Sports Weekend Re-cap

For some members of the field, winning the championship might the lone goal. For others, there’s more at stake – an invitation to play on the Ryder Cup team in France in September as well.
Bryson DeChambeau falls into that latter category. By winning The Northern Trust in Paramus, N.J., by a healthy four shots, he helped himself immensely. The victory was his second of the season.

“Like I said yesterday, I’m a man on a mission right now — two missions, actually,” DeChambeau said Sunday. “One being the Ryder Cup and one being the FedEx Cup. I’m doing pretty well right now and just got to keep moving forward in the right direction.”

He never led by fewer than two strokes on Sunday, and consecutive birdies stretched his margin back to four. He finished at 18-under 266.

NFL:
There were two preseason games Sunday to conclude Week 3. The Cincinnati Bengals improved to 3-0 by beating the Buffalo Bills 26-13 and the Arizona Cardinals thumped the Dallas Cowboys 27-3. The Cowboys turned the ball over eight times.

The final preseason games are all on Thursday night as the teams get ready to cut their rosters from 90 active players to 53.

Wide receiver Eric Decker retired after eight seasons. He was attempting (not successfully) to make the New England Patriots’ roster. … The Denver Broncos signed cornerback Adam Jones, last with the Bengals.

BASEBALL:
David Bote and Kyle Schwarber hit two-run homers and the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cincinnati Reds 9-0 to sweep a four-game series.

Not to be outdone, Blake Snell pitched the Tampa Bay Rays to a 9-1 win over the Boston Red Sox and a sweep of their three-game series. The Rays have won eight in a row and 13 of 17 but at 70-61 they are still 19 ½ games behind the Sox in the American League East.

Kendrys Morales homered for the seventh straight game to set Toronto’s club record though the Blue Jays lost 8-3 to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies remain three games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East. The Braves, held to one run in the middle two games of a four-game set with the Miami Marlins, “erupted” for runs (three unearned) to win 4-0 Sunday and gain a split.

And in case you need to feel better about your own problems, the Baltimore Orioles have lost eight straight games, own the worst record in baseball (37-94) and are 52 games out of first place.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman