Bradley-Mickelson give US 1st point at Ryder Cup 

MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) — The Americans made a statement with the first point at the Ryder Cup.

Playoff positioning

UNDATED (AP) — The frantic finish for the five remaining post-season spots resumes as part of a full major league baseball slate tonight.

The Cardinals have the upper hand for the lone unfilled National League playoff spot and try to inch closer to clinching it when they host NL East-leading Washington. St. Louis sends 16-game winner Kyle Lohse to the mound. The Cardinals enjoy a three-game lead over the Dodgers for the final wildcard spot with six games to go.

The Dodgers try to keep hope alive when the host Colorado.

The tightest battle is in the American League East, where the Yankees hold a one-game lead over Baltimore with six games to go. New York resumes its series in Toronto, where they were shut out by the Blue Jays last night. Baltimore opens a home series against Boston. Chris Tillman gets the call for the Orioles, sporting an 8-2 mark and 3.08 ERA.

Tampa Bay is four games out in the East, and has surged to within two games of a wildcard spot. The Rays put their eight-game winning streak on the line when they visit the staggering White Sox tonight. Chicago has lost eight of nine to fall two games back of Detroit for the top spot in the AL Central. The Tigers will be looking for their fifth straight win when they continue their series in Minnesota tonight.

It looks like Texas is on its way to another AL West title. The Rangers sport a four-game lead over Oakland heading into tonight’s play. Texas opens a home series against the Angels and 19-game winner Jered Weaver. Oakland heads home to start a series against Seattle.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Boston at Baltimore 6:05 p.m.
Kansas City at Cleveland 6:05 p.m.
N-Y Yankees at Toronto 6:07 p.m.
L.A. Angels at Texas 7:05 p.m.
Detroit at Minnesota 7:10 p.m.
Tampa Bay at Chi White Sox 7:10 p.m.
Seattle at Oakland 9:05 p.m.

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh 6:05 p.m.
Philadelphia at Miami 6:10 p.m.
N-Y Mets at Atlanta 6:35 p.m.
Houston at Milwaukee 7:10 p.m.
Washington at St. Louis 7:15 p.m.
Chi Cubs at Arizona 8:40 p.m.
San Francisco at San Diego 9:05 p.m.
Colorado at L.A. Dodgers 9:10 p.m.

DENVER (AP) — Jim Tracy says he wants to return as manager of the Colorado Rockies next season even though the team is on pace for the worst record in franchise history.

Tracy said he hopes to have conversations in the coming weeks that will lead to him fulfilling his contract that runs through next season.

Tracy took over as manager 46 games into the 2009 team and went 74-42 and led the Rockies to the NL wild card. But injuries and a shaky pitching staff this season put the Rockies at 62-94.

The men in stripes are back

BALTIMORE (AP) —There was a sigh of relief across the NFL and two big cheers in Baltimore last night. The second cheer from Ravens fans was for their team’s 23-16 win over the Browns that came down to the final play. The first was for the return of the league’s regular officials, who received a standing ovation just before kickoff.

Gene Steratore’s officiating crew was the first to work an NFL game since the league ended its lockout late Wednesday night and reached a tentative contract agreement with the referees’ union. M&T Bank Stadium erupted in cheers after Steratore brought the captains of the Browns and Ravens together for the coin toss, turned on his microphone and said, “Good evening men. It’s good to be back.”

Joe Flacco was sharp for the Ravens, completing 28 of 46 for 356 yards. He also threw for a touchdown and ran for another as Baltimore improved to 3-1 with its ninth straight win over Cleveland.

Cary Williams returned an interception 63 yards for a score near the end of the third quarter to give the Ravens a 13-point lead.

The Browns had a chance to tie the game until rookie Brandon Weeden sailed a throw out of the end zone with no time left, one play before the Ravens were penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct on fourth-and-10.

The game ended about 24 hours after the league and the officials’ union reached a tentative eight-year agreement, halting the three-month lockout.

Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized to the fans for putting them through the lockout that forced the use of replacement official, but he maintained it was necessary to get the kind of deal the league needs for the future. Goodell also played down how much Monday’s Green Bay-Seattle game played into the final agreement, saying the pressure had been on both sides already.

Blue Jays play spoiler…Dickey gets No. 20…Reds, Tigers win

UNDATED (AP) — The Toronto Blue Jays are doing a terrific job as spoilers in the American League East race.

Fresh off a four-game split of second-place Baltimore, the Jays have opened a four-game series with the division-leading Yankees by trouncing New York 6-0. The outcome leaves the Yankees and Orioles separated by just one game with six remaining.

Brandon Morrow allowed four hits in seven innings to lower his ERA to 3.09. Brett Lawrie opened the scoring with a two-run homer before Edwin Encarnacion added a two-run double and three RBIs.

The Rangers and Tigers were able to pad their division leads.

Texas is four games ahead of second-place Oakland in the West following a 9-7 win over the Athletics. Ian Kinsler hit a leadoff homer before Mike Napoli capped the Rangers’ five-run first with a two-run blast. Matt Harrison allowed four runs and seven hits in six innings to become the Rangers’ first 18-game winner since Kenny Rogers in 2004.

The White Sox are two games behind Detroit after Evan Longoria homered in the ninth inning of Tampa Bay’s 3-2 win at Chicago. The White Sox wasted a nice outing by Jake Peavy, who held the Rays to two runs and only four hits in 7 1/3 innings.

The Tigers blew a 4-0 lead before Alex Avila’s RBI grounder in the bottom of the ninth gave Detroit a 5-4 triumph over Kansas City. Doug Fister set an AL record by striking out nine straight batters but had to settle for a no-decision after yielding two runs and five hits over 7 2/3 innings.

The Angels remain two games behind the A’s in the battle for the final AL wild-card slot. John Jaso hit a two-run homer and an RBI double as the Mariners whipped the Halos 9-4 in Anaheim. Los Angeles had won five straight and an AL-best 16 of 23 this month.

Over to the National League, where R.A. Dickey made a strong statement for the National League Cy Young award this afternoon by becoming the majors’ second 20-game winner.

Dickey allowed three runs over 7 2/3 innings and tied a career high with 13 strikeouts as the New York Mets downed Pittsburgh 6-5. David Wright’s tiebreaking, three-run homer helped Dickey become the first knuckleballer since Joe Niekro in 1980 to win 20 games in a season.

Dickey leads the league with 222 strikeouts and is second to Washington’s Gio Gonzalez in victories. His 2.69 ERA is just one-hundredth of a point higher than NL-leader Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers.

Gio Gonzalez picked up his 21st victory in Washington’s 7-3 win at Philadelphia, which reduced the Nationals’ magic number for clinching the NL East to three over Atlanta. Michael Morse homered twice and Bryce Harper smacked his 21st round-tripper to support Gonzalez, who allowed three runs in six innings.

The Braves were 6-2 winners against Miami as Tommy Hanson allowed one earned run and six hits in 5 1/3 innings for his first victory since July. Dan Uggla and Andrelton Simmons hit RBI doubles to spark a four-run fourth before left fielder Bryan Peterson dropped a line drive to bring home two more runs.

In other NL play, A.J. Ellis and Luis Cruz drove in two runs apiece as the Dodgers beat San Diego 8-4 to pull within three games of St. Louis for the second wild-card berth with six games remaining. Chris Capuano pitched into the sixth inning, limiting the Padres to a run and five hits.

The Brewers were one out from boosting their sagging playoff hopes before John Axford blew a 1-0 lead and lost 2-1 at Cincinnati. Todd Frazier tied the game with a homer and Dioner Navarro followed with a game-winning triple that dropped the Brewers four games behind St. Louis for the final NL wild-card berth with six games remaining.

