The Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Clint Hurdle on Sunday.

The NL Central-worst Pirates fired the 62-year-old Hurdle after a 69-92 record, the franchise's worst since 2010 (57-105).

Hurdle had two years remaining on his contract. He had been the third-longest-tenured manager in the majors, behind only the retiring Bruce Bochy of the Giants and Ned Yost of the Royals.

"Words cannot express how much respect and appreciation I have for Clint as a person and a leader," general manager Neal Huntington said in a statement. "He was the right person at the right time to take on the enormous challenge of leading our Major League team out of an extended losing streak and piloting us to three straight Postseason appearances. We will be forever grateful for his dedication to the Pirates organization on and off the field. This was an extremely difficult decision for us. As an organization, we believe it was time for a managerial change to introduce a new voice and new leadership inside the clubhouse.

"This has been a challenging season on many levels. We are committed to assessing and improving upon our operations at all levels in order to return Postseason baseball to Pittsburgh."

Huntington will not be fired, chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement.

"While we felt it was time to make a change at the managerial level, I strongly believe Neal Huntington and the leadership team that he has assembled are the right people to continue to lead our baseball operations department," Nutting said.

Hired as manager in 2011, Hurdle led the Pirates to winning seasons in four of his nine years. They made the playoffs three times, the last coming in a 2015 NL wild-card loss to the Cubs.

But Pittsburgh has hit a dry spell since, and bottomed out in 2019 as losses and a series of on- and off-the-field incidents piled up.

In July, reliever Keone Kela was suspended two games by the team for a confrontation he had with its performance coach. Weeks later, the Pirates suspended bullpen coach Euclides Rojas for two games after an altercation he had with reliever Kyle Crick.

In early August, Hurdle was among eight suspended for his role in a benches-clearing brawl with the Reds sparked when Kela threw up and in at Cincinnati's Derek Dietrich.

In September, Crick needed season-ending surgery on the index finger of his pitching hand after he was injured in a clubhouse fight with closer Felipe Vazquez. The following week, Vazquez was arrested on multiple felony charges, including sexual assault of a minor.

The Pirates were one game under .500 at the All-Star break, 2½ games behind the first-place Cubs in the NL Central. But they proceeded to win just four of their next 28 games to plummet out of contention.

The 2018 trade deadline deal with the Rays for Chris Archer backfired. The right-hander is 6-12 with a 4.92 ERA since joining the Pirates, while two of the players acquired for him, outfielder Austin Meadows and pitcher Tyler Glasnow, have blossomed with Tampa Bay.

Not everything was Hurdle's doing, but it was enough for him to be fired. He finishes with a 735-720-1 record over his nine seasons in Pittsburgh, winning 2013 NL Manager of the Year along the way.

The Chicago Cubs are moving on from Joe Maddon, the manager who led them to their first World Series title in 108 years, team president Theo Epstein and Maddon announced Sunday.

Maddon, 65, is officially a free agent after the Cubs missed the postseason for the first time in five years. A nine-game losing streak in late September sealed the fate of the Cubs, and possibly Maddon, as well.

Maddon and Epstein made the announcement in St. Louis, where the Cubs are trying to play the rare recent role of spoiler in keeping the Cardinals from clinching the NL Central.

"We're both going to move on," Maddon said. "Hopefully, the Cubs are going to flourish. Hopefully, I get a chance to do this someplace else. But there's no tears shed. It's a good moment for everybody. And we're both excited about our futures."

The Cubs finished above .500 in each of Maddon's five seasons. His .582 winning percentage ranks second all time in franchise history, behind only Frank Chance (768-389, .664, from 1905 to '12).

"We both agreed that, this type of change, that it's time and that this type of change is a win-win." Epstein said, adding that the Cubs were at a point where they needed a change.

"We never could have imagined this working out as well as it did," he added. "I personally never could have imagined having such a wonderful partner, someone so loyal and supportive and someone from whom I learned so much about baseball and life."

