July 13, 2021 3:48 am
UNDATED (AP) – Fans and players who will be at Coors Field for the MLB’s All-Star Game are both looking forward to the Greatest Show on Earth. Shohei Ohtani is the top star of baseball’s midsummer classic, the center of attention for players and fans like no one before. Fans cheered when he was introduced at a news conference located outdoors, across the street from Coors Field due to the pandemic. Ohtani has generated huge buzz across baseball for his exploits at the plate and on the mound. He leads the majors with 33 home runs and is 4-1 with a 3.49 ERA in 13 starts. Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals will start for the NL in the game at Coors Field in Denver.
July 13, 2021 3:52 am
The Chicago Blackhawks have traded two-time Norris Trophy winner Duncan Keith to the Edmonton Oilers for young defenseman Caleb Jones and a third-round draft pick. The Blackhawks also sent forward Tim Soderlund to the Oilers, who were looking for some help on defense after they were swept by Winnipeg in the first round of the playoffs. The 2022 draft pick becomes a second-rounder if Edmonton reaches next year’s Stanley Cup Final and Keith is among the top four Oilers defensemen in total ice time through three rounds. Keith has two years left on his contract at a salary-cap hit just over $5.5 million. He turns 38 on Friday.
July 13, 2021 3:46 am
UNDATED (AP) – Longtime television analyst Pierre McGuire is returning to an NHL front office with the Ottawa Senators. He will be their senior vice president of player development. McGuire was one of the faces of NBC Sports’ hockey coverage since 2006 and often served as the between-the-benches analyst. McGuire spent time as a coach, scout and executive before his broadcasting career. This is a return to those roots for the 59-year-old. McGuire was a Senators pro scout between 1994 and 1996 before going into radio and TV. He won the Stanley Cup twice as a Pittsburgh scout and assistant in the early 1990s.
July 12, 2021 3:49 am
UNDATED (AP) – The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Louisville catcher Henry Davis with the first pick in baseball’s amateur draft, with the Texas Rangers then taking Vanderbilt pitcher Jack Leiter. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the picks from Denver’s Bellco Theater. Major League Baseball moved the draft from its longstanding June slot to July’s All-Star weekend in an effort to better showcase its future stars. Davis has big power and an even bigger arm, throwing out 46% of would-be base stealers to become a finalist for the Buster Posey Award as college baseball’s best defensive catcher.
July 12, 2021 3:52 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Wilmer Difo’s tie-breaking single in the ninth inning capped Pittsburgh’s biggest comeback of the season, and the Pirates rallied from an early five-run deficit to beat the New York Mets 6-5. The NL East-leading Mets jumped out to a 5-0 lead against Chase De Jong in the first on a two-run homer by Francisco Lindor and a three-run shot by Michael Conforto. Rodolfo Castro hit two home runs for the Pirates.
July 12, 2021 3:53 am
MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Milwaukee Bucks gave up an absurd number of 3-pointers while dropping the first two games of the NBA Finals. They seemed to figure things out. The Bucks held the Suns to 9-for-31 shooting from beyond the arc in earning a 120-100 win over Phoenix in Game 3. Devin Booker shot 3-for-14 overall and 1-for-7 from beyond the arc after draining seven of his 12 long-range attempts in Game 2. Booker finished with 10 points and Cameron Payne was held to seven on 3 of 10 from the field. The Suns led by three until the Bucks outscored them, 35-17 in the second quarter. Phoenix eventually whittled its deficit to four, but Milwaukee closed the third period with 16 straight points to go up by 20. Giannis Antetokounmpo shredded through the Suns with 41 points on 14 of 23 shooting. Antetokounmpo also was 13 of 17 from the line, grabbed 13 rebounds and had six assists. Jrue Holiday finished with 21 points and Khris Middleton had 18 after both experienced shooting woes in Game 2 on Thursday. Chris Paul had a team-high 19 points for the Suns, one more than Jae Crowder and Deandre Ayton. Crowder was 6-for-7 from beyond the arc. The series stays in Milwaukee for Game 4 on Wednesday.
July 12, 2021 3:56 am
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) – Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal now have company atop the list of men’s career Grand Slam titles. Novak Djokovic has equaled their record of 20 Grand Slams by capturing the Wimbledon championship, defeating Matteo Berrettini by a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 score. The No. 1 -ranked Djokovic earned a third consecutive championship at the All England Club and sixth overall. The 34-year-old from Serbia is now the only man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win the first three major tournaments in a season. The U.S. Open awaits Djokovic as he aims for a calendar-year Grand Slam – something last accomplished by a man when Laver did it 52 years ago.
July 11, 2021 7:40 am
NEW YORK — Tyler Anderson pitched five innings and helped himself with a tiebreaking homer, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-2 victory over Marcus Stroman and the New York Mets on Saturday in the first game of a doubleheader. All-Star Bryan Reynolds also connected as last-place Pittsburgh bounced back from a 13-4 loss in the opener of the four-game set on Friday. John Nogowski had two hits and two RBI. Anderson (5-8) won consecutive starts for the second time this season, allowing two runs and six hits. He went winless in an eight-start span from May 15-June 28. The game was tied at 2 when Anderson went deep with two out in the fifth, driving a 1-1 cutter from Stroman (6-7) over the wall in right-center. It was Anderson’s second career homer in 152 at-bats and first since July 9, 2016, for Colorado against Philadelphia. It was Pittsburgh’s first homer by a pitcher since Steven Brault on Sept. 1, 2019, and the first go-ahead homer by a Pirates pitcher since Gerrit Cole on Aug. 26, 2017. It also was the second game-winning RBI by a Pittsburgh pitcher this year. The Dodgers are the only other team with multiple game-winning RBI from pitchers. Reynolds was robbed of a home run when Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo made a terrific leaping catch at the wall in the first. But Reynolds easily cleared the fence in right-center on his two-run homer off Trevor May in the sixth. John Nogowski continued his impressive start with the Pirates, hitting a two-run double in the fourth and a single in the sixth. He has 12 hits in five games since being acquired from St. Louis last weekend. Ke’Bryan Hayes padded Pittsburgh’s lead with an RBI double in the sixth off Drew Smith.
July 11, 2021 7:42 am
NEW YORK — Pete Alonso homered, Jeff McNeil drove in two runs and the New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 on Saturday night for a doubleheader split. Alonso gave the Mets a 3-1 lead when he connected on a 1-1 fastball from Max Kranick (1-1) with two outs in the third inning. Alonso’s 428-foot solo drive hit a glass window on a club area just inside the left-field foul pole. It was the 17th homer for Alonso, who is defending his All-Star Home Run Derby title on Monday night in Colorado. Alonso won the competition in 2019, and it was canceled last year because of the pandemic. All-Star Bryan Reynolds hit a two-run homer in the opener and an RBI single in the nightcap for the Pirates, who were trying to sweep a doubleheader from the Mets in New York for the first time since Sept. 10, 1969. Jacob Stallings connected for Pittsburgh in the second game.
July 11, 2021 4:12 am
Former NHL defenseman Bryan “Bugsy” Watson has died. He was 78. Watson played 1,009 NHL games for six different teams from 1963-1978 before finishing his on-ice career in the World Hockey Association in 1979. He played for the Penguins from 1968 to 1974, leading the league in penalty minutes in 1971-72. Watson is known well in the Washington D.C. area for founding Bugsy’s Pizza in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1983.
