Pittsburgh Pirates closer Felipe Vazquez admitted to police that he tried to have sex with a 13-year-old girl and sent her nude photographs and videos of himself committing sexual acts, according to a criminal complaint released Wednesday by Pennsylvania State Police.

Vazquez, 28, was arrested Tuesday and charged with six counts in Pennsylvania and Florida, including multiple felonies, related to his contact with the now-16-year-old girl. A judge denied him bail in Pennsylvania, where the charges filed include statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of a minor and indecent assault.

Police said Vazquez met the girl while in the bullpen at PNC Park in Pittsburgh and communicated with her through text messages and social media. Vazquez, according to the complaint, "claimed initially that he refused to communicate with her due to her age," saying the girl appeared to be 16 or younger.

Vazquez told police he exchanged nude photos and videos with the girl, who was then 13, and drove to her home in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. When Vazquez, then 26, arrived, the girl got into his car. She told police he pulled down her pants and tried to have sex with her.

Vazquez attempted to have sex with the girl, he told police, but he said he needed to leave because he had a game that night, according to the complaint.

Vazquez admitted to later sending more text messages to the girl.

The charges in Pennsylvania followed two charges in Florida, where the girl and her family now live, for soliciting a child for unlawful sexual conduct using a computer or device and giving obscene material to a minor. The girl's mother found photographs allegedly sent from Vazquez on her daughter's device and called police, spurring the investigation.

Major League Baseball placed Vazquez on administrative leave after the arrest and is awaiting further information from police before considering disciplinary actions.

Jonnie Peacock, Libby Clegg and Hannah Cockroft among athletes on 43-strong British team for global event in Dubai in November

A British team of 43 athletes has been selected to compete at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai in November.

A total of 11 reigning world champions from London 2017 feature in the squad, including 10-time world gold medallist Hannah Cockroft, grand slam champions Hollie Arnold and Sophie Hahn and two-time Paralympic gold medallists Aled Davies, Jonnie Peacock and Richard Whitehead.

Also among the returning world champions are Olivia Breen, Kadeena Cox, Sophie Kamlish, Sammi Kinghorn and Stef Reid.

Making her return to global competition after the birth of her son, Edward, in April, is double Paralympic champion Libby Clegg, who will be guided in the T11 200m by Thomas Somers.

Dan Greaves will not be competing, however, as the discus thrower has been ruled out of attending his seventh world championships due to injury.

? Pains me to write this but unfortunately due to injury I won’t be attending my 7th World Championships in Dubai in November.

Gutted that my body failed my mind!

Times like these are extremely annoying but sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture

Health is Happiness pic.twitter.com/VSO5ukrT9g

— Dan Greaves (@DiscusDan) September 17, 2019

Race Running makes its debut at the World Para Athletics Championships after featuring at last year’s European Championships, where the British team secured two titles and four medals.

Rafi Solaiman and Kayleigh Haggo will headline the RR3 100m, with European champion Gavin Drysdale and Ellie Simpson also among the best in the world over the discipline.

Sprinter Ola Abidogun earns his first British vest since the IPC European Championships in Swansea in 2014. The 2012 Paralympic silver medallist, who balances a career as a solicitor alongside his athletics, will race in the T47 100m and form part of the universal 4x100m relay squad.

“I am delighted to be able to select a team of 43 for the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai,” said British Athletics’ para athletics head coach, Paula Dunn.

“The event is a key competition in the cycle as well the final opportunity to take on the best in the world at a global championship before Tokyo, and I’m really excited to see how this team performs in two months’ time.

“Alongside this, we have four athletes making their senior debuts for the British squad and I’m very pleased to see them joining this team after demonstrating they are ready for this level of competition. It is testament to their hard work and progress during the season.”

She added: “We enjoyed our best ever world championships at the biggest edition of the event in London two years ago, but we are not complacent. Para-athletics is ever evolving and athletes from all countries have continued to improve since then. I expect our team to step up and show their ability on the international stage.”

