[captioning made possible by espn, inc.] we're going to have an inside-the-park home run. standing up. this is "sportscenter." yankees in anaheim with a chance to clinch a playoff spot. the red sox meanwhile run into a cy young buzz saw in kansas city. the twins just keep winning. tigers, trying to hang on. and from the bright spotlight of the super bowl, to the harsh reality of life behind bars. plaxico burress begins his two-year sentence. >> he wasn't perfect but he was good enough. >> a little disappointed our players had so much to say. >> the rumors of him having a broken foot are incorrect. >> plus three high-profile quarterbacks still hurting. and is the u officially back? we head to coral gables to find out on "sportscenter." hey, what's up? i'm carmelo anthony. you're watching "sportscenter" l.a. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- hi. welcome to "sportscenter." along with neil everett, i'm stan verrett here in los angeles. carmelo anthony didn't just drop by to say what's up. he's going to be in the studio with us a little bit later for top 10 plays. meanwhile, right down interstate five from here the yankees face the angels with the red sox in their rear-view mirror and with bost in the fast lane that object in the mirror was a little too close for comfort. five-game lead for the yankees who had lost their last five in anaheim and the angels, 18-5 against the yankees at home since 2005. we got a-rod and kate hudson. they've been linked and this is supposedly -- we're spoofing the show "blind date." i haven't seen it. i probably shouldn't. a-rod, two-run home run. 27th. the yankees would be up 5-0 in this game. and it looks like time to go to the cashier's window. bottom six, so it's 5-4. vladimir guerrero with the bases loaded. a-rod the diving stop. guerrero out at first. let's keep it at 5-4. >> you got to pace yourself. save some material for later. >> chone figgins. howie kendrick steals on the pitch. figgins throws his bat at the ball. kendrick at third on the error. the tying run at third. next batter, maicer izturis. one out. and he singles. and this game went from 5-0 to 5-5. top nine, bases loaded. alex rodriguez, facing darren oliver. they just walked teixeria to load the bases. with one out and a-rod, he lines out to torii hunter and brett gardner on third wearing his p.f. flyers. he's safe. the yankees up 6-5 but remember they're up 5-0. strike him out, throw him out. the yankees win. the yankees win. 6-5 is your final. and with that, the yankees are playoff spot. and they clinch a playoff appearance for the 14th time in the last 15 seasons. their last three postseason appearances have been forgettable as they've lost in the l.d.s. all three times. memorable if you're the team that beat them. for manager joe girardi, this >> obviously where we -- expect to be every year, obviously the division is always the main goal. i mean, it's a point to win a game here. we battled hard yesterday and made a run with swisher and perhaps make it a one-run game yesterday. and the team's playing hard. and it's good to be in. and we got a lot of work ahead of us. >> it looks like these are the teams that are going to be at the adult table with the yankees in the playoffs. angels, they don't have a good history against them, new york doesn't. 4-5 this season. 5-1 against the tigers and will be the team they would face. -9 against the red sox. three mowill be his first playo appearance as a big league skipper. so the red sox, five back trying to keep pace in kansas city. trying to keep pace with the yankees and with zack greinke. looking for his 15th win on the season. and he had it working. top first, no score. kevin youkilis. got him. that will end the inning. the yankees -- greinke's record would be better if his offense was, too. that wasn't a problem in this game. bases loaded for mike jacobs. paul byrd walked jacobs on four straight pitches. next batter is alberto callapso, base hit. he had three hits and a walk. mitch maier comes in to score. the royals up 2-0. later in the first, royals up 3-0. alex gordon, that's going to drop. here comes jacob and callapso. the royals with a five-run first for greinke to give him some support. top third now, jason varitek, check out alex gordon. hustling. later in the third, greinke facing alex gonzalez. and he got him. top four, here comes youkilis again. and there goes youkilis again. david ortiz got him, too. top five, jason bay. i think you're getting the picture here. top six, ortiz, back at the plate, yuniesky betancourt will handle that one. greinke, six innings of work, struck out five, didn't give up a run. the royals win it 5-1. the 15th win for greinke makes him the first royals pitcher with 15 since his opponent on tuesday night, paul byrd, back in 2002. so now the yankees' win with the red sox loss puts boston back six games. the yankees in the playoffs either as a wild card or a.l. east champs. boston's been the hotter team over the last 10 games at 7-3 but the yankees the first team to lock up a place in the postseason. more on greinke. fighting for that cy young award in the american league, wins his fourth straight decision and gets to 15-8 and leads the majors with a 2.08 e.r.a. second with 229 strikeouts. his last five starts, 3-0, .26 e.r.a. peter gammons, peter gammons. there are still two and in some cases three starts to go before the cy young will be decided in the american league. but right now, zack greinke is the leader. the knock on him had been he hadn't start add game against either the yankees or red sox and started against the red sox on tuesday, two hits, no runs, brilliant. so now, ok, he's only got 15 wins but does have a 2.08 earned run average, tied with felix hernandez for the most quality starts. probably going to come down to greinke and hernandez. but right now, it's greinke's lose -- greinke's to lose. go to youtube for peter gammons. it's hilarious. greinke, 2.08 e.r.a. felix hernandez as peter mentioned having a great year as well. justin verlander leads the a.l., 245 strikeouts. but that number for sabathia, jumps out at you. the 18 wins, that's already in the playoffs. plaxico burress caught over 500 pass in his nine-year nfl career including the game winner and a super bowl. he fumbled just nine times. then there was the fumble off the football field. burress brought an unregistered handgun into a new york city nightclub. it slipped down his pants, he grabbed for it. it discharged. the fallout, two years in prison. beginning tuesday. here's sal paolantonio. the scene inside courtroom 1100 was very emotional. plaxico burress asked the judge for permission to say one last goodbye to his wife and young son. and then was led away by new york city police officers to the jail at rikers island. a surreal moment for a man who less than two years ago was holding up the lombardi trophy. >> i think what just happened in the courtroom with mr. burress being sentenced and remanded is terribly sad and very tragic. what i said on the record, i will repeat. you can violate the law, be subject to severe punishment, and not be a criminal. >> nfl commissioner roger goodell has already ruled that burress will be eligible to play again as soon as he's released from jail. which should be sometime in the spring of 2011 when burress will be nearly 34 years old. >> he's sad about what he's done to his life, his career. and more importantly, to his family. and he's a fundamentally good man who has used bad judgment and is going to pay a very, very severe penalty. >> before plaxico burress was escorted off to jail, the last words he heard from a family member came from his father. who said in a confident but somber voice, "be strong." in manhattan, sal paolantonio, espn. plaxico burress, eighth overall pick, 2000 nfl draft, steelers took him out of michigan state and still owns the steelers' single game receiving record and moved to new york in 2005 and from 2005 to 2007, his 29 touchdown catches were third most during that span. and then there was the game winner in super bowl xlii. roger cossack with more on burress' life now. it's never easy to serve time in prison. but it may turn out that plaxico burress' time in prison is going to be tougher for him than it is for most prisoners. because he is such a high celebrity individual and because the guys in prison are going to know who he is, to protect him is going to be the number one responsibility of the new york prison system and to do that, they may have to put him in places away from general population and sometimes that means that he may be serving prison time in a cell all by himself. prison time is tough enough. but when you have to do it, some of the time, all alone, it gets even tougher. plaxico burress is not going to have an easy two years. if he gets credit for good behavior, it will be 20 months. now, 20 months from now, is may of 2011. nfl teams will be done drafting and preparing for the upcoming season. burress will be a 33-year-old wide receiver who hasn't played in 30 months. more from the nfl on the way. featuring a redskins legend calling out the current skins head coach. about a particular play in the red zone that let's just say didn't work. and from a nasty case of turf toe to sore shoulders, the latest on three would be starting quarterbacks aching to play. the tigers scratching and clawing their way to the postseason. twins using home run power to try to catch them. it's "sportscenter" from the west coast. coach ditka, it's hot up here... and we're out of cold coors light. - what do we do? - go get it! great idea but we've only got ten bucks. what do you want, eleven? what do you want, eleven? - we need more than that. - ditka's wallet! and we got it. we just found your wallet. we'll just use a credit card for the cold coors light. hey! hey! hey! hey! frost-brewed coors light. official beer sponsor of the nfl. coach, i just