MLB:
Jorge Soler became the first player to begin a World Series with a home run and the Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros 6-2 in Tuesday night’s opener despite the loss of pitcher Charlie Morton to a broken leg.
Boosted by a strong bullpen effort, a two-run homer by Adam Duvall and a late sacrifice fly from Freddie Freeman, the Braves coasted in their first Series appearance since Chipper Jones and their Big Three aces ascended in 1999. Game 2 is Wednesday in Houston.
Shohei Ohtani’s two-way All-Star season with the Los Angeles Angels was so unprecedented that Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred presented a special award to recognize it.
Ohtani was given the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award before Game 1 of the World Series. Ohtani had 46 home runs, 100 RBIs and 26 stolen bases this season, his fourth in the majors after playing in his native Japan. He was 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA while striking out 156 batters in 23 pitching starts. Those numbers made him the most accomplished two-way player since Babe Ruth, who last pitched regularly in 1919.
In other MLB news:
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred exchanged a handshake with players’ union head Tony Clark on the field before the World Series opener and expressed optimism about reaching an agreement before the current deal expires Dec. 1 but did not detail any progress in talks that appear headed to a lockout. There is no evidence of progress toward an agreement.
NBA:
Stephen Curry scored 23 points and the Golden State Warriors remain unbeaten, rallying in the second half to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 106-98. Andrew Wiggins had 21 points and Damion Lee scored 20 for the Warriors, who have opened the season with four straight wins. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points on 11-of-19 shooting for the winless Thunder. Oklahoma City led by 11 points at halftime and by 12 midway through the third quarter before Golden State began chipping away.
In other Tuesday hoops action:
Rudy Gobert had 23 points and 16 rebounds and Donovan Mitchell added 22 points to lead the Utah Jazz to a 122-110 win over the Denver Nuggets in a game where Nikola Jokic left with a knee injury. The reigning NBA MVP had 24 points in just 15 first-half minutes before he got hurt. Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic each contributed 15 for the Jazz, who moved to 3-0 on the season. Two minutes before halftime, Jokic banged knees with Gobert and stayed down holding his right leg. He eventually got up with assistance and limped to the locker room. He will be examined again, but initial injury report was a knee contusion.
Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 125-121 overtime win over the San Antonio Spurs with LeBron James sidelined. Davis had 35 points and 17 rebounds, and Westbrook had added 33 points and 10 rebounds. Westbrook scored 15 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. Jakob Poeltl added 27 points and 14 rebounds for San Antonio. Lakers coach Frank Vogel said James is “questionable” for Wednesday’s game at Oklahoma City. Vogel said the injury is in a “different spot” from the right ankle injury James sustained through late last season.
Luka Doncic had 26 points and 14 rebounds, Reggie Bullock had his best game with his new team by scoring 16 points and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Houston Rockets 116-106 in coach Jason Kidd’s first home game. Eric Gordon scored 16 points, and Christian Wood had 16 points and 17 rebounds for the Rockets.
Kemba Walker scored 19 points in his best game with his hometown team and the New York Knicks snapped a 15-game losing streak against the Philadelphia 76ers with a 112-99 victory. Evan Fournier added 18 points in the Knicks’ first victory over Philadelphia since April 12, 2017. Julius Randle had 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Joel Embiid didn’t have a field goal in the first half of his first career loss to the Knicks.
NFL:
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league is not going to issue a report on its 10-month investigation into allegations the Washington Football Team engaged in harassment and abuse.
Goodell said the league would not make the investigation public because of its promise to protect the identities of those who testified. The commissioner spoke after the first day of meetings for the league’s 32 owners. He said the league wanted to protect the roughly 150 former employees who spoke to lawyer Beth Wilkinson, who conducted the NFL investigation. He noted the NFL released a summary of the investigation and that Washington owner Daniel Snyder has been “held accountable.”
Elsewhere in the NFL:
Houston Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair has apologized for referring to the novel coronavirus as the “China virus” during the team’s charity golf tournament in May. The phrase was used frequently by former president Donald Trump. It was considered by many to be insensitive to Asians because it placed blame on China for the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, McNair said he made “an inappropriate choice of words.” He said he apologized at the time and is apologizing again.
The New York Jets placed linebackers Jamien Sherwood and Blake Cashman on injured reserve. The moves Tuesday are the latest hits to an already depleted unit. Both Sherwood and Cashman were hurt last Sunday during New York’s 54-13 loss at New England.
Dustin Hopkins was signed as the Los Angeles Chargers kicker on Tuesday after the team waived Tristan Vizcaino. Hopkins was released by Washington on Oct. 20 after seven seasons. He was 12 of 14 on field goals and 10 of 12 on extra points through six games. Hopkins has made 84% of his field-goal attempts during his career.
