With the Baltimore Orioles calling up Cedric Mullins to start in center field Friday night in his major league debut, Adam Jones will switch to right field. Jones hasn’t played an outfield position other than center field since 2007.
The NFL said in a statement Friday that a defective ball was removed from play during the third quarter of the Steelers-Eagles preseason game and will be sent back to the manufacturer for review. Â
ST. LOUIS – With his FedExCup Playoff spot on the line Adam Scott produced a vintage performance at Bellerive on Friday. Sitting in 119th spot on the FedExCup standings, Scott entered the PGA Championship with his FedExCup Playoff future in doubt. The Australian is one of only 13 players who have qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs every year since its inception in 2007 but a rough 14 months put the streak under threat. So a tidy 5-under 65 was very welcome indeed, ensuring he will start the weekend just five shots back of leader Gary Woodland. As a 13-time PGA TOUR winner and former Masters champion it has surprised many to see the 38-year-old’s spot in jeopardy. Including Scott himself. But the reality is he has just one top-10 finish in 14 months, a tie for ninth this season at the AT&T Byron Nelson. “The difference between the level I think I’ve played at and the top level is very fine and really after a little while it’s just that little bit of confidence that you lack,� Scott said. “And it is very very hard for anyone to give you that other than yourself. “That self-belief has to come out and I feel like the last six to eight weeks has been a real positive for me. My results look a lot worse than what it has felt. I have played some good golf but inconsistently.� Scott said his warmup before an opening round 70 was the best he’s had all season. Having recently re-hired his brother in law Brad Malone as a swing coach after a two-year hiatus the benefits are beginning to show. “It felt like the young Adam Scott swinging the golf club. With a bit of ease, a bit of grace, bit of flow and rhythm,� Scott said. “That was enough to make me play a little more freely. There were good signs that carried over to today, and hopefully tomorrow it gets better and better.� At 5-under through 36 holes Scott projects up towards 100th place on the points list. It would be enough to secure his spot and give him the option of not playing the season ending Wyndham Championship should he wish to rest up for THE NORTHERN TRUST. But he’s got his sights set on another number. One. He believes he can win at Bellerive. He believes he can secure a FedExCup Playoff berth. And he believes he can get to the TOUR Championship for the eighth time in the FedExCup era and ultimately win the FedExCup. “If I can get myself to New York then I can get myself to East Lake,� he says. Scott won the TOUR Championship in 2006, the year before the FedExCup Playoff system was implemented. Another former Masters champion in Sergio Garcia has not been so fortunate in terms of his FedExCup Playoff push. Garcia is projecting towards a missed cut and having started the event at 131st in the standings he will indeed head to the Wyndham Championship next week. Like Scott, he has qualified every year since 2007. He has made it to Atlanta six times and was runner up at East Lake in 2008. Garcia also needs a 15th event to meet his PGA TOUR minimum start requirement, a mark he will hit next week. Bill Haas (147th) and Luke Donald (212th) also need a late surge if they are going to keep their 100 percent playoff record alive. Justin Rose (3rd), Bubba Watson (4th), Phil Mickelson (9th), Charles Howell III (44th), Zach Johnson (51st), Ryan Moore (57th), Matt Kuchar (58th), Brandt Snedeker (77th) and Charley Hoffman (92nd) will all make it 12 straight FedExCup Playoff runs.
ST. LOUIS – It’s no secret that Jordan Spieth hasn’t had the best season, at least not by his standards. The big mystery was why. The winner of 11 PGA TOUR events, including three majors and the 2015 FedExCup, Spieth came to the PGA with a chance at the career Grand Slam but is winless in 19 starts. He had third-place finishes at the Masters and Houston Open, but had gone from No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking in 2015 to No. 8 today. Observers placed the blame on his putting, but Spieth said after shooting a second-round 66 (3 under total) at the PGA Championship on Friday that he dove into a solution to shore up his full swing, too. And he was working on the wrong thing. For two months. “It cleared stuff up temporarily,â€� Spieth said, “but in fact pushed me further away from what I should have been doing. So, I spent literally two months nailing in the wrong thing, and I’m trying to climb back out of it.â€� The problem, he said, was a new fix that he dove into shortly before THE PLAYERS Championship. In part, he said, the solution required him to modify his setup and takeaway, which he did even though it felt unnatural. Somehow, though, he got worse. “That’s unusual,â€� Spieth said. “I never had that in my career; normally I work on the right thing too much and have to back off and work again. So, it’s tough to trust on the golf course and I had a tough time yesterday and today I had no choice, you have to trust it and started to clear up a bit of it. “A lot of it is just setup related,â€� he added after hitting 10 of 14 fairways and 15 greens, with 29 putts. “But where I start tracking the club off line from a setup position that’s not correct. So, what is correct feels off, and so I’m just going to have to play, I just have to deal with it. But today was a really, it was a lot of progress.â€� Spieth came to the PGA on the heels of an uninspiring T60 at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Akron’s Firestone Country Club. He was 165th in Strokes Gained: Putting, and 118th in Driving Accuracy (60 percent). He was better Friday, but far from perfect. For the second straight day, he lost his tee shot into the water at the par-5 17th hole, but at least salvaged a par compared to his bogey the day before. Spieth figures he has given away at least two shots to the field at that hole alone. What’s more, he added, rain-soaked Bellerive hasn’t suited him. He prefers a firm, fast golf course. “My putting, both parts of my game not only were better today, they also felt better,â€� Spieth said. “Sometimes it feels the same and putts go in, but I feel like I’ve given myself some more space through both, which allows me to not have to flip hands at either putting or the swing. “I need to work more on it,â€� he added. “… My expectations are lower than they are when I’m in form, certainly last year at this time, and I’m okay with that. It’s just a process and I got to be patient with it getting back.â€�
From LeBron returning to Cleveland to a Western Conference Finals rematch, there are plenty of dates to circle on your NBA calendar.
We’ve got seven weeks left in this marathon we call a baseball season, but contrary to what any pessimistic pundit tried to tell you at the start of the season, things haven’t proved very predictable at all. Here are 10 big X-factors for these waning weeks of the regular season.
The NBA released its schedule for the 2018-19 season on Thursday, with Kawhi Leonard, traded to Toronto in the offseason, scheduled to visit the Spurs in January.
Our analysts see Washington being proactive in the aftermath of losing rookie running back Derrius Guice for the season.
The Angels on Friday placed Mike Trout on the 10-day disabled list with right wrist inflammation. The move is retroactive to Monday.
Wizards guard John Wall tells Sports Betting News that his team might be overlooked when talking about the NBA’s Eastern Conference contenders. “Everybody’s going to put Boston No. 1, because that’s what you’re supposed to do.” Â