British team for the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai, November 7-15

Women
Kare Adenegan – T34 100m & 800m
Hollie Arnold – F46 javelin
Martina Barber – T20 long jump
Olivia Breen – T38 long jump & 100m
Jo Butterfield – F51 club throw
Lydia Church – F12 shot put
Libby Clegg (guide runner: Thomas Somers) – T11 200m & universal 4x100m relay
Hannah Cockroft – T34 100m & 800m
Kadeena Cox – T38 200m & 400m
Sabrina Fortune – F20 shot put
Kayleigh Haggo – RR3 100m
Sophie Hahn – T38 100m, 200m & universal 4x100m relay
Sophie Kamlish – T64 100m
Sammi Kinghorn – T53 100m & universal 4x100m relay
Maria Lyle – T35 100m & 200m
Anna Nicholson – F35 shot put
Stef Reid – T64 long jump
Ellie Simpson – RR3 100m
Ali Smith – T38 100m, 400m & universal 4x100m relay
Hannah Taunton – T20 1500m
Vanessa Wallace – F34 shot put

Men
Ola Abidogun – T47 100m & universal 4x100m relay
Paul Blake– T36 400m & 800m
Jonathan Broom-Edwards – T64 high jump
Mickey Bushell – T53 100m
Richard Chiassaro – T54 100m, 400m, 800m & 1500m
Aled Davies – F63 shot put
Gavin Drysdale – RR3 100m
Kyron Duke – F41 shot put
Jordan Howe – T35 100m
Harri Jenkins – T33 100m
Nathan Maguire – T54 100m, 400m, 800m & universal 4x100m relay
Owen Miller – T20 1500m
Jonnie Peacock – T64 100m & universal 4x100m relay
Ben Rowlings – T34 100m, 400m & 800m
Luke Sinnott – T63 long jump & T61 200m
Zak Skinner – T13 long jump & universal 4x100m relay
Andrew Small – T33 100m
Rafi Solaiman – RR3 100m
Isaac Towers – T34 400m & 800m
Richard Whitehead – T61 200m
Thomas Young – T38 100m

Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has said he deserves to end his career with more Ballon d'Or awards than Barcelona's Lionel Messi and hopes to establish himself as the greatest player of all time.

Ronaldo, 34, has won the renowned France Football magazine trophy for the world's best player five times -- as many as Messi -- but is eager for more as he moves into the twilight of his career.

- Champions League group stage: All you need to know
- ESPN Champions League fantasy: Sign up now!

"Messi's in the history of football," Ronaldo told broadcaster Piers Morgan in an interview with Britain's ITV on Tuesday.

"But I think I have to have six or seven or eight to be above him," he said, referring to the Ballon d'Or awards.

"I'd love it, I think I deserve it."

The Portugal captain said he was no friend of the Argentine but credited his rival for helping push him further in his own career.

"My relationship with him is, we are not friends, but we have shared this stage for 15 years," Ronaldo said. "I know that he has pushed me to be a better player and I have pushed him to be a better player as well."

Ronaldo, who also played for Manchester United and Real Madrid, has five Champions League winners' medals and led Portugal to victory at the 2016 European Championship and 2019 Nations League tournaments.

"I don't follow the records, the records follow me. I'm addicted to the success, and I don't think it's something bad, I think it's good," Ronaldo said.

"It motivates me. If you're not motivated, it's better to stop."

This should be about the game. About a club, Paris Saint-Germain, taking yet another crack at winning the biggest prize in club football after three straight seasons of controversial exits by wafer-thin margins. And their visitors Real Madrid, the game's ultimate blue bloods, halfway in rebuild mode as they pursue their 14th European Cup as an antidote to consecutive nightmarish domestic seasons.

But it's not. It's the Dysfunction Derby between two icebergs with far too much going on beneath the surface.

Real Madrid finished third in La Liga last year and the year before, by an average of 19 points: way off the pace of the eventual champions in both seasons, Barcelona. The unprecedented Champions League three-peat alleviated some of the rancour but most expected a revamp, particularly after the departures of Ronaldo and the resignation of Zinedine Zidane in the summer of 2018.

