ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Jeremiah Wilkinson scored 19 points off the bench, and Georgia used a late run to defeat Texas 91-80 on Saturday, ending a three-game home losing streak
The Bulldogs (19-8, 7-7 SEC) shot 60% overall, 11 of 20 from 3-point range, and led 45-35 at halftime. Marcus Millender added 15 points and five assists, Somtochukwu Cyril and Kanon Catchings each scored 13 and Blue Cain finished with 12 points and five assists.
Texas (17-10, 8-6) rallied in the second half behind Matas Vokietaitis, who finished with 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and Dailyn Swain, who added 21 points. Jordan Pope scored 17 for the Longhorns, who shot 57% overall and 6 of 12 from 3-point range.
Texas tied the game at 67-all on a step-back 3-pointer by Pope with 7:37 remaining.
Justin Abson started a Georgia run with a dunk, and a three-point play by Cain capped a 10-2 surge that pushed the lead to 77-69 with 5:26 left. The Bulldogs later extended the margin to 87-75 on a Catchings 3-pointer with 2:04 remaining and never let Texas get closer than eight the rest of the way.
The Bulldogs and Longhorns split their season series after Texas beat Georgia 87-67 on Jan. 24.
The standings may not show it, but the Houston Rockets are stumbling these days.
Although the New York Knicks may look like peers, they are actually far more trustworthy.
These Rockets vs. Knicks predictions and NBA picks trust the home team on Saturday, February 21.
Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. ET from Madison Square Garden, with the game airing on ABC.
Rockets vs Knicks prediction
Rockets vs Knicks best bet: Knicks -3.5 (-105)
It is not just that the Houston Rockets have gone 3-10 against the spread in the last month. It is also that they have fallen short of bookmakers’ expectations by an average of 9.1 points in those 10 ATS losses.
That is not terribly surprising once realizing Houston’s offensive rating in the last month has been No. 22 in the NBA, down from No. 4 before Jan. 21. When your offense slips by 8.3 points per 100 possessions, woes are going to follow.
Rockets vs Knicks same-game parlay
Kevin Durant may have poured in 35 points in his first game following the All-Star Break, but he fell short of this points prop in five of eight before the break, part of why the Rockets have cashed 10 Unders in 13 games in the last month.
Rockets vs Knicks SGP
Knicks -3.5
Kevin Durant Under 24.5 points
Under 219
Our "from downtown" SGP: KAT Boards
While New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns has struggled to shoot lately, he has continued to pile up rebounds, grabbing double-digit boards in 10 straight games and hitting this prop in nine of them.
Rockets vs Knicks SGP
Knicks -3.5
Knicks 1H -1.5
Kevin Durant Under 24.5 points
Under 219
Karl-Anthony Towns Over 10.5 rebounds
Rockets vs Knicks odds
Spread: Rockets +3.5 (-110) | Knicks -3.5 (-110)
Moneyline: Rockets +135 | Knicks -160
Over/Under: Over 219 (-110) | Under 219 (-110)
Rockets vs Knicks betting trend to know
Houston is 1-7 ATS in its last eight games. Find more NBA betting trends for Rockets vs. Knicks.
How to watch Rockets vs Knicks
Location
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Date
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Tip-off
8:30 p.m. ET
TV
ABC
Rockets vs Knicks latest injuries
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The New York Yankees and their fans were greeted by all the glory of the senses in the team's Grapefruit League opener at Tampa's Steinbrenner Field.
The crack of the bat − from two Aaron Judge home runs and a monster shot from prospect Spencer Jones. The feel of the Hillsborough County sunshine on an 83-degree day.
And the smell of, well, raw sewage.
A pair of sewer lines broke outside the main entrance to George M. Steinbrenner Field, causing fans to tip-toe around what a security guard reportedly referred to as "the poo-poo water."
Underground, the scene was much worse.
The Yankees clubhouse was inundated with sewage, manager Aaron Boone telling reporters: "It's not great. It's all over the place."
