KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes criticized his own performance four games into the season Wednesday. The two-time and reigning league MVP says he must play better if Kansas City wants to defend its Super Bowl title. Mahomes threw for just 203 yards with a touchdown pass and two interceptions last Sunday night in New York, though he made a couple of big plays with his legs to preserve a win over the Jets. Even with Mahomes playing poorly by his standards, the Chiefs have won three straight after their season-opening loss to Detroit and lead the AFC West. They play at Minnesota on Sunday.
Travis Kelce agrees with the idea that NFL TV coverage is “overdoing it” with the amount of times Taylor Swift has been shown while attending his Kansas City Chiefs' games the last two weekends. Swift was in a suite Sunday night at MetLife Stadium for the Chiefs’ victory over the New York Jets in prime time. Jason Kelce told his brother during their “New Heights” podcast that cameras showed live shots of the suite 17 times during the game. Ian Trombetta, the NFL’s senior vice president of social, influencer and content marketing, said in an interview with The Associated Press that “there’s always chatter around different celebrities and so on that are attending different games, but this took a life of its own."
UNDATED (AP) — The Southeastern Conference, both present and future, takes center stage Saturday. At the state fair in Dallas, No. 3 Texas and No. 12 Oklahoma play the final Red River Rivalry game as members of the Big 12 before joining the SEC next year. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey will be in attendance. Red River is the first part of a Lone Star State doubleheader for Sankey. He will head over to College Station to catch the midafternoon game between No. 11 Alabama and Texas A&M. In the SEC East, No. 20 Kentucky visits No. 1 Georgia.
UNDATED (AP) — The NCAA Division I Council approved a smaller window during which football and basketball players can enter their names into the transfer portal and retain immediate eligibility for the following season The transfer windows will decrease from 60 to 45 days. The council also voted to eliminate the caps on how many players Division I football teams can sign in a year. Overall scholarship limits will remain in place. The council recommended changes to penalties related to gambling violations and the NCAA announced it would advocate for states to provide more protections for college athletes in their gambling laws.
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UNDATED (AP) — Oklahoma-Texas is the main attraction in Week 6 of the college football season and one of three games matching Top 25 teams. The No. 12 Sooners and No. 3 Longhorns will meet for the 95th consecutive year in Dallas but the last as members of the Big 12. Both move to the Southeastern Conference next year. No. 23 LSU visits No. 21 Missouri in only the second meeting of the teams since Mizzou entered the SEC in 2012. No. 10 Notre Dame visits No. 25 Louisville in what will be the Cardinals’ first major test following a 5-0 start.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bryson Stott crushed the second grand slam in Philadelphia Phillies postseason history and Aaron Nola tossed seven shutout innings in a performance worthy of a postseason ace that led to a 7-1 win and a two-game sweep over the Miami Marlins in their NL Wild Card Series. The Phillies advanced to an NL Division Series rematch against Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson and the Braves. Game 1 in the best-of-five set is Saturday in Atlanta. J.T. Realmuto also homered for the Phillies.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Zac Gallen settled down after a shaky start and Arizona’s bullpen stepped up at the very end, helping the Diamondbacks sweep their NL Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-2 victory in Game 2. Just two years after suffering through a 110-loss season, Arizona moved into the franchise’s first NL Division Series since 2017. The Diamondbacks will take on the NL West champion Dodgers in the opener of their best-of-five series on Saturday in Los Angeles. The NL Central champion Brewers have dropped nine of their last 10 playoff games, a stretch that started with their Game 7 home loss to the Dodgers in the 2018 NL Championship Series.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins swept the Toronto Blue Jays in their AL Wild Card Series with a 2-0 win in Game 2. Sonny Gray pitched five effective innings and Carlos Correa contributed an RBI single and a quick-twitch tag off a pickoff throw from Gray that ended the fifth. The Twins advanced for the first time in 21 years. They will play the defending World Series champion Astros. Game 1 of the best-of-five AL Division Series is in Houston on Saturday. Twins relievers logged 7 1/3 scoreless innings in the series. The Blue Jays left nine runners on base each game.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Adolis GarcĂa and Evan Carter homered to back Nathan Eovaldi, and the Texas Rangers beat the punchless Tampa Bay Rays 7-1 to finish a two-game AL Wild Card Series sweep. Garcia and Carter, a 20-year-old rookie who became the second-youngest postseason player in franchise history, homered off 16-game winner Zach Eflin, who was unable to save Tampa Bay’s season. Texas advanced to a Division Series at AL East champion Baltimore starting Saturday. The Rays’ scoreless streak reached 33 innings, one shy of the postseason record held by the 1966-74 Los Angeles Dodgers, before Curtis Mead’s RBI single in the seventh.
ATLANTA (AP) — Fans who are returning to baseball for the postseason will find Ronald Acuña Jr. and other speedsters playing a different game. Players are running much more than a year ago thanks to new rules, which also promise to have an impact on the playoffs. There were 3,503 stolen bases in the regular season, a dramatic jump of more than 1,000 from a year ago. It’s the highest total of thefts since 1987. Expect the rampant running to continue in the playoffs. Acuña is the charter member of the 40-70 club. The Atlanta Braves star led the majors with 73 stolen bases and is the face of the game's renewed emphasis on speed.
ANTWERP, Belgium (AP) — Led by Simone Biles, the U.S. women have won a record seventh consecutive team title at the gymnastics world championships. The American team of Biles, Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely and Leanne Wong combined for a total of 167.729 points to edge Brazil and France. The U.S. team won by a margin of 2.199 points as the final proved to be a closer contest than anticipated after the Americans put up a dominant performance in qualifying. The U.S. women have won gold in the team event at every world championship that included a team competition since 2011. Their victory in Antwerp broke a tie with the Chinese men and made Biles the most decorated female gymnast in history.
WEDNESDAY SCORES
AMERICAN LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Final Texas 7 Tampa Bay 1
Final Minnesota 2 Toronto 0
NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS