Connect with us

Published

on

Touted Texas backup quarterback Arch Manning stepped in for an injured Quinn Ewers and the No. 2 Longhorns’ offense didn’t miss a beat in a 56-7 rout of UTSA on Saturday night in Austin.

Manning threw for 223 yards and four touchdowns and added a 67-yard rushing score in his most extensive playing time at the college level after Ewers exited in the second quarter with an oblique strain.

Ewers appeared to suffer the non-contact injury on a pass to tight end Gunnar Helm for a 49-yard gain early in the second quarter. Ewers stayed in for one more play before leaving the game. He went into the locker room and returned to the sideline in street clothes just before halftime.

The redshirt junior starter threw for 185 yards on 14-of-16 passing with two touchdowns and an interception against the Roadrunners.

Manning entered the game with 12:19 left in the second quarter and completed 9 of his 12 pass attempts in the blowout victory. On his first snap of the night, he connected with receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. for a 19-yard touchdown.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound redshirt freshman showed off his speed on his next drive by making a defender miss on a zone read run and dashing away for a 67-yard touchdown. The run was the longest by any Texas quarterback since Vince Young in 2005.

Manning took a 28-7 lead into halftime and built on it with a 51-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Bond, a 75-yard score to Ryan Wingo and then a 12-yard touchdown pass to Johntay Cook II early in the fourth quarter to end his night.

The Longhorns scored on five of his nine possessions and put up 614 total yards on 9.2 yards per play.

“It helps when you have great players around you and good coaches,” Manning said. “Isaiah Bond, Ryan Wingo, the O-line, they all played really well. They make it a little bit easier for me.”

Manning, the nephew of Eli and Peyton Manning, son of former Ole Miss wide receiver Cooper Manning and grandson of Archie Manning, appeared in two games during his redshirt season with the Longhorns in 2023. The former five-star recruit threw his first career touchdown pass in Texas’ season opener this year against Colorado State but had only attempted 11 passes at the college level entering Saturday.

“Obviously there’s a lot to improve on and grow from,” Manning said, “but I’m glad I got to get in there and get hit again and feel what it’s like.”

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said the seriousness of Ewers’ injury “remains to be seen” but noted that they don’t think anything is broken.

Texas concludes its nonconference schedule Saturday against UL Monroe before making its SEC debut at home against Mississippi State on Sept. 28. The Longhorns then have an idle week before traveling to Dallas to face rival Oklahoma on Oct. 12.

“I think Quinn’s in pretty good spirits,” Sarkisian said. “I talked to him on the sidelines there. He was playing such good football. My hope is this isn’t a long-term thing, that we’ll get him back, because we need as many healthy good players as we can get for this journey that we’re on right now.”

Ewers, the Longhorns’ 25-game starter, previously missed two games during the 2023 season due to an injured right shoulder and missed three games in 2022 after suffering a severe sprain of his SC joint.

After leading the program to a Big 12 title and College Football Playoff appearance last season, Ewers opted to bypass the NFL draft and returned to Texas to chase a national championship. Behind Ewers and Manning, Texas has just one other scholarship quarterback on its roster in true freshman Trey Owens. The four-star signee made his first career appearance against UTSA and threw for 19 yards on 2-of-4 passing.

“Because Quinn’s been through it and I think because those other injuries he got with the shoulder were so structural and they were contact-type injuries, I think he’s probably in a little better spirits,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve gotta do everything on our part to get him as healthy as we can as quickly as possible.”

Ewers entered the weekend as the consensus favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, listed at 5-1 at ESPN BET, after throwing for 246 yards and three touchdowns in a rout of No. 10 Michigan last Saturday. His odds lengthened to 18-1 on Saturday night after the injury, while Manning’s Heisman odds moved dramatically, shortening from 150-1 to 16-1 at ESPN BET.

Miami quarterback Cam Ward emerged as the consensus favorite to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday at sportsbooks. Ward was listed at 5½-1 at ESPN BET on Saturday night.

Continue Reading

Sports

Sources: Red Sox deal Devers to Giants in stunner

Published

on

By

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.

Continue Reading

Sports

Ohtani’s pitching return might be coming soon

Published

on

By

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.

Continue Reading

Sports

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

Published

on

By

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.”

Continue Reading

Trending