Daily Sports: A Star-Less PGA Leaderboard Reaches The Weekend

Jason Dufner holds the lead in the PGA Championship, as the hyped battle between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson failed to pan out. Even without the big names, this remains a close tournament with two days to go and its television coverage highlights the daily sports menu on Saturday. TNT will start its broadcast at 11 AM ET and run for three hours, then CBS picks up at 2 PM ET and runs for five more hours.

Fox’s baseball action has a great matchup going from the West Coast, with the Tampa Bay Rays visiting the Los Angeles Dodgers. TheSportsNotebook took a closer look at all the Dodger heroes during their sustained level of excellence the past several weeks. Most of the country gets this potential World Series preview at 4 PM ET.

The Rays are chasing the Boston Red Sox in the AL East, and the Sox will be the focus of MLB Network in prime-time. Boston’s game in Kansas City is the main highlight at 7 PM ET. The Red Sox have dropped their first two games of the series in KC and need a good game tonight. Other parts of the country will see Reds-Padres. Even though Cincinnati played well early this week, sweeping a pair from Oakland, the Reds’ own hold on the postseason is a little tenuous right now.

NFL Network will continue its preseason coverage. After an afternoon spent mostly replaying games from yesterday, there will be live action at 7:30 PM ET, with the New York Giants facing the Pittsburgh Steelers, two proud franchises looking to bounce back from disappointing seasons in 2012.

And if you still can’t find something to watch? That must mean you love college football above all else, and ESPNU can give you an Alabama fix today. At 5 PM ET, watch the Tide’s upset loss to Texas A&M, the one that all but locked up the Heisman Trophy for Johnny Manziel. Then at 7 PM ET, it’s a replay of the SEC Championship Game, where Alabama beat Georgia to punch its ticket to the BCS National Championship Game and realistically secure its repeat national title.

TheSportsNotebook will focus on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series today, with a preview of Sunday’s race from Watkins Glen, and an overview of the entire postseason picture, one that was shook up by the injury to Tony Stewart earlier this week.