May 27, 2025 4:24 am
PHOENIX (AP) — Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Braxton Ashcraft pitched three scoreless innings in his major league debut. Ashcraft, one of the team’s top prospects, was recalled before Pittsburgh’s 5-0 loss at Arizona. Right-hander Isaac Mattson was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis. The 25-year-old Ashcraft entered after Andrew Heaney was tagged for five runs and eight hits in five innings. He fanned his first batter, Tim Tawa, for his first career strikeout. He allowed two hits and walked one. He threw 50 pitches, 32 for strikes.
May 27, 2025 4:29 am
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Frederik Andersen returned to the net and stopped 20 shots for his fifth career playoff shutout, Logan Stankoven got the only goal Carolina needed and the Hurricanes won their first Eastern Conference finals game in nearly 20 years by beating the Florida Panthers 3-0 on Monday night to stave off elimination. Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal got empty-netters to seal it for the Hurricanes. They had dropped 15 consecutive East finals games, getting swept in 2009, 2019 and 2023, then dropping the first three games of this matchup. No sweep this time, however. Carolina still trails the series 3-1. Game 5 is Wednesday.
May 27, 2025 4:28 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 40 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in a steely performance befitting the NBA MVP and the Oklahoma City Thunder snapped back from a 42-point loss by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 128-126 in Game 4 to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals. Jalen Williams scored 34 points on 13-for-24 shooting, including 6 of 9 from 3-point range. Chet Holmgren added 21 points, seven rebounds and three blocks in a statement game in his hometown that helped the Thunder stave off several pushes by the Wolves to tie the series.
May 26, 2025 4:06 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Caleb Durbin and Brice Turang hit back-to-back doubles in the eighth inning to help the Milwaukee Brewers top the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5. Durbin sent a sweeper from Ryan Borucki to the track in left field, driving in two and tying it at 5. Turang brought him home with a ball down the line in left. Jared Koenig got the win despite allowing two runs in 1 2/3 innings. Trevor Megill struck out two in the ninth while recording his ninth save. Adam Frazier drove in three runs for Pittsburgh, including two on a two-out double that put the Pirates ahead 5-3 in the seventh.
May 26, 2025 4:03 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz had the hardest-hit ball since Statcast started tracking in 2015, a home run off Milwaukee’s Logan Henderson that left the bat at 122.9 mph and splashed into the Allegheny River. Cruz’s leadoff drive to right in the third inning on a 92.2 mph fastball traveled 432 feet and cut the Pirates’ deficit to 3-1 in a 6-5 loss. Cruz had the previous hardest-hit ball, a 122.4 mph single on Aug. 24, 2022. Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton had the prior hardest-hit home run at 121.8 mph, a drive off Gio Gonzalez at Washington on Aug. 9, 2017.
May 26, 2025 4:09 am
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alex Palou has become the first driver from Spain to win the Indianapolis 500 by holding off former Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson over the closing laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Palou came to the speedway Sunday with four wins through the first five races. But it was No. 6, “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” that he had circled on his calendar. Without an Indy 500 win, Palou said his career resume would never be complete. Ericsson, the 2022 Indy 500 winner, finished second for Andretti Global in a 1-2 finish for Honda. David Malukas was third for A.J. Foyt Racing and the highest-finishing Chevrolet.
May 24, 2025 12:05 am
Chartiers-Houston won a return trip to the WPIAL softball finals where the Bucs will face three-time defending 2A champion Neshannock. Carmichaels softball and baseball won semifinal games and will play for WPIAL championships next week. Bentworth softball will play for positioning heading into the state tournament while Jeff-Morgan and West Greene play each other for the final 1A softball berth. WPIAL Softball Brackets WPIAL Baseball Brackets
Friday, May 23
Softball Semifinals
2A #2 Chartiers-Houston > #11 Riverside, 7-1
2A #1 Neshannock > #12 Bentworth, 4-1
1A #2 Carmichaels > #3 West Greene, 10-0
1A #1 Union > #5 Jeff-Morgan, 15-0
Baseball Semifinals
1A #6 Carmichaels > #2 Eden Christian, 4-3
May 25, 2025 6:10 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Oneil Cruz tripled home Isiah Kiner-Falefa with two outs in the seventh and the Pittsburgh Pirates edged the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1. Kiner-Falefa singled off Tyler Alexander with one out. Cruz followed up two batters later by sending a shot to the gap in right-center field. The 6-foot-7 Cruz — coming off the first multihomer game of his career in a victory Friday night — slid head-first into third, then popped up to celebrate. Spencer Horwitz added two hits and drove in a run for the Pirates, who have won four of five. Caleb Durbin had three hits for the Brewers.
May 24, 2025 4:14 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes says he’s not paying attention to the suggestion that the club should trade him. The reigning National League Rookie of the Year says he laughed when someone told him that someone asked Pirates general manager Ben Cherington if the club would consider moving on from Skenes to bolster its prospect pool. The 22-year-old Skenes says he brushed the speculation off, adding that ‘anybody can play GM.’ Cherington said trading Skenes is ‘not part of the conversation’ for the last-place club. Skenes is 3-5 with a 2.36 ERA in 11 starts this season for Pittsburgh and pitched six solid innings in what became a 6-5 victory over Milwaukee.
May 24, 2025 4:18 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Adam Frazier sprinted home from third on a wild pitch by Abner Uribe in the 10th inning to lift the Pittsburgh Pirates past the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5. The Pirates tied it on an RBI single by Alexander Canario off Uribe earlier in the inning. Pittsburgh ace Paul Skenes allowed one run in six innings with two walks and eight strikeouts. Ryan Borucki (1-1) earned the victory despite giving up an RBI single in the top of the 10th. Oneil Cruz homered twice for the Pirates. Christian Yelich, Jackson Churio and Rhys Hoskins had two hits each for the Brewers. Abner Uribe took the loss.
