Irish play 'very good football' in beating Oklahoma

NORMAN, Okla. – Outside of Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly's wife, Paqui, no one was giving the fifth-ranked Fighting Irish a legitimate shot to knock off eighth-ranked Oklahoma on their home field on Saturday. But that is exactly what Kelly's team did in winning 30-13.
How did the Irish earn their biggest victory since beating third-ranked Michigan on the road seven years ago? Here is how:
Bend, but don't break
The Notre Dame defense was spectacular when it had to be and not so great when it didn't need to be.

college football:star tailback Marcus Lattimore to injury

The injury cast a pall over the snapping of South Carolina's two-game losing streak. The Gamecocks (7-2, 5-2 Southeastern) have beaten the Volunteers three games in a row for the first time.
The Volunteers (3-5, 0-5) drove to the Gamecocks' 19 with 1:08 to go before losing a fumble.
The calls in Knoxville, Tenn., for coach Derek Dooley to be fired are sure to grow louder.
"Well, that was another tough
finish," Dooley said.

South Carolina RB Marcus Lattimore taken to hospital with apparent knee injury

South Carolina star Marcus Lattimore was taken to a hospital and is out indefinitely because of an injury to his right knee suffered against Tennessee on Saturday.

Lattimore was running through the left side when he was struck around the knees by Volunteers defensive back Eric Gordon, Lattimore’s right leg whipping around and slamming against the turf. South Carolina trainers immediately rushed to his side, keeping Lattimore flat on his back as the junior attempted to sit up and see the injury.

Marcus Lattimore having leg knee injury in match against Tennessee

The South Carolina running back, who tore an ACL last year and battled all the way back, suffered an injury that looked as ugly as any we've ever seen.

Latti more, considered one of if not the top running back for next year's NFL Draft had he decided to come out a year early, was running to his left. Tennessee defensive back Eric Gordon tackled him low, and Latti more's leg collapsed. When he went down, replays showed what clearly looked like a dislocation in his leg.

Sandoval Lifts Giants, Into the Stands

It is brief and illustrious, the list of baseball players who have hit three home runs during a World Series game: Albert Pujols, Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth, who achieved the feat twice.
Multimedia

Now add to it Pablo Sandoval, the San Francisco Giants’ smiling, rotund third baseman, who slammed homers in his first three at-bats Wednesday to power his team to an 8-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the World Series.

Sandoval’s home runs came in the first, third and fifth innings, inciting hysterics from the announced crowd of 42,855 at AT&T Park and providing a surplus of support to Barry Zito, who pitched five and two-thirds innings to earn the victory. Sandoval’s was only the ninth three-homer performance in postseason history.

Tigers Top Yankees 2-1, Need 1 Win for Pennant

Justin Verlander and Detroit's stellar starters are on quite a roll — no matter who is in the opposing lineup.

Verlander took a shutout into the ninth inning and the Tigers held on to beat New York 2-1 Tuesday night for a 3-0 lead in the AL championship series. Yankees manager Joe Girardi changed his batting order again, benching Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher in an effort to snap his team out of an untimely hitting funk.

Yankees Fall to the Tigers Reports

DETROIT — Derek Lowe showered and dressed quickly and stood in the hallway of the visitors’ clubhouse at Comerica Park, a living symbol of hope and possibility.

Wasn’t it Lowe who started Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series against the Yankees, a game that changed the course of history in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry?

And wasn’t it Lowe who started and won Game 7 of the same series, making the Red Sox the only baseball team to comeback from an 0-3 deficit?

Bob Nightengale: Baseball executives say the Washington Nationals' playoff run is not a feel-good story.

The Washington Nationals go 79 years between playoff appearances in our nation's capital, get humiliated Wednesday, and you feel like sending flowers and sympathy cards.

So why are we hearing laughter and celebration all across baseball?

The Nationals might have been the most compelling story this summer, but suddenly they've become the most hated team in the game.