Cubs slugger Anthony Rizzo said that Maddon told the team of his decision a few days ago.

"It was a great night, kind of a bittersweet night," Rizzo said. "Just talking to Joe. He's in a good place."

Rizzo said that Maddon't going out on his own terms.

"He's a living legend in this game, a bridge to the old and the new," he added, saying that he's like a father to him.

Maddon came to Chicago after nearly a decade with the Tampa Bay Rays, whom he took to the 2008 World Series.

He did one better with the Cubs, guiding them to 103 regular-season wins in 2016 and then a long-awaited World Series title that postseason. He was credited with changing the culture and creating a loose atmosphere for his players during a pressure-filled time. His "Embrace the Target" slogan was the right touch in a year when many picked the Cubs to win it all, even before spring training began.

The World Series win was not without controversy, as Maddon's pitching maneuvers were scrutinized during and after the victory. Still, he'll go down as the manager who broke the longest championship drought in professional sports history.

"It's hard to express kind of how (it) feels. You kind of feel like it could be an end of an era," said veteran utility man Ben Zobrist, who played for Maddon in Tampa Bay and Chicago. "When I look at my career, he's at the top. ... Joe's a special person. Those kind of people, let alone managers, don't come along very often."

Maddon's last two years in Chicago, however, were plagued by underachievement on several levels. Although the Cubs won 95 games in 2018, they lost in the NL wild-card game to the Colorado Rockies, and upper management decided to hold off talks of a contract extension, challenging Maddon to be the "best version" of himself heading into 2019. After a 2-7 start to the season, the team went 23-7 over the next month, vaulting into the NL Central lead.

But the Cubs played .500 baseball over the next four months, treading water but hanging around in the playoff race. The wheels came off on their final homestand in September as the Cubs lost two of three to the under-.500 Cincinnati Reds before being swept by the first-place Cardinals, losing each of the four games by one run.

Maddon signed a five-year, $25 million deal with the Cubs before the 2015 season and received a $1 million annual salary bump after winning the World Series. He ranks fifth in franchise history in wins and managed the team to four straight playoff appearances, a franchise record.

"I can't say enough positives about what Joe has done, flat-out, for this organization," Cubs pitcher Jon Lester said last week. "Up until this year we led MLB in wins [over the past four years]. That's a testament to him. We broke a 108-year curse. ... He should be revered as a legend in this town for a long, long time."

From savior to saying goodbye, the Joe Maddon story in Chicago has had all the elements of a good drama -- but it doesn't have the happiest of endings for the manager who was in the dugout for the most successful stretch in franchise history, highlighted by the Cubs' 2016 World Series victory.

Maddon's tenure is coming to its end at the same time a disappointing season does. On Sunday, the team announced there will be no contract extension for the man with the second-highest winning percentage in franchise history.

Maddon's dismissal from the Cubs boils down to one sentence: He wasn't able to outmanage the mistakes the front office saddled him with. The issues go deeper than just those 13 words, of course, but it's important to keep in mind the collective failure of the group -- which includes management, coaches and, of course, players.

Maddon is the scapegoat in this story, but he allowed himself to become one by overseeing an underachieving team two years in a row, culminating with an epic collapse to end this season.

Why Maddon is out

Was Maddon set up for success the past two seasons? Not entirely. But he was in charge of a roster that was expected to win big and still had a chance to do so, despite some pretty clear flaws.

He and the Cubs need to look no farther than 90 miles north of them to see a team that did all the things the Cubs could not when adversity struck. The Milwaukee Brewers managed to -- fill in the cliché here -- rise to the occasion, rally around an injury and respond to their manager. Craig Counsell is likely the NL Manager of the Year for leading a team with all sorts of holes on its roster and that lost its best player at the worst time. Sound familiar? That could have been Maddon and the Cubs, but instead Chicago crumbled under the weight of the stretch run as it became evident that the magic of 2016 was gone for good.

