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The Washington Nationals traded left-hander Jose Ferrer to the Seattle Mariners for top catching prospect Harry Ford and minor league pitcher Isaac Lyon, the teams announced Saturday.

The move gives the Mariners, who fell a win short of reaching their first World Series last season, a second left-handed reliever, joining veteran Gabe Speier. Ferrer, 25, has a fastball that averaged 97.7 mph, a walk rate that ranked in the 95th percentile and a 64.3% ground ball rate that ranked in the 99th percentile last season. He finished with a 4.83 ERA in 72 appearances, but his 3.03 FIP suggests he was unlucky. He was projected to become the Nationals’ closer next season.

Ford, a first-round pick in 2021, was 65th in the August top-100 prospect rankings from ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and fifth in the Mariners’ loaded farm system. He batted .283 with 16 home runs and an .868 OPS in 97 Triple-A games last season. He made his major league debut in September and appeared in eight games, including one start behind the plate, and went 1-for-6 in eight plate appearances.

Ford’s late promotion and limited action illustrated his reality: Despite his prospect status, Cal Raleigh, who was the runner-up for the American League MVP, is the Mariners’ catcher for the foreseeable future, making Ford an obvious trade candidate.

Talent evaluators question whether Ford, 22, has the skill set to remain a catcher in the big leagues, but Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni wanted to bolster the team’s production at the position in the offseason. Nationals catchers ranked 30th in the majors in fWAR, 29th in wRC+ and 29th in OPS last season.

The Mariners drafted Lyon, a right-hander, in the 10th round in June. Lyon, a 21-year-old from Grand Canyon University, recorded a 7.30 ERA in 12⅓ innings across four starts in Low A.

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Blue Devils win ACC crown, ‘deserve’ CFP berth

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Blue Devils win ACC crown, 'deserve' CFP berth

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Duke won its first outright Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1962 and threw the College Football Playoff into chaos on Saturday night when Darian Mensah connected with Jeremiah Hasley for a 1-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play in overtime, and the unranked Blue Devils held on to beat No. 16 Virginia 27-20.

The Blue Devils (8-5) are unlikely to make the playoff field, opening the door for a second Group of Five team — likely James Madison — to make it.

Duke last won a share of the ACC regular-season title in 1989, sharing it with Virginia in Steve Spurrier’s final season as the Blue Devils’ coach. The conference championship game was created in 2005, and Duke got there this year thanks to a five-team tiebreaker.

“So proud of this team,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said in his postgame, on-field interview on ABC. “Their mental toughness, their resilience, wow. These guys, they never give up. … They are ACC champions, and they deserve to be here.”

Virginia (10-3), the ACC regular-season champion, would have reached the CFP for the first time in school history with a victory but fell short when Chandler Morris was intercepted by Luke Mergott on the Cavaliers’ first offensive play in OT.

Mensah threw for 196 yards and two scores — both to Hasley — while Nate Sheppard ran for 97 yards and a score for Duke.

“These guys deserve to be in,” Diaz said of his Blue Devils and the CFP.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Indiana prevails over Ohio State for Big Ten title

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Indiana prevails over Ohio State for Big Ten title

INDIANAPOLIS — Fernando Mendoza‘s 17-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Sarratt gave No. 2 Indiana the lead midway through the third quarter, and the Hoosiers’ stingy defense shut down No. 1 Ohio State the rest of the way in a 13-10 victory Saturday night for their first Big Ten championship since 1967.

Indiana likely locked up the top seed in the College Football Playoff while extending the best record in school history to 13-0. The Hoosiers are also poised to claim the No. 1 spot in The Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time.

They did it by snapping a 30-game losing streak against the Buckeyes that stretched to 1988. Indiana also ended major college football’s longest winning streak at 16 games, sealing the win with a 33-yard pass from Mendoza to Charlie Becker on third down, a play that took the clock down to the two-minute timeout.

Ohio State fell to 12-1 overall, though its quest to win back-to-back national championships for the first time will likely begin as the No. 2 seed in the CFP and a first-round bye.

The Buckeyes had a chance to retake the lead on fourth-and-1 from the Indiana 5-yard line late in the third quarter. But a replay review overturned the call on the field, determining Julian Sayin came up short. They also had a chance to tie the score with 2:48 to play, but Jayden Fielding missed a 29-yard field goal wide left.

The two quarterbacks dueling for the Heisman Trophy essentially played to a draw.

Mendoza was injured on the first offensive play of the game but returned after missing one play and finished 15-of-23 for 222 yards, with 1 TD and 1 interception. Sayin was 21-of-29 for 258 yards, with 1 TD and 1 interception.

But when the big plays were needed, Mendoza usually got the job done

Indiana took a 3-0 lead after Sayin’s pass was picked off in the first quarter, but the Buckeyes turned Mendoza’s miscue into a 17-yard TD pass to Carnell Tate for a 7-3 lead late in the first quarter.

The teams traded second-quarter field goals as the Buckeyes took a 10-6 lead, but Mendoza threw a TD pass to Sarratt near the sideline on Indiana’s first possession of the third quarter, and that was all the Hoosiers needed.

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Jets to host Canadiens in 2026 Heritage Classic

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Jets to host Canadiens in 2026 Heritage Classic

NEW YORK — The Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens will play an outdoor game next season.

The NHL announced Saturday the teams will face off in the Heritage Classic at Winnipeg’s Princess Auto Stadium. The event set for Oct. 25 will be the league’s eighth Heritage Classic and first since 2023.

Winnipeg will host its second outdoor showcase after falling to the Edmonton Oilers at the home of the CFL’s Blue Bombers in October 2016 before a crowd of 33,240. Montreal will skate in its fifth outdoor game and first in nine years.

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