San Francisco won its final home game of the regular season as Hunter Pence and Marco Scouter each hit two-run homers in the second inning of a 7-3 win against Arizona. Barry Zito won his fourth straight start and sixth consecutive decision, allowing three runs in six innings to improve to 14-8.

A bad Acta

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cleveland Indians have fired manager Manny Acta and replaced him with bench coach Sandy Alomar on an interim basis with six games left in the season.

Acta was 214-266 in nearly three seasons with the Indians, who are just 21-50 in the second half this season. He had one season left on his contract.

New skipper for Houston

HOUSTON (AP) — Washington Nationals third base coach Bo Porter will become the Houston Astros’ manager once the postseason ends. The Astros have named him as their skipper for the 2013 season, their first as an American League club.

Porter replaces Brad Mills who was fired last month.

Europe looks to start fast, quiet Ryder Cup crowd

MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) — Leading off with its strongest team, world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, Europe has begun defense of the Ryder Cup.

Loud chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” greeted the Northern Irishmen and the American duo of Jim Furyk and Ryder Cup Brandt Snedeker as they walked onto the first tee at Medinah Country Club.

McDowell, who delivered the winning point for Europe two years ago, hit the first shot and it sailed way left, coming to rest beneath a tree near the corporate hospitality tents that line the fairway. Furyk’s drive wasn’t much better, also bouncing into the gallery.

The other alternate-shot matches are Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley vs. Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia; Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson vs. Lee Westwood and Francesco Molinari; and Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods vs. Ian Poulter and Justin Rose.

Huskies rally to beat Cardinal

UNDATED (AP) — Stanford can expect to slide in the AP college football poll next Monday.

Kasen Williams took a quick screen pass from Keith Price and raced 35 yards for the go-ahead score with 4:53 left as Washington rallied to beat the eighth-ranked Cardinal 17-13. The Huskies trailed 13-3 until running back Bishop Sankey ran for a 61-yard touchdown late in the third quarter.

It was Washington’s first win over a Top 10 ranked opponent since its upset of then-No. 3 USC back in 2009.

Entire pre-season canceled; Tavares to Swiss club

NEW YORK (AP) — NHL season ticket holders won’t have to pay for exhibition games next month. The league has canceled the rest of the preseason, just a day before negotiations were set to resume in an effort to end the lockout. Negotiators are expected to spend tomorrow working on secondary economic issues as opposed to the core of the dispute, which is how to split more than $3 billion in annual revenue.

The NHL had already called off all the exhibition games scheduled in September. The regular season is supposed to begin on Oct. 11.

Meanwhile, the Swiss hockey club Bern says it has signed New York Islanders center John Tavares during the NHL lockout.

Tavares will join Islanders captain Mark Streit, arguably Switzerland’s best export to the NHL, at the club. Bern says the 22-year-old Canadian will arrive in Switzerland Tuesday and start training the next day.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Detroit 5 Kansas City 4
Texas 9 Oakland 7
Seattle 9 L.A. Angels 4
Toronto 6 N-Y Yankees 0
Tampa Bay 3 Chi White Sox 2

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Cincinnati 2 Milwaukee 1
N-Y Mets 6 Pittsburgh 5
Colorado 7 Chi Cubs 5
San Francisco 7 Arizona 3
Washington 7 Philadelphia 3
Atlanta 6 Miami 2
L.A. Dodgers 8 San Diego 4

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Baltimore 23 Cleveland 16

The Nebraska football team began to wrap up a week of preparation for its Big Ten opener on Saturday, practicing for 90 minutes on Thursday afternoon. The Huskers took to the Hawks Championship Center and the Ed and Joyanne Gass Practice Field in helmets and shorts as they moved closer to their showdown with the Wisconsin Badgers this weekend.

Head Coach Bo Pelini addressed the media after practice, commenting on how prepared he believed senior linebackers Alonzo Whaley and Sean Fisher to be for Saturday’s matchup.

