Golden Nuggets: Mark Canha Walks Off For A's

Swimming and Diving

On the opening day at the pool for the FINA World Championships, former Cal swimmer Missy Franklin, one of more than 10 Golden Bears in action Sunday, earned a bronze medal in the 400-meter free relay, swimming the lead-off leg for the United States

Franklin making a challenging transition

Kazan, Russia

The athletic super-ambassador Missy Franklin would seem to have more obstacles to overcome in her summer of 2015 sequel than Tom Cruise's superspy Ethan Hunt, whose latest big-screen exploits in "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation" were watched by Franklin before she joined the U.S. swim team for the World Aquatics Championships.

Franklin's mission, starting Sunday in this capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, is to build on the history she made in 2013 in Barcelona, Spain, where she won a record six gold medals to increase her world championships total to nine, another record. With a victory in the 200-meter backstroke, one of her four individual events, Franklin would become the first woman to win three successive world championships in the same event.

The two years since Barcelona have changed Franklin in ways that are discernible only when you wade beyond her surface sunniness — the resplendent smile, the resonant laugh, the spontaneous dance moves and the sparkly red- and blue-painted fingernails.

Football

Sonny Dykes enjoying 'coming up through the ranks' with Gary Andersen

BURBANK, California -- Gary Andersen may be the only new football coach in the Pac-12 this season. But he's not entirely unfamiliar with some of the coaches he'll match up against in the league.

As California coach Sonny Dykes observed at Pac-12 Media Days last week, four of conference's coaches were leading teams WAC teams at the same time a few years ago -- Dykes at Louisiana Tech, Andersen at Utah State, Chris Petersen at Boise State and Mike McIntyre at San Jose State.

"We've all coached against each other and we're all pretty familiar with what the other guy does," Dykes said. "It's kind of been fun coming up through the ranks with those guys."

Check out the 2015 Pac-12 Football Media Days through the lenses of photographers Al Sermeno, Juan Ocampo, Pac-12.com and Tim Miguel.

Major League Baseball

Mark Canha's double gives A's win over Cleveland in 10th

As Mark Canha has struggled in a part-time role much of the season, his playing time has dipped.

On Sunday, Canha was called into action when right fielder Josh Reddick left with a lower-back injury. And it was Canha who won it for the A's with two outs in the 10th, his double driving in Sam Fuld as Oakland beat Cleveland 2-1.

"For Mark to pick us up with that walk-off is something special," said Reddick, who expects he'll sit out Monday but maybe not much more than that.

It was Canha's first game-winning hit in the big leagues.