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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When suspended Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh addressed his team Friday night, he recited Bo Schembechler’s famous line — “The team, the team, the team” — but personalized it to the men in the room.

“Coach said last night: ‘This is the ultimate team,'” said Sherrone Moore, Michigan’s offensive coordinator, who led the third-ranked Wolverines as acting head coach for the third consecutive week. “We’ve got each other’s back on the field, off the field, and we know that we’re always going to respond.

“The guys don’t flinch.”

Michigan continued to make its case Saturday as the nation’s most resilient team, if not its best, with a 30-24 win over No. 2 Ohio State, the Wolverines’ third straight in the rivalry. Despite Harbaugh’s suspension, the ongoing NCAA investigation into prohibited off-campus signal stealing and several key injuries, the Wolverines haven’t flinched or lost as they now advance to the Big Ten championship game with a chance to win three straight outright league titles for the first time in team history.

“The whole mantra: the team, the team, the team,” said quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who completed 16 of 20 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown. He said Harbaugh told them before the game: “We are that team.”

After jumping ahead 14-3, Michigan saw its lead vanish midway through the third quarter. But the offense responded by scoring on its final three possessions — six of its final seven before a kneel-down to end the game — and junior safety Rod Moore, a native of Clayton, Ohio, sealed the win by diving to intercept an underthrown Kyle McCord pass at Michigan’s 22-yard line with 25 seconds left.

The Wolverines have won three straight against Ohio State for the first time since 1995 to 1997, after dropping 15 of the teams’ previous 16 meetings.

“It was a dream come true, making the game-winning play on one of the biggest games, probably, in college football history,” Rod Moore said. “I was on the field, just looking like, ‘I just called game. I did that.'”

Harbaugh watched from his Ann Arbor home, serving the final game of a Big Ten-imposed suspension for Michigan’s program, stemming from the scouting operation led by former U-M staff member Connor Stalions, who resigned on Nov. 3. The Wolverines improved to 6-0 without Harbaugh, who missed the team’s first three games after Michigan self-imposed a suspension for the coach, due to an NCAA investigation for recruiting violations. Harbaugh will return to the sideline Dec. 2 against Iowa in Indianapolis.

“Whether [Harbaugh] is here, whether players are hurt, it doesn’t matter, the job has to get done and the job will get done,” said senior running back Blake Corum, who rushed for 88 yards and two touchdowns against Ohio State. “It’s been great, a little adversity, feeling like everyone’s against you, Michigan versus everybody. … Obviously, we wish [Harbaugh] was here, but he’s done a phenomenal job preparing us all week for Saturdays.”

Moore’s final pregame interaction with Harbaugh was twofold. Harbaugh told the 37-year-old that he loved him, and to be himself in calling plays for the biggest game of his career. Two weeks after Michigan ended its road win against Penn State with 32 consecutive run plays, Moore kept the pedal down.

The Wolverines went 3-for-3 on fourth downs and opened the fourth quarter with a halfback pass, as Donovan Edwards connected with tight end Colston Loveland for a 34-yard gain, setting up the second of James Turner‘s third field goals.

“It goes back to the kids, how they prepare, how they attack things and how they work,” said Moore, who improved to 4-0 as Michigan’s acting head coach. “I’d be doing them a disservice if I try to be conservative. When they’re going out there running 150’s In the summer, blood, sweat and tears, working their tails off in the weight room, doing everything they can, they put the trust in me as a play caller on offense to be aggressive in these games.

“That’s what they want, so that’s what we gave them.”

Michigan never trailed in a game where it lost All-Big Ten guard Zak Zinter to a gruesome lower-leg injury — the senior was carted off the field late in the third quarter and taken to a local hospital — and cornerback Will Johnson, who set up the Wolverines’ first touchdown with an interception deep in Ohio State territory.

Corum, playing in his final game at Michigan Stadium, broke Hassan Haskins’ single-season team record for rushing touchdowns with his 21st and 22nd scores. He did it against an Ohio State defense that had allowed only three rushing touchdowns all season before Saturday.

The Wolverines became the first Big Ten team to win 30 consecutive regular-season games, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. The team’s recent surge, though, has come under greater scrutiny because of the NCAA investigation. Moore said he would like to weigh in on the perception of Michigan’s success, while adding that the Wolverines have proven they’re as good as any team in the country.

“The thing that I just think of is, we only care about us, we only care about what we’re doing and how we feel and that fulfillment internally,” said McCarthy, who could end his college career 3-0 in The Game. “Everyone else can have their opinions, and we’ll just keep doing us.”