“They’ll be ready to go,” Pelini said. “They’ve been playing some spot playing. It’s a different type of offense we’re seeing this week, so we have to make an adjustment there. It’s about execution. Those two guys are obviously part of it, but everybody, we just have to execute at a high level.”

The head coach stated that the defense will have several options to go to against the Badgers, but reiterated that execution is key.

“We’ve got a lot of options,” Pelini said. “We’ll see how the game goes. Like I said, in my opinion, it’s not what you do it’s how you do it. If we execute, we’ll be okay.”

Pelini also gave his thoughts on UW redshirt freshman quarterback Joel Stave, who will lead the Badgers’ offense against the Huskers this weekend in Memorial Stadium.

“I think he’s going to be a really good player,” Pelini said. “He has good size, he has good arm strength. I thought he looked pretty cool and I think he’s going to be a pretty good player. Obviously he’s young in his career, but he’s got a lot ahead of him. I think he’s going to be really good for them.”

Overall, Pelini said the team is ready for the challenge the Badgers will present in Saturday night’s game.

“I think our guys are anxious to go play,” Pelini said. “It’ll be a heck of a challenge coming in here; we have a tremendous amount of respect for the opponent who is coming in.”

The team will conduct a final walk-through practice tomorrow afternoon before their Big Ten conference opener against Wisconsin on Saturday night. The game is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. CDT and will be broadcast nationally on ABC.

Coach Pelini Audio: Bo Pelini Audio 9.27.12

— Makayla Hipke, Nebraska Sports Information

Wisconsin starting defensive end David Gilbert will not start when the Badgers face Nebraska tomorrow night because of disparging public remarks he made about Husker quarterback Taylor Martinez. Gilbert told an ESPN Radio affiliate in Madison that Martinez “still can’t throw” and “still looks like he’s skipping rocks” when he does throw the ball. Martinez was 11-of-22 passing with three interceptions in a 48-17 loss to the Badgers in Madison last season, but the junior signal-caller has thrown nine touchdowns and just one pick so far this year. Badger coach Bret Bielema told the media yesterday that Gilbert will be “skipping rocks on the sideline… for the first play”, adding, “That’s not who we are and what we do.” The remarks stoke the fire for Saturdays night’s Big Ten Opener. Kickoff at Memorial Stadium is scheduled for 7 PM.

It’s been a trying season for the Colorado Rockies, but they were able to walk off the Coors Field diamond for the final time as winners yesterday. The Rockies wrapped up a sweep of the Chicago Cubs with a 7-5 triumph. Jordan Pacheco’s three-run homer in the first inning gave the Rockies a lead they would never relinquish. DJ LeMaiheu added a two-run dinger in the second, and Chris Nelson and Matt McBride also drove in runs. Jhoulys Chacin earned the win for the Rockies on the mound, pitching the first five innings. Rafael Betancourt came in to snuff out a Cub rally in the ninth inning for the save. With 62 wins and six games left in the season, the Rockies need just one win in this upcoming road trip to avoid the franchise’s first 100-loss season. The road trip begins Friday with the first of three games in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. First pitch is set for 9:10.

The men in stripes are back

UNDATED (AP) — Never have officials from a sports league been so welcome. A tentative agreement was reached last night between the NFL and its officials, ending the labor dispute between the two sides. The bottom line is this: The veteran referees are back and will be in action tonight in Baltimore when the Ravens play host to the Browns.

After two days of marathon negotiations, and mounting frustration throughout the league, the NFL and the officials’ union announced at midnight last night that a tentative eight-year agreement had been reached to end a lockout that began in June.

The deal came on the heels of Seattle’s chaotic last-second win over Green Bay on Monday night in which the replacement officials struggled.

