Wolverines: We’d ‘run through wall’ for Harbaugh
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Tom VanHaaren, ESPN Staff Writer
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When Michigan plays Ohio State on Saturday, both teams will be playing for a spot in the Big Ten championship game and a potential berth in the College Football Playoff.
But the Wolverines will be doing it without head coach Jim Harbaugh on the sideline.
For the sixth game this season, Harbaugh will be serving a suspension that will prevent him from coaching the third-ranked Wolverines. This, however, is the biggest game of the season with the most at stake, as undefeated Michigan hosts second-ranked Ohio State.
Harbaugh’s absence hasn’t impacted the confidence from Michigan’s players and coaches, though.
“A lot of us would run through a wall for [Harbaugh], so it’s definitely been tough, and going into the game without him, this is kind of just like adding fuel to the fire,” Wolverines running back Blake Corum said Monday.
“We’re going to play — not that we weren’t going to play hard at all, but might play a little harder for him and make sure at the end of the game, we give a game ball to him. And you give a game ball to someone, you say you’re going to give a game ball to someone, you must win; so we’ll make sure we do that for Coach.”
Harbaugh is serving what will be the third game in his three-game suspension from the Big Ten Conference amid allegations that former staffer Connor Stalions manned an in-person scouting scheme to steal play signals and calls.
Harbaugh also missed the first three games of the season from a self-imposed suspension stemming from an unrelated NCAA investigation that has yet to finish.
Rather than viewing Harbaugh’s absence as a negative, the Wolverines are using it as a chip on their shoulder and embracing a “Michigan vs. Everybody” mentality.
Corum wore those words on a sweatshirt during his Monday news conference and said Michigan has been motivated by what has gone on this season off the field. Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy echoed that sentiment and said it has brought the team closer as a unit.
Despite this being a historic rivalry that means so much this season to both schools, McCarthy believes the Wolverines have gone through enough without Harbaugh to be able to withstand any extra pressure or unique circumstances that might arise against Ohio State.
“Just the whole process and throughout the day of just not having him there,” McCarthy said. “It was different at first. And just now with that experience and knowing how it works and how the coaches react to certain things and how they go about coaching the game, it’s going to be tremendous for us this Saturday, because it’s one of the bigger games.”
Harbaugh called his team battle-tested and spoke about empowering his coaches to handle this situation without him. He compared the outside noise to a high-pitched siren that he has been able to learn how to tolerate.
“I go back to the ‘Ted Lasso’ show,” Harbaugh said. “‘Believe.’ What comes out of that is believe, and I’m just so proud, so proud of our team. Despite that noise, our locker room is in one piece. And like Ted, for me, a locker room is a lot like my mom’s bathing suits — I like to see them in one piece.”
Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore, who will act as the head coach for the fourth time this season, acknowledged that this game means more, but he doesn’t anticipate it changing how the players work or prepare during the week.
“We all know what it means, it’s ‘The Game,'” Moore said. “It’s the one you practice and play for, you work for all year. So we all know the stakes, and that’ll give us a chance to go repeat on the Big Ten title. The words, the prep, that’ll come out a little bit more later on down the week, we try to keep it on a low boil this week, because it can get pretty high really fast.
“The kids are as prepared mentally and physically as they’ll ever be to get ready for this week.”
MIAMI — Kyle Stowers hit a three-run homer and the Miami Marlins defeated the New York Yankees 7-3 on Sunday, completing their first-ever sweep of the Yankees in a series of three or more games.
The Marlins (55-55) reached .500 for the first time since April 15, when the team was 8-8. Since June 13, the Marlins are 30-14; that’s tied with the 2003 team for the most wins in a 44-game span in franchise history, according to ESPN Research.
The 2003 Marlins went on to beat the Yankees in the World Series in six games.
Marlins starter Edward Cabrera (5-5) pitched six innings of two-hit ball with seven strikeouts and one walk. His only blemish came against the first batter he faced. Trent Grisham drove Cabrera’s 98.1 mph four-seam fastball to right-center.
Miami rookie Jakob Marsee, who made his major league debut on Friday, was 2-for-4 and finished a single short of the cycle.
Stowers made it 6-1 when he connected on an 0-2 fastball from Brent Headrick, who entered in the fourth with two on after starter Luis Gil (0-1) was lifted 3⅓ innings into his season debut.
Gil, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, struck out three and surrendered five runs and five hits while issuing four walks in his return from a high-grade lat strain. He threw 77 pitches.
Gil’s shaky debut comes at a rough point in the season for the Yankees, whose inconsistency has prompted a rash of criticism, the latest coming from former Yankees stars Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez on Fox’s pregame show Saturday night.
“They make way too many mistakes,” Jeter said. “Way too many mistakes, and you can’t get away with making that number of mistakes against great teams.”
Added Rodriguez: “Where’s the accountability?”
Boone addressed those criticisms before Sunday’s game, saying it comes with the territory of being the Yankees, but he added after the loss that it’s “gut-check” time for his club.
New York’s weekend series at Miami included the Yankees blowing a six-run lead in a wild 13-12 loss on Friday, before a 2-0 loss on Saturday.
The Yankees had a seven-game lead in the AL East in late May. By July 2, the lead was gone and the Yankees have been looking up at Toronto in the division ever since. The red-hot Boston Red Sox, who were more than 10 games behind the Yankees about two months ago, have overtaken their rival for the second spot in the AL East and AL wild-card lead.
“It’s getting late,” Boone said. “And it’s certainly not too late for us. I am confident that we’re going to get it together. But that’s all it is right now is, you know, it’s empty until we start doing it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SEATTLE — Julio Rodriguez homered to become the first player in major league history with 20 or more home runs and 20 or more stolen bases in each of his first four seasons, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 5-4 on Sunday.
Rodriguez hit a two-run shot in the third inning — his 100th career homer — and the slugging and speedy center fielder also added his 21st stolen base of the season after singling in the fifth inning.
Jorge Polanco added a solo shot in the second, and shortstop J.P. Crawford smacked a two-run blast in the fourth against Rangers starter Jacob deGrom (10-4), who became the fastest pitcher in major league history to reach 1,800 career strikeouts by games and innings Sunday.
The Rangers kept things close by pushing across three runs against Mariners starter Logan Evans (5-4), but tallied only one run against the Mariners bullpen before closer Andrés Muñoz locked down his 25th save of the season.
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