On Friday night, the Cardinals scored nine runs in the eighth inning to post a win over the Cubs. On Saturday, the Cubs got some payback. Kris Bryant hit a game-tying RBI single and scored on Anthony Rizzo’s double, both with two outs in the eighth inning, to lift the Cubs to a 3-2 victory over the Cardinals at Wrigley Field.
SOUTHPORT, England – At high noon here Sunday, Jordan Spieth should have a full grasp of the gameplan he hopes will produce his third major title. Although he’ll still be 2-1/2 hours away from his opening tee shot in the final round at Royal Birkdale, he’ll have benefitted from watching the earlier coverage of The Open Championship on TV. He’ll see how the course is playing, where the pins are, how the greens are rolling, how the conditions are impacting scores. Will it be a tough, hang-on type of day like Friday? Or will he need an aggressive approach, the kind he used Saturday when Royal Birkdale handed out red numbers like it was last call at the local pub? Yet there are two things he already knows he must do: (bullet) Play like he’s tied for the lead. Spieth is 11 under par and goes into Sunday with a three-shot cushion over Matt Kuchar. The next closest pursuers – U.S. Open champ Brooks Koepka and Spieth’s fellow Dallas resident Austin Connelly — are six shots back. It would be easy for Spieth to simply lay back and wait for anybody to challenge him. To play safe. But taking a defensive posture would be a detriment. After all, trying to avoid making mistakes is a recipe for making more of them. “I think I will assume that we are tied for the lead,â€� Spieth said. (bullet) Hit as many greens as possible. One of the key strategies all week for Spieth has been staying out of Royal Birkdale’s pot bunkers. He’s found a few, but he’s made just four bogeys this week, all in the second round in rainy, windy conditions. He shot bogey-free 5-under 65s in the first and third rounds, and there’s every reason to think he can avoid trouble again Sunday, provided his driver cooperates to set up the crisp irons he’s displayed here. “It’s all about greens in regulation,â€� said Spieth, who hit 15 of them on Thursday and 14 on Saturday. “If the conditions are tough and you have to lay it further back and play further away from holes, so be it. But having a putter in my hand for birdie is the most important thing for tomorrow.â€� Spieth’s ability to execute his gameplan at Royal Birkdale is why he’s on the verge of adding the Open to his major resume and moving three-quarters of the way to the career Grand Slam. Entering Saturday with a two-shot lead over Kuchar, he knew early on that scoring conditions were incredibly favorable – even though he saw only one hole of Branden Grace’s major-record 62. Previously anticipating that pars would be a really good score, Spieth adjusted his thinking, approaching par as just “OKâ€� on Saturday. “Royal Birkdale, notoriously difficult, had just become one of the easier golf courses that we play for one round for the year,â€� Spieth said. “You just kind of got to change that in your mind.â€� By the time he arrived on the first tee Saturday, he had an additional gameplan. This one included Kuchar. “Our gameplan when we stood on the tee was, let’s push each other to separate and get this pairing tomorrow,â€� Spieth said. “That’s kind of what we wanted to do.â€� While Spieth shot 65, Kuchar shot a 4-under 66 that included a double-bogey at the par-4 16th in which he found a bunker and also three-putted. Kuchar is hoping to become the eighth consecutive first-time winner in a major, but that double may come back to haunt him. On Sunday, Kuchar won’t be worrying about separating from the pack. His focus now is pretty easy: catch Spieth. But even though Kuchar has plenty of success in match play-type environments – he won the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play in 2013 — he plans to avoid any kind of head-to-head showdown with his playing partner. “I’ll be playing with him but not focused on him,â€� Kuchar said. “My goal is to go out and play Royal Birkdale. “I’ll know exactly where we stand but I don’t know how much that ever helps you. You just have to go out and hit the best shot for that situation. I’ve been on some good form. The formula has produced a lot of good golf, and I hope it continues to produce some good golf tomorrow.â€� He’ll probably need some help from Spieth, but the 23-year-old Texan – he turns 24 next week – seems to have a pretty good formula for holding 54 holes. Of his last nine 54-hole leads on the PGA TOUR, he’s converted eight of them into victories. The lone miss was the 2016 Masters, when he put two balls in the water at the 12th in the final round and shot a 73, opening the door for Englishman Danny Willett. It was a harsh lesson, but one Spieth thinks ultimately will prove valuable. “I understand that leads can be squandered quickly, and I also understand how you can keep on rolling on one,â€� Spieth said. “It was a humbling experience that I thought at the time could serve me well going forward.â€� No matter the outcome on Sunday, Spieth doesn’t think the 2016 Masters will have a specific impact at Royal Birkdale. “If I don’t win tomorrow, it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with it was someone else’s day, and I didn’t play as well as I should have,â€� Spieth said. “And if I win tomorrow, it has nothing to do with that, either.â€� What it will come down to is simply this: executing his gameplan. Spieth’s been nearly flawless for the first three rounds. Difficult to imagine that Sunday will be any different.