The agreement hinged on working out pension and retirement benefits for the officials, who are part-time employees of the league. The tentative pact calls for their salaries to increase from an average of $149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013, rising to $205,000 by 2019.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Will the fans in Baltimore tonight cheer the referees? It’s not often that sports officials get cheers but that could be the case this evening as the veteran NFL referees return to work in the Ravens-Browns game. The visitors from Cleveland enter the game with a record of 0-3 while the Ravens are 2-1, fresh off a thrilling last-second win over the Patriots last Sunday night.

Stanford facing Washington

SEATTLE (AP) — There’s a top-25 game tonight in Seattle as the Washington Huskies entertain eighth-ranked Stanford. The Cardinal sport a record of 3-0 while the Huskies are 2-1. In Pac-12 play Stanford is 1-0 while Washington is playing its first conference game of the season.

A year ago the Cardinal beat the Huskies 65-21 with a quarterback named Andrew Luck. He is now guiding the NFL Colts after being the No. 1 pick in the draft.

Busy afternoon of play

UNDATED (AP) — The afternoon schedule in baseball is comprised of seven games. In the key outings, the now first-place Tigers are home to Kansas City. Detroit took over the top spot in the American League Central last night, replacing Chicago. The Sox, who are a game back, are hosting Tampa Bay tonight. The Rays are 3 games back of the last AL wild card berth.

A big series starts this afternoon in the AL West as the Rangers play host to Oakland. The Rangers lead the Athletics by 3 games while the A’s top the Angels by 2 games in the AL wild card race. The Angels are home this afternoon to Seattle. The remaining day games have Pittsburgh in New York to face the Mets, the Cubs at Colorado, Arizona at San Francisco and Milwaukee at Cincinnati. The Brewers are still hoping for a wild card berth in the National League.

The Yankees tonight can build on their lead over Baltimore in the American League East. The New Yorkers, who lead Baltimore by 1 ½ games, open up a series in Toronto while the Orioles have the night off.

The rest of tonight’s schedule has Washington at Pittsburgh, Miami at Atlanta and the Dodgers in San Francisco. LA maintains the hope of securing a wild card berth as they trail St. Louis in that race by 3 ½ games.

Nice gesture by the Marlins

MIAMI (AP) — Adam Greenberg made his Major League debut 12 years ago. It lasted one at bat. On July 9, 2005, while playing in his first game for the Chicago Cubs, Greenberg was hit in the head by the first pitch thrown his way. The impact of the 92 mph fastball lingered and he was later diagnosed with vertigo.

Well, it’s taken this long but Greenberg is going to get a second at bat in the big leagues as the Miami Marlins say they will sign Greenberg to a one-day contract effective Oct. 2, and play him that day against the New York Mets.

Greenberg will donate his one-day salary to the Marlins’ foundation, which will donate to the Sports Legacy Institute, a group that furthers the study of the effects of brain trauma in athletes and others.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Kansas City at Detroit 12:05 p.m.
Oakland at Texas 1:05 p.m.
Seattle at L.A. Angels 2:35 p.m.
N-Y Yankees at Toronto 6:07 p.m.
Tampa Bay at Chi White Sox 7:10 p.m.

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Milwaukee at Cincinnati 11:35 p.m.
Pittsburgh at N-Y Mets 2:10 p.m.
Chi Cubs at Colorado 2:10 p.m. (LISTEN LIVE on ESPN Radio 1410)
Arizona at San Francisco 2:45 p.m.
Washington at Philadelphia 6:05 p.m.
Miami at Atlanta 6:10 p.m.
L.A. Dodgers at San Diego 9:05 p.m.

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Cleveland at Baltimore 7:20 p.m.

DENVER (AP) — Colorado Rockies manager Jim Tracy is welcoming word that star first baseman Todd Helton plans to play at least one more year.

Helton had season-ending surgery on Aug. 10 to repair a torn labrum in his right hip.

Helton told The Denver Post that he intends to return in 2013 to play out the final year of his contract. He turned 39 last month.

Tracy says he thinks Helton can bounce back with a good season. Helton is a lifetime .320 hitter, but batted a career-low .238 in 69 games.