"It's hard to put your finger on it or place blame on any one group," veteran Daniel Descalso said. "As a collective whole, we just didn't do enough. We never got into that gear to push past that barrier and get on a roll."

The old saying that staying on top is harder than getting there rings true for these Cubs. Beginning in 2018, the thread that kept them all going in the same direction began to come apart. The cumulative losses of edgy leaders such as David Ross, Miguel Montero and John Lackey began to affect the clubhouse. Left in their place was a group of good leaders by example but not necessarily the type to get in a player's face.

And neither was Maddon.

"When you make a lot of errors in the field, when you make a lot of errors in the baserunning, that's momentum," pitcher Cole Hamels stated. "That's an area that could get corrected. There's still a lot of players in here that are still learning."

That's not to say Maddon didn't have stern conversations with his players, but the sloppy results indict him either way: Either he didn't address matters strongly enough, as errors and outs on the bases piled up to league-leading highs, or the message didn't get through.

The lack of accountability can manifest in many ways, obvious and not so obvious. Leading the league in bad baserunning and unfocused defense is obvious; not progressing as a player or forgetting to play a team game is more ambiguous but is no less on the manager.

"Especially in this city, with the expectations on this franchise, you have to stay a little bit more on it [the little things]," Hamels continued. "Giving away games, early in the year, understanding they will come back and bite you."

And bite they did. The Cubs were in no position to withstand a fluky run in September when they lost five straight one-run games. The answer was to be better earlier.

It isn't Maddon's fault that Albert Almora Jr. stopped hitting, David Bote stopped fielding, Hamels got hurt, Jon Lester showed his age, Kyle Hendricks couldn't win on the road, Willson Contreras and Kyle Schwarber kept getting thrown out on the bases, and the front office signed Craig Kimbrel months too late. But even the most earnest Maddon defenders have to admit one indisputable fact: It all happened on his watch.

"I still don't get why we made all those mistakes," Descalso opined. "They really hurt us."

His legacy

The majority of Cubs fans -- you know, the ones not tweeting angrily all day -- will recognize the contributions Maddon made to the team and the city during his tenure. He really was the perfect person at the exact right time to lead the Cubs to the promised land.

What was so special?

Maddon firmly believes that playing loose is the only way to play. Yes, it sounds like something that backfired eventually, but in 2015, and especially in 2016, his team faced immense pressure to do something that hadn't been done in over a century. So many previous Cubs teams had fallen victim to what comes with trying to end the longest championship drought in pro sports history. Maddon defused that tension while providing an atmosphere where young players could contribute right away.

"Joe is great," reliever Pedro Strop said. "He lets us be us and just go play."

In terms of Maddon's best moves during that time, two come to mind. In the book "Try Not to Suck," a bio of Maddon, Cubs president Theo Epstein says the manager's best work came in relation to benching perennial All-Star Starlin Castro while promoting 21-year-old Addison Russell to starting shortstop. It showed Maddon was willing to make the tough decision and tell the truth to a veteran. The next spring, he came up with the slogan "Embrace the target," which meant the Cubs were not going to run away from the lofty expectations the baseball world had bestowed on them in 2016. Instead, they were going to meet them head-on. And they did.

"That was really smart," general manager Jed Hoyer said after the World Series. "Joe did a great job of taking all the pressure off and letting the guys just go play."

What came after the 2016 season was always going to be rockier than most wanted to believe. After one championship in 108 years, did people really think the Cubs would go 2-for-2 or even 2-for-3? Many obviously did, but Epstein is too smart to fire a manager simply because he didn't win a second championship. Either way, Maddon's legacy should be cemented. The ending wasn't great, but the body of work speaks for itself. Lester said it best: Maddon should be revered in Chicago. And he will be, especially as the frustration of the past two seasons begins to fade.

"The way that it's ending is tough to see," Kris Bryant said. "The guy is a legend here. A legend. Winning so many games here and completely turning this team into a winning team and culture. I don't think he's getting enough credit for what he's done."

