November 15, 2019 2:12 am
The Penguins have announced that captain Sidney Crosby has undergone successful core muscle injury repair. The surgery was performed Thursday morning in Philadelphia. General Manager Jim Rutherford says Crosby has been dealing with a sports hernia since training camp. He is expected to miss a minimum of six week. Crosby currently leads the team in scoring. Pens next see action Friday night in New Jersey.
November 14, 2019 3:44 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Jacob deGrom has become the 11th player to win a Cy Young Award in consecutive years, while Justin Verlander has captured the postseason honor for the second time and first since 2011. DeGrom took NL honors after leading the league with 255 strikeouts and finishing second with a 2.43 ERA for the New York Mets. DeGrom totaled 204 innings, compared to 172 1/3 for Washington’s Max Scherzer and 182 2/3 for Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Dodgers. Ryu finished second in the balloting conducted by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, just ahead of Scherzer. DeGrom joins Tom Seaver as the only Mets to win multiple Cy Young awards. Verlander beat out Houston Astros teammate Gerrit Cole for the AL Award. Verlander led the majors with 21 victories and reached 300 strikeouts in a season for the first time. He no-hit Toronto on Sept. 1 and padded his Hall of Fame resume by getting his 3,000th strikeout in his final start of the regular season. Rays righty Charlie Morton finished third a year after leaving Houston in free agency.
November 14, 2019 3:41 am
CLEVELAND (AP) – The Steelers and Browns will renew their rivalry Thursday with both teams fighting to keep their postseason hopes going. Pittsburgh has turned its season around after a 1-4 start by winning four in a row. Cleveland’s got work to do, but took a big step last week by beating Buffalo to halt a four-game slide. Ball security will be a priority for the Browns as the Steelers come in with 26 takeaways, the club’s most through nine games in 32 years.
November 11, 2019 3:50 am
UNDATED (AP) – A trip to Cincinnati could have been a trap game for the Baltimore Ravens after they dominated the defending-champion New England Patriots last Sunday. Instead, the Ravens picked up their fifth straight win and improved to 7-2 by manhandling the winless Bengals. Lamar Jackson threw for three touchdowns and added a sensational 47-yard scoring run to lead Baltimore’s 49-13 romp at Cincinnati. Jackson set a club completion percentage record by hitting on 15 of his 17 throws for 223 yards and a perfect passer rating of 158.3, his second of the season.
Ryan Finley finished 16 of 30 for 167 yards in his first NFL start as the 0-9 Bengals absorbed their 11th consecutive loss since last season. Finley also threw an interception that Marcus Peters turned into an 89-yard scoring play.
November 10, 2019 7:57 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minnesota’s Jordan Howden picked off Sean Clifford in the end zone with 1:01 left for the third interception of the game thrown by Penn State’s quarterback, and the 13th-ranked Gophers held on for a 31-26 victory over the fifth-ranked Nittany Lions for their first win over a top-five team in 20 years. Tanner Morgan passed for 339 yards and three touchdowns to direct a dismantling of Penn State’s staunch defense, as Minnesota remained undefeated.
November 9, 2019 3:56 am
(AP) – The Tampa Bay Lightning have won the first of their back-to-back games against the Buffalo Sabres in Stockholm. Nikita Kucherov scored early in the first period and Andrei Vasilevskiy turned back 20 shots as the Bolts held off the Sabres, 3-2. Alex Killorn and Yanni Gourde also scored in front of a sellout crowd in the Swedish capital. The Sabres dropped their fourth in a row despite Sam Reinhart’s two goals. Meanwhile, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says the league plans to return to Europe for games in the next two years, beginning with a 2020-21 season opener between the Bruins and Predators in Prague. The Avalanche and Blue Jackets will play two games in Helsinki later next season.
November 9, 2019 3:52 am
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Ohio State has announced that star defensive end Chase Young won’t play for the third-ranked Buckeyes Saturday against Maryland. The decision comes amid concerns he violated NCAA rules by taking a loan last year from someone he describes as a “family friend.” The school did not elaborate or give a timetable of how long he might be out, only to say Young is sidelined because of a “possible NCAA issue from last year” the athletic department is “looking into.”The junior leads the nation with 13 1/2 sacks and has become a contender in the Heisman Trophy race.
November 8, 2019 3:41 am
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – Josh Jacobs scored on an 18-yard run with 1:02 remaining and the Oakland Raiders had a late winning touchdown drive for the second time in five days, beating the Los Angeles Chargers 26-24 on Thursday night. Derek Carr led the Raiders (5-4) down the field methodically 75 yards after Philip Rivers threw a 6-yard pass to Austin Ekeler that gave the Chargers (4-6) a 24-20 lead with 4:02 remaining. Carr completed three passes to Jalen Richard and two to Hunter Renfrow before Jacobs finished the drive with his seventh touchdown of his rookie season. The victory didn’t come easy as Daniel Carlson missed the extra point, putting more pressure on the tired Raiders defense to stop Rivers. Trayvon Mullen was called for holding on a fourth-down pass to extend the drive, but Karl Joseph then intercepted a fourth-down pass from Rivers to seal it. Joseph also had the game-sealing pass breakup Sunday against Detroit after Carr threw a TD pass to Renfrow in a 31-24 victory.
November 7, 2019 3:46 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Xavier Johnson, Terrell Brown and Ryan Murphy scored 13 points apiece as Pittsburgh slipped past Florida State 63-61 in a rare Atlantic Coast Conference season opener. The Panthers (1-0, 1-0 ACC) won despite shooting 31 percent (16 of 51) from the field by taking advantage of the foul-prone Seminoles (0-1, 0-1). Pitt outscored Florida State 22-13 at the free throw line and knocked down nine 3-pointers, three of them by Murphy, a junior college transfer who provided Pitt with a needed jolt.
November 6, 2019 3:48 am
ST. LOUIS (AP) – St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt has been given a new three-year contract through the 2022 season. Shildt was hired as interim manager in 2018, replacing Mike Matheny. He just led the Cardinals to the NL Central title with a 91-71 record and is 132-99 as their bench boss. The Redbirds also announced extensions for president of baseball operations John Mozeliak and general manager Mike Girsch.
