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Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said on Friday that Ohio State is “the best team in college football,” and the Longhorns will need their best performance in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on Jan. 10 to beat the Buckeyes.

“I need Longhorn Nation to show out in Arlington,” Sarkisian said. “We’re going to need everything we’ve got to try to win this game. Clearly, we’re massive underdogs. Nobody’s going to give us a shot. … This is the best team in college football, and we’re going to have to make sure that we put our best forward to give ourselves a chance to win the game.”

Oregon was the No. 1 team in all six of this year’s College Football Playoff rankings, with Ohio State No. 2 in the first four of them.

After crushing the Ducks, 41-21, including leading 34-0 in the second quarter, the Buckeyes are surging as they head to AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Sarkisian said the offense, in particular wide receivers Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka, pose a huge challenge.

“They’re both big physical players,” Sarkisian said. “They have length, they have speed, they have playmaking ability on the ball. They have really big catch radiuses. They’ve got the scheme to go with it, with Coach [Chip] Kelly and Coach [Ryan] Day, and they’ve got a quarterback who delivers on the ball. So you add all that up, these guys are impactful players that are real issues and we’re going to have a hard time guarding ’em.”

Both teams are facing familiar quarterbacks. Texas’ Quinn Ewers spent his freshman year at Ohio State before transferring back to Austin, and Will Howard faced the Longhorns with Kansas State before transferring to Ohio State.

“[Howard] snapped off about a 70-yard touchdown run against us a few years ago. So he has good speed, he’s got great poise and composure in the pocket,” Sarkisian said. “He throws passes where they need to be thrown and guys make plays for him.”

Day said earlier on Friday that Ewers was one of the first eighth-graders he ever offered after seeing his release in an Ohio State camp. After C.J. Stroud emerged as the starter at OSU, Ewers transferred to Texas following Sarkisian being hired.

“He’s had a great career at Texas and a lot of people here still have good relationships with him and think the world of him,” Day said.

Sarkisian said Ewers’ growth in the Texas program since arriving from Columbus was evident in his resiliency in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, delivering two late touchdown passes to rally the Longhorns.

“To watch him grow into the leader that he’s grown into for us, his ability to have the poise and composure he has, not only on the field, but off the field, to look into the face of adversity and come out on the other side of it time and time again,” Sarkisian said. “To be at his best when his best was needed, similar to the Peach Bowl there at the end of the game and in overtime, I think that’s all a seismic shift from a maturity standpoint, physically and mentally.”

And Sarkisian said being the last remaining SEC team in the playoff in their first year in the league is something the Longhorns take pride in.

“I really believe this is a premier football conference in America because of the week-in, week-out task that it requires physically and mentally,” Sarkisian said. “I know unfortunately for Georgia, they lost their starting quarterback in the SEC championship game, and I’m sure other teams in our conference had to endure things that can take their toll on your team, and that’s no excuse. At the end of the day, we have to find a way to navigate our ways through it, but to be here on this stage to be back in the final four wearing that SEC patch on our jersey, we’re going to do our best to represent it because this is a heck of a conference.”

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Sources: Red Sox deal Devers to Giants in stunner

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Sources: Red Sox deal Devers to Giants in stunner

The San Francisco Giants are acquiring All-Star slugger Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Sunday evening.

The Giants are sending starter Jordan Hicks and 23-year-old lefty Kyle Harrison, among others, to Boston in exchange, sources said.

Devers, 28, is in just the second season of a 10-year, $313.5 million contract he signed to stay in Boston in January 2023, however his relationship with the team suffered a significant blow after the star third baseman was reportedly blindsided by a move to designated hitter in the spring.

Tensions flared again last month after Devers refused an offer from the team to move him to first base after starting first baseman Triston Casas was ruled out for the season with a knee injury.

It reached a point where Red Sox owner John Henry met with the disgruntled star, making a rare trip to meet the team on the road and smooth things over after Devers’ pointed comments about the request to switch positions again.

Hicks and Harrison give a pitching-starved Red Sox team more depth on their staff while Devers provides a huge boost to a middling Giants offense.

Devers has more than 200 career home runs to his name and has a .894 OPS for Boston this season.

The deal was first reported by Fansided.

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Ohtani’s pitching return might be coming soon

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Ohtani's pitching return might be coming soon

Shohei Ohtani‘s pitching debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers might be quickly approaching.

