July 4, 2019 4:27 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Houston’s Alex Bregman and Joc Pederson of the Los Angeles Dodgers have joined the field for Monday’s All-Star Home Run Derby. The pair, announced Wednesday, will compete with Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr., the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso, Pittsburgh’s Josh Bell, Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cleveland’s Carlos Santana and Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich. Bregman lost in the opening round of last year’s derby but went on to win All-Star Game MVP. Pederson finished second to Todd Frazier in the 2015 derby and hasn’t competed since. First-round brackets, based on season home run totals through Tuesday, have matchups of Yelich-Guerrero, Alonso-Santana, Bell-Acuna and Bregman-Pederson. The winner will get $1 million of $2.5 million in prize money, the losing finalist $500,000 and the six other participants $150,000. The player with the longest home run gets an extra $100,000.
July 3, 2019 3:50 am
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) – Playing his first match since winning his 12th French Open title, Rafael Nadal had little trouble in making the switch from clay back to grass. Nadal began his search for a third Wimbledon title by beating Japanese qualifier Yuichi Sugita 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 to reach the second round. Also today, Roger Federer shrugged off an early deficit to beat Lloyd Harris of South Africa 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 on Centre Court as he began his search for a record-extending ninth Wimbledon title. Sam Querrey of the United States took the last nine games and upset No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem to make the French Open runner-up the third top-10 man already gone in Wimbledon’s first round. And hard-serving American John Isner finished off his opening match at Wimbledon in straight sets, beating Casper Ruud of Norway. In women’s action, Serena Williams opened her bid for a 24th Grand Slam title with a straight-set victory on Centre Court at Wimbledon. The seven-time champion at the All England Club beat Giulia Gatto-Monticone of Italy 6-2, 7-5.
July 2, 2019 6:56 am
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) – Coco Gauff (gahf) is still in and Naomi Osaka is out following Day 1 at Wimbledon. The 15-year-old Gauff showed poise and power in a 6-4, 6-4 stunner against seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams. The 39-year-old Williams was the oldest competitor in the women’s bracket before falling to the youngest competitor to qualify at the All England Club in the professional era. Meanwhile, the second-seeded Osaka continued her recent downward spiral by dropping her first-round match to Yulia Putinseva, 7-6, 6-2. Osaka is the reigning U.S. Open and Australian Open champion, but her slump dropped her from the top of the WTA rankings last week. Other first-round winners on the women’s side include third seed Karolina Pliskova, seventh seed Simona Halep, eighth seed Elina Svitolina, No. 14 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 17 Madison Keys. The men’s bracket also opened with a pair of major upsets. Jiri Vesely earned a four-set win over sixth seed Alexander Zverev, and No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas was beaten in five sets by Thomas Fabbiano. Men’s No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 4 Kevin Anderson advanced to Round 2 by winning in straight sets.
July 1, 2019 6:26 am
UNDATED (AP) – Blue Jays rookie Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is set to become the youngest participant in Home Run Derby history when he swings for the $1 million prize in Cleveland on July 8. The son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, will be 20 years, 114 days old for the derby. Major League Baseball has confirmed that Guerrero has joined a field that includes Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich (YEH’-lihch), Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, Pirates slugger Josh Bell and Indians first baseman Carlos Santana. The final three participants will be announced Wednesday.
July 1, 2019 5:48 am
Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and four of their Houston Astros teammates will lead the American League squad at the All-Star Game in Cleveland on July 9. Major League Baseball unveiled full rosters for the midsummer showcase Sunday, and the Astros top all big league clubs with six players. No other AL club has more than three. Alex Bregman, George Springer and Michael Brantley will be in the starting lineup for the AL, and Verlander, Cole and Ryan Pressly are on the pitching staff. It will be the first trip to Cleveland for those Astros since Game 3 of last year’s AL Division Series, when Houston won 11-3 to complete a sweep. The Dodgers, Brewers and Rockies lead the NL with four players each. The Los Angeles contingent includes Cody Bellinger, Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Walker Buehler – plenty of familiar faces for manager Dave Roberts.
June 30, 2019 11:13 pm
MILWAUKEE (AP) – Brandon Woodruff cruised to his 10th win of the season, Eric Thames homered and tripled, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 on Saturday night. Woodruff (10-2) allowed one earned run and six hits with six strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings, helping the Brewers improve to 4-5 on their current 10-game homestand. The right-hander remains among the National League leaders in wins and strikeouts. While Woodruff hardly broke a sweat, counterpart Jordan Lyles (5-4) threw two wild pitches, hit a batter, gave up a home run and allowed three earned runs in six innings in his first start since being placed on the 10-day injured list with hamstring tightness. Lyles is 0-2 in three starts this season against Milwaukee. The Pirates scored in the first when Colin Moran doubled to right to score Kevin Newman. Newman reached on a single, extending his hitting streak to 19 games, the longest by a Pittsburgh rookie since 1900. After drawing a walk, Christian Yelich knotted the game at 1 in the bottom half, scoring from third on a failed pickoff attempt at first base. Lyles was looking to catch Ryan Braun napping, but the right-hander made an errant throw. Thames tripled down the right-field line, scoring Braun and putting the Brewers ahead 2-1. That was all the cushion Woodruff would need. Thames added another run in the fourth on a solo blast to right, his 11th. Thames now has hit safely in 10 of his last 12 starts. Josh Hader picked up his 20th save.
June 30, 2019 11:12 pm
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) – Serena Williams says she’s feeling better as Wimbledon is about to get started.
Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, says the seven-time Wimbledon champion doesn’t have pain anymore in a left knee that was at least partly responsible for Williams playing only 12 matches so far this season and not getting a chance to prepare properly for tournaments. It’s hard to know what Williams will be able to do at the All England Club. The draw put her in a quarter of the bracket with defending champion Angelique Kerber, two other past champions a No. 1 and some top-notch grass-court players.
June 27, 2019 1:41 pm
LONDON (AP) -Roger Federer has been seeded above Rafael Nadal for Wimbledon, despite the Spaniard being higher in the rankings. Top-ranked Novak Djokovic is seeded No. 1, with Federer second and Nadal third. Kevin Anderson is fourth despite being eighth in the rankings, a bump after reaching the men’s final last year. The men’s seedings for Wimbledon are based on the rankings, but with extra points for grass-court tournaments in the last year. The women’s seedings follow the rankings, with French Open champion Ash Barty at No. 1 ahead of Naomi Osaka and Karolina Pliskova.
June 27, 2019 1:40 pm
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Vanderbilt has captured its second College World Series title in its four appearances, and first since 2014. Mason Hickman and Jake Eder combined for 14 strikeouts as the Commodores clobbered Michigan, 8-2. Hickman struck out 10 in six innings and limited the Wolverines to one hit after he gave up three in a row to start the game. Pat DeMarco homered for Vandy.
June 5, 2019 9:34 am
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – Kevin Durant still isn’t ready to return for the Golden State Warriors as he works back from a strained right calf he suffered during the Western Conference semifinals. Durant didn’t practice with the Warriors in Oakland leading into Game 3 of the NBA Finals, and he has yet to get on the court for a structured session with the two-time defending champions. He suffered the injury on May 8. He is listed as questionable for Game 3 on Wednesday night. In addition, backup big man Kevon Looney suffered a non-displaced cartilage fracture on the right side of his collarbone area and will miss the remainder of the finals.