What's next for the Cubs?

The Cubs might already have their next manager in mind, but at the very least they should know the qualities they need. Maddon worked hard to connect with a younger generation of players, but a younger manager and former major leaguer will inherently speak the millennial language. Whether the next manager has experience or not, he had better understand the ever-changing dynamics within a pitching staff, especially as it relates to the National League. If people wondered about Maddon's bullpen maneuvers, what will they say of a rookie manager's?

Just as important as any in-game decision, the new manager must work with a firmer hand. By their own admission, Cubs players have been pampered by owner Tom Ricketts and team brass. It's first class all the way, but the players haven't always reciprocated. In a sense, it feels as if they've taken advantage of their parents and now need a little more discipline in their lives.

"Every player and situation calls for something different," Descalso said. "There's some really respected guys in this clubhouse and when they speak, guys listen. Leadership here is good, but leaders come in different forms and personalities."

Is there one candidate who best fits all those attributes? Counsell's name comes to mind as the prototype of what Chicago is looking for, but he already has a job. Ross has some of those qualities but no experience running a pitching staff. Joe Girardi could qualify but might not connect the way the Cubs need. No matter what happens, the Cubs need a new leader for a new way. The old way led to a magical moment in 2016. Now it's time for something different. And for their sake, it had better be better.

Warren Gatland says Wales should celebrate World Cup victory over Australia, but must not take anything for granted for the rest of the tournament.

Wales have taken control of Pool D by beating the Wallabies and will win the group if they defeat Fiji and Uruguay.

Gatland's side would then face the runners-up of Pool C which is likely to be England, France or Argentina.

"The pool is in our own destiny," said Gatland.

The victory marked captain Alun Wyn Jones setting a new Wales cap record of 130 appearances and Gatland believes his side must acknowledge this achievement before looking to face Fiji in Oita on 9 October.

"We have got a break and I would like to see the boys celebrating and they deserve to pat themselves on the back and say well done," said Gatland.

"It was a tough game and a great win.

"Alun Wyn Jones has become the record cap holder for Test matches for Wales and we need to recognise that because it's special.

"But we have only won two games at the moment and make sure we do a job for the other games which we think are going to be tough.

"We can't take any team for granted in this group and need to be as clinical as we possibly can. That is what good teams do."

Gatland praised his side's resilience after they led 26-8 and withstood an Australia second-half recovery.

"It was a tough match," said Gatland.

"I thought we played pretty well in the first half and Australia were very good in the second-half and put us under a lot of pressure.

"It became a very typical Wales and Australia clash and it went down the right wire. I thought our players showed great composure."

Biggar and Williams injury worries

Wales fly-half Dan Biggar will go through return-to-play protocols failing a head injury assessment in the first half, while Liam Williams picked up an ankle problem late on.

Gatland praised Biggar's character after he tried to inspire Patchell and the rest of the Wales team down the tunnel at half-time.

"Dan failed a HIA and he will have to go through the protocols. I had a chat with him and he says he is feeling good, but we have to make sure we do go through those protocols over the next week,

"He was disappointed he came off, but I thought he was was brilliant in the way he was encouraging Rhys and it was important for him as well."

'Fantastic' Patchell

"I thought Rhys came on and did a fantastic job for us," said Gatland.

"He has been criticised a lot about his defence in the past and he changed a few things. His line speed was excellent and he made some big tackles and controlled the game pretty well.

"It was a big match for him to come on that early and to get a win will give him a lot of confidence.

"Liam rolled an ankle. He should be okay he will just need a little time.

"There are some sore bodies in there with a short turnaround and the players said it was one of their toughest Test matches for a long time.

"We need to make sure we recover. We have nine or 10 days until our next match so we will use that in the best way we can to freshen up the guys. It is nice to have a decent break."