After being embarrassed 8-0 by the St. Louis Cardinals and falling behind 2-1 in their National League Division Series, there was no compassion or a scintilla of empathy for them.

NLDS: Cardinals take 2-1 series lead

Instead, we kept hearing the same refrain:

They got what they deserve.

"If we don't win the World Series, I don't care who does," one general manager told USA TODAY Sports, "as long as it's not those guys.

"They don't deserve to win it. Not after what they did."

Said a National League GM: "I hope they go down in flames. I hope it takes another 79 years before they get back to the playoffs. That's how strongly I feel about it."

The Nationals, baseball executives say, brought this on themselves. They were the defiant ones. They were the ones telling the world they were smarter than everyone else, shutting down ace Stephen Strasburg after 159 1/3 innings, believing they were protecting their prized asset for a lot of playoff games in their future.

"We'll be back," Nationals GM Mike Rizzo said after they clinched the National League East title, "and doing this a couple more times."

That was the quote heard 'round the baseball world, with general managers and executives making sure everyone saw it. Who do they think they are, the Yankees? Are the Philadelphia Phillies going to defect from the NL East? Are the Atlanta Braves retiring with Chipper Jones?

What if the Nationals don't get back during Strasburg's stay in Washington? What if this is their best chance to ever get to the Series? How do you live with that?

And how would you like to be Ross Detwiler today? He's the poor soul taking Strasburg's spot in the playoff rotation, which in three games has yielded a 9.00 ERA with 25 baserunners. Now, he's the one responsible for saving the season.

Win or lose today, the Strasburg talk will never completely go away.

Nationals players, particularly veterans, have grumbled and might sound off more once they depart.

S.F. Giants avoid sweep, beat Reds 2-1

Joaquin Arias hit a grounder toward third base and took off toward third, covering those 90 feet in a blink as a full-to-capacity ballpark went silent with angst.

Which would get there first, the infielder or the ball? Who would win the decisive playoff dash?

"That's the fastest I've ever run to first," Arias said.

Fast enough to extend the San Francisco Giants' season one more day.

SF Giants alive after winning 10-inning thriller against Reds

Cincinnati – The Giants are still in trouble, but at least they are alive. For that they can thank Ryan Vogelsong and a bullpen that pitched like they did not want to go home, and the first costly mistake by the Reds in the Division Series.

The Giants won 2-1 in the 10th inning Tuesday night on a two-out error by third baseman Scott Rolen, on a Joaquin Arias groundball, which allowed Buster Posey to score.

Sergio Romo, in his second inning of relief, shut the door in the bottom half to complete the first of what needs to be three consecutive Giants wins to overcome what was a deficit of two games to none in the best-of-five series.

Yankees, Joe Girardi hopeful they have shaken Orioles confidence with Game 1 victory

Joe Girardi just spoke with the beat writers about a variety of subjects leading into tonight's ALDS Game 2 against the Orioles. With the Yankees holding a 1-0 lead in the series afater Sunday night's 7-2 victory, Girardi will switch up his lineup against Baltimore lefthander Wei-Yin Chen.
Here are a few snippets from the meeting:
Q: Eduardo Nunez is in the lineup tonight against the lefthander. This is why he's on your roster?
Girardi: "Yeah, He's done a good job in these situations and he's been swinging the bat well against lefthanders. So we'll put him in there."
Q: What does it say that you have a Number 8 hitter with 43 home runs in Curtis Granderson?
Girardi: "Our lineup's deep now. We've got guys back. Against the lefty, we've decided to put him in the eighth spot. This is a guy who's produced a lot of runs for us, and we feel our lineup is pretty deep."
Q: Overall, how do you like the way your team has looked against lefthanders recently? The numbers indicate you've been improving.
Girardi: "I think Tex makes a big difference in that. Ichiro had a great month against lefties in September. Swish is starting to hit lefthanders again. Alex has hit them all year. Jete hits them. And Russell has started to swing the bat, which helps."

Q: How encouraging is it that Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher, two guys who've struggled in recent postseasons, had good nights last night?
Girardi: "Really encouraging. I talked about for them, it wouldn’t be in their heads unless they got off to slow starts and people started asking them about it. I think it's really encouraging."
Q: Was Teixeira running hard out of the box on the ball he hit off the wall? Were you surprised he was thrown out at second?
Girardi: "He hit it hard. Davis has a great arm. But Tex was running."

Why Alex Rodriguez Needs Another Huge October to Validate Yankees Career

The 2009 season was Alex Rodriguez's very own Rubber Soul. It wasn't his best season by any stretch of the imagination, but the 2009 campaign ultimately saw the New York Yankees star third baseman prove he could do something many people didn't think he could do.
At long last, A-Rod was clutch in the postseason. He posted a 1.308 OPS while hitting six home runs and driving in 18 runs, and it seemed like every hit he came up with was a big one.

Orioles-"Yankees": O's starter Wei-Yin Chen faces big challenge in ALDS Game 2, his first playoff start

In the final six starts of his first major-league season, Orioles starter Wei-Yin Chen weathered a series of difficult outings. The Yankees beat him twice in September, hanging seven runs on him Sept. 7. Chen lost his final four decisions of the season.

Yet he’ll start Game 2 of the ALDS tonight at Camden Yards. In today’s Baltimore Sun, Eduardo A. Encina explains manager Buck Showalter’s decision to go with Chen followed by Miguel Gonzalez back in The Bronx.

Chen stands between the Yankees going for a sweep in Game 3 and the Orioles evening things.

ALDS Game 2 preview: Yankees at Orioles

There has been a lot of griping about baseball using the 2-3 home-field format for this year’s Division Series, and for good reason. However, this structure has a long history in the major league postseason. From 1969 to 1984 the League Championship Series’ were best-of-five contests with a 2-3 format, and the first three years of the Division Series, 1995 to 1997, had that set-up as well. That’s a total of 44 series using the format prior to this season. The road team won Game 1 in exactly half of those series, and on those occasions, the team that won Game 1 went on to win the series 17 out of 22 times, or 77 percent.

New York Yankees (1-0) at Baltimore Orioles (1-1), 8:07 p.m. (ET)

New York left-hander Andy Pettitte tries to add to his remarkable postseason resume and give the Yankees a decisive two games to none lead in the best-of-five American League Division Series on Monday against the Baltimore Orioles.

After sitting out a year, Pettitte came out of retirement to pitch for the Yankees this season. But his return was derailed in late June when he took a line drive off his left leg during a start against Cleveland and broke his fibula near the junction with the ankle.

"A lot of ups and downs, a roller coaster for sure, but in the end we got to where we want to be, we're in the position we wanted to be in," he said. "This is what I was hoping to have the opportunity to do, and so that's exciting for me personally. All in all, it's been a good year so far. Hopefully we can continue to do this."

Pettitte came back to make three starts in September and was 2-1 with a 1.62 ERA in those outings. Overall, he was 5-4 with a 2.87.

After Orioles fans' years of waiting, what's a little rain?

After 15 years of waiting for playoff baseball at Camden Yards, Orioles fans had to endure an extra 21/2 hours as chilly rain pushed back the start of Sunday's division series opener against the hated New York Yankees.

A mighty roar shook the stadium when the grounds crew peeled away the protective tarp at 8 p.m., conveying just how badly Baltimore fans wanted their October moment. The crowd didn't grow quiet until the Yankees scored five runs in the ninth inning on their way to a 7-2 victory.

There were many sights Sunday that would not have been possible in recent autumns at Camden Yards.

A body-to-body crowd pushed along Eutaw Street more than an hour before the scheduled first pitch, breaking into spontaneous chants of "Let's go, O's!" Yankees fans crept between the masses of orange and black, looking sheepish as they realized how badly outnumbered they were. Orange "Buckle Up" towels swirled wildly as the crowd greeted each Oriole during pre-game introductions.

