BASEBALL
Saul Torres was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday night, forcing home Jeisson Rosario to give the Somerset Patriots a 3-2 win over the Portland Sea Dogs in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey.
The Sea Dogs were held to two hits by four Somerset pitchers. They got a run in the fifth on a walk and two errors, then tied the game in the eighth with Christian Koss singled home Elih Marrero.
Portland starter Jay Groome struck out 10, walked none and allowed four hits in 5 2/3 innings. Somerset took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on a home run by Andres Chaparro following an error.
COLLEGES
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Hall of Famer C. Vivian Stringer announced her retirement after 50 years as a head coach.
She finishes with 1,055 wins – fourth all-time among Division I women’s basketball coaches. Stringer made four Final Four appearances and reached the NCAA Tournament 28 times while leading Cheyney State, Iowa and Rutgers.
“I am officially announcing my retirement,” Stringer in a statement. “My life has been defined by coaching and I’ve been on this journey for over five decades. It is rare that someone gets to do what they love for this long and I have been fortunate to do that. I love Rutgers University for the incredible opportunity they offered me and the tremendous victories we achieved together.”
The 74-year-old coach had been on leave this past season because of COVID-19 concerns. She signed a five-year extension before going on leave last April. Her retirement becomes effective on Sept. 1, and she agreed to an $872,988 retirement buyout. Rutgers will name its basketball court in her honor next season.
HOCKEY
NHL: The Detroit Red Wings fired Jeff Blashill, moving on from the coach tabbed to guide the storied NHL franchise through a long rebuilding process.
General Manager Steve Yzerman said the team was not renewing the contracts of Blashill, assistant Doug Houda and goaltending coach Jeff Salajko.
Blashill spent the past seven seasons behind the bench for the Red Wings, who have missed the playoffs the past six seasons while transitioning into a youth movement. They last qualified for the postseason in 2015-16 when they lost in the first round.
BASKETBALL
NBA: The NBA fined the Phoenix Suns $25,000 for violating injury reporting rules by failing to disclose guard Devin Booker’s participation status in an accurate and timely manner before Game 6 of the first-round playoff series against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Booker returned from a strained right hamstring to help the Suns beat the Pelicans 115-109 on Thursday night in New Orleans in the series-ending game.
The Suns will open the second round at home against Dallas on Monday night.
GOLF
PGA: Jon Rahm birdied the last two par 5s and got some help from a couple of poor chips by Cameron Champ to take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Mexico Open in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Rahm, whose last victory was the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines last summer, pumped his fist when he holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th for a 3-under 68.
Rahm was at 13-under 200, two clear of Champ and Kurt Kitayama. Another shot behind were Nate Lashley (64), Davis Riley (67) and Patrick Rodgers (66).
LPGA: Hannah Green held onto the lead in the Palos Verdes Championship after a frustrating start on the hilly, windswept course perched above the Pacific Ocean in California.
Three strokes ahead of Lydia Ko and three other players entering the day, Green overcame bogeys on the first two holes to shoot a 1-over 72 and take a one-shot lead over playing partner Ko into the final round.
EUROPEAN: Oliver Bekker eagled the par-5 15th hole for the second straight day to shoot a 5-under 67 in Girona, Spain and take a two-stroke lead going into the final round of the Catalunya Championship.
Bekker, 11-under 205 for the tournament, made four birdies and a lone bogey at the Stadium Course in northeastern Spain. Laurie Canter finished two shots back after coming into the third round a shot ahead of Bekker and James Morrison.
CHAMPIONS: Steve Stricker wanted to stay in bed Saturday morning and some of the players at the Insperity Invitational probably wish he did. Stricker took advantage of calm conditions with a 7-under 65 for a three-way share of the lead in his return to the PGA Tour Champions in The Woodlands, Texas.
Stricker, who lost 25 pounds during a health scare that hospitalized him late last year, is competing for the first time in six months and already has a chance to win.
He was tied with Steve Alker (65) and hard-charging Brandt Jobe (64), who ran off five straight birdies on the back nine and then closed with another birdie when his 5-iron caromed off the wood framing the lake on the par-4 18th at The Woodlands.
