woodwork twice more through Nainggolan and Diego Perotti.
Inter leveled through Icardi from an Antonio Candreva assist in the 67th.
Icardi doubled his tally 10 minutes later, controlling Ivan Perisic’s low cross before swiveling to fire into the bottom left corner.
Matias Vecino sealed the result three minutes from time with his first goal since joining Inter from Fiorentina in the offseason.
Icardi doubled his tally 10 minutes later, controlling Ivan Perisic’s low cross before swiveling to fire into the bottom left corner.
Matias Vecino sealed the result three minutes from time with his first goal since joining Inter from Fiorentina in the offseason.
There was controversy however, as Roma felt it should have had a penalty early in the second half when Milan Skriniar appeared to trip Diego Perotti at the byline, but the video assistant referee was not called upon and only a corner was given.
Genoa 2-4 Juventus
MILAN (AP) The limitations of video review were obvious at Genoa, where Juventus fought back from two goals down to win 4-2 in Serie A on Saturday thanks to a hat trick from Paulo Dybala.
Video review (VAR) was used twice in the first half, to give both sides a penalty. However, Genoa forward Andrej Galabinov was offside before he was fouled by Daniele Rugani, while there were also grumbles about Juve’s spot kick.
Meanwhile, Benevento thought it picked up a first ever point in Serie A but the VAR ruled out what would have been a stoppage-time equalizer and it lost to Bologna 1-0.
In a frantic start, Genoa took the lead against Juventus inside 20 seconds when Miralem Pjanic inadvertently turned Goran Pandev’s cross into his own net.
Galabinov doubled Genoa’s lead six minutes later from the spot after his ankle was clipped by Rugani. It was the second penalty awarded against Juventus by video review in as many matches.
Dybala, who scored in Juve’s opening win at Cagliari last weekend, halved the deficit in the 14th minute when he fired Pjanic’s pullback into the top left corner.
And Juventus leveled in first-half stoppage time through a penalty of its own, which Dybala drove emphatically into the roof of the net after Mario Mandzukic kicked the ball onto Darko Lazovic’s hand from close range.
Juan Cuadrado had a poor match, but gave Juventus the lead shortly after the hour mark. The Colombia winger chested down Mandzukic’s pass, turned Diego Laxalt and placed the ball into the far top corner.
Dybala sealed the result in stoppage time with an accurate shot into the near corner for his first hat trick for Juventus.
La Liga: Messi scores 350, Barca stay perfect; Atleti get 1st win.
By Andy Edwards
(Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
Alaves 0-2 Barcelona
Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick but rebounded by scoring his record 350th goal in the Spanish league in Barcelona’s 2-0 win at Alaves on Saturday.
Messi also scored the second in leading the club to its second consecutive victory to start the league.
Barcelona was still without Ousmane Dembele, who was announced as Neymar’s replacement on Friday, and it also couldn’t count on the injured Luis Suarez.
With Messi as its lone star, Barcelona struggled in the beginning at Mendizorroza Stadium, but it gradually took control and cruised to victory following Messi’s pair of second-half goals.
Messi missed the penalty when his mid-height shot into the left corner was saved by the fingertips of Alaves goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco.
Alaves, who surprised last season as a promoted club by finishing ninth in the league and reaching the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, opened with a 1-0 loss at Leganes.
Brazil midfielder Paulinho, signed by Barcelona for $47 million in the offseason, came into the match as a substitute late in the second half to make his official club debut.
Messi scored the milestone goal in La Liga more than 12 years after his first, when he was only 17.
He has 66 more than Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, his closest challenger in the all-time list.
Messi opened the scoring in the second half after receiving a pass from Jordi Alba inside the area and firing a left-footed shot into the corner. The second came after a blunder by the Alaves defense about 10 minutes later, again with a left-footer from inside the box.
Two goals in the first five minutes put Atletico Madrid on track for a comfortable 5-1 win at Las Palmas. It was the first league win for Atletico, which opened with a 2-2 draw at promoted Girona.
It was the second consecutive loss for Las Palmas.
Ten-man Levante rallied from two goals down to earn a 2-2 home draw against Deportivo La Coruna.
Deportivo was ahead 2-0 after the first half hour, but Levante pulled closer before halftime and equalized following a controversial penalty kick call in the 83rd at Ciutat de Valencia Stadium.
Ivan “Ivi” Lopez converted the penalty to keep the hosts unbeaten.
Midfielder Jose Luis Morales was sent off with a second yellow card in the 76th.
Girona beat Malaga 1-0 for its first win in the Spanish league. Girona was on its way to victory in its opener against Atletico Madrid but relinquished a 2-0 lead despite playing with an extra man.
Girona beat Malaga 1-0 for its first win in the Spanish league. Girona was on its way to victory in its opener against Atletico Madrid but relinquished a 2-0 lead despite playing with an extra man.
NCAAFB: Can't-miss predictions for the 2017 college football season.
The college football season begins on Saturday. I want to write that sentence over and over again because I'm just that excited about it. As is so often the case, it's been a long offseason and one that I'm thrilled to see come to an end.
We have college football to watch, y'all. Real, honest-to-goodness college football.
As we typically do here at CBSSports.com, we've been sharing our predictions for what's going to happen this season. Picking division and conference winners, as well as listing teams we believe are overrated and underrated (you can catch up on anything you've missed here) because that's what you do before the season starts.
You try to show how smart you are by making predictions that will only make you look foolish in the end.
Well, I'm not done making predictions yet, but I'd like to change things up a bit and make general predictions I think are locks to happen.
So in this week's Friday Five, I'm ranking five of my predictions for the 2017 season that are totally going to happen.
5. No Group of Five team will make the College Football Playoff. An easy enough prediction, no? What's different about this year, though, is that I believe there's a real chance that a G5 team makes a serious claim for a bid.
Sure, Western Michigan went 13-0 during the regular season last year, but it never had a shot at a playoff berth because it plays in the MAC. So even nonconference wins against Northwestern and Illinois weren't going to be nearly enough to warrant a spot in the top four.
The difference this year is that the team to challenge for a spot will likely come from the American. The conference is hyping itself up as a member of the Power Six, and South Florida could provide it with a chance to earn that playoff bid.
It's just, USF would have to go 13-0 to do it, and going undefeated is hard enough as it is, but when you factor in the Bulls schedule this year, it severely hinders their chance at a spot even if they do.
I'm a firm believer that if any G5 team is ever going to crack the four-team playoff, it would have to be a team that puts together multiple undefeated seasons, and picks up a win or two against one of the Power Five elites along the way. Until that happens, however, the CFP will continue to be a party for the cool kids and nobody else.
4. There will be two SEC teams ranked in the top four of the first CFP rankings. History repeats itself, and that history has repeated itself in each of the first three years that the playoff has existed.
In 2014, the very first CFP poll ever released had Mississippi State, Auburn and Ole Miss in the top four. In 2015, the first poll had both Alabama and LSU. Last year, it included Alabama and Texas A&M.
Each time the reaction was the same: SEC fans puffed out their chests and told you it was the way things should be, while everyone else griped about how the SEC was overrated as usual.
It will happen again in 2017. When the first CFP rankings come out on Halloween night, there will be two SEC teams in the top four. I'll just guess and say that they'll be Alabama and Georgia this year, though which teams they are won't matter. All that matters is that by the time the final rankings are released, there will only be one.
And it'll be Alabama, duh.
3. The first firing of a head coach will come in October. If you'll allow me to grab my cane and head to the front porch for some lemonade for a second here. Back in my day, coaches weren't fired until November, none fired after January, and we were better people for it!
*angrily shakes cane in the air*
Of course, "my day" was roughly three or four years ago when that was still the case. Things have changed in recent years, as the influx of money into so many programs has made less likely to live with current mistakes and ready to make new ones.
While I don't know who the first coach to get fired will be, I know that somebody will get canned in October. In fact, with Texas A&M and UCLA starting the season against one another, we might not even make it until the end of September this year.
2. Nearly every Power Five fanbase with a potential job opening will believe they can hire Chip Kelly. It's a side effect of our last prediction.
There will be coaches fired, and there will be fanbases hoping their coach is fired. This is not a new phenomenon. The question is who the coach du jour will be this season, and the easy answer is Chip Kelly.
While he may be holding out hope for another crack at the NFL, it seems the writing is on the wall for Kelly: it's time to return to college. That could prove to be an excellent thing for the sport, as well as one lucky fanbase.
And every Power Five fanbase with even the hint of a job opening will believe they're the one that has everything Kelly could ever want in a job. Their favorite team is a sleeping giant, after all, and Kelly is just the right person to wake it up. How could he not want to choose your school?
Some will be more correct than others, but all will feel the same way.
1. We will crown a Heisman winner in September. It happens every single year, and this year will be no different. Somebody will put up monster numbers over the first few weeks of the season, and that somebody will be proclaimed the Heisman favorite.
In fact, one of the most impressive things about Louisville's Lamar Jackson winning the award last season was that he was crowned the victor in September and held onto the award all season. That isn't what usually happens.
The standard order of procedure in the Heisman Hype Machine is that a player emerges early, and the viewing public then spends two months picking everything they do apart. Every incompletion or fumble is an opportunity to say "I told you he wasn't that good," and then another player comes along and has a really strong November to take home the trophy.
I think that's exactly what we're going to see again this year. I believe it's also safe to say that Lamar Jackson has no shot of a repeat performance.
Honorable Mention: There will be a scandal that doesn't involve NCAA rules; I will be mocked mercilessly by a fan base whose team finishes in third place in their division after I picked them fifth; The season will be over before you know it, and another long offseason will ensue.
Hurricane Harvey wreaking havoc on the state of Texas and college football Week 1.
By Dennis Dodd
Teams across the Lonestar State are making backup plans just in case the flooding continues.
The impact of Hurricane Harvey is beginning to impact college football.
The vast flooding in the area has created uncertainty for the two local college teams and the LSU-BYU neutral site game set to take place Saturday at NRG Stadium.
Rice -- in the air traveling back from Sydney, Australia Sunday night -- has yet to make a decision when it will return to Houston. Owls AD Joe Karlgaard told CBS Sports the team will connect in Los Angeles at approximately 9 a.m. ET Monday before making a decision on how to proceed.
Karlgaard said the team may stay in Los Angeles or "try to get back to a drier part of Texas" until it's safe to travel to Houston. The Owls don't play again until Sept. 9 at Texas-El Paso.
Meanwhile, the University of Houston will stay in Austin, Texas at least through Tuesday in preparations for Saturday's season opener at Texas-San Antonio.
The team relocated to Austin last week as Harvey moved in. Several members of Houston's team are impacted personally because their families are dealing with the flood back home.
As of now, both local schools don't have much choice. Both major airports -- George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby -- remain closed because of the flooding.
Earlier on Sunday, LSU AD Joe Alleva said it was "almost certain" the Tigers game against BYU would not be played in Houston Saturday night. The New Orleans Superdome remains an option for the game, according to reports.
The irony is obvious. The Superdome was a center for Hurricane Katrina refugees in 2006.
LSU and BYU do not have a common bye week to make up the game later in the season.
NCAABKB: Want to make college basketball more relevant? Play the games we actually care about.
By Rob Dauster
(Photo/Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
It looks like we can cross Maryland and Georgetown off the list of obvious local rivals that are too dumb and stubborn to play each other.
In each of the last two seasons, the Terps and the Hoyas have produced two terrific, thoroughly entertaining basketball games early on in the non-conference season when college basketball is desperately trying to find a way into the conversation. In 2015, then-No. 3 Maryland beat the Hoyas 75-71 in College Park. The return game came last season, when the Hoyas somehow blew a nine-point lead in the final minutes in a loss at the Verizon Center.
But now that the Gavitt Games is no longer forcing the two biggest basketball brands in the nation’s capital to play each other, don’t expect it to happen again anytime soon.
From the Washington Post:
It has become all too common in college basketball for some of the most obvious and heated rivalries in the sport to never get played, and it sucks. Kansas is still too bitter about Missouri leaving for the SEC to schedule the Tigers, but don’t worry, Jayhawks fans, you still get those games against Washington, Stanford, Arizona State and Nebraska this year!
Duke and Maryland, which was almost as intense as Duke-North Carolina for a stretch of time in the late-90s and early-to-mid-00s, won’t ever get played for that same reason. If that matchup gets scheduled before Mike Krzyzewski retires I’ll be shocked.
Texas played Texas A&M during the 2015-16 season, but they needed the Battle 4 Atlantis to schedule it as an opening round matchup to make it happen. Ohio State has not played a non-conference game against Cincinnati since 2006, Dayton since 1988 and Xavier since 1935. Dayton and Xavier have not scheduled each other since Xavier left the Atlantic 10.
Pitt and West Virginia are only now reigniting the Backyard Brawl, which would be great if the Panthers weren’t an epic disaster at this point. Credit should be given to Syracuse, who has scheduled UConn, Georgetown, Villanova and St. John’s since they’ve left the Big East, but they aren’t going to be able to play everyone of those teams every year. Gonzaga and Washington went a decade between games.
Conferences can’t even get this stuff right. The idea that Indiana and Purdue will only play one Big Ten game against each other this season is pathetic, although the fact that Indiana is going to have themselves a rebuilding year probably takes away some of the angst.
That list is both too long and not complete.
And frankly, I’m not even sure that playing these rivalry games would be enough to make all that big of a difference in how much attention is paid to college basketball in November and December. Unless college hoops can find a way to make football go away or the NBA an inferior product — neither of those things are going to happen — they’re always going to be third fiddle.
But I do know this: There would be a whole lot more interest from each team’s fanbase if they played these rivalry games. What do you think Duke fans want to see more: A game against Maryland or the Blue Devils playing in the PK80 Invitational, seven buy games and a trip to St. John’s?
How much interest do you think could be generated nationally by promoting a game built around the craziest comeback in college basketball history?
How awesome would it be if, in a football state, headlines were made in the fall around a four-team double-header featuring matchups between the four Ohio schools?
Am I truly the only person that wants to see Michael Porter Jr. step into Allen Fieldhouse and have a go at Kansas?
If we really want to make college basketball more relevant, find a way to make the coaches with eight-figure contracts play the games that their fans actually give a damn about. Until then, I hope the fans paying for season tickets enjoy the first seven games of their ticket package coming against teams that get paid upwards of $100,000 to come to town and lose by 30.
Japan wins 2017 Little League World Series.
By Nick Pants and Eric Stephen
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The kids from Kitasuna Little League in Tokyo, Japan are the 2017 Little League World Series champions, beating Lufkin, Texas 12-2 in five innings in Sunday’s title game at Lamade Stadium in Williamsport, Penn. on Sunday.
Texas, the United States champion, couldn’t have started the game any better. The first pitch of the game resulted in a solo home run. This was followed up two batters later with another solo dinger to give Texas an early 2-0 lead.
Japan came back in the bottom of the second inning. With two outs and runners on first and second base, Japan hit a triple into the right field corner to tie the game. The next batter hit a bloop shot into short right center field to give Japan a 3-2 lead.
Japan added to their lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with back-to-back solo shots. This resulted in a pitcher change for Texas. The change, however, did not slow down Japan’s offensive performance. Japan hit a two-run home run and took a 7-2 lead before Texas could get out of the inning.
West Coast invades East to win Travers for Baffert.
But now that the Gavitt Games is no longer forcing the two biggest basketball brands in the nation’s capital to play each other, don’t expect it to happen again anytime soon.
From the Washington Post:
When asked if scheduling Maryland was a priority and a task he had thought about, Ewing flashed a wide grin and asked the room: “Who did he say?”
“I’m not thinking about Maryland. I’m not sure if or when we will schedule Maryland. My focus is on getting us back strong,” Ewing said.And so it goes.
It has become all too common in college basketball for some of the most obvious and heated rivalries in the sport to never get played, and it sucks. Kansas is still too bitter about Missouri leaving for the SEC to schedule the Tigers, but don’t worry, Jayhawks fans, you still get those games against Washington, Stanford, Arizona State and Nebraska this year!
Duke and Maryland, which was almost as intense as Duke-North Carolina for a stretch of time in the late-90s and early-to-mid-00s, won’t ever get played for that same reason. If that matchup gets scheduled before Mike Krzyzewski retires I’ll be shocked.
Texas played Texas A&M during the 2015-16 season, but they needed the Battle 4 Atlantis to schedule it as an opening round matchup to make it happen. Ohio State has not played a non-conference game against Cincinnati since 2006, Dayton since 1988 and Xavier since 1935. Dayton and Xavier have not scheduled each other since Xavier left the Atlantic 10.
Pitt and West Virginia are only now reigniting the Backyard Brawl, which would be great if the Panthers weren’t an epic disaster at this point. Credit should be given to Syracuse, who has scheduled UConn, Georgetown, Villanova and St. John’s since they’ve left the Big East, but they aren’t going to be able to play everyone of those teams every year. Gonzaga and Washington went a decade between games.
Conferences can’t even get this stuff right. The idea that Indiana and Purdue will only play one Big Ten game against each other this season is pathetic, although the fact that Indiana is going to have themselves a rebuilding year probably takes away some of the angst.
That list is both too long and not complete.
And frankly, I’m not even sure that playing these rivalry games would be enough to make all that big of a difference in how much attention is paid to college basketball in November and December. Unless college hoops can find a way to make football go away or the NBA an inferior product — neither of those things are going to happen — they’re always going to be third fiddle.