Catch up with all the World Cup news and analysis on Scrum V, BBC Two Wales from 18:00 BST on Sunday, 29 September .

Alexis Sanchez scored twice but was later sent off for simulation as Inter Milan beat Sampdoria 3-1 in Serie A action on Saturday.

Sanchez, on loan with Inter following a disastrous spell with Manchester United, made the most his first start. The Chile international scored by deflecting in Stefano Sensi's long-range opener after 20 minutes and tapping in another Sensi cross two minutes later.

The 30-year-old ex-Arsenal star was then sent off after receiving a second yellow card for diving just after the break, leaving his side to play the entire second half a man down.

Jakub Jankto pulled a goal back for the hosts, but Roberto Gagliardini added the third for Antonio Conte's side to keep their perfect record intact.

"This key moment [the sending-off] could have destroyed any other side, but the lads kept up the fight and managed to find a balance again after some changes were made," Antonio Conte said. "We were dominating the game and everything changed in an instant. There was a risk that the lads would collapse, but they stuck to the task and showed that we're on the right path in terms of our mentality."

Conte's side visit Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday before hosting one of his former teams, eight-time defending champion Juventus four days later. Juventus beat SPAL earlier Saturday on goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Miralem Pjanic to also remain without a loss this season.

Neymar has compared his relationship with Paris Saint-Germain supporters to a romantic one and said he would give his life on the pitch for the French champions.

The Brazil international was jeered upon his return this season after summer-long links with a transfer to Barcelona.

- Laurens: Neymar's failed move to Barca - the definitive story
- Court sets new date in Neymar, Barca dispute

After scoring his third goal in four games this season as PSG beat Bordeaux 1-0 on Saturday, Neymar said of the supporters: "Yes, much better.

"It is like being in a relationship with a girlfriend. When things are not going well with her, you go without speaking.

"However, through love, affection and cuddling, things go back to normal. I am here to help PSG -- to fulfil my role as a player for this club.

"I will give my life on the pitch to help PSG succeed and for us to be able to celebrate together."

Meanwhile, PSG coach Thomas Tuchel said he was unhappy with Neymar's attempt to leave the club in the summer.

"I knew of Neymar's desire to leave," Tuchel said. "He knew it displeased me. For me, it was not the right time, nor the right decision.

"As coach, he knew I did not want that. Ultimately, we both knew it was not my decision -- nor his.

"He needed a club that could pay the price and he also needed PSG to accept. We both accepted the decision was not in our hands and agreed it would not impact our relationship as there was still the possibility that we would remain working together."

In what could be seen as encouraging developments for the prospect of Sri Lanka playing a Test series in Pakistan before the end of the year, Sri Lanka coach Rumesh Ratnayake said he hoped this series would encourage more Sri Lankan players to tour Pakistan. The three-ODI, three-T20I series currently being played by Sri Lanka in Pakistan is in lieu of the originally scheduled two-match Test series which was postponed owing to several first-team Sri Lankan players' reluctance to tour Pakistan at this time.

"This will be a pre-cursor for that [Test] tour [in December]," Ratnayake said. "I'm sure this will certainly encourage the others to take decisions, but we can't enforce it on them. They have taken a decision and we have to respect that, but certainly if things go well, this will be a huge thing for the future, not only for them but for all other countries to be here."

The tour was affected by ten Sri Lankan players deciding against touring, resulting in Sri Lanka selecting a somewhat inexperienced team to tour Pakistan. Compounding their problems, head coach Ratnayake said the team's "preparation hadn't been that good". Regular afternoon rains during much of the last week inhibited the teams' ability to get full training and practice sessions in, and Ratnayake revealed wet weather in Sri Lanka had hampered their ability to turn up fully prepared.

"Even before we came here, the preparations were hampered by rain. It seems as if it's raining in the whole world. We had only had a day's training outside, and today was the second day. So as you can imagine, the prep hasn't been all that good, but that's not going to be an excuse because they are all professional players. "The people who have taken their place are challenged to do well, it's for their future also, so I hope there won't be any rain."

