I really just needed him for the save. | | | | Justin Turner walks off a hero.
(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I really just needed him for the save.”
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| | rantnrave:// Baseball used to run on a simple idea: Offense wins games, pitching wins championships. Not anymore. Now, starters win games, bullpens win titles. Home runs for everyone. This is the age of the reliever. Relievers. Lots of them. Quality starts in the playoffs are a luxury. Bullpenning is reality. The 2014 ROYALS didn't start a revolution but they did breathe life into idea of bullpen as a way of life. If your starter can get you through six innings, the back end of the bullpen can get the rest. Then the INDIANS used ANDREW MILLER anywhere they saw fit last postseason. This year, the starter is almost a long-man. RICH HILL pitched five innings, struck out eight, and came out of the game after 79 pitches. Dominant? Struggling? Doesn't matter. Managers have quick hooks. (Exception: JUSTIN VERLANDER). There's an endless supply of pitchers out of the pen who throw 98 mph, with a nasty offspeed pitch. Like NEO facing AGENT SMITH. Does it make baseball better if starting pitchers are formalities in October? Does it help baseball's aesthetics issue? Is it a pitcher's duel if both starters leave the game by the sixth inning?... I don't believe what I just saw... Is US Soccer a sleeping giant, or too ambivalent to ever be a great soccer nation? Will missing the 2018 World Cup cripple the USMNT? Or allow US Soccer to get back on the right track? Is naming a new coach enough or a band-aid? Does SUNIL GULATI need to go? Can CHRISTIAN PULISIC save us all? SportsSET: "The US Men's National Team Believes It Will Win -- Eventually"... Who wore it better?.. Wonder who the PACKERS will sign instead of COLIN KAEPERNICK... Ich bin ein Kaepernick... Are JETS fans CHARLIE BROWN trying to kick the football, or SIDESHOW BOB stepping on the rake?... Cringe-worthy or classic AL MICHAELS? | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
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 | REDEF |
| Is US Soccer a sleeping giant, or too ambivalent to ever be a great soccer nation? Will missing the 2018 World Cup cripple the USMNT? Or allow US Soccer to get back on the right track? | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| Jemele Hill has challenged the status quo in Bristol in new and provocative ways. Can the Worldwide Leader handle it? | | |
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 | Vice Sports |
| Nico Mejia and Emiliana Arango takes us inside Florida's IMG Academy, where elite teenage athletes have access to high-class amenities and staffs dedicated to ensuring they're ready for a career in pro sports. | | |
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 | Bleacher Report |
| How would you react if you played on a winless team that had just endured the third-worst loss in the history of Missouri high school football, a game in which the opponent led 80-0 at the end of the first quarter? Would you quit if your team was 0-7 and been outscored 490-150? Would you dial down your effort in practice if you only had nine healthy players on your team and knew you had virtually no chance of winning a single game? | | |
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 | Sports Illustrated |
| Carlos Beltran looks at Verlander as the most prepared pitcher he's ever been around. The Astros' new ace dominated the Yankees in ALCS Game 2. | | |
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 | The Paris Review |
| Izaak Walton's 1653 book "The Compleat Angler" is part fishing manual, part witchcraft, and part true art. | | |
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 | CBSSports.com |
| Each minute of this episode of the Eye on College Basketball podcast is dedicated to the North Carolina case. We explained why the NCAA didn't punish UNC even though the NCAA acknowledged student-athletes benefited from fraudulent classes for more than a decade. And I asked two reasonable questions: 1. If the NCAA had no case, why did the NCAA ever create a case? 2. Should the NCAA just get out of academics completely? | | |
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 | Victory Journal |
| The Warriors are already the NBA's next great dynasty. What's left for them to accomplish? | | |
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 | uncrate.com |
| Stern Pinball has been making pinball machines for a long time -- back to the 1930s and the founding of arcade game giant Williams. Stern makes some of the biggest themed pinball games in the world, with machines featuring properties like "Ghost Busters," "Star Wars," and bands like AC/DC and Kiss. | | |
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 | SportsPro |
| With the launch of its new Watch video platform and a plethora of content already live, speculation is rife as to Facebook's sporting strategy. Head of global sports partnerships Dan Reed took questions from journalists in London on what might be next for the social media giant. | | |
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 | The Bill Simmons Podcast |
| Plus: the best baseball story lines of the last 50 years. | | |
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 | American Soccer Now |
| Brian Sciaretta explored the past three decades of player development and noticed few players born in the early 1990s have panned out--a situation that continues to haunt the men's national team. | | |
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 | Bloomberg |
| Only the magic of the market can cure what ails college sports. | | |
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 | Yahoo Sports |
| The University of North Carolina shredded any credible it had as a "university" with its defense, but dadgummit, it worked. And the NCAA showed once again how useless it is. | | |
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 | Decider |
| Why the streaming platform could, and should, get into the at-home workout world - and soon. | | |
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 | MMQB |
| From youth to high school, from TCU to the Cowboys, football in Big D is all about taking it to the next level. | | |
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 | GQ |
| In conversation before and after his redemptive second title, Draymond Green proves he's still the NBA's best talker. | | |
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 | B/R Mag |
| The Mavs rookie has been down and he's been mad, and he's got the scars to prove it. Now he's ready to take on the NBA's best. Good thing our guy can jump out the gym like Westbrook. | | |
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 | ESPN |
| Boyer, a former NFL player who spoke with Colin Kaepernick about kneeling before the national anthem in 2016, calls for unity and a meeting on behalf of America. | | |
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| Sports Illustrated |
| What can KD, KG, Russ, Doc and Thibs all agree on? That Kendrick Perkins, one of the NBA's most intimidating enforcers, is also one its most compassionate and legendary teammates. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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