Manager Dave Roberts told reporters Sunday that Ohtani would throw another simulated game in the coming days that could “potentially” be his last one, and a source told ESPN’s Buster Olney that Ohtani should join the Dodgers’ rotation “sooner rather than later,” potentially within the week.

Ohtani took a big step forward during his most recent simulated game at Petco Park on Tuesday, throwing 44 pitches over the course of three innings against a couple of lower-level minor league players. Ohtani’s fastball reached the mid- to upper-90s, and he exhibited good command of his off-speed pitches in what amounted to his third time facing hitters. Afterward, Roberts said there was a “north of zero” chance Ohtani could join the rotation before the All-Star break.

Because of his two-way designation, the Dodgers can carry Ohtani as an extra pitcher, which means he can throw two to three innings and have someone pitch after him as a piggyback starter. At this point, it seems that is the Dodgers’ plan.

The Dodgers’ pitching staff has again been plagued by injury, with 14 pitchers on the injured list, including four starting pitchers the team was heavily counting on for 2025 — Blake Snell, Tony Gonsolin, Roki Sasaki and Tyler Glasnow.

If Ohtani returns in July — the likely outcome at this point — he will be 22 months removed from a second repair of his ulnar collateral ligament.

The update isn’t as optimistic for Sasaki. He paused his throwing program and is set for a lengthy layoff. Sasaki has not pitched in a game since May 9 and is not part of the team’s long-term pitching plans this season.

“I think that’s what the mindset should be,” Roberts said. “Being thrust into this environment certainly was a big undertaking for him, and now you layer in the health part and the fact he’s a starting pitcher, knowing what the build-up [required to return] entails … I think that’s the prudent way to go about it.”

Sasaki, 23, went 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA in eight starts after joining the Dodgers from the Pacific League’s Chuba Lotte Marines, averaging less than 4⅓ innings per start. He walked 22 and struck out 24 in 34⅓ innings, and his fastball averaged 95.7 mph, down 3-4 mph from his average in Japan.

Roberts said Sasaki was pain free when he resumed throwing in early June, but the pitcher was shut down after feeling discomfort this past week. Sasaki recently received a cortisone injection in the shoulder; Roberts said no further scans are planned.

“I don’t think it’s pain,” Roberts said. “I don’t know if it’s discomfort, if it’s tightness, if he’s just not feeling strong, whatever the adjective you want to use. That’s more of a question for Roki, as far as the sensation he’s feeling.

“He’s just not feeling like he can ramp it up, and we’re not going to push him to do something he doesn’t feel good about right now.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Judge 1-for-12 as NY swept: Got to swing at strikes

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Judge 1-for-12 as NY swept: Got to swing at strikes

BOSTON — Aaron Judge blamed himself for swinging at pitches outside the strike zone as the New York Yankees were swept in a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox.

“You got to swing at strikes,” Judge said after going 1-for-12 in the series, which Boston completed with a 2-0 victory on Sunday.

Judge struck out three or more times in three straight games for only the third time in his major league career.

“That usually helps any hitter when you swing at strikes,” Judge added. “Definitely some pitches off the edge or off the edge in, you know, taking some hacks just trying to make something happen.”

Judge had a tying solo homer in the opener Friday night but struck out nine times as the Yankees were swept in a series for the first time this season.

New York scored only four runs in the three games, matching its fewest in a three-game series at Fenway Park, on June 20-22, 1916 and on Sept. 28-30, 1922.

“It’s very hard,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of facing Judge. “He’s so good at what he does. We used our fastballs in the right spots, we got some swing and misses.”

“Throughout the years we’ve been aggressive with him,” Cora added. “Sometimes he gets us, sometimes we do a good job with that. It’s always fun to compete against the best, and, to me, he’s the best in the business right now.”

Judge’s major league-leading average dipped to .378.

“I don’t think much of it,” teammate Ben Rice said. “If I could have that guy hitting every single at-bat even if he’s not at his best, I would do it. I’m sure he’ll bounce back. He’ll be all right.”

Judge faced Garrett Whitlock with two on in the eighth Sunday and bounced into an inning-ending double play.

“He’s one of the greatest hitters in the world,” Whitlock said. “It’s special to watch him play and everything. We tried to execute and had some execution this weekend.”

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