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SEATTLE — The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the NL West title for the 10th time in 11 seasons with a 6-2 win in 11 innings over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night.

Max Muncy‘s single off Gabe Speier (2-2) scored Mookie Betts from second base with one out in the top of the 11th to give the Dodgers the lead. Chris Taylor and Kike Hernández followed with two-run singles off Isaiah Campbell, and the numerous fans in Dodger blue roared their approval as Seattle fans headed for the exits.

Evan Phillips (2-4) pitched the 10th inning and Joe Kelly got the final three outs. Afterward, the Dodgers held a brief celebration on the field filled with hugs, and division-title shirts and hats.

There was debate before the season if San Diego might be ready to take over the NL West from the Dodgers after its heavy offseason spending. But Los Angeles again proved the class of the division and wrapped up the crown with a couple of weeks remaining in the regular season.

“It’s exciting. You look back, beginning of the year, middle of the year to see we have this opportunity tonight it’s a credit to a lot of people,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game.

While the Dodgers will spend the final two weeks of the regular season solidifying their playoff position, the Mariners stumbled for a second straight night with the chance to make up ground in the AL West race.

Both Texas and Houston lost earlier Saturday, but the Mariners couldn’t get a key hit with a chance to take the lead in the eighth inning. Seattle remained 1½ games back of first-place Houston and one game behind the Rangers.

After nine scoreless innings of terrific pitching on both sides, each team got a key at-bat from a pinch-hitter in the 10th. Kolten Wong‘s sacrifice fly gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead, but Mike Ford answered with a two-out RBI single to score Josh Rojas and tie the game at 1.

Seattle had a chance to win it in the 10th, but Teoscar Hernández grounded into a force play with the bases loaded to end the threat. The Mariners also had runners at first and second and no outs in the eighth but J.P. Crawford, Julio Rodríguez and Hernández all struck out.

Clayton Kershaw pitched four innings in his return to the mound for the Dodgers following an extended rest between starts. Kershaw had not started since Sept. 5 and the hope was the extra rest would help dial in some of the control issues that emerged in his last start.

It started shaky, with Kershaw walking two of his first three batters. But he quickly settled in and allowed just two hits and struck out four, throwing 55 pitches before being lifted for Emmet Sheehan.

Sheehan was terrific in his relief stint, striking out five and allowing only one baserunner in three innings of work. Ty France singled with two outs in the seventh, snapping a string of 12 straight retired by the combo of Kershaw and Sheehan.

Heyward had three doubles for the third time in his career.

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Wisconsin QB O’Neil carted off with leg injury

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Wisconsin QB O'Neil carted off with leg injury

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin quarterback Danny O’Neil was carted off the field and into the locker room after injuring his leg in the first quarter of the Badgers’ game against No. 24 Washington (No. 23 College Football Playoff) on Saturday.

O’Neil got up at the end of a 21-yard keeper, limped and then went back down and clutched his right leg. Wisconsin announced in the second quarter that O’Neil would miss the rest of the game with what was officially ruled a lower-body injury.

The San Diego State transfer was making his first start since a Sept. 13 loss to Alabama, though he had played in a reserve role Sept. 20 against Maryland and Oct. 18 against Ohio State.

Freshman Carter Smith took over for O’Neil and made his college debut Saturday.

Quarterback issues have hindered Wisconsin throughout the season. Billy Edwards Jr. was Wisconsin’s first-team quarterback at the start of the year, but he sprained his knee in the second quarter of the Badgers’ season opener and has played only one full series since.

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

Ohio State standout receiver Carnell Tate sat out Saturday’s game against Purdue after suffering a minor undisclosed injury during pregame warmups.

Coach Ryan Day said the Buckeyes held Tate out just as a precaution.

“[Tate] wanted to play,” Day said, “but we’ve got a lot of football ahead us.”

The top-ranked Buckeyes (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) still defeated Purdue 34-10 to remain unbeaten. Jeremiah Smith led Ohio State with a career-high 10 receptions for 137 yards and a touchdown.

This season, Tate has 39 receptions for 711 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns.

The Buckeyes play UCLA next weekend.

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

LUBBOCK, Texas — Stone Harrington kicked a school-record five field goals and standout Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez had two takeaways as the No. 9 Red Raiders defeated No. 8 BYU 29-7 on Saturday, holding the previously undefeated Cougars to a season-low 255 total yards in a game with Big 12 and playoff implications.

Behren Morton passed for 216 yards and threw a 9-yard touchdown to Caleb Douglas while Cameron Dickey ran for 121 yards and a 1-yard score for Texas Tech (9-1, 6-1 Big 12, No. 8 CFP), which played in its first top-10 matchup since 2008.

“I told the team we have another gear,” Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “We can play better.”

BYU (8-1, 5-1, No. 7 CFP) had never played in such a game, though the teams could meet again in the Big 12 championship game in four weeks in Arlington, Texas.

Harrington kicked field goals of 47, 39, 34, 29 and 27 yards.

Rodriguez, the FBS leader with seven forced fumbles, had an interception midway through the third period leading to Harrington’s fourth field goal. He recovered a backward pass late in the fourth quarter that set up Harrington’s final kick.

Tech has gone from ranking 121st last season in the FBS allowing 34.8 points per game to fifth at 13.2 going into Saturday and lowering that to 12.6.

“Yeah, we are a better [defensive] team than we were last year,” Rodriguez said. “But … we’ve still got a lot of things to clean up.”

BYU snapped a 10-game winning streak dating back to last season. The Cougars avoided their first shutout since 2017 when Bear Bachmeier threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chase Roberts midway through the fourth quarter.

The Cougars went into the game third in the FBS in turnover margin at plus-1.25. They lost two fumbles, threw an interception and muffed a punt.

Bachmeier was 23-of-38 passing for 188 yards. The true freshman also had two turnovers, an interception and a backward pass for a fumble.

“A couple of passes and a muffed punt cost us, I think, 13 points,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “Even after that, I thought we were going to be able to respond and make a game of it in the second half, but we weren’t able to do that.”

The Cougars went into play averaging 36.3 points and 434 yards per game. Their previous low offensive output this season was 332 yards in the 27-3 win over Stanford on Sept. 6.

Both teams have home games remaining against UCF, while the Cougars also play at No. 25 Cincinnati — the only other Big 12 team with one league loss — after hosting TCU next week. The Red Raiders host UCF next week before an open date and then their regular-season finale at West Virginia.

The Red Raiders, charter members of the Big 12 in 1996, are in position to play in the conference championship for the first time. Their remaining two opponents are a combined 3-10 in conference play.

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