Wir suchen Dich! » trailed the Cowboys by just four poin

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- With the complicated math of baseball in the wild-card era, players in the Boston clubhouse were unaware the Red Sox are playoff bound.Dustin Pedroia hit his fourth career grand slam to help Rick Porcello get his major league-leading 22nd win, and the Red Sox clinched a playoff berth by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 6-4 Saturday night for their 10th consecutive win.Boston maintained a 5 1/2-game lead over Toronto for the division title and ensured no worse than the ALs second wild card. While the Red Sox technically have a magic number of one, the Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles play each other three times in the seasons final week -- meaning only one of them can win match Bostons 91 wins.Among the other wild-card contenders, only Detroit can reach 91 victories.I havent heard it, Red Sox manager John Farrell said moments after the game.Porcello was informed of the news by a reporter.Obviously, its big, Porcello said. Its the position that we wanted to be in coming into this last week of September. We definitely want the division going forward.Boston is on its longest September winning streak since an 11-game run in 1949.Pedroia stopped an 0-for-17 skid with a single in the sixth and gave Boston a 6-3 lead with a seventh-inning drive off Danny Farquhar.Everybody is obviously grinding, Pedroia said.Pedroia hit several foul balls, including one off his toe before going deep.You can see why hes as good as he is because he fought off some good pitches and got his pitch (a changeup) and crushed it, Farquhar said.Porcello (22-4) gave up three runs, eight hits and struck out nine over 6 1/3 innings. He just missed getting his 12th consecutive start of seven or more innings and three runs or fewer, which would have moved him past Cy Young (1904) and Pedro Martinez (2000) for the longest stretch during the same season in franchise history.Porcello is first Boston pitcher to have 22 wins since Martinez had 23 in his AL Cy Young Award winning season in 1999.Craig Kimbrel, the fifth Boston reliever, reached 30 saves for the sixth straight season despite allowing Logan Forsythes solo homer in the ninth.Brad Miller hit a two-run double in a three-run second that put Tampa Bay up 3-1 and gave him 80 RBI.Tampa Bay threatened in the second but failed to score due to two nice defensive plays. Pedroia made a throw from just in front of the outfield grass at second base on Mikie Mahtooks grounder to get Corey Dickerson at the plate. Third baseman Brock Holt made a solid play along the line on Alexei Ramirezs grounder and threw him out at first to end the inning.We made a couple of really nifty plays, Farrell said. Petey with a heads-up play and then Brock made a beautiful backhand play to finish the inning.TRAINERS ROOMRed Sox: Farrell didnt rule out 3B Pablo Sandoval (left shoulder) from coming back this year if an injury replacement is required in the postseason. . Knuckleballer Steven Wright (right shoulder) threw at 120 feet on level ground for the second straight day but is not ready to throw off a mound.RAYS: DH Nick Franklin (left hamstring) was in the lineup for the first time since Sept. 15. He did pinch hit twice in-between.LOOKING AHEADFarrell said LHP David Price will start Tuesday and Sunday, which lines him up for Game 2 of the AL Division Series.HONORING BIG PAPIThe Rays will honor Red Sox DH David Ortiz in a pregame ceremony Sunday before his final game at Tropicana Field. He will be just the fourth visiting player to be honored, joining Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Cal Ripken Jr. Whenever somebody takes their time to honor my career I always appreciate it, Ortiz said. Everybody has shown a lot of respect and love.UP NEXTRed Sox LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (3-7) will go against Rays RHP Jake Odorizzi (9-6) in Sundays series finale. Steve McNair Titans Jersey . -- Aldon Smith believes he is on the path to being sober for good. Warren Moon Jersey . Westbrook has missed 27 games since having a procedure on Dec. 27 to deal with swelling in his injured right knee — the third operation on the knee in nine months. http://www.authentictitanspro.com/Kevin-byard-titans-jersey/ .J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his left knee. Curley Culp Titans Jersey . -- In a span of seven Washington Redskins offensive plays, Justin Tuck sacked Robert Griffin III four times. Ryan Tannehill Titans Jersey . -- Bryant McKinnie came out of his stance and lowered his shoulder into a practice squad player, causing a crisp thud to reverberate in the Miami Dolphins practice bubble. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops found himself playing defense earlier this week, something his team has failed to do miserably at times this season.The 16th-ranked Sooners (5-2, 4-0 Big 12), who host Kansas (1-6, 0-4) in Big 12 play on Saturday night, come in off a video-game like 66-59 victory over Texas Tech that saw OU allow 854 total yards, including an astonishing 734 through the air. Thats more than a lot Sooner defenses would yield in a month not too far back.Oklahoma ranks 127th out of 128 FBS team in pass defense allowing an average of 342.6 yards per game. Only Arizona State (386.1) is worse. The Sooners are also allowing 36.7 points per game, just slightly better than the last place Jayhawks (36.9).Not surprisingly, Stoops defended his defensive coordinator. That would be his brother, Mike.Its the same coordinator that also we led the league in every defensive category a year ago and made it to the final four, he said. Were not running a new defense. He didnt bring in something different. Its the same defense. If its worked before, itll work again, and Ive got confidence in it. And Im also part of what were doing.Stoops spread the blame around even more, mentioning each of his defensive assistants by name.Its all of us, too. It isnt just my brother and I, he said. Didnt complete a sack, ball caught between the two linebackers, ball caught on a secondary guy. Its all of us together.Luckily for Stoops and the Sooners, the next two games are against the Big 12s worst teams -- at home against Kansas on Saturday and at Iowa State on Nov. 3.So this stretch could be a chance to work on things to get better or could give Oklahomas defense a false sense of improvement.Monday morning on the Big 12 coaches media teleconference, a reporter asked Kansas coach David Beaty if seeing the OU defense give up so many yards and points gave him examples of areas where the Sooners might be vulnerable. He didnt bite, saying Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who finished with 819 yards of total offense (734 passing and 85 rushing) obliterating the old NCAA record of 751 set by Washington States Connor Halliday in 2014, and the Red Raiders deserved more crredit for their showing.ddddddddddddThat wouldve been a challenge for the Dallas Cowboys, I believe it, Beaty said. (Mahomes) played his rear end off, he really did. He made some throws Ive never seen before.Beaty has his own problems to worry about. Kansas has dropped 16 consecutive Big 12 games and has lost 11 in a row to Oklahoma. The Sooners have outscored the Jayhawks by a combined 106-14 in the last two meetings.After a 44-20 loss to Oklahoma State last week, Beaty announced that quarterback Montell Cozart would continue on as the starter, a role the junior earned at the start of the season before his erratic play led to the promotion of sophomore Ryan Willis.Cozart completed 24 of 40 passes for 250 yards, all season-bests, with two interceptions and one touchdown as the Jayhawks trailed the Cowboys by just four points at halftime before Oklahoma State used a 27-7 second-half barrage to pull away.Montell, I thought, did a workmans job, Beaty said. Neither one of those picks were actually his fault.The Jayhawks have committed 25 turnovers this season, tops in the FBS, and are minus-13 in turnover margin. No matter how shaky Oklahomas defense may be, that is the recipe for a serious butt-kicking against an explosive Sooners offense led by Heisman Trophy candidate Baker Mayfield at quarterback, running back Joe Mixon and wide receiver Dede Westbrook.Mayfield, who finished fourth in Heisman balloting a year ago, ranks sixth in the country with 23 passing touchdowns and 335.4 passing yards per game and leads the pass-happy Big 12 in pass efficiency (194.9), completion percentage (.714) and yards per completion (15.45). He threw a school-record seven touchdowns and finished with 545 passing yards last week in the wild win over Texas Tech.Westbrook had nine catches for 202 yards and two touchdowns against the Red Raiders while Mixon finished with 377 all-purpose yards, the most by an FBS player this season and second most in OU history. He also registered a career-high 263 yards rushing and scored five touchdowns. ' ' '