Apparently, two sewer lines broke outside the main GMS Field entrance just before today’s game. Things got progressively worse. “It’s not great…it’s all over the place,” Aaron Boone said of areas of the Yankee clubhouse. Hoping for a quick cleanup before tomorrow’s game v NYM pic.twitter.com/5L23TM6frH
The sewage reportedly had not reached the portion of the clubhouse housing the players' lockers. Yet the mess forced Yankees players to conduct interviews in a hallway − where the funk was still palpable.
Not exactly the way you want to begin Grapefruit League play.
It's an unfortunate turn for a field that saw multi-million dollar renovations the past couple years, both for the Yankees and to accommodate the Tampa Bay Rays during their one regular season campaign there last year as they relocated due to hurricane damage.
In better news for the Yankees, they defeated the Detroit Tigers 20-2. In less optimal news, the New York Mets are due in town come morning − leaving a quick turnaround time to fix the glitch.
Following the Mets' 2-1 loss in their spring training opener to the Marlins on Saturday, manager Carlos Mendoza spoke to the media to give insight on the game and what's to come down the line.
A.J. Ewing Impresses
The Mets are in the market for an everyday right fielder and they hope someone takes the job this spring.
One potential option is youngster A.J. Ewing.
The No. 6 prospect on Joe DeMayo's list in the Mets system made his 2026 spring debut on Saturday. Taking over for Juan Soto in the middle of the game, and playing center field, Ewing showed off a little bit of everything he can provide the Mets at the plate and in the field.
At the plate, he went 0-for-1 with a strikeout, but pushed across the team's only run with a sacrifice fly.
In the field, Ewing made some impressive reads to run down flyballs but the biggest play was gunning down the Marlins' Colby Shade trying to advance to third base on an errant throw on a stolen base attempt at second.
"There’s a lot to like, man," Mendoza said after the game. "He looks like a hitter at the plate and the defense. Made a couple of good plays, great jumps. The reads off the bat, but just his ability to give you a really good at-bat from the left side. The speed is obviously there. I’ve been pretty encouraged by what I’ve seen so far. And today was a perfect example of that."
Speaking of outfielders. There's no bigger hype around a Mets player than there is for Carson Benge this spring.
The lefty swinging youngster has a real shot at winning the right field job this spring and fans will get their first look at Benge's ability this spring very soon.
Mendoza confirmed after Saturday's game that Benge will be one of the notable positional players heading to Tampa to take on the Yankees in Sunday's matchup. The others are Mark Vientos and Luis Torrens.
Benge comes into camp this season after a solid 2025 in the minors. He mashed Double-A pitching, slashing .317/.407/.571 with eight home runs before getting promoted to Triple-A. There, Benge saw his production drop as he adjusted to that level of pitching. He wound up hitting .178 with an OPS of just .583. He did hit three home runs and drive in 13 runs in 24 games with Syracuse.
In addition, Mendoza confirmed that the position player group that played in Saturday's game will be the same in Monday's game.
Working with new coaching staff
Aside from some core players like Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso no longer with the team, the Mets had a major coaching shakeup for the 2026 season.
Saturday was the first game against another team where this cast of coaches worked together. Mendoza was asked about how it after the game, and the Mets skipper made sure to get as much work in with them as he could.
"It’s always good to start that process going," Mendoza said. "Send [pitching coach Justin] Willard out for a mound visit. The sign system that we’re going to have with the base coaches. Interactions with Kai [Correa] as the bench coach, controlling the run game with [catching coach J.P. Arencibia]. It’s always good. There’s only so much you can do with zoom calls and meetings. There was a lot of good back-and-forth today."
DENVER, COLORADO - JANUARY 20: Luka Doncic #77 of the Los Angeles Lakers controls the ball as Peyton Watson #8 of the Denver Nuggets defends during the fourth quarter at Ball Arena on January 20, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tanner Pearson/Clarkson Creative/Getty Images) | Getty Images
On paper, the Lakers are poised for a huge summer of spending. Through multiple transaction windows, the Lakers have planned for the summer of 2027 as the time when they strike big.
The problem with their plan, and one they currently have entirely predicted, is that the unrestricted free agency class is rather underwhelming. It doesn’t mean the Lakers can’t still build a contender, but it does mean the simplest path to do so won’t likely be one they can take.
What, then, will free agency look like for the Lakers this summer? Let’s dive into that and more with our mailbag this week.
OldSchoolBaller
Who are the best and most likely free agents this coming offseason?
Technically, the two biggest likely unrestricted free agents will be two Lakers in LeBron James and Austin Reaves. After that, the free agency class pretty quickly takes a nose dive.
First, let’s look at the most notable potential unrestricted free agents:
Isaiah Hartenstein — Team option
Andrew Wiggins — Player option
John Collins — Unrestricted
Norman Powell — Unrestricted
Lu Dort — Team option
Quentin Grimes — Unrestricted
Ayo Dosunmu — Unrestricted
This isn’t even a particularly exhaustive list or one with much thought on the Lakers’ needs, but more of an example of how few real game-changing free agents there will be.
Excluded from this were Trae Young (player option), James Harden (player option) and Kristaps Porzingis (unrestricted), but for various fairly obvious reasons, I don’t think the Lakers are going to be an option there.
The far more intriguing crop of players are the restricted free agents:
Restricted free agency has taken on an odd form under the new CBA. Last summer, we saw how little interest teams had in signing them, leading to long standoffs between the incumbent team and the player.
The Lakers’ unique position, though, could allow them to sign at least one of these players and still be spenders in free agency elsewhere. It won’t tie up their cap space entirely to send out an offer sheet. And with so much cap room, they could put together some really big offer sheets that will make it tough for teams to match.
It wouldn’t be a surprise, then, to see the Lakers moving aggressively from the start of free agency to sign one of these players and start the clock on the incumbent teams to match the offer once the moratorium ends.
Kilgary
It’s crazy we don’t have a definitive answer for this yet. With just 28 games left in the season: Who should be in our starting lineup? We saw zero success with AR+Luka+LeBron+Rui all starting (no one quick enough to defend the POA) BUT that was with JJ’s “switch everything” defense. What if they started out in zone? JJ has been experimenting with a lot of different zone looks to wallpaper over our slow footed stars. Would we be better off with our best offensive players in the starting lineup and starting out in zone or with some defenders and starting out in our “switch everything” defense?
While I understand the sentiment, I think there are a couple of reasons to push back.
For one, you’re telegraphing what type of defense you’re going to play based on your starting lineup and if there’s anything coaches hate to do, it’s telegraph things based on starting lineups.
There is also a bit of a misconception about the zone defense the Lakers are using. It’s not something they go to for a long string of possessions in a row because NBA offenses and players are too sophisticated and smart for that to work.
The Lakers will employ their zone defense for a couple of possessions and then go back to the man-to-man. Think of it in baseball as a pitcher having different pitches. If they keep throwing a changeup (zone defense), then eventually the batter is going to see it coming and bad things will happen.
But if he can mix in that changeup with a fastball (man-to-man) and maybe even some other stuff like a curve (blitzing the ballhandler, as they did against the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard), then they may have enough. The zone defense is part of a greater scheme defensively and one they’re going to use with about every lineup they have because they aren’t good enough defensively to just have one look.
Kilgary
Second question: is there anyone left in the buyout market who would be worth waiving Kleber for? I’ll fully acknowledge that Maxi has contributed to winning 4 games this season. But that means he didn’t really contribute (or actively hurt our chances) in his 25 other games. I personally believe the bad outweighs the good and would rather have someone else hold the 15th roster spot. We can afford another vet minimum contract starting on February 26th. I was hoping we’d have a shot at Highsmith, but he’s off the board. Is there anyone else like Matisse Thybulle or even one of our 2-way guys like Timme who is worth taking a chance on over keeping Maxi on the roster as an emergency big?
I think there’s very, very little chance they move on from Maxi Kleber before the end of the season. Barring something drastic, this is the roster for the rest of the season.
Considering the recent games Deandre Ayton has missed with a knee injury lately and Jaxson Hayes’ potential to tackle a mascot at a moment’s notice, I don’t think the Lakers are in a position to cut bait on their third-string center.
I also think there’s value in being a respected veteran teammate on the bench. The team loves Kleber and he’s answered the bell when he’s asked in some big moments. I’m not sure there’d be a great reaction internally or externally to waiving him just before the playoffs, especially with a buyout market void of any real impact players and no two-way guys worth signing to a standard deal for the playoffs.
This isn’t like last season when Jordan Goodwin was securely in the rotation as the season ended. Drew Timme had a moment, as has Nick Smith Jr., but neither guy is worth cutting Kleber for.
Manchester City are timing their title run-in perfectly, to give Pep Guardiola a fine chance of a seventh title in a decade and to break Arsenal’s hearts yet again.
For fans of each team squeaky posterior time is officially entered. For the neutral the final 11 matches for City and the Gunners promise to be a cannot-miss spectacle.
City closed the gap on Arsenal at the top thanks to two first-half goals from Nico O’Reilly
Newcastle get the ball rolling! “No-one actually believes we’ll win this game, do they?” sighs Toon fan Chris Paraskevas. “I mean the last time we won at the Etihad, the goal-scorers were Moussa Sissoko (now ruining his reputation at Panathinaikos with Rafa Benitez) and Ryan Taylor.”
The teams are out. Manchester City, in sky blue, are given a guard of honour by members of their 1976 League Cup winning side. The 50th anniversary of that victory, over Newcastle, comes up next week. The Toon in third-choice blue. As for the weather, Bert Challenor, the talent scout from Comedians by Trevor Griffiths, says it best: “I’ll never understand why they don’t run boats to Manchester.” We’ll be off in a minute.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Andre Mills scored 21 points to lead Maryland to a 64-60 win over Washington on Saturday.
Mills was only 7 of 18 from the floor, but 3 of 6 from behind the arc with five assists. He was coming off a career-high 39 points against Northwestern on Wednesday and scored 10 of the Terrapins' final 13 points over the last 6:24 of the game.
Solomon Washington’s 11-point, 14-rebound double-double buoyed the Terrapins (11-16, 4-12 Big Ten), while Elijah Saunders had 12 points and five rebounds.
Maryland held a 34-32 lead at halftime, flipping a game-high eight-point deficit into a lead with a 9-0 run starting at the 14:07 mark. They closed the game with a 13-6 run to retake and hold onto the lead.
The Terrapins had advantages in rebounding and on second-chance points, with 36-23 and 16-2 margins, respectively. While the Huskies shot 46 percent from the field (24-for-52) to 40 percent (23-for-57) for the Terrapins, the Terrapins made five more 3-pointers, and shot 43 percent behind the arc.
Zoom Diallo scored 19 points on 8 of 13 from the field to go with five assists for the Huskies (13-14, 5-11). Hannes Steinbach had 14 points and Wesley Yates III added 12.
Up next
Washington will continue its trip to the East Coast with a visit to Rutgers on Tuesday.
Maryland will face No. 9 Nebraska on the road on Wednesday.
Feb 21, 2026; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto against the Los Angeles Angels during a spring training game at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Yoshinobu Yamamoto had one very good inning and one bumpy frame in his 2026 spring training debut on Saturday against the Angels in Tempe. But the news from the Dodgers’ Cactus League opener is that Yamamoto will make one more start in Arizona before leaving to join Team Japan in preparation for the World Baseball Classic.
Yamamoto is slated to pitch for Japan for a second straight WBC, with camp opening in Tokyo next weekend. The Dodgers right-hander told reporters after his start on Saturday that he’ll pitch once more for the Dodgers before departing for Japan.
#Dodgers Yoshinobu Yamamoto said Dave Roberts told him "Good luck in the WBC" when he pulled him from today's game. Yamamoto was surprised — he said he's pitching again in Cactus League on Friday. Roberts had told us it would be one and done for Yamamoto in Cactus League
As for the game on Saturday in Tempe against the Angels, it was a tale of two innings for Yamamoto.
After a perfect first inning with two strikeouts, the Dodgers scored six runs in the top of the second. Yamamoto was less sharp in the bottom of the second, giving up a double and two singles. Including an error by Teoscar Hernández in left, two runs were charged to Yamamoto’s ledger, one earned. Yamamoto was pulled with two outs in the frame, at 30 total pitches on his day, right in the expected range.