Michigan continued to tighten its grip on both the Big Ten and the Buckeyes, who will have their longest drought without a conference title in a decade. Asked if Ohio State’s emphasis on increased physical toughness showed up, Wolverines wide receiver Roman Wilson replied, “Definitely not.”

“You want to put on the Louie V, the $1,000 outfit, like, you want to act hard, but when they’re out there, they’re not hard,” said Wilson, who had a 22-yard touchdown catch. “I see the film. You’re not tough. I don’t think I’m the toughest guy in the world, but I’m out there, I’m getting physical.

“I don’t think they wanted it like how I wanted it.”

Michigan’s next want is another Big Ten championship, with Harbaugh back on the sideline, and a return to the College Football Playoff.

“When you say something, you have to stand on it,” Corum said. “I put it out there before the season that we’re going to do all these things. I knew I was going to have to back it up. My team came together and we all backed it up.

“But it’s like Kobe Bryant said: The job’s not finished, man. We have a lot of work to do.”

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O’s SS Henderson dealing with intercostal strain

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O's SS Henderson dealing with intercostal strain

The Baltimore Orioles are “very, very hopeful” that star shortstop Gunnar Henderson (intercostal strain) will be ready for Opening Day.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told reporters Wednesday that Henderson suffered a mild strain on his right side.

“I’m very, very hopeful. But we’re going to not push a strain there, and we want to make sure that he gets it taken care of. It’s one of those sensitive areas where we don’t want anything to reoccur,” Hyde said.

Henderson departed last Thursday’s 11-8 spring training victory over the Toronto Blue Jays after the first inning with what the team termed “lower right side discomfort.” Henderson made a leaping catch in the top of the first inning and apparently felt soreness after hitting the ground.

Henderson is batting .167 in six plate appearances so far this spring.

The 2023 American League Rookie of the Year earned his first All-Star nod in 2024 batting .281/.364/.529 with 37 home runs and 92 RBIs. He also stole 21 bases. He finished fourth in MVP balloting.

Henderson dealt with a left oblique injury during spring training in 2024 but recovered in time for the start of the regular season.

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Astros’ Walker out of lineup with oblique soreness

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Astros' Walker out of lineup with oblique soreness

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – New Houston Astros first baseman Christian Walker was scratched from the lineup for a spring training game Wednesday because of soreness in his left oblique.

Walker missed more than a month last season with Arizona because of a strained left oblique muscle. He joined the Astros on a $60 million, three-year contract during the offseason.

In his first four spring training games for Houston, Walker was 4 for 8 with three doubles. He also had two walks.

Adding a first baseman over the offseason was a priority for the Astros after struggling Jose Abreu was released less than halfway through a $58.5 million, three-year contract.

Walker, who turns 34 on March 28, hit .251 with 26 home runs and 84 RBIs in 130 games for the Diamondbacks last season. He won his third consecutive Gold Glove at first base.

In 832 big league games, Walker has hit .250 with 147 homers. All but 13 of those games came with Arizona over the past eight seasons, after his MLB debut with Baltimore in 2014 and 2015.

Walker had two stints on the injured list because of right oblique issues in 2021. He played 160 games in 2022 and 157 in 2023, hitting 69 homers and driving in 197 runs combined over those two seasons.

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HOF vet committee tweak limits future appearances

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HOF vet committee tweak limits future appearances

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The Hall of Fame made some small adjustments to its veterans committee system to limit people with relatively little support from repeatedly remaining on future ballots, a decision that could make it harder to gain entry to Cooperstown for steroids-tainted stars such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Any candidate on the eight-person ballot who receives fewer than five votes from the 16-member panel will not be eligible for that committee’s ballot during the next three-year cycle, the hall said Wednesday. A candidate who is dropped, later reappears on a ballot and again receives fewer than five votes would be barred from future ballot appearances.

Bonds, Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro and Albert Belle each received fewer than four votes in December 2022, when Fred McGriff was a unanimous pick. Bonds and Clemens were on a hall ballot for the first time since their 10th and final appearances on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. The rules change could limit reappraisals of their candidacies.

In addition, the historical overview committee appointed by the BBWAA that selects the ballot candidates must also be approved by the hall’s board of directors. The hall said the decisions were made by its board during a Feb. 26 meeting in Orlando, Florida.

In 2022, the hall restructured its veterans committees for the third time in 12 years, setting up panels to consider the contemporary era from 1980 on, as well as the classic era. The contemporary baseball era holds separate ballots for players and another for managers, executives and umpires.

Each committee meets every three years: contemporary players from 1980 on will be considered this December; managers, executives and umpires from 1980 on in December 2026; and pre-1980 candidates in December 2027.

Dave Parker and Dick Allen were elected last December and manager Jim Leyland in December 2023.

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