SOCCER
MLS: Damian Rivera had an instant impact in his first MLS start and the New England Revolution breezed to a 2-0 victory at Inter Miami CF.
Rivera, a 19-year-old homegrown attacker, took a Carles Gil feed and beat Nick Marsman at the near post, putting the Revs (3-5-1) up 1-0 less than a minute into the game.
Adam Buksa added a goal in the 64th minute – four minutes after Inter Miami center back Damion Lowe was sent off for a second yellow card.
ENGLAND: Manchester City remained the front-runner in the Premier League title race after winning at Leeds 4-0.
Liverpool won at Newcastle 1-0 in an early kickoff to keep the pressure on City, which responded.
Rodri headed City into a halftime lead, and further goals from Nathan Ake, Gabriel Jesus and Fernandinho lifted it back above Liverpool by a point.
SPAIN: Real Madrid clinched a record-extending 35th Spanish league title after its reserve squad comfortably defeated Espanyol 4-0.
Rodrygo scored twice and Marco Asensio and substitute Karim Benzema added a goal each to give Madrid its second league title in three seasons, and third in six years.
The victory gave Madrid an insurmountable lead with four rounds to go. It was 17 points in front of Sevilla, which drew with Cádiz 1-1 on Friday, and 18 points ahead of Barcelona, which hosts Mallorca on Sunday.
TENNIS
BMW OPEN: Danish teenager Holger Rune will play Botic van de Zandschulp in the final in Munich after they came through the semifinals.
Rune defeated home favorite Oscar Otte 6-4 6-4 in both players’ first ATP Tour semifinal, and Van de Zandschulp rallied to defeat Miomir Kecmanovic 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.
MADRID OPEN: Simona Halep played some of her best tennis in Madrid again in defeating home crowd favorite Paula Badosa in straight sets to reach the last 16 for the seventh time in 11 appearances.
The two-time Madrid Open champion had 21 winners as she defeated No. 2-ranked Badosa 6-3, 6-1 on the Caja Mágica center court.
Halep will next face Coco Gauff in the third round. The 18-year-old American defeated two-time French Open quarterfinalist Yulia Putintseva 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 after converting six of her 21 break points.
Another former No. 1, Victoria Azarenka, rallied past Tamara Zidansek 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 in 2 hours, 20 minutes in her first match since the third round in Miami, when she retired for personal reasons.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR CUP SERIES: Chris Buescher was the surprise pole winner at Dover Motor Speedway, turning a lap of 160.149 mph to win his first career top spot.
The RFK Racing driver will be joined on the front row by Denny Hamlin, ordered this week by NASCAR to begin sensitivity training after he posted an anti-Asian meme.
Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott for Hendrick Motorsports start third and fourth in Chevrolets. Ryan Blaney rounds out the top five for Sunday’s race on the mile concrete track.
XFINITY: Josh Berry led a dominant outing for JR Motorsports and won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race of the season at Dover Motor Speedway.
Berry had tears in his eyes and hoisted his daughter in the air after he took the checkered flag in the No. 8 Chevrolet for his third career Xfinity win in 39 starts. Berry finished second in last year’s Dover race.
“We were there when it counted, man,” Berry said.
JR Motorsports put four drivers in the top five on the one-mile concrete track. Justin Allgaier was second, Noah Gragson was fourth and 18-year-old Sam Mayer was fifth. Ty Gibbs interrupted the JR Motorsports run with a third-place finish. Allgaier has nine consecutive top-10 finishes at Dover, including two wins. He led a race-high 67 laps.
INDYCAR: Rinus VeeKay led an upset in qualifying to position himself to race for the win at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama.
The Dutchman was the surprise pole-winner for Sunday’s race following a qualifying session that saw most of IndyCar’s top names fail to advance through the rounds.
The first round on Saturday bounced both Will Power, a two-time winner at Barber, and six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon. The two are among the best active drivers in IndyCar, but both struggled around the picturesque permanent road course that is considered one of the most physical tracks on the circuit.
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