Instead, Zidane is back and rather than a rebuild, we've had a minor tweaking, with Eden Hazard and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (who arrived last summer and has been less than stellar at times) the only flashy newcomers. Nine of their 10 most frequently used outfield players thus far were also there for the first of their three straight Champions League titles; the other, Vinicius Junior, doesn't turn 20 until next summer.

- Laurens: Don't expect PSG to succeed in Europe this year
- Summer of unwanted stars: Why Bale, Neymar didn't move
- Ogden: Breaking down the Champions League groups

PSG was supposed to be the rising, Qatar-fueled force in European football, boasting both the heir apparent to the Cristiano Ronaldo-Lionel Messi duopoly (Neymar) and the next in line (Kylian Mbappe). The former tried every which way to leave, the latter is injured. As for the Qatari cash, it may have moved the needle until two seasons back but now, because of FFP and overly optimistic financial projections, they're forced to break even like any old mom-and-pop operation.

Just this past weekend Neymar, the most expensive player in the history of the game, finally made his return to action for PSG and was met with a cacophony of boos, insults and banners inviting him to get the hell out. Which, of course, he would have been only too happy to do if the club had reached a deal to send him back to Barcelona. Instead, as Neymar himself pointed out, PSG "blocked" the move. (Or, because every story is its own Rashomon with multiple sides, "refused to sell a star player for less than they thought he was worth.")

Neymar, though, is nothing if not a pro. A maddening, infuriating, occasionally liberty-taking pro with a weird tendency to pick up injuries around the time of his sister's birthday, but a pro nonetheless. And one who can conjure magic out of thin air, as he did deep in an injury-time with a highlight-reel buzzer-beater that earned PSG a win over Strasbourg.

(He won't be involved on Wednesday -- a result of the ban he received for an expletive-ridden Instagram post berating referees after PSG were eliminated from the Champions League last year -- but his shadow will continue to loom large over the club's fortunes this season.)

Less than 24 hours later and some 600 miles away, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez faced the club's annual general meeting amid murmurs and discontent. "People say I know about numbers, but if there's something I know about, it's football!" said Perez. "There are clubs who win a league and then don't win anything in Europe for God-knows-how-many-years. And why are we great? Because we've won the European Cup 13 times."

Perez also had to fend off a question from the floor about club captain Sergio Ramos. The Spanish defender contributed greatly to four of those cups, most recently 16 months ago, but to some he's become a distraction and Ramos himself had to call a news conference last May to announce that he was going nowhere. Perez's questioner lamented Ramos' passion for social media, outside projects (like the Amazon fly-on-the-wall documentary about himself) and the fact that he "wore a pink hat that made him look like a Swedish tourist."

Tumultuous doesn't quite do the situation justice at either club. We crossed the "entertainment brand" rubicon years ago, so perhaps the above shouldn't be entirely surprising. But there's the collateral damage that comes (along with, let's face it, collateral revenue via sponsors and brand recognition) from hoarding superstars: both clubs' rosters groan under the weight of hefty veteran contracts they can't shed and the self-inflicted hurt these clubs brought upon themselves.

Then there's the fact that few saw this coming a year ago, which only makes this worse for both clubs.

PSG are on a knife-edge in terms of Financial Fair Play, UEFA rules that regulate each club's spending. This year and last, PSG's roster has been made up of a core of pricey superstars -- Angel Di Maria, Thiago Silva, Edinson Cavani, Marquinhos -- but also a smattering of youngsters and blue-collar role players. Guys like, say, Colin Dagba, who is 21 and made his top-flight debut only last year, or Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who made 31 appearances last year after joining from Stoke, a side that finished second-bottom in the Premier League the year before. It's also why, after years of free spending, they actually made a profit in the summer transfer window, padding out the squad with free agents (Ander Herrera from Manchester United), swaps (signing goalkeeper Keylor Navas from Real Madrid and sending Alphonse Areola the other way) and loans (Mauro Icardi from Inter).

- The definitive story of Neymar's failed Barcelona return
- Sign up and play our Champions League fantasy game

Navas and Herrera were on the bench for most of last season and Icardi was unwanted by Inter to the point that he was suspended for six weeks in the middle of the season last year and was told, publicly and repeatedly, his services were no longer needed. All three are pedigreed veterans with a chip on their shoulder and you can see the logic in tapping into their desire to resurrect their careers. But, perhaps most crucially, all three were also cheap.

Real Madrid had the opposite sort of summer, lavishing nearly $250 million on four players: defenders Ferland Mendy and Eder Militao, winger Hazard and forward Luka Jovic. The problem is that we haven't seen much of them yet -- between them, they've started just one game -- which makes it hard to get overly excited. Much of that has to do with injuries (Hazard only made his debut on Saturday) but much of it has to do with the fact that this is a side in flux.

Zidane has rotated systems and personnel and you should expect to see more of the same in Paris: Ramos is suspended while Marcelo, Isco, Marco Asensio and Luka Modric, stalwarts of the previous Champions League run, are all injured.

What Madrid fans have seen plenty of instead this season are Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez, two players they spent most of the summer trying to shed. Bale, one of the highest-paid players in the world, was told flat out by Zidane he was surplus to requirements. But unwilling to take a pay cut -- and with nobody wanting to match his $30 million-plus annual salary and pay a transfer fee -- he went nowhere.

Bale, whose performances have ranged from stellar to anonymous to M.I.A. (due to frequent injuries), was often harangued by fans and media alike for such crimes as failing to learn decent Spanish and being too obsessed with golf. (He has a nine-hole course in his ample backyard and some of his injuries have been blamed on his practice swings.) But when Zidane realized he was stuck with him, he took his lemons and made lemonade: Bale started Real Madrid's first three games and he, like James, has been one of the better performers.

Bottom line? Things have not been what either side expected and maybe that's at the heart of the discomfort and restlessness among fans of the two clubs.

In these situations, the Champions League is a respite, albeit a double-edged one. A strong performance and a result and you can start to spin the narrative in your direction. If you're PSG, you remind folks that Mbappe will be back (though not on Wednesday: he's sidelined as are Edinson Cavani and Julian Draxler). And if you're Madrid, you sell the line that you're still the Gold Standard in Europe, that Zidane is still the alchemist Galactico whisperer and that Hazard is, in fact, a game-changer.

But there's a downside, too. Take a beating and it's more salt in the open sores. Restlessness and discomfort live in the same neighbourhood as frustration and anger.

For both these clubs, it's time to get out of town.

Trevor Bayliss believes a reduction in the number of first-class counties could help England bridge the "huge gap" between county and international cricket.

Victory at The Oval ensured England maintained their unbeaten home series record in Test cricket under Bayliss' five seasons as head coach, though he will probably be remembered best for coaching the side to their maiden World Cup victory earlier in the year.

But in a wide-ranging exit interview with ESPNcricinfo, Bayliss has questioned "whether the county game is producing the players we need" and suggested a reduction in the number of teams from 18 to ten in a bid to improve the quality of competition. He also feels the quality of county pitches must improve if developing players are going to be given the best opportunity to prepare for the higher level.

"You have to ask whether the county game is producing the players we need," Bayliss said. "Is the competition underneath [the England team] doing the job it should be? There's a huge gap between county and international cricket. Huge.

"Again and again, we've picked the best players in the county game. And again and again, they've found the gap too large to bridge. Our top players come back from county cricket and they're not complimentary about the standard. They don't think it helps prepare them for international cricket.

"The pitches are soft and damp. So bowlers get far too much assistance and batsmen don't get into the habit of building long innings. Those same bowlers then come into Test cricket and they find the pitches do almost nothing and the ball won't swing round corners. And the batsmen find the pace of the Test bowlers a shock.

"If you had better pitches - pitches that offered less to bowlers - you might start to see some fast bowlers developing. You might see more spinners developing. You might even see some better slip catchers because I think the big problem in English cricket is concentration. Players have forgotten how to concentrate for long periods of time. They just don't have to do it at county level.

"I'm not criticising groundsmen. They have a tough job, because there's too much cricket and the Championship starts in early April.

"But no one seems to want to get their head down and guts out a score. The attitude seems to be, 'I'd best get on with it before an impossible ball comes along.' But maybe that's partly because society has changed. Everything is quicker now.