Brees Sets Record, Saints Upend Chargers 31-24

Drew Brees threw a long touchdown pass to take ownership of another prestigious NFL passing record, hit three more scoring passes in an emotional victory, and then spoke hopefully of salvaging a season that had looked lost after defeats in New Orleans' first four games.

"While you never want to start 0-4, if you do, you've got the right guys in the locker room to turn that thing around and certainly not turn on each other," Brees said. "We understand we have a little bit of a mountain to climb here. ... We got the right people in the locker room, and that makes you feel you always have a chance."

Command performance: CC dominates Orioles After struggling vs. Baltimore during season, Yanks ace nearly goes distance

Once the postseason begins, stats from the regular season can often be thrown out the window.

Sabathia struck out seven and came within one out of his first complete game in the postseason, notching a dominating 7-2 victory in Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Camden Yards.

"I wish I could tell you I change my game plan, but I don't," said Sabathia, who had a 6.38 ERA in three starts against Baltimore this season. "I pitch to my strength, attacking in, and just going off my fastball command, and it was working today.

"The changeup was working really well. These guys know what I am trying to do. I've faced them a lot. I was able just to execute tonight."


Sabathia's numbers against the Orioles this season weren't pretty and despite an impressive career, his overall playoffs stats haven't been all that remarkable either. He entered Sunday night with a 7-4 mark and 4.81 ERA in 17 career games, including a 5.00 ERA in the ALDS.

Yankees get the jump on Orioles with 7-2 win

The New York Yankees earned the AL East title by pulling away from the Baltimore Orioles in the final week of the regular season.
That scenario repeated itself in the first game of their AL playoff series, and now the Orioles are again forced to play catch up against their division rivals.

Russell Martin led off the ninth inning with a tie breaking home run off Jim Johnson, CC Sabathia turned in a sparkling pitching performance and the Yankees gained the upper hand with a 7-2 victory Sunday night.

For eight innings, the teams engaged in a tense duel that could have gone either way. Then came the ninth inning, when the Yankees scored five runs off Johnson, Baltimore’s All-Star closer, to ruin the Orioles’ first home playoff game since 1997.

‘‘You always want to take the first one, but you go game by game,’’ said New York’s Robinson Cano, who contributed a two-run double in the ninth. ‘‘Enjoy this game and just go home get some sleep and be ready for (Game 2 on Monday).’’

The Yankees have been to the playoffs in 17 of the last 18 years. This is Baltimore’s first trip in 15 years, following 14 successive losing seasons.

‘‘We stayed in as long as we could,’’ Orioles right fielder Chris Davis said. ‘‘We’re finding out what playoff baseball is all about.’’

Detroit Tigers within a win of sweeping Oakland Athletics after 5-4 victory in Game 2 of ALDS

The Tigers moved to the cusp of snuffing out the 'Oakland magic' with a resilient 5-4 victory over the A’s in Game 2 of their AL division series at Comerica Park to take a 2-0 lead. Detroit had to overcome deficits of 1-0, 2-1 and 4-3 before Don Kelly lofted a sacrifice fly to right with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth to score Omar Infante with the game-winner.
The Tigers on Sunday moved to the cusp of snuffing out the “Oakland magic” with a resilient 5-4 victory over the A’s in Game 2 of their AL division series at Comerica Park to take a 2-0 lead. Detroit had to overcome deficits of 1-0, 2-1 and 4-3 before Don Kelly lofted a sacrifice fly to right with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth to score Omar Infante with the game-winner.


But in a game with several enduring images none may be more remembered than Al Alburquerque silencing the Oakland threat in the top of the ninth with the score tied 4-4. The righthander was brought in to face lethal righthand hitter Yoenis Cespedes with two out and runners on the corners. He got the slugger to ground out back to him and kissed the ball before throwing it to first for the.