Given that Yamamoto was first out of the gate for the Dodgers, and with opening day not until March 26, there’s room for him to make at least five starts this spring, counting his work in the World Baseball Classic, to build up toward the regular season.
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Donovan Atwell had 26 points with six 3-pointers, Christian Anderson scored 21 and No. 13 Texas Tech beat Kansas State 100-72 on Saturday in the first game for the Red Raiders since standout post JT Toppin's season-ending knee injury.
Texas Tech (20-7, 10-4 Big 12) maintained a double-digit lead after making nine consecutive shots, including three 3s in a row by Atwell, during a 26-10 run in just under seven minutes for a 40-20 lead with 6:20 left in the first half.
Anderson, who also had nine assists, scored 16 of his points after halftime, when LeJuan Watts had 13 of his 19.
The Red Raiders reached 20 wins for the third season in a row. The school record is four, with coach Bob Knight from 2001-02 to 2004-05.
PJ Haggerty had 17 points and Nate Johnson 15 points for Kansas State (11-16, 2-12), which was playing its second game since a coaching change. The Wildcats beat Baylor 90-74 at home Tuesday, two days after coach Jerome Tang was fired.
The Wildcats led only twice at Tech, when Johnson made their first two shots of the game, a 3 and then a jumper that made it 5-3.
Toppin, the preseason AP All-America selection, averaged 21.8 points and 10.8 rebounds a game while having 16 double-doubles before tearing the ACL in his right knee in a 72-67 loss at Arizona State on Tuesday night. He sat at the end of the Tech bench Saturday.
Sophomore forward Luke Bamgboye, a 6-foot-11 transfer from VCU, made his fifth start for the Red Raiders, his first since Dec. 7. He scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting while also having six rebounds and three blocked shots in 21 minutes.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Marcel Hartel scored in the 60th minute and Pep Biel equalized in the 73rd as St. Louis City SC and Charlotte FC opened the MLS season with a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
St. Louis controlled much of the match, finishing with a 22-9 advantage in shots and an 11-3 edge in shots on goal. Charlotte goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina made 10 saves.
The teams played to a scoreless first half, with Charlotte generating limited attacking pressure while St. Louis created the better chances. CITY SC made its first substitution of the season early in the second half, bringing on Brendan McSorley.
St. Louis broke through in the 60th minute when Hartel finished from the left side of the box after a well-timed pass from Simon Becher opened space in front of the goal.
Charlotte answered 13 minutes later as Wilfried Zaha delivered a through ball that found Biel making a run into the box, and the midfielder finished to level the match.
St. Louis pushed for a winner late, generating several chances in stoppage time, but Kahlina preserved the draw with multiple close-range saves.
CITY SC finished with a 1.9-0.6 advantage in expected goals and a 6-1 edge in corner kicks, but settled for a point. St. Louis remains unbeaten in its four MLS season-opening matches.
The Sixers slid to a season-worst fourth straight loss Saturday night in New Orleans.
They fell to a 126-11 defeat, dropping to 30-26 overall. The Pelicans improved to 16-42.
Tyrese Maxey scored 27 points and Kelly Oubre Jr. posted 25.
New Orleans had three 20-point scorers in Jordan Poole (23 points), Zion Williamson (21) and Saddiq Bey (20).
Joel Embiid (right shin soreness and right knee injury management) missed his fourth consecutive game. The Pelicans’ injured players included Trey Murphy III and Yves Missi.
The Sixers will visit the Timberwolves on Sunday night. Here are observations on their dismal loss to the Pelicans:
Sixers determined to draw fouls
Two of Embiid’s many backups over the years started Saturday night. Andre Drummond matched up with very rarely used 37-year-old big man DeAndre Jordan.
Both the Pelicans and Sixers began 0 for 4 from the floor. The Sixers at least managed to draw plenty of free throws. Their role players did a good job early of driving hard, consistently reaching the paint and putting pressure on the Pelicans’ lowly defense.
Maxey was the last Sixers starter on the scoreboard. He missed his first five field goals and dealt with customary extra attention on another Embiid-less night.
New Orleans native Oubre made the first field goal of the game, a long-range jumper that gave the Sixers an 8-0 edge.
Not a beautiful ball game
Quentin Grimes had another nice start.
Coming off of a 14-point outing Thursday in the Sixers’ loss to the Hawks, Grimes knocked down two three-pointers and scored nine points in the first quarter.
The Sixers trimmed their rotation down to nine players in the first half, removing Trendon Watford. Justin Edwards joined the mix in the third quarter.
Jabari Walker logged 17 minutes and had nine points and six rebounds. Walker and Adem Bona each had solid defensive possessions on Williamson, although New Orleans’ star forward got rolling early in the second quarter and the Pelicans briefly went ahead.
The second quarter was a physical, foul-heavy, not especially pretty frame. The Sixers ultimately won it, thanks in part to efficient scoring from Oubre and VJ Edgecombe. Oubre closed the second quarter with a buzzer-beating three and the Sixers held an eight-point halftime lead.
Hard to exaggerate third-quarter woes
The Pelicans made a 10-0 run early in the third quarter capped by a Bey triple.
The Sixers played very poorly late in the third with Maxey on the sidelines, too. Bona fouled Karlo Matkovic beyond the arc and he made all three of his free throws to put New Orleans up 97-89.
While the Pelicans had a far better three-point shooting night than usual (50 percent), the Sixers conceded too many easy points and cheap fouls. Even with a 27-11 advantage in points off turnovers, the Sixers couldn’t avoid a terrible loss.
There’s a strong chance the Sixers end the season as the NBA’s worst third-quarter team. Entering Saturday, their minus-17.5 net rating in third quarters was last in the league. The Jazz ranked 29th at minus-10.1.
For a team that’s otherwise been above-average, it’s baffling and inexcusable that the Sixers have been so bad in one quarter for so long.
The Sixers didn’t flip a switch once the fourth quarter started. Poole went on a scoring spree and the Pelicans’ lead ballooned over 20 points.
Unless the Sixers play a much higher-quality game Sunday against the 35-22 Timberwolves, they’ll be staring at a five-game skid.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Atlantic 10 has issued reprimands and fined both No. 18 Saint Louis and VCU for violating the conference's sportsmanship policy following a scuffle between the two teams near the end of a basketball game on Friday night.
The conference said in a statement that it would not issue suspensions and praised game officials for handling the situation in “exemplary fashion.”
The A-10 did not disclose the amount of the fines, but said they would be according to conference policy.
“This was an unfortunate end to a great college basketball game between two of the best teams in the nation," the statement said. "The A-10 considers the matter closed and looks forward to the remainder of the regular season and the Atlantic 10 Championship in Pittsburgh in March.”
The coaches from Saint Louis and VCU were preparing to shake hands when the benches cleared with 1.1 seconds left. With the victory, Saint Louis (25-2, 13-1 Atlantic 10) prevented VCU (21-7, 12-3) from taking over first place.
This was a much more interesting, and entertaining, baseball game than yesterday’s Grapefruit League kickoff. The Yankees saw one of their top pitching prospects strut his stuff, the top position player prospect hit a bomb, and the Captain look awfully locked in in during his first taste of spring ball. A proper thumping came in the eighth inning, where a bunch of Yankee farmhands all got their A-swings off at once. Overall, New York brushed the Detroit Tigers aside on Saturday afternoon, with 20-3 your final score.
From a stuff perspective, it’s easy to see why people are so excited about Curtis Lagrange. He deals easy 99 with repeatable mechanics, with a changeup and slider that both look big-league ready when they’re really working. He notched a 50-percent whiff rate with the change, but interestingly flipped his main secondary offering. Twenty-six percent of his pitches were changeups the first time through, and 19 percent sliders, only to up slider usage to 32 percent the second time. I feel like the Yankees want more data on the secondary stuff and that will be a conscious approach the rest of Lagrange’s spring.