But I do know this: There would be a whole lot more interest from each team’s fanbase if they played these rivalry games. What do you think Duke fans want to see more: A game against Maryland or the Blue Devils playing in the PK80 Invitational, seven buy games and a trip to St. John’s?
How much interest do you think could be generated nationally by promoting a game built around the craziest comeback in college basketball history?
How awesome would it be if, in a football state, headlines were made in the fall around a four-team double-header featuring matchups between the four Ohio schools?
Am I truly the only person that wants to see Michael Porter Jr. step into Allen Fieldhouse and have a go at Kansas?
If we really want to make college basketball more relevant, find a way to make the coaches with eight-figure contracts play the games that their fans actually give a damn about. Until then, I hope the fans paying for season tickets enjoy the first seven games of their ticket package coming against teams that get paid upwards of $100,000 to come to town and lose by 30.
Japan wins 2017 Little League World Series.
By Nick Pants and Eric Stephen
(Photo/Rob Carr/Getty Images)
The kids from Kitasuna Little League in Tokyo, Japan are the 2017 Little League World Series champions, beating Lufkin, Texas 12-2 in five innings in Sunday’s title game at Lamade Stadium in Williamsport, Penn. on Sunday.
Texas, the United States champion, couldn’t have started the game any better. The first pitch of the game resulted in a solo home run. This was followed up two batters later with another solo dinger to give Texas an early 2-0 lead.
Japan came back in the bottom of the second inning. With two outs and runners on first and second base, Japan hit a triple into the right field corner to tie the game. The next batter hit a bloop shot into short right center field to give Japan a 3-2 lead.
Japan added to their lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with back-to-back solo shots. This resulted in a pitcher change for Texas. The change, however, did not slow down Japan’s offensive performance. Japan hit a two-run home run and took a 7-2 lead before Texas could get out of the inning.
A four-run fifth inning widened the lead for Japan, finishing the game in five innings thanks to the 10-run mercy rule. Japan was undefeated in their five tournament games, outscoring their opponents 39-3 in Williamsport, including a 5-0 win over Mexico on Saturday in the international championship game.
This is the fourth time in the last six years a team from Tokyo captured the Little League World Series (2012, 2013, 2015, 2017), including three teams from the Tokyo-Kitasuna Little League (2012, 2015, 2017).
This is the fourth time in the last six years a team from Tokyo captured the Little League World Series (2012, 2013, 2015, 2017), including three teams from the Tokyo-Kitasuna Little League (2012, 2015, 2017).
West Coast invades East to win Travers for Baffert.
The Associated Press
(You Tube Video/Travers Stakes)
West Coast invaded the East to win the $1.25 million Travers by 3 ¼ lengths at Saratoga on Saturday against all three winners of this year's Triple Crown races.
Ridden by Mike Smith and trained by fellow Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, West Coast ran 1 ¼ miles in 2:01.19 and paid $14.20, $7.60 and $5.30. The victory earned West Coast an automatic berth into the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic in November at Del Mar.
Gunnevera returned $18.40 and $10.40, while Irap paid $5.40 to show in the 148th edition of the race.
Belmont winner Tapwrit finished fourth, Preakness winner Cloud Computing was eighth, and Kentucky Derby champion Always Dreaming was ninth in the 12-horse field.
West Coast didn't race as a 2-year-old and didn't run in this year's Triple Crown series. But the 3-year-old colt has won four of six starts in 2017, including four in a row.
West Coast led all the way, with Baffert watching on television back at Del Mar racetrack north of San Diego.
"When Bob texted me before the race he said, 'Listen, he is yours, you ride him however you want,'" Smith said. "So that kind of made me think I could get a little aggressive with him, and that is what I wanted to do with no pace in the race."
Smith and Baffert won last year's Travers with Arrogate, who broke a 37-year-old track record and won by 13 1/2 lengths.
Earlier on Saturday's card, Smith and 2-5 favorite Songbird were stunned by Forever Unbridled in the $700,000 Personal Ensign.
However, the 52-year-old jockey won the $600,000 Forego Stakes for Baffert with Drefong, and the jockey and trainer teamed to finish third in the $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes with American Anthem.
Tapwrit was fourth, followed by Good Samaritan, Giuseppe the Great, McCraken, Cloud Computing, Always Dreaming, Lookin At Lee, Girvin and Fayeq.
Mayweather vs. McGregor fight results, Money wins via 10th-round TKO.
