Sports: Tigers Pull Out a Win; Lions Lose
The Tigers held off the Red Sox 4-3 Thursday, snapping Boston's six-game winning streak. The Tigers had a great chance to score runs in the second, but managed just one on a sacrifice fly by Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Matt Boyd started for Detroit and went 6 innings, giving up just one run.
Reliever Alex Wilson gave up 2 runs on three hits. Justin Wilson uncorked a wild pitch that put Boston up 3-1 in the 8th. But the Tigers rallied in the 8th on RBI singles by Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez. Andrew Romine drew a bases-loaded walk to cap a three-run Detroit rally in the eighth. Francisco Rodriguez put runners on second and third in the 9th, but got out of the jam when Ian Kinsler caught a line drive at second. K-Rod gets his 34th save. Justin Wilson gets the win on his birthday. The Tigers stay 6 games behind Cleveland in the Central division and 3 ½ games out of Wild Card contention. Former Tiger Rick Porcello goes for his 17th win tonight. Michael Fulmer will start for the Tigers. Broadcast time is 6:45 on WBCK.
Lions
The Lions did not look good in a 30-14 pre-season loss to Cincinnati at Ford Field. Matthew Stafford was 8 of 11 for 113 yards, but the Lions went without a touchdown until the final minute of the game. There's some uncertainty at the backup quarterback spot, with Dan Orlovsky doing little to inspire confidence when his interception was returned for a touchdown. Rookie Jake Rudock received a nice hand when he came on in the fourth quarter, but the University of Michigan product was also intercepted on just his third pass attempt. Former Cincinnati wide receiver Marvin Jones, signed by the Lions in the offseason, had four catches for 65 yards against his former team. Game 3 of the pre-season for the Lions is a week from Saturday at Baltimore. The season starts September 11th at Indianapolis.
Olympics
Usain Bolt won his third straight Olympic gold medal in the 200-meter race yesterday. If he wins in the 4x100 relay today, he'll complete the triple-triple . . . three straight golds in three events, going back to 2008. Bolt finished more than a half-second slower than his own world record.
America's Ryan Crouser won the gold medal and set a new Olympic record in the shot put yesterday. His throw went almost 74 feet. His reaction was pretty great too. Teammate Joe Kovacs took the silver.
American Ashton Eaton won his second Olympic decathlon in a row yesterday. He's only the third person in history to win it twice. Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the athlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon in Montreal.
Eaton's wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton is also an Olympic athlete, and she won the bronze medal in the heptathlon. Here's Eaton on how it felt to win a medal along with her.
The United States managed a sweep of the gold medals in the men's and women's 400-meter hurdles. Two-time world champion Kerron Clement finished first in the men's final. Dalilah Muhammad took the women's event, while teammate Ashley Spencer earned bronze.
The U.S. women were favored to win the gold in the 4x100-meter relay yesterday, but they dropped the baton in their qualifier and it looked like they were out. But it turned out that Allyson Felix was bumped by a Brazilian runner who was out of her lane, so they got to run it again. They filed a protest, and they were given a chance to run the race again . . . and they qualified easily.
Harbaugh Gets another 2 Mil
Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh is receiving $2 million a year on top of his base salary of $5 million. The raise is actually the $2 million annual premium the university is paying on a life insurance policy on Harbaugh. Michigan will make the payment each year from 2016 through 2021 if Harbaugh is coaching the Wolverines on Dec. 6 of those years.
NFL PED Allegations
Steelers’ linebacker James Harrison now says he is willing to meet with the NFL to discuss an alleged link to performance-enhancing drugs. However, the meeting would be five days after an Aug. 25 deadline the league has imposed while threatening him and three other players with indefinite suspensions. Green Bay's Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers, and free agent Mike Neal also were threatened with suspensions unless they speak with the league about the alleged link.
Golf
Michigan sophomore Nick Carlson won two matches on the 19th hole Thursday at Oakland Hills, allowing the Hamilton native to advance to the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals.
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