"The ECB and the counties have to pull in the same direction. There has to be a collaborative approach ensuring that England is at the heart of it. Ultimately, a successful England team, across all formats, will naturally benefit the game at county level and even have a positive impact on grassroots.

"I think there are too many teams. If you had fewer - maybe ten - the best players would be in competition against each other more often and the standard would rise. I think you'd see tougher cricketers develop. Cricketers who are better prepared for the Test game.

Bayliss also expressed his incredulity over counties offering stints to overseas players who will, later in the same season, use that experience in Test series against England. Marnus Labuschagne, for example, prepared for the Ashes by representing Glamorgan and adapted to conditions so well that he finished the series as Australia's second-highest run scorer.

"I find it incredible that Marnus Labuschagne, Peter Siddle, Cameron Bancroft, James Pattinson and the like are invited over to play county cricket ahead of an Ashes series," he says. "There's no way Australia would allow England players to acclimatise in the Shield ahead of an Ashes series. And quite right, too. I think the ECB should have a look at that.

Bayliss he suggested there should be more knockout cricket at age-group level to help prepare players for high-intensity moments in the professional game. "Australian cricketers are tough and robust. They come up through a system which prepared them for Test cricket. From age-group cricket into club and Grade cricket, they play semi-finals and finals. So they get used to played knock-out cricket. They get used to playing under pressure. I think England could do with more of that.

Read the full interview here

COSTA MESA, Calif. -- In a video chat with his Instagram followers on Tuesday, Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon said he's "going to play somewhere" this season and that "it would be a waste of talent" if he did not.

Gordon also said that even though the Chargers finished 12-4 in L.A. and reached the postseason in 2018, last year "was good, but nobody [fans in L.A.] cared."

Gordon continues to hold out due to a contract impasse with the Chargers. Gordon's representation asked for and was granted permission by the Chargers to pursue a trade, but so far no deal has materialized with another team.

Gordon is scheduled to make $5.605 million in the final season of his rookie deal. Just before the season started, Chargers general manager Tom Telesco announced that the team postponed negotiations with Gordon until the season is over. If Gordon chooses to report he will play under his current contract.

Gordon desires a contract extension that will compensate him among the top running backs in the league like Todd Gurley, David Johnson and Le'Veon Bell, who earn an average of $13 to $14 million annually. During training camp the Chargers offered Gordon a new contract that doubled his salary at roughly $10 million annually.

Gordon likely will continue to sit and wait to see if his leverage in negotiations changes during the season, depending on the Chargers' record or injuries at his position.

If all that fails, the NFL's constitution and bylaws state that players on the Reserve/Did Not Report List are "prohibited from being reinstated in the last 30 days of the regular season."

If Gordon wants to play this year he would have to report no later than Nov. 29 (31 days before the end of the regular season).

Gordon also needs to report by then to earn credit for this season so he can become an unrestricted free agent in 2020. However, the Chargers can still place the franchise tag on Gordon next season and could control his rights for the next two years.

Gordon continues to train in San Diego during his holdout.

Watching the Oakland Athletics play the past two nights, one feature stood out, aside from the baseball itself: the football yard lines still visible on the field at the Oakland Coliseum. This signifies two important things:

1. The A's are unlike any other franchise;
2. The Raiders apparently have not yet moved to Las Vegas.

The A's are the only team that still shares its stadium with a football team. This, of course, was commonplace for much of baseball history, especially for the three decades beginning in the 1970s when municipalities built multipurpose stadiums that might have lacked charm but served a useful purpose. In 2019, however, the yard lines are symbolic of the issues the A's face when competing against the rich kids of the sport.

Yet, somehow, under Billy Beane and David Forst in the front office, and Bob Melvin as manager, the A's continue to plug along and have success. They've won 91 games so far and currently hold the lead in the American League wild-card race, a tense three-team battle with the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians. After 2018's surprising 97 wins and appearance in the wild-card game against the New York Yankees, this season's run isn't as much of a shock given the weakened nature of competitive balance in the AL, but it's still impressive. The A's have had to overcome issues in the rotation, the demotion of 2018 All-Star closer Blake Treinen, and the even tougher season of 2018 major league home run leader Khris Davis.