By Brian Campbell
Mayweather vs. McGregor results:
R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 R12 Total
Mayweather 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 9 10 TKO 86
McGregor 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 10 9 85
In the end, the equation we all knew coming in turned out to be true: The best boxer in the world beat one of the best mixed martial artists in a boxing match.
In his return from a two-year retirement, Floyd Mayweather improved to 50-0 with a 10th-round TKO over an incredibly game Conor McGregor in their pay-per-view superfight at T-Mobile Arena. But the storyline was just as much about McGregor, the UFC lightweight champion, in defeat than it was about the 40-year-old Mayweather in victory.
McGregor, 29, who was making his debut as a boxer, never fought recklessly or overly aggressively, in contrast to his prediction of a first-round knockout. What he did was present Mayweather with a poised and credible challenge, teasing a bright future in the boxing game should he consider it.
"He's a lot better than I thought he was," Mayweather said. "He used different angles. He was a tough competitor, but I was the better man tonight.
"We talked about how he's a tough competitor, and I think we gave the fans what they wanted to see. I chose a hell of a dance partner to dance with. Conor McGregor, you are a hell of a champion."
Mayweather, who officially announced his retirement after the fight, was true to his prediction throughout the fight's build when he promised it wouldn't go the distance. He also stuck to his guns about standing in front of McGregor looking for a finish.
After a slow start in which Mayweather gave away the first three rounds in order to pick up McGregor's rhythms, the former pound-for-pound king began his attack.
Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) focused on the body in the middle rounds in an effort to zap McGregor's gas tank. The investment began to pay off as McGregor looked weary late in Round 7. Two rounds later, McGregor was lucky to make the final bell as Mayweather wobbled him with right hands.
"He's a tough competitor" Mayweather said. "Our game plan was to take our time, let him shoot all his heavy shots early and then take him out at the end down the stretch."
Round 10 was all Mayweather as he walked down the fading Irishman with right hands. After a clean combination against the ropes, referee Robert Byrd jumped in at 1:05 to wave off the fight.
"I thought it was close. Let me go down, let the man put me down," McGregor said about the finish. "Wobbly and fatigued? I'm clear-headed. Let me wobble back to me corner. If they finished that round he'd be wobbling to the morgue.
"You've got to put me out. No one is taking these kinds of risks."
Mayweather outlanded McGregor, 170 to 111, according to CompuBox, and landed 58 percent of his power shots. From Rounds 6-10, Mayweather outlanded his opponent by a count of 130-60.
At the time of the stoppage, Mayweather led on all three judges' scorecards (87-83, 89-82, 89-81).
Although McGregor's punching power began to fade along with his stamina, he stayed in the fight throughout the middle rounds by using activity and slap punches. He also did well to sneak in shots from the clinch without becoming too dirty.
In the end, McGregor never fought too far outside of boxing rules, which many had expected he would try once things got bad. Byrd gave both fighters a lengthy warning during the final seconds before the opening bell and was consistent in the amount of time he gave both fighters to work in the clinch before breaking them up. Byrd warned McGregor for rabbit punching twice -- and both fighters for pushing -- but never was in a position where a deduction was needed.
For all of the pre-fight predictions about McGregor struggling as a novice, the MMA star showed good technique and an overall respect for the sweet science. He also forced Mayweather to fight and avoided a one-sided performance in defeat that nearly all critics predicted.
"I thought I took the early rounds pretty easy," McGregor said. "He's composed. He's not that fast, he's not that powerful, but boy, is he composed.
"I turned [Mayweather] into a Mexican tonight. He fought like a Mexican."
Mayweather, in his first fight since outpointing Andre Berto in September 2015, eclipsed the revered 49-0 mark of Rocky Marciano, who retired as unbeaten heavyweight champion.
"A win is a win, no matter how you get it," Mayweather said. "Rocky Marciano is a legend, and I look forward to going into the Hall of Fame one day.
"This was my last fight tonight. For sure. Tonight was my last fight."
On This Date in Sports History: Today is Monday, August 28, 2017.
Memoriesofhistory.com
1922 - The Walker Cup was held for the first time at Southampton, NY. It is the oldest international team golf match in America.
1941 - The Football Writers Association of America was organized.
1972 - Mark Spitz captured the first of his seven gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He set a world record when he completed the 200-meter butterfly in 2 minutes and 7/10ths of a second.
1941 - The Football Writers Association of America was organized.
1972 - Mark Spitz captured the first of his seven gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He set a world record when he completed the 200-meter butterfly in 2 minutes and 7/10ths of a second.
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