If there’s one thing for Lagrange to work on, it’s command in the zone, not surprising for a player who ended last year in Double-A. He was hit hard more than once, giving up a pair of singles in the first at more than 100 mph exit velo, a bomb of a home run to Corey Julks that came on a hanging changeup, and another long fly ball to the track off the bat of old friend Gleyber Torres. The stuff was very impressive, and now the next step is sanding down some of those rough edges in the zone.
Perhaps nobody in the entire Yankee system needs to impress in camp the way Jones does. The outfield at the MLB level is crowded, but the 24 year old is kind of in a make-or-break season. To start spring with a home run that loud is a really good sign, and hopefully Jones can keep it up. With Aaron Judge 10 days away from joining Team USA at the World Baseball Classic, there should be plenty of spring reps for Spencer to show off.
On an intellectual level, I don’t care at all about Judge’s spring. I want him to be completely healthy for Opening Day, at which point I fully expect him to be at worst one of the three best players in the game. But then I watch him hit a bomb to deep center field and I start to drool a little bit and hope that Aaron Boone lets Judge face some kid getting his first taste of camp.
Oh, and then the Captain came up again in the fourth:
Spring stats don’t matter but he is likely the finest hitter you’ll ever see.
The Tigers clawed a run back in the seventh, with Yankee reliever Drake Fellows loading the bases on two walks and an infield single. A passed ball clunked off catcher Payton Henry’s glove, allowing the third Detroit run of the game. Fortunately, a man named Tyler Hardman got the run back:
Now up 13-3, Tigers manager AJ Hinch opted to bring Woo-Suk Go into the game, and immediately paid for the decision. Rodrick Arias, himself trying to recover some prospect sheen, promptly told a 93-mph fastball to go away:
Another three-run home run came off the bat of Jackson Castillo, pushing the Yanks to a nice, even 20.
George Lombard Jr. looked solid at shortstop and worked two walks, the latter coming with the bases loaded and driving in a run, to round up a pretty good day for the org’s top prospects. The Yankees will welcome the crosstown — at least, normally crosstown — Mets to Steinbrenner Field tomorrow afternoon in more Grapefruit League play, with Luis Gil getting his first start of the spring.
PRAGUE — The storied hockey career of Jaromir Jagr might be coming to an end.
Currently in his 38th professional season, with his hometown Kladno Knights in the Czech league, the former NHL great strongly suggested that fans might not get to see him on the ice any more.
“Probably not,” Jagr said in an interview published late Friday on his Instagram account. “It would have to be a miracle. God would have to come, enter me and make me 15 years younger.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if Jagr will play again this season. The winger, who turned 54 on Feb. 15, has played just six games in the league for Kladno this season. His last game so far was on Dec. 21.
Jagr, who represented his country at five Olympics and led the Czechs to gold in Nagano in 1998, said he spent the last 10 days watching the Milan Cortina Games on television.
“I do nothing else but eat and watch TV,” he said. This is the first Olympics with NHL players in a dozen years and Jagr appreciated that.
“It’s the best tournament in the last 10-15 years, certainly because of the presence of NHL players,” he said. “The games are great.”
But besides following hockey, short-track speed skating and figure skating, Jagr said he is trying to keep fit after recently gaining some 4-5 kilograms (9-11 pounds).
“It’s really about discipline,” Jagr said. “The worst thing is when you don’t have to. Sometimes, it’s better when you have to. When you don’t have to, forcing yourself is the hardest thing,” he said.
“I keep myself going. I try, I don’t train to be ready to play, but I try to go skating every day if I have time.”
Jagr made his debut for Kladno at age 16 and returned to the club in 2018 when the Calgary Flames released him. Jagr remains second on the NHL’s all-time points list behind Wayne Gretzky. Jagr won the Stanley Cup twice with the Pittsburgh Penguins in his first two NHL seasons.
Until early last year, Jagr served in dual roles as Kladno player and owner, splitting his time between chasing sponsors and dealing with administrative duties and ice time.
He sold a majority stake in Kladno last January in a season he had previously suggested would be his last but wasn’t.
This season, if still playing, he has a chance to make the playoffs with Kladno for the first time.
