National Sports

St. Louis batters struck out 14 times and stranded 10 runners to get swept for the first time this season. 

A six-run ninth inning propelled Kansas City to 9-1 win. 

Players will build homes in Joplin and Tuscaloosa, Ala. About half the funding will come from State Farm.

Part of a new proposal would have Major League Baseball fund one full scholarship for each Division I program. Spokesmen say talks are in the earliest stages.

By Tony Stewart's standards, his tongue-in-cheek assessment of NASCAR's latest wreckfest at Talladega was tame stuff. But his four-minute Q&A following Sunday's race was vintage Smoke, and boy did he deliver.

Brad Keselowski finished first at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday in Talladega, Ala.

Jockey Mario Gutierrez, riding in his first Derby, guided the 3-year-old colt ahead of Bob Baffert's Bodemeister and a late closing Dullahan to win on a fast track.

Albert Pujols, stumbling through the longest home run drought of his 12-year career, was not in the Los Angeles Angels' starting lineup Saturday for the first time this season.

The 20-horse field for Saturday's race is stacked with potential favorites, making it one of the hardest Kentucky Derbys to predict in recent memory.

After beating St. Louis 4-2 on Thursday night, Los Angeles could clinch its first trip to the conference finals since 1993 in Game 4 on Sunday.

Down 2-0 in their second-round playoff series, the Blues know Game 3 on Thursday night at Los Angeles is vital. Only three teams have overcome a 3-0 deficit and advanced.

The entry box closed Wednesday morning, with the draw to determine post positions set for later in the afternoon. The field is limited to the top 20 horses based on earnings in graded stakes races.

The 2012 USA men's basketball team was drawn into Group A with Argentina, France and Tunisia for the London Games in Rio de Janeiro, and U.S. head coach Mike Krzyzewski said the going is going to be extremely competitive.

Unlike the first round, the St. Louis Blues have serious injury issues heading into Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Kings.

Albert Pujols has been struggling just to get hits, much less home runs with the Angels and is hitting just .226, well below his career average of .328 with the Cardinals.

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The guys in charge met Wednesday for about eight hours to discuss overhauling how a champion is determined in Division I college football and possibly implementing a four-team playoff.

The NCAA's board of directors is scheduled to hear a recommendation Thursday that would give low-resource schools an additional year to meet new minimum Academic Progress Rate standards that will be tied to postseason eligibility.

The conference commissioners in charge of the Bowl Championship Series will meet again to try to sort out the future of the BCS.

Goals would seem to be at a premium for the teams after their opening round wins, and the Blues are confident they've got two goalies who are just as stingy as Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick, who was ruled out Monday because of an injury.

The Blues are in the playoffs for just the second time in seven seasons. St. Louis will face Los Angeles in the second round.