July 18, 2024 4:26 am
TROON, Scotland (AP) — Rory McIlroy takes his first big step toward moving past a major championship collapse. It comes in the last major of the year. McIlroy is among the early starters at Royal Troon as the 152nd British Open gets under way. This is the 10th time at Royal Troon. McIlroy last month was poised to end a decade without a major until missing a pair of 3-foot putts in the U.S. Open to finish one behind Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy is optimistic about the state of his game. Now he has to handle the wind and bunkers of Royal Troon.
July 17, 2024 4:27 am
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Paul Skenes became the fifth rookie to start an All-Star Game, retiring Steven Kwan, Gunnar Henderson and Aaron Judge for the National League in a hitless first inning. The 22-year-old right-hander, who has just 11 big league appearances, started Kwan with a 98.2 mph four-seamer and retired the major league batting leader on a 99.9 mph pitch with an 0-2 count that Kwan popped up. Henderson hit a weak comebacker on a 93.5 mph sinker and Juan Soto worked out a seven-pitch walk. Aaron Judge grounded into a forceout on the next pitch. The American League went on to a 5-3 win over the National League.
July 17, 2024 4:30 am
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bears have locked in their top two rookies, agreeing to four-year contracts with No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams and No. 9 selection Rome Odunze and avoiding any training camp drama with their prized quarterback and receiver. A person familiar with the deal confirmed the agreement with Williams to The Associated Press. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the contract. Williams gets a slotted $39.49 million fully guaranteed deal with a $25.5 million signing bonus. The Bears announced Odunze signed. The club has options for 2028 on both players. The Bears are banking on Williams to become the sort of franchise quarterback Chicago has craved for decades.
July 17, 2024 4:31 am
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The NBA’s Board of Governors approved the league’s next media rights deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video at its meeting Tuesday, moving the league one giant step closer to finalizing the 11-year agreements that will be worth about $76 billion. Now comes the next, and possibly final, step: seeing if Warner Bros. Discovery will match one of the deals in an effort to extend a relationship with the NBA that dates to the late 1980s. WBD has five days to match, that clock starting to run when it receives the contracts from the league.
July 16, 2024 4:25 am
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Paul Skenes was the center of attention in a ballpark filled with six dozen All-Stars. The 22-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher with 11 major league appearances will start for the National League on Tuesday night, when Baltimore’s Corbin Burnes starts for the American League. Skenes will have the fewest big league games of any player in the showcase’s 91-year history. His splinker, a hybrid that sinks like a splitter with the velocity of a sinker, has batters muttering. He is 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA since his May 11 debut, striking out 89 and walking 13 in 66 1/3 innings.
July 16, 2024 4:28 am
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández won the Home Run Derby when he beat local star Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals 14-13 in the final round. The 31-year-old Hernández hit 49 homers over three rounds that totaled 3.98 miles. He is the first Dodgers player to win the derby. Kansas City has never had a winner. Witt, needing one to tie with one out remaining, drove a ball to one of the deepest parts of the park in left-center, where it hit halfway up the wall.
July 16, 2024 4:30 am
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Baseball can’t run away from its lack of runs. Batting averages are near half-century lows. Velocity is at an all-time high. The major league batting average was .240 through April and .239 in May, the lowest since the bottom of .237 in 1968’s Year of the Pitcher. It’s risen slightly along with the temperature as spring turned to summer: .246 in June and .250 in July, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Still, the season average of .243 heading into the All-Star break was just ahead of 2022 and 1968 as the lowest since the dead-ball era ended in 1920.
July 16, 2024 4:28 am
Anthony Davis scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, Tyrese Haliburton came up with a pair of late 3-pointers that helped stop a freefall by the Americans, and the U.S. beat Australia 98-92 on Monday to improve to 2-0 in its five-game slate of exhibitions leading into the Paris Olympics. Devin Booker scored 16 for the U.S., which saw a 24-point second-half lead cut to four in the final moments. Jock Landale scored 20 for Australia, which got 17 from Josh Giddey and 14 from Dyson Daniels.
July 15, 2024 4:50 am
The Pirates selected Konnor Griffin with the 9th Pick in Baseball’s Amateur draft. Griffin, a shortstop from Jackson Prep (Mississippi), was ranked as the No. 9 overall Draft prospect by MLB Pipeline, the highest among all prep players. MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis said “he’s got the highest ceiling in the Draft” during MLB Network’s broadcast.
July 15, 2024 4:31 am
CHICAGO (AP) — Joey Bart and Bryan Reynolds homered, Ke’Bryan Hayes had three hits and the Pittsburgh Pirates won their fourth straight game, beating the Chicago White Sox 9-4. Nick Gonzales tripled and drove in two runs for the Pirates, who have won six of seven and reached .500 for the first time since April 27. Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr. each had three hits for the White Sox, who have lost four straight and 10 of 13.
