Sonstige Informationen » Duke, which had plenty of built-in excus

(SportsNetwork.com) - Detroit third baseman Miguel Cabrera may not have won another Triple Crown, but by Thursday evening he could have a second straight American League Most Valuable Trophy on his mantel. The Baseball Writers Association of American will close out its postseason awards slate when it names both the AL and NL MVP. Cabrera was an easy winner last year after he became the first player since Bostons Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 to win a Triple Crown. He may have fallen short of becoming the first player to accomplish that in back-to-back seasons, but it was through no fault of his own, as Cabrera had a better statistical campaign than he did a year ago. He hit a career-high .348 to become the first player in more than two decades to win three straight AL batting titles. His 44 home runs were second to the 53 by Baltimores Chris Davis, and he finished second in RBI, one behind Davis 138. Nobody in the league had more go-ahead RBI than Cabreras 37. Last year, Cabrera batted .330 last year with 44 homers and 139 RBI. Still, he saw a jump across the board in other statistical categories, including slugging percentage (.636) and on-base percentage (.442). Plus his 1.078 OPS not only led the majors, it was 74 points ahead of his nearest competitor. Not to mention he did all that in 13 fewer games than he did in 2012, as he played the final month of the season with an abdominal injury that eventually required surgery once the Tigers were eliminated from the postseason. Cabreras other two finalists are Davis and Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout. Trout, of course, finished second to Cabrera last year and may suffer a similar fate on Thursday, despite another terrific season for the underachieving Angels. The 22-year-old outfielder hit .323 with 97 RBI and 27 home runs with 33 stolen bases, while playing a nearly flawless outfield. Quite simply, his combination of speed, power and defense was matched by nobody. Trout led the AL in runs (109) and walks (110), set a franchise record for on- base percentage (.432) and ranked second in the AL with 75 extra-base hits, all while adding 27 homers, 97 RBIs and -- heres where he distances himself from the field -- 33 steals. If advanced statistics are your thing, Trout had a 10.4 fWAR (Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement) to lead the majors, topping the 10 fWAR he had last season. There have only been a small handful of players to post back-to-back double- digit seasons in that category and they include Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Barry Bonds. And none of them accomplished that in his first two seasons. Enough said. Over in the National League, Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen appears to be the frontrunner after helping his team get back to the postseason for the first time since 1992. Although McCutchen was only hitting .238 at the start of May, the three-time All-Star ended the year hitting .317 with 21 home runs, 84 RBI, 27 stolen bases, with a .404 on-base percentage and a .508 slugging percentage in 157 games. He became just the fourth major league center fielder since 1947 to have consecutive seasons of hitting .300 with a .400 slugging percentage and .500 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, joining Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Ken Griffey Jr. Should he win, McCutchens 84 RBI would be the fewest of any winner of this award since Kirk Gibson knocked in 76 in 1988. McCuthchens other finalists are Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina. Goldschmidt, who is trying to become the first Arizona player to win this award, was tied with Pittsburghs Pedro Alvarez for the NL lead with 36 home runs and topped the league with 125 RBI and a .551 slugging percentage. Hes also no slouch in the field and was recently rewarded with his first Gold Glove award and he won the Hank Aaron Award as the top hitter in the NL. Molina, meanwhile, set a franchise record for doubles by a catcher (44) and ranked fourth in the NL with a .319 batting average and sixth with his .373 average with runners in scoring position. He ranked in the NLs top seven in multi-hit games (50), three-hit games (14) and four-hit games (four) despite missing time due to a knee injury He also established season-best marks in RBI (80), runs (68), hits (161), go- ahead RBIs (19) and game-winning RBIs (10). Not to mention, hes also the best defensive catcher in baseball and recently won his sixth straight Gold Glove Award. Pittsburgh Pirates Pro Shop . -- During a players meeting following the All-Star break, Jermaine ONeal promised his teammates to play the rest of the regular season like he would never play again -- because he very well might not. Pittsburgh Pirates Gear . The 25-year-old native of Milford, Conn., has 18 points in 41 games this season. The five-foot-eight 166-pound centre also has 28 points (10-18) in 15 games with AHL Oklahoma City. https://www.cheappiratesjerseys.us/ . And like the near entirety of last season, Jonathan