es). With so many players on the injured list for most of the season, including Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis, the Yankees have, not surpr

AUBURN, Ala. - Gus Malzahn said his quarterback race was close all August, then showed just how close it was Saturday night.Auburn threw into the end zone on the games two final plays, but Clemson survived for a 19-13 win.Sean White, Jeremy Johnson, John Franklin III, Kerryon Johnson and even H-back Chandler Cox stepped through the revolving quarterback door to set up Daniel Carlson field goals and a late Kerryon Johnson TD run. It wasnt enough despite a comeback second half. Clemsons high-powered offense did just enough aginst a tough-minded Auburn defense in front of a sold out Jordan-Hare Stadium on opening night.No. 2 Clemson came in with all the offensive fanfare, but Carlsons 32-yard field goal with 13:46 remaining cut Clemson lead to 13-6. Auburn then cut it to 19-13 with 3:22 left on a 9-yard Kerryon Johnson touchdown run.Sean Whites final two passes were batted away in the final seconds.A Deshaun Watson pass to Hunter Renfrow, who made a nothing-you-can-do-about-it great catch, made it 19-6 with 9:59 left. Clemson turned Auburn away on a fourth-down pass from the 8, before Johnsons touchdown run minutes later.Auburn tried to catch Clemson off guard the whole game. Receiver Stanton Truitt got three quick carries. Sean White, Jeremy Johnson and John Franklin III all threw a pass in the first quarter. Kerryon Johnson finally hit the half with 10 rushing yards, but, as a team, Auburn had just one.The Tigers picked it up in the second half.Johnson hit his first three passes and led Auburn to its first score, a Carlson 53-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. It was the sixth time that Carlson had blasted a field goal of at least 50 yards in his career, an Auburn record. Kevin Phillips also had a career-best 68-yard punt in the first half.Auburns defensive line held steady early and it took a fourth-down 1-yard run by Wayne Gallman to finally get Clemson a 7-3 lead with 7:34 left in the first quarter.Auburns defense turned away another scoring opportunity when Derrick Brown recovered a fumble caused by Darrell Williams. But Clemson tacked on a Greg Huegel field goal with 0:07 seconds left in the first half for a 10-3 lead.Clemson scored first in the second half on a 40-yard field goal for a 10-point lead. Auburn was still hanging around, though, despite the fact Clemson has run 49 plays for 255 yards. Auburn had run 26 plays for 38 yards.Auburn found its offense by mixing White, Johnson and Franklin, driving to the Clemson 5 late in the third quarter. But Johnson was stopped on fourth-and-2.UP NEXTAuburn hosts Arkansas State on Saturday. Clearance Shoes Ireland . -- Vincent Lecavalier got everything but the desired result in his return to Tampa Bay. Under Armour Ireland Outlet . Terms of the deal were not immediately available. The 26-year-old finished last season with Clevelands Triple-A affiliate in Columbus after signing with the Indians in August. http://www.underarmourcheapireland.com/ . PETERSBURG, Fla. Wholesale Shoes Ireland . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. Under Armour Shoes For Sale . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR.Sorely needing right-handed power in their batting order, the New York Yankees turned back the clock to add a player who was a core part of their 2001 through 2003 playoff teams. Numbers Game looks at the Yankees acquiring Alfonso Soriano from the Chicago Cubs. The Yankees Get: LF Alfonso Soriano. Soriano, 37, has his flaws -- chief among them, poor plate discipline that leads to a low on-base percentage -- but he remains a productive power hitter and the Yankees, desperate for anything resembling pop from the right side of the plate, acquired him in the hopes that his power would bring life to their struggling lineup. This season had largely been a struggle for Soriano until late June. Through his first 72 games, Soriano hit seven home runs, with 30 RBI, hitting .245 with a .666 OPS. In the 21 games since, Soriano has slugged 10 homers and driven in 21 runs, batting .286 with a 1.014 OPS in 21 games. Despite that recent power surge, Soriano is still an on-base liability, as his .287 on-base percentage represents the lowest mark of his career (for a season in which he played at least 25 games). With so many players on the injured list for most of the season, including Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis, the Yankees have, not surprisingly, struggled offensively. The Yankees currently rank 12th in the American League in runs scored (395), 14th in home runs (88) and 14th in OPS (.678), the latter two categories ranking only ahead of the Houston Astros, a team with an Opening Day payroll of about $26-million, or less than the $28-million that the Yankees owed A-Rod to not play for them this season. As bad as the overall struggles have been for the Yankees offence, its dramatically worse from the right side of the plate. The top right-handed power threat in the Yankees lineup has been LF Vernon Wells, who has 10 home runs, hitting .240 with a .654 OPS. As if those numbers arent bad enough, Wells last home run was May 15, so hes currently gone 182 at-bats since his last home run; remember, this is the most productive right-handed hitter in the Yankees lineup this season. Wells can platoon with Travis Hafner at designated hitter and fill in as an extra outfielder for the rest of this season. While advancedd metrics, like Ultimate Zone Rating, have reflected favourably on Sorianos defence in recent years, there are questions about sample size particularly as it pertains to outfielders, so its probably reasonable not to expect too much from Soriano in the field at this stage of his career.dddddddddddd According to ESPN, the Cubs will pay about $17.7 million of the $24.5 million due to Soriano through the end of next season. If that means Soriano fills a depth role next season as well, as a designated hitter and extra outfielder, the cost isnt necessarily prohibitive. Desperate times call for desperate measures, though, and the Yankees punchless attack leaves them 6.5-games behind Boston for the American League East lead. Something had to be done and, even if Soriano isnt the most complete player at this point of his career, hes an upgrade on what the Yankees have been trotting out on an everyday basis; it would be difficult to be worse. The Cubs Get: RHP Corey Black. Black is a 21-year-old who was drafted in the fourth round last summer out of Faulkner University. In 19 starts for Single-A Tampa this season, Black is 3-8 with a 4.25 ERA and 1.50 WHIP, but he has struck out 88 in 82 2/3 IP. His trouble appears to be command, as hes walked 45. Hes only 5-foot-11, 175 pounds, but Black has an overpowering fastball that gets up into the mid-90s. With further development, which has to include improved control, he could turn into a power bullpen arm for the Cubs. As the Cubs play out the string this year, there will be chances for players to audition in left field. Soriano has played 86 of 100 games in left field, so no one else has really seen significant time there. Junior Lake, a 23-year-old who was recently called up (hitting .484 with a 1.284 OPS in his first seven MLB games) has been playing mostly centre field, but he played infield in the minors and played left field in Sorianos absence Thursday, so Lake would seem the best bet to get regular playing time ahead of the Cubs cast of journeymen outfielders that includes Julio Borbon, Cole Gillespie and Dave Sappelt. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '