For 10 innings Wednesday night, the Dodgers couldn’t scratch across the one run they would need to support Rich Hill’s no-hit bid. They stranded 11 runners in that game and 15 more Thursday afternoon, but they found enough offense to support Hyun-Jin Ryu and secure their 90th victory, a 5-2 win over the Pirates at PNC Park.
Newton debuts, leads Panthers’ long TD drive
Great Alaska Shootout to end after this year
The Dolphins’ new QB fumbled early but recovered in his second appearance with the team.
A back-and-forth of hit-by-pitches dating back to last month ignited a trio of benches-clearing confrontations Thursday afternoon between the Tigers and Yankees, starting with Miguel Cabrera and Austin Romine throwing punches at each other and winding up with Alex Wilson and Todd Frazier gesturing at each other.
The cleats will be flashy. The bats will be bright. Just before the pennant races really get going, the game is going to focus on fun. And players will be going by nicknames, many of which they’ve had since they were kids. What’s your favorite player called by his teammates?
OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Bubba Watson admits his mind hasn’t been fully focused on golf this year and he’s looking forward to shutting things down for the rest of 2017 once his FedExCup Playoffs end. After a solid 3-under 67 start at Glen Oaks Club leaves him sitting tied 6th at THE NORTHERN TRUST his vacation time could be delayed a little longer. The nine-time PGA TOUR winner and two-time Masters champion entered the FedExCup Playoffs ranked 113th, firmly facing elimination if he doesn’t perform this week. But he’s finally playing with some mental freedom and hopes to ride the wave a little longer. “All I know is where my mind was, where my focus was the first half of the year; it wasn’t in the right spot to play the best game of golf,â€� Watson said. “Now, I’m driven, I’m dedicated and I want to be back on top. I want to win tournaments, so this is the best way I know how to do it. “Hopefully when this is over, I’m in Atlanta and then I get to take a break after that. My thing is just play until they tell me I can’t play anymore. When I’m done with the Playoffs, no matter where that is, I’m taking at least four and a half months off. I won’t play until next year.â€� The top 100 in the FedExCup standings after this week advance to the Dell Technologies Championship with the top 70 after Boston advancing to the BMW Championship in Chicago. From there the top 30 make it to the TOUR Championship. Points in Playoff events are quadrupled. Watson currently projects to 62nd place. The Florida native plans to spend the bulk of his time off with his family as son Caleb begins school. “I’m going to be tee-ball coach. So looking forward to that, being home with the family and just have a blast,â€� Watson beamed. “My kid started kindergarten. My family’s not going to be able to travel as much anymore. So I just want time off. If I had to choose golf or family, I’m going family every day of the week.â€� TOP FIVE OUTLOOK: FedExCup leader Hideki Matsuyama looks set to lose his top dog status after an opening 4-over 74 left him tied for 102nd. Currently he’s trending towards a missed cut and a drop down to 4th. Dustin Johnson sits just one shot off the pace at Glen Oaks and as such projects to the top spot from his fourth position. Justin Thomas (68) currently projects to drop from No. 2 to No. 3 with Jordan Spieth (69) dropping back to 5th. Rickie Fowler started the week 5th but his round of 68 has him falling to 6th in the current projections. Tournament leader Russell Henley (64) is the man projected to surge into the top 5, all the way to No. 2. BUBBLE BOY: Heading to New York Seung-Yul Noh was the man on the bubble to advance at 100th in the FedExCup but the Korean is going to need something special to remain in the mix for TPC Boston. A 4-over 74 leaves him tied for 102nd this week and projected to 111th in the standings. The nerves now shift to Sanderson Farms champion Cody Gribble whose 78 has him projected to fall from 89th to 100th. MOVING IN, MOVING OUT: After one round, five players have put themselves in position to play their way into next week from outside the top 100. They are led by Bubba Watson who projects from 113th to 62nd after his 67. Martin Flores (118 to 63) and Harold Varner III (123 to 64) joined Watson with 67s to get the start they needed for salvation. Ryan Blaum’s 68 has him projected from 105th to 77th and Brian Gay’s 69 shows him moving from 106th to 94th. The players projected to be booted out at after one round are Branden Grace, Jason Kokrak, Byeong Hun An, Robert Garrigus and Seung-Yul Noh. OUT OF THEIR CONTROL: There will be 25 players officially eliminated from the Playoffs after THE NORTHERN TRUST but we already know one of them is Dominic Bozzelli who withdrew before the tournament. He started at 115th and projects to 119th. Four other players are not in the field this week leaving them at the mercy of others. Masters champion Sergio Garcia (rest) now projects to 30th, Brandt Snedeker (rib injury) projects to 73rd, Adam Scott (paternity leave) projects to 79th and Scott Piercy (shoulder injury) projects to 97th. Scott has welcomed his second child into the world in the last few days, a son named Byron. He will not play in Boston, effectively ensuring his elimination from the Playoffs. NOTABLE NUGGETS: Among those players projected to be eliminated at this stage are major winners Jimmy Walker and Geoff Ogilvy plus Team USA Presidents Cup Captain Steve Stricker. International Team hopeful Byeong Hun An hurt his chances after an opening 74 leaves him projected 105th. At 13th on the International Team standings An must make the cut on Friday or be out of chances to both make the team outright and to further impress Nick Price for a captain’s pick. The biggest potential FedExCup movers are so far Chris Kirk and Camillo Villegas who share third after rounds of 66. They project to move up 64 spots each from 97th and 98th to 33rd and 34th respectively. Harold Varner III (59 spots), Martin Flores (55 spots) and Bubba Watson (51 spots) also look good for a giant leap. Defending FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy had a tough day at the office with a 73 projecting him from 44th to 54th in the standings. Phil Mickelson’s round of 72 has him projected to drop from 51st to 61st. Jason Day’s 69 gives him a modest projected lift from 49th to 46th while Presidents Cup teammate Louis Oosthuizen is eyeing the top 30 after his first round 67 has him projected from 35th to 16th.
OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. — Golf hasn’t felt this easy to Dustin Johnson since he was making it hard for anyone to beat him. Coming off a week in the Bahamas and switching back to his old putter to rely more on feel, Johnson ran off three birdies over his last six holes at Glen Oaks Club and finished with a 5-under 65 to trail Russell Henley by one shot after the opening round of THE NORTHERN TRUST. Johnson missed only two fairways and two greens Thursday afternoon, and he finished with a shot up the hill to 4 feet for one last birdie that gave him his lowest round since he won at Riviera in February to climb into the top 10 in the FedExCup standings for the first time this season. Currently fourth, he’s not dropped out of the top 10 since. “Today was much easier than it has been in the past,” Johnson said. “I’ve been saying it’s close and I’ve seen signs of it. But today was the first day where I felt like all day I was really in control of the swing. Hit a lot of really good shots. Drove it well. Did everything really well. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve done that.” He specifically used as a reference the weeks leading into the Masters, when Johnson looked nearly unstoppable by winning three straight tournaments. And then he was stopped by a staircase in his rental home at Augusta, slipping in socks and wrenching his back. He had to withdraw the next day, and since then he has been trying to get over the back injury and get back his game. The first of four FedExCup Playoffs events moved this year to Glen Oaks, a course no one in the field knows particularly well. It is spacious and immaculate, the contoured greens that can be difficult to negotiate outside of close range. Henley brought a conservative strategy of aiming for the safe part of the green, and he converted eight birdies. Seven of them were from 12 feet or closer, a testament to how well he was playing. He also chipped in from 80 feet. “I don’t know what the key is, or the secret,” Henley said. “I just tried to hit the fairway, make sure I hit the green when I was in the fairway, and the greens are great and I rolled in a couple of putts.” Scott Brown, Camilo Villegas and Chris Kirk were at 66, and it was an important start for Villegas and Kirk. The top 100 in the FedExCup after this week advance to the second Playoff event at the TPC Boston. Kirk is at No. 97, Villegas is one spot behind. It was even better for a few players who opened with a 67, such as Bubba Watson (No. 113), Martin Flores (No. 118) and Harold Varner III (No. 123). Flores only got into the top 125 by finishing with an ace, a par and a birdie last week at the Wyndham Championship. Phil Mickelson, meanwhile, needs to see a score much better than his 72, which featured two straight birdies at the end but also a pair of double bogeys. Mickelson has played in every Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup since 1994, and he is in danger of being left out of The Presidents Cup next month at Liberty National. U.S. captain Steve Stricker has said he needs to see signs from the five-time major champion, and Mickelson knows that. “I would love to be on that team, but I’ve got to bring something to the table,” Mickelson said. PGA champion Justin Thomas, still sluggish from a busy week of trying to deal with his new status as major champion, wasn’t expecting much out of his game and dropped two shots early before he rallied for a 68. In his first start since his two-shot victory at Quail Hollow, Thomas was not introduced on the tee as the PGA champion. “After the drive I hit, I’m kind of glad they didn’t,” he said. He hit it on the toe of the driver, a duck-hook that he says would have gone about 130 yards. He was exaggerating. It went 221 yards after it clanged out of the trees and into the fairway, leaving him a 2-iron to the green when most players are hitting a wedge or short iron. Open champion Jordan Spieth had a 69, while Hideki Matsuyama, the No. 1 seed going into the Playoffs, didn’t make a birdie and opened with a 74. Rory McIlroy made three bogeys on the back nine and shot 73. Johnson switched to a TaylorMade Spider putter during the playoffs last year, and he stuck with that up until returning this week and going back to what he used when he won the U.S. Open last summer at Oakmont. “I got a little bit more feel with the putter instead of the Spider I was using,” he said. “I was getting a little bit too mechanical and I was worrying about too many things when I was putting instead of just putting.” He ran a long birdie putt some 15 feet by the hole at No. 2 and three-putted for bogey. After that, his speed was better and his game was sharp. The 65 was his best round since a 64 in the second round at Riviera.
Dustin Johnson was one of many players who went low at the new host Glenn Oaks.
With the final off weekend of the Cup Series season here, let’s look back at some of the best races of 2017.