bought a coors light t-shirt. what do you think? ain't no stretch there, baby. no stretch there. it's a little snug. tigers' hunt for october got a little more interesting because of the twins' recent run. detroit's lead in the central, 2 1/2 games. detroit in cleveland on tuesday and they had edwin jackson on the mound. that was a good thing for them. bottom second, trevor crowe up with two on and two out. crowe with the base hit and if you're counting crows he had two base hits. matt laporta trying to score from second but thrown out at the plate by ryan raburn. laporta out by several steps. hurt on the play, he would leave the game. raburn would remain in the game. this ball would not. raburn going along the or way, his 1/4. tigers up 1-0. miguel cabrera had an up-and-down night. top of the third, cabrera up with one on. this one off jhonny peralta's glove but asdrubal cabrera, in time at second. cabrera left five runners on through six. top eight, cabrera up again with two runners on. he'll bring a runner home this time. it's placido polanco. and he gives the tigers a 2-0 lead. bottom eight now, 3-1 tigers. bases loaded. and two out. brandon lyon in a bit of a situation. but he gets luis valbuena to get himself out of the situation. tigers win it 3-1. jackson is their good luck charm against the indians. he's 4-0 against cleveland this season. the twins also on the road, taking on the white sox in chicago. so they needed a win to keep pace. rookie jeff manship getting the start in a crucial spot for minnesota. top first, orlando cabrera up with a man on. that's off john danks. and it's not coming back. two-run shot. eighth of the year. for cabrera. twins are on the board early. 2-0. and manship, hanging a breaking ball to gordon beckham. and beckham going deep for his 13th. two-run shot. white sox up 4-3. manship lasted just 2 2/3, five hits, four runs. top five, game now tied at four, joe mauer up with two out and one on. scott podsednik almost got to it. but this isn't the almost "sportscenter." cabrera scores all the way from first on a close play. the twins back on top 5-4. bottom of the fifth, francisco liriano on in relief of manship. paul konerko getting to him. beckham will come all the way around from first. and chicago comes back to tie the game at five. but michael cuddyer did it for the twins. solo shot for him. his 29th of the year. minnesota regains the lead at 6-5. later in the inning, matt colbert off danks. off the top of the fence. they say it was a home run. tolbert's second home run of the year. big sixth inning for the twins helped them pull away and win 8-6. tigers and twins both remain so detroit's lead remains at 2 1/2 games in the a.l. central. twins, 12-8 this month, that's just one game better than the tigers. cardinals in a bit of a lull. they've lost 6-10. albert pujols, top three, two outs, two on, he singles. skip schumaker scores. and pujols with the r.b.i. sole possession of third place on the all-time r.b.i. record in franchise history behind stan musial, one, and eno slaughter, two. hunter pence, bottom sixth, 7-1 game, did pujols hurt his wrist? >> oh oh. >> he stayed in the game and was replaced in the bottom of the eighth inning. top seven, one out, bartender. jack. colby rasmus. his 16th. the cardinals are going to win 11-2 and they get 15 hits for the second straight game. joel pineiro back in form. the ninth loss in a row for the astros. you don't have to look any further than college football's preseason top five to see how injuries, especially at quarterback, can change the complexion of an entire season. rankings should come with if they stay healthy asterisk. move matt barkley from u.s.c.'s lineup and the trojans go 0-10 on third down at washington. take sam bradford from oklahoma, and they score 13 against b.y.u. which gave up 54 to florida state. those injuries change the season not only for those two teams but for others looking to take those spots if they can stay healthy. here's your update on those injured quarterbacks. barkley throwing at practice each of the last two days. pete carroll said he would like barkley to start if his jurt shoulder can hold up -- his injured shoulder can hold up. otherwise aaron corp gets the start at washington state. to our surprise in general, that matt barkley practiced throughout the practice. he wasn't perfect but he was -- but he was good enough to perform yesterday. i'm anxious to see how he feels today after throwing quite a bit yesterday and took half the snaps, he and aaron shared the snaps. but looked his best since he was injured a couple of weeks ago. so we'll see what that story to find out how it goes. monday, we reported that reigning heisman trophy winner sam bradford made some throws at oklahoma's practice that day. tuesday coach bob stoops had nothing to report on that report other than to say he wished nothing had been reported. i'm not going to detail day to day a little disappointed our players