What they've received is four superlative performances that have been mostly ignored in the dust of the Houston Astros' romp to the top of the standings. Consider:

Matt Chapman: He finished seventh in the MVP voting in 2018 and has followed that breakout campaign with another season. The batting average is down from last year, but he's going to win the Gold Glove again, has hit 34 home runs, has more than 70 extra-base hits and has missed only five games. He also has killed it in high-leverage situations: .287/.358/.617 entering Tuesday's game.

It's the defense that makes him so valuable. After leading the majors with 29 defensive runs saved last season, he ranks seventh this season with 17. He won the AL's Platinum Glove as the league's top defender and he could win it again (only Indians catcher Roberto Perez has more DRS in the AL). Because of that defense, Chapman ranks fifth among AL position players in Baseball-Reference WAR. He might be the most underrated player in the game.

Marcus Semien: Chapman does not, however, lead the A's in WAR. His left-side infield mate has had a monster season with 7.1 WAR entering Tuesday -- that's higher than Miguel Tejada's MVP season of 2002, is the best in A's franchise history and the second best by any shortstop this decade, behind Francisco Lindor's 7.9 in 2018. Some of that is quantity: Semien has played every game. But he also has popped 31 home runs, has already scored 117 runs, has 76 extra-base hits ... oh, and has become a solid defender at shortstop.

In Semien's full first season as the Oakland shortstop in 2015, he made 35 errors -- including 24 in the first three months. The A's stuck with him, believing in his athleticism and work ethic, and with help from then-A's coach Ron Washington, Semien improved. This year, he has emulated Chapman and started each pitch in a lower crouch. He has a career-high .980 fielding percentage and plus-1 defensive run saved, so the metrics regard him as an average shortstop and the eye test says he's even better than that. Excellent bat, good defense, durability. That's a potential top-five MVP candidate.

Matt Olson: One reason the A's got off to a slow start -- they were 19-25 on May before embarking on an 11-game winning streak -- is Olson injured his hand in the second game of the season in Japan against the Mariners and didn't return until May 7. It took him awhile to get going and that's when the A's started taking off. Olson has 34 home runs in 117 games -- that's a 44-homer pace over the 151 games the team has played.

Oh, he's also a terrific defender. Some regard him as the best defensive first baseman in the majors (he also won a Gold Glove in 2018) and his 10 DRS in 2019 lead the majors. With Chapman and Olson anchoring the defense, the A's have the fourth-best defensive efficiency in the majors (that's simply the percentage of balls in play turned into outs). They rank just 12th overall in DRS -- but first in UZR, a different defensive metric.

Liam Hendriks: Last June, the A's designated the veteran reliever for assignment. "The A's are set to part ways" with Hendriks, according to MLB.com. The club had seven days to trade him, release him or put him on waivers. When Hendriks eventually cleared waivers, he accepted an assignment back to Triple-A Nashville. He worked his way back to the majors and even ended up starting the wild-card game against the Yankees as the opener (that didn't get go so well).

Forward to 2019, and I'm watching him against the Astros last week and he fires two 100-mph fastballs to Jose Altuve. Yes, the guy who averaged 90 mph with his fastball when he reached the majors with the Twins as a starter in 2011 is now reaching triple digits -- at least on rare occasions. "The more I think, the worse I am," Hendriks told The Athletic's Ethan Strauss in August. "This year, I don't care who's hitting."

With Treinen failing to duplicate his stellar 2018, Hendricks became the Oakland closer and is 4-3 with a 1.68 ERA entering Tuesday, with his 80⅓ innings ranking second among more traditional relief pitchers. Maybe this year he pitches the ninth inning of the wild-card game instead of the first inning.

Maybe the most remarkable aspect of the long-running Beane regime is this is now his third block of success with the A's -- all on shoestring budgets and all without reverting to tanking, like the Astros and Cubs did to spearhead their rebuilds (and like so many other teams are now attempting or recently attempted). He had the original Moneyball powerhouse team that made the playoffs from 2000 to 2003 (with the remnants of that team winning one more division title in 2006). They made the playoffs from 2012 to 2014, although that 2014 season ended with the bitter loss to the Royals in the wild-card game. And now they've built the 2018-2019 contenders.