Bernier and Torontos goaltending tandem is up to the task. Pittsburgh Pirates Store .m. ET, CBSOPENING LINE — Packers by 3RECORD VS. SPREAD — New England 7-4, Green Bay 5-5-1SERIES RECORD — Tied 5-5. Pirates Jerseys 2019 . LaQuinton Ross scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half, hitting his first four 3-pointers, to send No.WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Mike Krzyzewski may have poured too much emotion into No. 4 Dukes trip to Wake Forest. The rest of the Blue Devils didnt seem to have enough. The Demon Deacons upset Duke 82-72 on Wednesday night after Coach K experienced enough dizziness and light-headedness to force him to kneel during a late timeout and skip his postgame news conference. Associate head coach Steve Wojciechowski -- who filled in for him -- says Krzyzewski has not been sick, is in good shape and expects to make a full recovery. "There was a great emotional investment in the game," Wojciechowski said, "and I think maybe the emotion got the better of him." The rest of the team might not have had that problem. Duke (23-7, 12-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) was playing for the first time in over a week -- after going 4-1 in an 11-day span before that -- and Wojciechowski says the Blue Devils simply werent prepared emotionally. After taking a late seven-point lead, Duke went without a field goal for 5 critical minutes while allowing the Demon Deacons (16-14, 6-11) to reel off 17 straight points and go up by double figures. "Im not sure that ... we were as prepared from an emotional standpoint," Wojciechowski said. "I dont know if our guys had the needed edge to compete against a Wake Forest team that played their hearts out." Tyler Cavanaugh scored a career-high 20 points, Travis McKie added 19 in his final scheduled home game and Codi Miller-McIntyre had 13 for the Demon Deacons. They followed one of their worst performances of the season -- a home loss to sub-.500 Boston College -- with one of their best. Their first win over Duke since 2009 also marked their biggest upset since they knocked off No. 2 Miami last February. "I couldnt picture a better ending," McKie said. "Everything was just perfect tonight. The fans were perfect. Me, being my last (home) game, everything we did was great." Jabari Parker scored 19 points and Rodney Hood added 16 for the Blue Devils, who missed six straight shots down the stretch and were just 6 of 27 from 3-point range while falling to 4-5 in ACC road games. Parkers dunk with just under 6 minutes left gave the Blue Devils their largest lead, 66-59, and by then, they appeared on their way to their ninth straight win in the series. Instead, thats when Wake Forest took command. "I knew we were going to win -- it was juust one of those feelings that you get down the stretch," Miller-McIntyre said.dddddddddddd "You could see it in all of my teammates eyes, that they werent ready to fall over." They didnt. After Devin Thomas and McKie hit two free throws each, Cavanaugh -- a sophomore backup forward -- became unstoppable. His left-handed jumper over Hood, who had four fouls, with 3 1/2 minutes left gave the Demon Deacons the lead for good at 67-66. After Miller-McIntyre hit a pretty crossover layup, Cavanaugh followed by sticking back Thomas miss to make it 71-66 with 2 1/2 minutes left. Coron Williams ended the run with a layup that was goaltended by Parker and made it 76-66 with 1:08 left. At the other end, Duke couldnt do anything right. A key 3-point attempt by Rasheed Sulaimon went halfway down before rimming out -- one of five 3-point attempts the Blue Devils missed during that untimely cold spell. And point guard Quinn Cook had a layup slammed hard off the backboard by Thomas. "All five guys were on the same page today," Thomas said. "We didnt let them get the 3s, because we know they live and die with the 3-ball." Sulaimon finished with 14 points for Duke, which had plenty of built-in excuses for perhaps taking the Demon Deacons lightly. Maybe they were rusty after not playing since a Feb. 25 rout of Virginia Tech. Maybe they were looking ahead to exacting revenge from North Carolina on Saturday night. Maybe they were overconfident after beating Wake Forest by 20 points last month at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Or maybe the Demon Deacons simply arent as bad as their record might indicate. "Heart. We played with heart," Cavanaugh said. "We know we can play with anyone." Williams and Arnaud William Adala Moto finished with 12 points each for Wake Forest, which led for all but about 3 minutes of the first half after holding Duke to one field goal in the first 7 1/2 minutes. They went up by eight points and responded to their only deficit of the half by reeling off the final seven points. Miller-McIntyres steal and layup just before the buzzer put the Demon Deacons up 36-33 -- just Dukes second halftime deficit of the season and first since the loss at Syracuse. "I thought they outfought us," Wojciechowski said. "This time of year, if youre not tough and youre not together for 40 minutes, it can be some very hard lessons." ' ' '