Former New England Patriots safety Patrick Chung has been charged with assault and battery on a family or household member. Prosecutors allege the 34-year-old Chung pushed a woman to the ground and slapped her outside her home. Chung’s lawyer said her client looked forward to being “fully exonerated.”
Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin says he considers it a “joke” that his name has been linked to open college jobs at USC and LSU. Tomlin says he has one of the best jobs in professional sports and has no interest in leaving.
The Baltimore Ravens have designated defensive end Derek Wolfe for return, allowing him to resume practicing. Wolfe has been on injured reserve since Oct. 2 because of back problems. Wolfe was a regular starter for eight seasons with the Denver Broncos, then started eight of the 14 games he appeared in last season for the Ravens. He hasn’t played yet this season.
Mike Lucci, a Pro Bowl linebacker who played nine seasons with the Detroit Lions, has died. He was 81 years old. Lucci died in Florida after an extended illness. Lucci played on Cleveland’s 1964 NFL championship team. But he spent most of his 12-year career with the Lions, from 1965-73. After his NFL career, Lucci was a radio and TV broadcaster and businessman.
NHL:
Andrew Mangiapane had two of Calgary’s four goals in the first period, and the Flames extended their winning streak to four games with a 5-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.
Milan Lucic, Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk also scored for the Flames. Calgary backup goalie Dan Vladar made 27 saves. Pavel Zacha had two goals and Dawson Mercer also scored for the Devils.
In other action on the ice:
The Seattle Kraken got their first home win in franchise history, a 5-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Brandon Tanev scored twice and Jordan Eberle scored his first of the season for Seattle. Tanev has become an unlikely goal-scoring leader for the Kraken with five in seven games. For Montreal, Mike Hoffman scored for a second straight game and Jake Allen had 21 saves, but it was an ugly start to the Canadiens’ West Coast trip.
Reilly Smith scored a short-handed goal, Robin Lehner stopped 26 shots and the injury-plagued Vegas Golden Knights snapped a four-game slide with a 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche. It was Smith’s seventh short-handed goal for Vegas. Chandler Stephenson also scored and Keegan Kolesar added an empty-netter to seal the win in the matchup between two of the top teams in the West who have hardly been playing at their best. Cale Makar had the only goal for Colorado.
Juuse Saros made 28 saves to lead the Nashville Predators to a 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night. Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg and Mikael Granlund scored for Nashville, winners of two straight. Timo Meier had a goal and James Reimer made 23 saves for the Sharks, which have lost two in a row following their season-opening four-game winning streak.
Ondrej Palat and Ryan McDonagh scored 10 seconds apart in the second period and the Tampa Bay Lightning picked up their first regulation victory of the season with a 5-1 win over Pittsburgh. Jason Zucker scored Pittsburgh’s lone goal late in the third as the Penguins fell in regulation for the first time in six games this season.
Chicago Blackhawks general manager and president of hockey operations Stan Bowman has resigned after an investigation found he was among a group of leaders who failed to respond promptly to allegations that an assistant coach sexually assaulted a player in 2010.
The results of an independent review commissioned by the team were handed over to the Blackhawks on Monday. Team CEO Danny Wirtz called the report released Tuesday “both disturbing and difficult to read.” The NHL responded by fining the team $2 million for mishandling the sexual assault allegations.
In other NHL moves:
The Chicago Blackhawks put captain Jonathan Toews and Henrik Borgstrom in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol, giving the winless team five players on the list. Toews and Borgstrom missed practice after they joined fellow forwards Patrick Kane and Jujhar Khaira and defenseman Riley Stillman in the protocol. Assistant coaches Marc Crawford and Tomas Mitell are away from the team for the same reason. The use of the COVID-19 list doesn’t necessarily mean any of the players or coaches tested positive. They could have been deemed a close contact of someone who tested positive. The team was 100% vaccinated at the start of training camp.
The New York Islanders have signed tough guy forward Ross Johnston to four-year contract extension. Johnston has seven goals and eight assists in 87 games with the Islanders. The Islanders signed him as a free agent during his final season of junior hockey in 2014-15.
SOCCER:
The U.S. women sent Carli Lloyd into retirement with a 6-0 rout of South Korea.
Lloyd didn’t score in her final match, but it hardly mattered because the night was all about her. She was subbed out in the 65th minute and sobbed as she left to a standing ovation by the crowd of 18,115 at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lloyd’s final match was her 316th with the national team, the second-most international appearances of any player. She scored 134 goals for the United States, third most in team history, along with 61 assists.
GENDER EQUITY REPORT:
The NCAA has fallen short of upholding its commitment to gender equity, spending more on male athletes on average than female ones.
That’s according to a second report by a law firm, which released its 153-page report Tuesday night. The report includes a series of recommendations to improve the gap among all sports tournaments, going beyond the first set of recommendations regarding men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Spending per Division I and national championship participants, excluding basketball, was about $1,700 less for women than men.