If anything, the elements may throw up the opposite challenge for the sides. Following a week with unseasonal, torrential downpours in a city completely ill-equipped to deal with them, a stiflingly hot, humid weekend meant spending much time outside practicing would push players' physical fitness to the limit. Ratnayake, however, was already busy working away at several strategies to motivate his players, which included playing up to the image of his side being comprehensive underdogs.

"There are various ways of motivating them. One is the challenge of facing this Pakistan team, and we talked about the Pakistan team being Goliaths and us not. That's the sort of the way we are motivating them, but they are professionals and I'm sure they'll do what's needed to be done.

"The challenge today was from the heat rather than the rain. It was sunny but the focus was for the batsmen to know the sort of conditions they will face during the match, and ensuring they train well enough to be prepared for whatever comes their way."

While much of Pakistan will be tuned in to the cricket over the next week, they will, like Ratnayake, be hoping the Sri Lankan players who opted to stay home will be watching closely, too.

A deal between the Dallas Cowboys and star quarterback Dak Prescott is not close at this time, and no extension is expected in the near future, sources told ESPN.

No one doubts that a deal eventually will get done, given that Prescott wants to be in Dallas and the Cowboys want to keep him.

But a deal is not happening anytime soon, despite Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' recent claims that an extension was "imminent." This, according to sources, was never the case -- this deal has not yet gotten close to being done.

There has not been any type of setback in talks between Prescott and the Cowboys -- because a deal has never gotten close and isn't close now -- according to sources. Prescott's price isn't going down, not with the way he's playing and with quarterbacks signing deals that financially leapfrog the ones before them -- and Dallas knows it has its own protections.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes stands a strong chance of becoming the highest-paid player in NFL history this offseason, which will only give other top quarterbacks such as Prescott more leverage in negotiations.

But Dallas also could have the ability to protect its top free agents this offseason. If no collective bargaining agreement is reached this season, teams will have the ability to use a franchise and a transition tag this offseason, meaning Dallas could use one on Prescott and the other on free-agent-to-be wide receiver Amari Cooper.

However this situation works out, Prescott looks as if he's betting on himself this season, much in the same way Joe Flacco did in 2012 before he cashed in on a new contract after Baltimore's Super Bowl victory.

Prescott, 26, has spearheaded the Cowboys' 3-0 start to the season, completing a league-best 74.5 percent of his passes for 920 yards and nine touchdowns. He trails only Mahomes for the NFL lead in passing touchdowns and quarterback rating (128.0).

Antonio Brown's battles will shift from social media to the legal variety.

Brown is the first player in NFL history poised to file nine grievances and appeals during the same time period, league sources told ESPN.

Brown's nine appeals and grievances will be a legal battle to try to recoup as much of the $61-plus million that he believes is owed to him.

The grievances and appeals involve the following issues and sums of money:

• Fine appeals with the Oakland Raiders: $215,000

• Salary guarantees with Oakland: $29 million

• Signing bonus with Raiders: $1 million

• Oakland's unpaid Week 1 salary: $860,000

• New England Patriots' salary guarantee: $1 million

• Patriots signing bonus: $9 million

• Patriots' unpaid Week 3 salary: $64,000

• Patriots' option year in 2020: $20 million

As if that wasn't enough, if the NFL disciplines Brown and suspends him -- which is well within the realm of possibility -- Brown could appeal that as well, which would make him the first player in NFL history to have nine different appeals generated from one season.

Brown again made headlines with his social media activity Saturday when he traded jabs with Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield on Twitter. He also took shots at Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former Pittsburgh Steelers teammate Ben Roethlisberger as part of a Twitter tirade last Sunday morning.

Brown, who has been accused of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by two different women, was released by the Patriots last week, making him an unrestricted free agent, eligible to sign with any team. The NFL is conducting an investigation into the allegations.