Sandoval back with Giants, sorry for ’14 barbs
The Pirates placed outfielder Gregory Polanco on the 10-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain on Saturday and recalled left-hander Steven Brault from Triple-A Indianapolis.
SOUTHPORT, England  — Jordan Spieth did his part on a day of low scoring at The Open, and now is one round away from the third leg of the Grand Slam. The lowest score in major championship history was already in the books Saturday when Spieth was still warming up on the range at Royal Birkdale. Then the 23-year-old Texan delivered a bogey-free performance at Royal Birkdale that he punctuated with a 20-foot birdie on the final hole for a 5-under 65. That gave Spieth a three-shot lead over Matt Kuchar, who did his best to keep pace and shot 66. It was the second round this week that Spieth kept bogeys off his card, and this time he really didn’t come close to one. “Pretty stress-free,” Spieth said. “On a Saturday with a lead in a major, that’s as good as I can ask for.” Adding to the pressure was knowing that Royal Birkdale, with a clear sky until the final hour and barely any wind, was never more vulnerable. No one took advantage quite like Branden Grace, who finished birdie-birdie-par and became the first player to shoot 62 in a major. More than half the field broke par. Spieth was among seven players who shot 65 or better. “You knew scores would be lower,” he said. “It’s tough to hold a lead when par is not necessarily a great score, when you want to watch out and play a little safer.” He was at 11-under 199, stealing a birdie at the end when his approach into the 18th stayed just left of the bunker and left him 20 feet away. Spieth clenched his fist when it dropped for birdie, and then Kuchar missed from about 12 feet. They will see each other again tomorrow, and they put some distance from everyone else. Austin Connelly, who grew up in Dallas and shares a swing coach with Spieth, extended his remarkable run with birdies on his last two holes for a 66. The 20-year-old who plays under the Canadian flag was six shots behind at 5-under 205, tied with U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, who had a 68. Grace wound up seven shots behind even after his 62. Missing from the mix was Rory McIlroy, who looked to be a big threat when he began with three birdies in five holes, driving the green on the shortened par-4 fifth hole. He lost it around the turn, making back-to-back bogeys, and then a double bogey at No. 10 when he blasted out of one pot bunker left of the fairway and it spun toward another, resting in the thick collar. McIlroy had a 69, rarely a bad score in the third round of a major. This one left him nine shots behind. “If you keep it in play, it’s almost hard to make a bogey out there, you know?” McIlroy said. “I’ve always been good when I get off to fast starts, being able to keep it going, and I didn’t today. And I needed to — that’s the disappointing thing.” Ian Poulter felt even worse. Still lurking, he ran off three straight bogeys early on the back nine and shot 71 to fall nine back. Spieth was rarely in trouble. He stuck to his simple plan and kept making all the right putts. He never lost the lead after any hole, though Kuchar kept close. He matched Kuchar’s birdie on the third hole to stay one shot ahead. An even bigger moment came at the 15th, when Spieth ran his 60-foot eagle attempt 10 feet by the hole. Kuchar lagged his eagle putt to tap-in range to reach 9 under and momentarily join Spieth in the lead, but only until Spieth poured in the tricky birdie putt. Kuchar’s big lapses came on the 16th when he drove into a pot bunker, could only blast out to the fairway with a sand wedge, hit an indifferent shot to the green and then three-putted for double bogey. Just like that, he was three shots behind. Kuchar got up-and-down from a pot bunker on the par-5 17th when Spieth made par, but as usual, Spieth had one last birdie in his bag. “I played well today,” Kuchar said. “Certainly, I’m not out of it. I’m playing some good golf. I’m very excited for tomorrow.” It will be the first time the 39-year-old Kuchar plays in the final group at a major. Spieth, who turns 24 next Thursday, has been there before. It will be his third time playing in the final group at a major. He won the Masters with a four-shot lead in 2015 and lost the Masters the following year with a one-shot lead at the start of the final round, and a five-shot lead at the turn. Spieth has a chance to join Jack Nicklaus as the only players to capture three different majors at age 23. He won the Masters and U.S. Open two years ago, and then finished one shot out of a playoff at St. Andrews. Nicklaus won the U.S. Open at 22, and then added the Masters and PGA Championship the following year. The forecast was for stronger wind on Sunday, which should be a stronger test for Spieth going for his third major, and Kuchar going for his first.
Woj: Kyrie Irving’s trade request isn’t a betrayal of LeBron James
Kyrie Irving’s trade request isn’t a betrayal of LeBron James
As good as the Astros are, they might get even better tonight with the return of Collin McHugh.
You come at Jordan Spieth, you’d best not miss. On the most favorable day for major scoring in recent memory, a day that saw a record 62, Jordan Spieth saw the onrushing horde of would-be challengers for the Open Championship and merely threw down a bogey-free 65, capped with an 18th-hole birdie, that left no doubt about who’s in charge this week. Spieth entered the day with a two-shot lead over Matt Kuchar, and he only added to that, stiff-arming Kuchar and entering Sunday at 11 under, with a three-stroke lead.
