June 22, 2022 3:10 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Bligh Madris hit his first major league home run and fellow rookie Roansy Contreras pitched five solid innings to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 7-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Madris connected in the sixth for a solo shot to right-center field off Mark Leiter Jr. to close the scoring. It came a day after Madris had three hits in his big league debut. Contreras allowed one run and four hits while striking out three and walking two. The Pirates won their third straight game and the Cubs lost for the 13th time in 15 games.
June 22, 2022 3:11 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed veteran defensive end Larry Ogunjobi to a one-year deal. The signing shores up a position of need following Stephon Tuitt’s retirement earlier this month. The 28-year-old Ogunjobi spent last season with the Cincinnati Bengals. A tentative three-year agreement to play for the Chicago Bears was nullified when Ogunjobi failed a physical. He was recovering from foot surgery at the time of the signing. Ogunjobi played well last season for the Bengals, recording a career-high seven sacks. His arrival gives the Steelers another veteran to help shore up a run defense that finished dead last in the league in 2022.
June 22, 2022 1:36 am
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Four-time All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski has announced he is retiring and won’t join Tom Brady for a third season in Tampa Bay. The four-time Super Bowl champion with the Patriots and Buccaneers thanked his teammates and coaches over the years in a post on Instagram and said he’s going back to “chilling out.” The 33-year-old retired in 2019 after nine seasons with the Patriots. He returned in 2020 when Brady went to Tampa and the close friends teamed up to help the Buccaneers win a Super Bowl in 2021. Gronkowski had 621 catches for 9,286 yards and 92 touchdowns in the regular season. He had 98 receptions for 1,389 yards and 15 TDs in the postseason.
June 21, 2022 3:00 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Newly promoted Oneil Cruz drove in four runs and Bligh Madris got three hits in his major league debut, sparking the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 12-1 romp over the Chicago Cubs. Both rookies were called up from Triple-A Indianapolis earlier in the day. Cruz, considered Pittsburgh’s top prospect, hit a three-run double to deep center field in the third inning. The 6-foot-7 Cruz also hit an RBI single as the Pirates set a season high for runs. He started the final two games of last season when he became the tallest shortstop in major league history. Madris hit a two-run single in the second inning in his first at-bat the majors. Madris became the first Pirates player to have a three-hit game in his debut since Jason Kendall in 1996.
June 21, 2022 2:57 am
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole lost his no-hit bid in the eighth inning when Tampa Bay’s Isaac Paredes led off by grounding a clean single to center field. Paredes hit a slider that bounced off the pitcher’s mound and into the outfield on Cole’s 105th pitch at Tropicana Field. New York led 2-0. The 31-year-old right-hander had struck out 12 and walked three through seven innings. This was the second time this month that Cole started out with six hitless innings. He took a perfect game into the seventh against Detroit on June 3 before Jonathan Schoop’s two-out single.
June 21, 2022 2:55 am
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Steven Stamkos, Pat Maroon and Ondrej Palat each had a goal and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning scored four times in the second period and beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-2 in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. Anthony Cirelli, Nicholas Paul and Corey Perry also scored to help the two-time defending champion Lightning bounce back after playing poorly while losing the first two games on the road. Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 37 shots. Stamkos, Paul, Maroon and Perry scored in the second period, when the Lightning chased Colorado goalie Darcy Kuemper while pulling away to trim their series deficit to 2-1. Gabriel Landeskog had two goals and Mikko Rantanen had two assists for the Avalanche. Game 4 is Wednesday night.
June 20, 2022 3:50 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Jack Suwinski hit his third homer of the game in the ninth inning, giving the Pittsburgh Pirates a 4-3, walk-off victory over the San Francisco Giants to avoid a three-game sweep. Suwinski is the first rookie to cap a three-homer game with a game-ending shot, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The rookie drove a slider from Tyler Rogers to right for his second game-ending home run of the season after connecting for one June 4 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Suwinski is the second Pirates rookie to hit three homers in a game, joining Andrew McCutchen.
June 20, 2022 4:01 am
PITTSBURGH — The Pirates will call up shortstop Oneil Cruz, the No. 22 prospect in baseball as well as outfielder Bligh Madris, manager Derek Shelton confirmed following Jack Suwinski’s three-homer performance on Father’s Day. “Now’s the time that we think [Cruz] can help us,” Shelton said. “We’ve talked about a lot of things developmentally. There’s still things we’re going to continue to work on, but we think now’s the time that he’s going to help us.” There has been speculation that Cruz would be called up at some point during this homestand, but the flames were only further fanned when he was left out of Triple-A Indianapolis’s lineup for its game on Sunday.
June 20, 2022 3:56 am
BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) – The unsettled future of golf was in the surest of hands over the final four tantalizing hours of the U.S. Open. The sport, almost always at its best when major titles are at stake, went on a wild ride courtesy of Matt Fitzpatrick and Will Zalatoris, two 20-somethings in search of their first major titles but playing like they’d been doing this for years. There were ties, lead changes and enough momentum shifts to make an NBA crowd edgy. There was tension. In the end, it was a career-defining shot from a fairway bunker that gave Fitzpatrick a one-shot victory. And a putt missed by a whisker that left Zalatoris holding his head in his hands in agony after yet another excruciating close call at a major. Oh, so, close, Zalatoris finishes 2nd in yet another major
June 19, 2022 7:45 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The San Francisco Giants don’t overwhelm with their bats. Or their pitching. Or their defense. Their margin of error isn’t quite as wide as the two rivals they are trying to chase down in the loaded NL West. That’s fine with manager Gabe Kapler, who is happy to play the matchups, substitute freely and rely on a fair amount of grit and veteran leadership to hang around in one of the hottest races in baseball. Brandon Crawford delivered a pair of late RBI and the Giants took advantage of a shaky performance by Pittsburgh’s bullpen to rally for a 7-5 win on Saturday that pushed San Francisco to a season-best 10 games over .500 (37-27). The surge has the Giants in the mix with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in one of the toughest divisions in the majors. Seven different Giants scored, six different players drove in runs, and starting pitcher Alex Wood (5-5) and five relievers did just enough to give San Francisco its 13th win in its last 19 games. Crawford tied the game at 4 with an RBI single off Pirates reliever Wil Crowe (3-4) in the sixth and provided some insurance with an RBI double in the ninth after Pittsburgh intentionally walked Brandon Belt. Wilmer Flores and Austin Slater homered for the Giants and Luis González added two hits for San Francisco, including an RBI double in the eighth. Alex Wood (5-5) surrendered a three-run homer to Pittsburgh’s Diego Castillo in the fourth but hung around long enough to win his second straight start. Wood allowed four runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. San Francisco reliever Jake McGee got Pittsburgh’s Tyler Heineman to pop out to Flores at first base with the bases loaded to end the eighth after a 10-pitch at-bat to preserve a one-run lead. Camilo Doval retired the Pirates in order for his 11th save and second in two days. Pittsburgh starter Jose Quintana allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings before the bullpen let it slip away.