In all those years, the A's have had only three top-10 picks in the draft and none in the top five. They took A.J. Puk sixth overall in 2016, Austin Beck sixth in 2017 and Kyler Murray ninth in 2018. Yet here they are. No sure-fire first-round studs, no big free agents, just a fun, exciting and gritty team that has gone 43-22 since the beginning of July. Yes, that elusive World Series appearance is still out there and getting past the Astros, Yankees and Twins won't be easy -- and they have to first get past the Rays and Indians to get that shot at the AL powerhouses anyway. Still, if you like a good underdog story, this is one to root for.

Luis Severino finally made his season debut for the New York Yankees, pitched four shutout innings, topped out at 99 mph, threw 47 of 67 pitches for strikes and even talked Aaron Boone into letting him pitch an extra inning.

As the Yankees start to focus on their postseason pitching plans, Severino's outing couldn't have gone much better, considering his limited rehab work in the minors as he returned from shoulder and lat injuries. Suddenly, a playoff rotation with some serious concerns looks a little stronger and definitely deeper.

Severino's outing got off to a shaky start when Los Angeles Angels leadoff hitter Brian Goodwin worked a 12-pitch walk and David Fletcher followed with a base hit. Severino got a double play to escape that inning and allowed just one hit and a walk in his final three innings. In fact, his night appeared to be over after the third inning, but he went back out in the fourth to finish his stint. He hit 99 mph three times that frame, looking much like the two-time All-Star who went 33-14 with a 3.18 ERA the past two seasons:

Luis Severino said Aaron Boone wanted to take him out after the third inning because he saw some fastballs at 93-94. Severino said he'd give him velocity in the next inning and went out and threw 98.

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) September 18, 2019

As he watched from the dugout railing as the Yankees built on a 2-0 lead and cruised to an 8-0 victory, Severino was all smiles:

LIVE look-in at Yankees fans after watching Luis Severino's RETURN.#SevyDay ??? pic.twitter.com/TZNiSvogKj

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 18, 2019

Yes, this was a bad Angels lineup missing Mike Trout, but Severino flashed his filthy stuff, including a wipeout slider to go with his high-octane four-seamer. His swing-and-miss rate of 26.5% was right on par with the 26.8% he averaged last year.

"My fastball command, I think, was great," Severino said. "I still need to work a little bit more in sliders to left-handers."

Obviously, it's one game, and we'll have to see how he bounces back in his next appearance, but it's a huge positive for the Yankees.

"Looked pretty good out there, pretty sharp," catcher Austin Romine said. "We need Sevy where we're going. He's pitched some big games for us, and we look forward to him pitching some more big games for us."

Boone will spend these final two weeks figuring out how he'll work his rotation for those big games. James Paxton has won nine consecutive starts, posting a 2.50 ERA and .170 opponents' average in that stretch, and is looking more and more like the Game 1 starter. After that? Who knows. Masahiro Tanaka has been inconsistent all season; he has allowed two runs or fewer in 16 of his 30 starts but still has a 4.60 ERA. He has allowed 16 hits and eight runs in nine innings in his past two starts. Domingo German has 18 wins, but his last outing was a four-inning relief appearance as Boone perhaps prepares him for a bullpen role in October.

Indeed, what we might see is Paxton and perhaps Tanaka used in more traditional roles, and then Boone perhaps will use tandem starters in the other two slots, some combination of Severino, CC Sabathia, German and perhaps J.A. Happ (two righties and two lefties, which could be beneficial). Or maybe Severino can work his way up to 90-100 pitches and be ready to go five or six innings. After that, Boone will lean heavily on his bullpen, though the ranks there thinned out, as Dellin Betances, who just made his season debut on Sunday, is done for 2019 after the Yankees announced that he suffered a partially torn Achilles tendon in that outing.

If Severino looks this good in his remaining work, I slot him behind Paxton and go with a rotation of Paxton, Severino, Tanaka and Sabathia/German tandem -- with lots of innings from the league's best bullpen.

Severino's return from injury so late in the season to a potential prominent role in the postseason wouldn't be unprecedented. In 2015, Marcus Stroman made just four late-season starts for the Blue Jays after tearing his ACL and then started three times in the playoffs. In 2012, Chris Carpenter didn't return for the Cardinals until Sept. 21. He made three starts and then three in the postseason (the final three of his career, as it turned out). The Yankees will hope Severino makes more than three starts -- more like four or five, a number that will indicate the team has made the World Series and Severino is throwing well.

Correa also returns: Carlos Correa had been out since Aug. 19 with lower back stiffness and went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the Houston Astros' 4-1 win over Lance Lynn and the Rangers. He was a little rusty; no surprise there, plus Lynn isn't exactly chopped liver. He fanned Correa swinging in the second on a 95 mph pitch up and away (good location), on a 1-2 cutter swinging at the knees (good wipeout pitch and location) and got Correa to line out softly to shortstop in the seventh (just 54-mph exit velocity). Correa then fanned swinging against Jose Leclerc.

Still, adding Correa and hitting him seventh ... yeah, that's no fun for opposing pitchers:

Why is Carlos Correa and his .911 OPS hitting 7th?

[checks rest of lineup]

Good God.

— Mark Armour (@MarkArmour04) September 18, 2019

Meanwhile, Justin Verlander helped his Cy Young case with six scoreless innings to run his record to 19-6 with a 2.50 ERA. Alex Bregman helped his MVP case with his 37th home run. Yordan Alvarez helped his Rookie of the Year case -- well, who are we kidding, he's going to win that easily -- with a 454-foot missile to center field, his 26th home run.

Brewers win again, beat Padres 3-1: Brandon Woodruff returned from the injured list to pitch the first two innings of a bullpen game, Mike Moustakas hit a big, go-ahead home run in the seventh, and Drew Pomeranz blitzed through the final two innings, six up and six down, to get the save and keep Josh Hader on the bench for a night. That's 11 wins in 12 games for the Brewers, including a 7-1 record since the night Christian Yelich got hurt in the first inning.

If this feels vaguely familiar, it's because the 2018 Brewers won their final eight games to wrest the division title from the Cubs. Of course, that was in large part due to Yelich, who hit .458 with five home runs and 17 RBIs those final eight games. This year, they don't have their MVP. In this 12-game stretch, they're hitting just .235/.326/.430 (they've averaged 5.0 runs per game due to some timely hitting). The pitching has been terrific, allowing 3.4 runs per game.

Worth repeating: The Brewers play all sub-.500 teams the rest of the way. They picked up a game on the Cardinals and Cubs, so they're now tied with Chicago and two games behind St. Louis. Those two teams have seven games against each other. The Brewers might sneak in and steal the division, which they haven't led since July 5.

Five is fine: When Miguel Sano launched a mammoth 482-foot moon blast for his 30th home run, it gave the Twins five 30-homer sluggers -- an MLB first. Sano joins Nelson Cruz, Max Kepler, Mitch Garver and Eddie Rosario in the 30-homer club. Twelve other teams in MLB history have had four 30-homer guys. And don't count out the Astros from getting there. Bregman and George Springer already have 30-plus. Yuri Gurriel has 29, Jose Altuve 28 and Alvarez 26.

Biggio matches dad with a cycle: Have a day, Cavan Biggio. The Blue Jays rookie went 4-for-5, hit for the cycle and stole two bases. Trivia time! He's the second player in 100 years to hit for the cycle and have multiple stolen bases (joining Charlie Moore, who did it for the Brewers in 1980). He and Craig also become just the second father-son duo to hit for a cycle, joining Gary and Daryle Ward.

Yaz homers at Fenway: That feels like a headline from 40 years or 50 years ago, but it's true: Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of Hall of Famer Carl, homered at Fenway Park for the Giants, something his grandfather did 237 times in the regular season in his career (and four more times in postseason games). Carl was there:

A special night for the Yastrzemski family.
#SFGiants pic.twitter.com/oILYtdV1cK

— San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) September 18, 2019

Red Sox fans responded with a standing ovation.

One of the best moments of the season.