After tying the game in the eighth, the Cardinals sealed their fourth walk-off win of the season when Tommy Pham drilled his 17th home run of the season into the center-field stands to end a seven-pitch at-bat against reliever Brad Boxberger.
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TV: AT&T SportsNet-SW Radio: KBME 790 AM, La Nueva 94.1 FM Online: MLB.TV Angels SBNation Blog: Halos Heaven Pitching Matchup RHP Brad Peacock (10-2, 3.21 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, .328 BABIP, 3.69 xFIP) vs. LHP Tyler Skaggs (1-4, 3.96 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, .324 BABIP, 4.21 xFIP) Preview (Scene: Dunsmore taps away at
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OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – A week ago, Harold Varner III busted the bubble and made the top 125 advancing to the FedExCup Playoffs. Now he’s projected to do the same thing again with 18 holes left at THE NORTHERN TRUST. The situations seem the same. But they really aren’t. And neither is Varner’s mindset. “Last week was a little different,â€� he said. “My job was on the line. Now that we’re here, we can, not so much attack it but you can kind of let it go.â€� When he started the Wyndham Championship, he was 138th in points. But his tie for 10th – his only top-10 finish thus far this season — moved him to 123rd and secured his PGA TOUR card for next season. Now his goal is to keep advancing in the Playoffs and perhaps make the improbable push for a spot in the TOUR Championship. No player outside the top 70 at the start of the Playoffs has ever made it to East Lake, but Varner is in position to at least take the next step to TPC Boston. His 1-over 71 on Saturday leaves him at 2 under for the tournament and tied for 22nd. He currently is one of four players projected to bust the bubble, moving to 95th if he holds his position. He would reach the Dell Technologies Championship for the second straight year if he handles his business on Sunday. “It’s insane,â€� Varner said. “I have a great opportunity now and I’m just really excited about it.â€� He might even be excited enough to check out the FedExCup rankings on a regular basis. “My rookie year, I looked at it all the time and I played well,â€� Varner said of last season, when he had four top-10 finishes. “This year, I didn’t look at all. Maybe I should start looking at it more often.â€� BUBBLE WATCH Here are the players who are projected to move inside the top 100 that will advance to next week’s Dell Technologies Championship, along with the players who are projected to fall out. QUOTE OF THE DAY Last week I was clearly obsessed with the line but this week I’m trying not to be. Every bite of the cherry you get the more chances you obviously have to get to East Lake. Hopefully tomorrow is not my last bite of cherry. TOP 5 WATCH The Top 5 players entering the TOUR Championship will control their own destiny at East Lake. Here’s a look at how the current top 5 fared Saturday at THE NORTHERN TRUST. 1. Hideki Matsuyama (CUT). Sitting at home after missing the cut. Projected to drop to fourth. 2. Justin Thomas (69). Just couldn’t get anything significant going throughout the day and is 4 under and tied for 10th. Projected to fall to third. 3. Jordan Spieth (64). A 31 on the back nine to streak ahead of the pack and set up a three-shot lead at the top. Projected to first. 4. Dustin Johnson (67). Was leading to start the round but saw Spieth blitz past. Still, he’s alone in second at 9 under. He’ll move into first with a win but projected to second right now. 5. Rickie Fowler (74). Started the day tied for the lead and with big hopes. Then made bogeys on five of his first six holes on Saturday to tumble down the leaderboard. Ended the round at 2 under and tied 22nd. Projects to sixth. FEDEXCUP NOTES Seven players start Sunday projected to be eliminated from where they sit on the leaderboard. Scott Stallings and Ryan Blaum are currently projected to be just a stroke short of the position they need, giving them every chance to gain a stay of execution. It will be a tougher ask for Vaughn Taylor, who currently projects to be eight shots back of what he needs to advance. The new man currently projected inside the top 5 on the FedExCup list is Jon Rahm. Sitting in a tie for third at 7 under, Rahm projects to fifth on the standings. “I try not to think about it too much. I just try to focus on my game like I’ve been doing till now,â€� he said. “Certainly the closer we get to East Lake, I know the pressure is going to pile up and the more important it’s going to be. Hopefully I can get in that top-5 spot going into East Lake and be a little less stressed.â€� Patrick Reed (38 to 15), Justin Rose (32 to 20), Keegan Bradley (46 to 26), and Louis Oosthuizen (35 to 27) are players currently projected to move inside the top 30 of the FedExCup standings. While the Dell Technologies Championship and BMW Championship are still to be played, the top 30 make it to the TOUR Championship.
OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Engrave the trophy. It’s locked up. Jordan Spieth has won THE NORTHERN TRUST. Having won nine of the last 10 times he’s led after 54 holes on the PGA TOUR, Spieth’s three-shot buffer over Dustin Johnson means it is statistically likely the Texan makes it win No. 4 for the year on Sunday and takes the lead in the FedExCup. Rounds of 69-65-64 leave him at 12 under par at Glen Oaks Club with Johnson at 9 under. Spieth is five shots clear of the four-way tie for third so the buffer is too significant, right? We haven’t seen a front-runner like this since Tiger Woods, who was an incredible 51-4 when holding the lead or co-lead with a round to go on the PGA TOUR. OK. OK. OK. Hold up. Let’s not get too crazy. This is golf after all. Spieth knows as well as anyone a tournament can turn on one bad swing – or one good one. That one 54-hole lead he didn’t convert in the last 10? The 2016 Masters where he blew a 5-shot lead on the back nine. The vision of him painfully finding Raes Creek twice that day are still fresh scars for us all. His most recent 54-hole lead came at The Open Championship this year where he lost his buffer early with some crazy play, famously hit the ball off the map and played from the driving range, before sensationally turning it back around with a blitz finish for victory. The time before that it appeared he was going to let Daniel Berger get the better of him at the Travelers Championship in a playoff. Cue a sensational bunker hole-out in sudden death for the win. You couldn’t really write the script for any of these occasions. “I’d expect anything. I’ve kind of shown that anything can happen [laughing] unfortunately and fortunately,â€� Spieth said when asked to imagine what he would think if he was trying to chase down a front-runner with his record. “So anything can happen tomorrow. I expect some swings but if we stay focused on a goal, keep playing the way we’re playing, then should be fine.â€� The chasing pack can look at things one of two ways. They can go glass half-empty and lament the likelihood of Spieth’s steel to win and ability to get out of even tough situations. Or they can go glass half-full and recall his shakiness at times, and back themselves to go head-to-head if they can get him near the ropes. “I like coming from behind,â€� Johnson, fourth in the FedExCup, said. “Let’s be honest here. I’d rather have a three-shot lead. But it’s not that bad coming from three shots back, either, because that can change in one hole. “Obviously Jordan’s playing really well, so he’s going to be tough to beat tomorrow.â€� Johnson wasn’t planning on being overly aggressive. Instead he plans to just rely on his long game to potentially give himself more birdie chances than the 24-year-old. He will have to as Spieth’s putter has been a big part of the puzzle. “Maybe some of his putting will rub off on me and I’ll start holing them,â€� Johnson smiled. “I think it’s going to be a fun day. I think it’s going to be a battle but we’ll see who is on top at the end.â€� For those further back – like Spaniard Jon Rahm who is part of the crowd at 7 under – aggression is going to be needed. When the gap is five you must go super low or also hope for a stumble above. “And Spieth is not known for being one to stumble. Last time he actually made a little bit of a mistake and ended up with a finish for the ages at The Open,â€� Rahm said. “He’s not going to give it to you. That guy can seriously close it out. “We need to make up shots as fast as possible, as early as possible. Hopefully I can get off to a good start like I did today and make a few putts early and who knows.â€� Spieth for his part expects them to come at him hard. He doesn’t believe the field is playing for second. “I imagine it’s not like guys that were chasing Tiger where you almost felt hopeless,â€� he said. “I don’t think DJ is really worried about much. We’ve battled it out quite a few times. He’ll step up and just do his thing. I don’t think he’s going to think much about me, other than where he’s at as we get down the stretch.â€� Spieth, the 2015 FedExCup champion, hopes Johnson isn’t even in the hunt by the time they get down the stretch. The first of his three wins this season came at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where he “cruisedâ€� along on Sunday. “Pebble Beach was an absolute cruise,â€� he reminisced. “It was a bogey-free 2-under round when I had a lead by a significant margin, and I think the longest par putt I had was 3 feet that day. So that’s what I would obviously like tomorrow.â€� Glen Oaks might not allow that. While the fairways are generous, the rough is thick. “This is not a course you can stand on the first tee and think 65. It can happen but you force it out here you will have a big number,â€� former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy said. “It’s a U.S. Open with wide fairways. A good player is going to win here and if it’s not one of the really long hitters like Jordan than he’s done extremely well.â€� Odds are he will do extremely well. Again.
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Jordan Spieth fired a 64 that included eight birdies to hold a 3-shot lead heading into Sunday at Glen Oaks Club.
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Both the Nationals and left-hander Gio Gonzalez have owned the Mets this season, a major reason why they are coasting to back-to-back National League East crowns.
