July 26, 2024 4:30 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dylan Cease pitched the second no-hitter in San Diego Padres history, a 3-0 win over the Washington Nationals that completed a three-game sweep. After falling one out short of a no-hitter two years ago when he gave up a single to current teammate Luis Arráez, Cease accomplished the feat when he retired CJ Abrams on a game-ending flyout to right. Cease struck out nine and walked three in his third complete game in 145 starts. He threw a career-high 114 pitches. Joe Musgrove pitched the Padres’ first no-hitter against Texas on April 9, 2021.
July 25, 2024 4:27 am
LATROBE, Pa. (AP) — Najee Harris is out to prove his value even as he concedes that NFL running backs are “only devalued when it comes time to pay.” Harris began training camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday and spoke to reporters for the first time since the Steelers declined their 2025 contract option for him. He acknowledged he was disappointed in that decision. The Steelers have cited the uncertain direction of their offense. They have a new coordinator in Arthur Smith and two new quarterbacks in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Both are playing on one-year contracts, with Wilson expected to start.
July 25, 2024 2:54 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Martín Pérez pitched six scoreless innings, Rowdy Tellez homered into the Allegheny River and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat St. Louis 5-0 to take two of three games from the Cardinals. Pérez (2-5) allowed four hits, three in his final two innings, and walked five with two strikeouts. Tellez chased Matthew Liberatore (2-3) at the start of the fourth inning by sending a fastball 447 feet into the river beyond the wall in right field, extending the Pirates’ lead to five runs. Liberatore allowed five runs on four hits in three innings, walking three and striking out three.
July 25, 2024 4:35 am
The NBA signed its 11-year media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday after saying it was not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer to continue its longtime relationship with the league. The media rights deals were approved by the league’s Board of Governors last week and will bring the league about $76 billion over those 11 years. WBD had five days to match a part of those deals and said it was exercising its right to do so, but its offer was not considered a true match by the NBA. It says it will now take appropriate action.
July 25, 2024 4:37 am
PARIS (AP) — Paris has long been a city of dreamers: Just look at the Eiffel Tower, for decades the world’s loftiest structure. But France’s capital is aiming higher still with its first Olympic Games in a century, which open Friday. The most audacious Olympic opening ceremony ever — a gala spectacular on the River Seine that even French President Emmanuel Macron says initially felt like “a crazy and not very serious idea” — kicks off 16 days of competition that promise to be ground-breaking. Expect a heady blend of Olympic sports, iconic Paris monuments and France’s famous “savoir faire” in its world-renowned capital of fashion, gastronomy and culture could help secure the Games’ longer-term future. But Paris’ challenges are huge, too.
July 23, 2024 4:36 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Rookie Paul Skenes lost for the first time in 12 career major league starts, giving up Alec Burleson’s tiebreaking single in the ninth inning that lifted the St. Louis Cardinals over the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1. Pitching for the first time since starting for the National League in last week’s All-Star Game, the 22-year-old right-hander pitched past the seventh inning for the first time in the major leagues. Nolan Arenado put St. Louis ahead with a fifth-inning home run on a first-pitch curveball, and Nick Gonzales tied the score with an RBI single in the eighth off JoJo Romero.
July 24, 2024 4:39 am
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers have no intention of granting star receiver Brandon Aiyuk his trade request and remain committed to getting a long-term extension done with one of their most important offensive players. General manager John Lynch says there are no absolutes but that the 49ers expect Aiyuk to be an “integral part of our team.” The 49ers arrived at training camp on Tuesday, with Aiyuk showing up with the rest of his teammates, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team didn’t make an announcement. Aiyuk had skipped the entire offseason program, including a mandatory minicamp. Aiyuk would have been subject to potential fines if he didn’t show up.
July 24, 2024 4:40 am
Three-time Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes was a unanimous choice by The Associated Press for No. 1 quarterback in the NFL in a preseason survey. A panel of eight AP Pro Football Writers ranked the top five players at QB, basing selections on current status entering the 2024 season. Despite a subpar regular season — by his lofty standards — Mahomes had another exceptional postseason, leading the Kansas City Chiefs to a repeat Super Bowl victory and their third title in five seasons. Josh Allen, reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, C.J. Stroud and Brock Purdy each received second-place votes.
July 24, 2024 4:41 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA All-Star Game drew a record number of viewers with 3.44 million people watching the contest in Phoenix on Saturday night. The game, which saw the WNBA All-Stars beat the U.S. Olympic team 117-109, easily topped the 1.44 million that viewed the 2003 contest. Saturday’s game peaked with more than 4 million viewers. It was the third most viewed WNBA event ever and the largest audience for the league since its first two nationally televised games in 1997. Last year’s game, which was also on prime time TV, drew 850,000 viewers.
July 23, 2024 4:30 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Nick Gonzales hit a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning after Mitch Keller allowed one run in the first seven, and the Pittsburgh Pirates won for the seventh time in eight games, 2-1 over the St. Louis Cardinals. Bryan Reynolds led off the eighth with a single to left before advancing to second on a wild pitch. With one out, Gonzales sneaked a slow dribbler off John King through the right side of the infield. Keller gave up six hits in seven innings, striking out three and walking two. Aroldis Chapman pitched a perfect eighth for the win in this matchup of NL wild card contenders.