had so much to say. not that we're at all trying to be coy or anything that's behind the scenes outside of we just don't want -- i don't want sam to have to deal with the pressure of everybody's expectations. too early to speck lately. -- to speculate. i'm not going to get into the speculation. so once he's comfortable, and ready to play, i'll have something to say. and until then, i'm not going to deal with it every day and don't want our players and team giving percentages or he did this much and not that much. and everybody gets determined, well, that's enough to play or that isn't enough to play. i just don't want to do it. so i'm going to choose not to. >> notre dame not a title contender unless you ask lou holtz but they're dealing with injuries, too. they won't have receiver michael floyd for the rest of the season but charlie weis says there's no truth to the rumor that jimmy clausen is out for the year. he's got a turf tturday depends heals. the m.r.i. came back negative other than the turf toe. so rumors of him having a broken foot and being done for the year are incorrect. but he does have a turf toe. and probably hold him from practice today. our plan is to give jimmy some of it on wednesday, all of it on thursday, and see how it goes from there. >> notre dame at u.s.c. on a collision course in south bend on october 17. here's what they have in the meantime. saturday, u.s.c. takes on washington state. notre dame will be at purdue. that game on espn. october 3, the trojans, big game against number six cal. notre dame takes on the washington team. they beat u.s.c. both teams off on october 10. before they meet up in south bend. nfl. former notre dame quarterback brady quinn hurting statistically, not physically. quinn will start against the ravens on sunday. quinn won a training camp battle with derek anderson but hasn't won anything since. the browns are 0-2 with the nfl's worst offense. vince lombardi called redskins quarterback sonny jurgensen the best he had ever seen. high praise. jurgensen would later be inducted into the pro football hall of fame. the highest praise. now radio analyst for washington, jergen sen with no praise for a third quarter play call by skins coach jim zorn this past weekend. third and five, jergen sen blitzing the coach on the postgame show. third down, i'm the quarterback, or you are the quarterback, and you call the halfback throwing the ball for me? i'm calling time-out or calling an audible. i'm not letting halfback throw it. that's what you pay me for. >> then i would have to take you out of the game as soon as you called time-out. i would say what's wrong with my play? because i'm -- >> it didn't work. >> no, but i called it to work, all right? we called it to work and didn't work. there are a lot of plays that didn't work. and i take you out of the game. sorry, sonny. >> and he put in billy kilmer because they had juergensen and kilmer. the red zone play calling might be questionable. washington has scored a touchdown on less than 45% of its trips inside the red zone since coach zorn took over last season. that's the fifth worst mark in the nfl during that time period. they scored just two touchdowns more college football news on the way. the current miami hurricanes starting to look like the old miami hurricanes. are they officially back or just better? and arguably the best soccer player in the world, lionel messi, with two great goals on tuesday while his national team may miss out on the world cup. and back to baseball. the giants pretty much in a win or else scenario. especially if the rockies keep doing what they're doing. another rally, another dramatic finish next. you can settle down. you can fire it up. you can tune it in, but it's still not summer... until you bring it out. bud light lime. superior drinkability. ultimate refreshment. a splash of 100% natural lime flavor. one taste and you'll find, the summer state of mind. bud light lime. but put a ring of cheese in the crust 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(anouncer) introducing pizza hut's new stuff crust pan pizza. your favorite pan piz with a jackpot of melted cheese in the crut. a large one toppinis just $10.99. this is onstar reporting a stolen blue chevy tahoe, south on i-75, near exit 5. we're on it. onstar, we may have that tahoe. ok, i'll flash the lights. we got it. it's in the clear. i'm sending a signal to cut the power. we got him. mr. ross, the police have recovered your tahoe. >> ♪ i don't think you're ready to go stop me when you've had enough ♪ national league wild card. colorado with a four-game lead. san diego, now 45 degrees, no wonder carmelo is hanging out in l.a. bartender, how about a mojito or mohica? brad hawpe off edward mujica. 20th of the season. first since august 29. 4-2 rockies. troy tulowitzki. every time you see him he's knocking in somebody. scores here. scores a run here. rockies up 7-6. how about top five? chase headley groundi