WJPA Sports

UNDATED (AP) – The Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves are both one victory away from meeting in the World Series.  Yordan Alvarez had three hits and three RBIs as the Astros hammered the Red Sox, 9-1 in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series. Alvarez opened the scoring with a second-inning blast and added a two-run double that ignited Houston’s five-run sixth.  Framber Valdez was superb over eight innings, limiting the Bosox to a run and three hits while striking out five. Valdez blanked the Red Sox until Rafael Devers homered in the seventh. He also became the first pitcher of the postseason to work eight innings. Yuli Gurriel also had three ribbies for the Astros.  Chris Sale absorbed the loss, allowing four runs and three hits with seven strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. Two of the runs were unearned, thanks to an error by first baseman Kyle Schwarber in the sixth.  The Astros can advance to the World Series on Friday in Houston.
The Braves are up three games to one in their NL Championship Series after throttling the Dodgers, 9-2 in Los Angeles.  Eddie Rosario homered twice in his second four-hit game of the series. Adam Duvall and Freddie Freeman also went deep for Atlanta, which bounced right back from blowing a late lead in an agonizing loss Tuesday.  The Braves tagged Julio Urias for three home runs over the first three innings. Urias was reached for five runs and eight hits in five innings. He was baseball’s only 20-game winner this season.  The Dodgers finally broke through on AJ Pollock’s two-run single in the fifth, but that was one of just four hits allowed by six Atlanta hurlers on what became a bullpen game.  The Braves can finish up the series on Thursday in LA.

The WPIAL announced the 2021 soccer playoffs Wednesday afternoon and posted links for the brackets CLICK HERE! It may not look like what we’re used to seeing (they’re working on it) but all the bracket links area there and will be updated moving through the tournaments. There are a dozen Washington County boys & girls teams along with the Waynesburg girls in this year’s pairings.

Boys:
4A #2 Peters Township, first-round bye
4A #4 Canon-McMillan, first-round bye
3A #14 Trinity at #3 Franklin Regional, Saturday, 2 pm
2A #4 Charleroi hosts #13 Keystone Oaks, Monday, 6:30 pm
2A #8 McGuffey hosts #9 North Catholic, Monday, 6:30 pm
1A #4 Bentworth vs. #13 Beaver County Christian, Tuesday, 6 pm at South Park
1A #16 Chartiers-Houston vs. #1 Greensburg Central Catholic, Tuesday, 6 pm at Mt. Pleasant

Girls:
4A #6 Peters Township hosts #11 Pine-Richland, Monday, 6:30 pm
3A #12 Trinity at #5 Montour, Monday, 6:30 pm
2A #16 McGuffey vs. #17 Waynesburg, Saturday, 12 noon at Chartiers-Houston-**
1A #6 Chartiers-Houston hosts #11 South Side Beaver, Saturday, 2 pm
1A #15 Bentworth vs. #2 Springdale, Saturday, 1 pm at Kiski Area

**-McGuffey/Waynesburg winner vs. #1 North Catholic, Tuesday, 8 pm at Mars Area

UNDATED (AP) – Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield will sit out Thursday’s game against the Denver Broncos with a painful left shoulder injury.  Cleveland announced that backup Case Keenum will start, ending speculation about whether Mayfield would try to push through an injury to his non-throwing shoulder that he suffered last month and has worsened in recent weeks.  Keenum has made 62 career NFL starts, most recently for Washington in 2019.