LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES
Louis Lappe hit a walk-off homer and California beat Curacao 6-5 in the Little League World Series championship on Sunday, despite giving up a four-run lead. Louis flipped his bat and threw his arms in the air as he trotted around the bases, leaping onto home plate before he was greeted by his teammates surrounding the batter’s box. The leadoff hitter in the sixth inning, Louis lofted the second pitch he saw just beyond the left field fence. Curacao tied the game in the fifth on Nasir El-Ossais’s grand slam to center. Nasir also drove in a run in the third. Jaxon Kalish and Lucas Keldorf drove in two runs each for California.
US OPEN
The season's last Grand Slam tournament, the U.S. Open, gets started today in New York with some of the biggest names in tennis. That includes Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff on the women’s side, and Novak Djokovic and Frances Tiafoe on the men’s. The first round is played over Monday and Tuesday. The tournament lasts two weeks and wraps up with the women’s singles final on Sept. 9, and the men’s singles final on Sept. 10. The No. 1-ranked Swiatek won the championship in Arthur Ashe Stadium a year ago and she will be back in that arena to begin the 2023 edition of the event on Day 1 against Rebecca Peterson of Sweden.
MLB
Pete Alonso hit a tying double in the eighth inning and Rafael Ortega a winning single in the ninth to boost the New York Mets over the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 and stop a four-game losing streak. The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and was 3 for 9 with three runs, two steals and an RBI in his first series since the Angels said he tore a ligament in his right elbow while pitching on Wednesday. Los Angeles won the first two games of the series.
Brandon Lowe homered and drove in four runs as the AL wild card-leading Tampa Bay Rays beat the Yankees 7-4 in a contentious matchup and kept New York winless in series since June. Benches and bullpens emptied twice in the eighth inning after one of five hit batters in the game but no punches were thrown, and the Yankees lost their eighth straight series rubber game, Tampa Bay rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the sixth when Harold Ramírez flared a bases-loaded, two-out single to right off Ian Hamilton and Lowe followed with a two-run single against Wandy Peralta.
Mookie Betts capped his return to Boston with a second straight three-hit game, hitting a two-run homer to spark the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-4 victory over the team he led to the 2018 World Series title. Freddie Freeman also had three hits. James Outman homered to help the Dodgers improve to 21-4 in August. Gavin Stone earned his first career victory with six innings of relief before before giving up homers on back-to-back pitches to start the eighth. Betts was playing in Boston for the first time as a Red Sox opponent. He collected seven hits and a series of standing ovations over the three-game series.
Aaron Nola allowed one hit and struck out nine in seven sharp innings, Kyle Schwarber homered and the NL wild-card leading Philadelphia Phillies completed a three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals with a 3-0 victory. Johan Rojas doubled among his three hits and Bryce Harper hit an RBI single for the defending NL champion Phillies. Philadelphia outscored St. Louis 22-3 in the series. José Alvarado tossed a scoreless eighth and Craig Kimbrel completed the two-hit shutout with his 20th save in 22 tries with a scoreless ninth. The Cardinals have lost nine of their last 11.
WNBA
Alyssa Thomas scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, DeWanna Bonner moved into seventh place on the all-time scoring list as Connecticut pulled away in the second half to beat Los Angeles.
Thomas sank 6 of 11 shots from the floor and 5 of 6 free throws for Connecticut (24-11), which has already clinched a playoff berth. Thomas has 25 double-doubles this season. She added eight assists. Bonner scored 12 points to break a tie with Sue Bird. Bonner has 6,815 career points. She also had eight rebounds.
Azurá Stevens finished with 17 points to lead Los Angeles (15-19). Layshia Clarendon finished with 13 points and six assists for LA. Nneka Ogwumike scored 11.
BASKETBALL WORLD CUP
The Basketball World Cup is underway, with the U.S. set to play Greece at 8:40 this morning, and Puerto Rico up against Serbia at 8 a.m. The U.S. won its first match against New Zealand Saturday 99-72, and Puerto Rico topped South Sudan 101-96.
FEDEX CUP
Viktor Hovland is the FedEx Cup champion and it really wasn't close. Hovland played the best golf of his career in the final two weeks of the PGA Tour season. He capped it off at East Lake by winning the Tour Championship. Hovland started the final round with a six-shot lead and shot a 63. Xander Schauffele made him earn it. He shot a 62. Hovland played the final two weeks in 36-under par to win the last two FedEx Cup playoff events. Now it's a question whether he gets consideration as the PGA Tour player of the year.
US GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIP
Simone Biles won her record eighth U.S. Championship, a full 10 years after she first ascended to the top of her sport as a teenage prodigy. Biles, now a 26-year-old newlywed considered perhaps the greatest of all time, posted an all-around two-day total of 118.40, well clear of Shilese Jones in second and Leanne Wong in third. Biles will next compete at the world championships in Belgium this fall, where she will look to add to her record total of 25 medals at the meet.
TRACK AND FIELD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh won a gold medal to bring an emotional close to the track and field world championships. The very last person competing in the final event of the nine-day meet, Mahuchikh cleared 2.01 meters to win her first major outdoor title and set herself up as a favorite at the Olympics next year. Her evening came to a close moments after Femke Bol of the Netherlands, whose fall cost her team a medal in the mixed 4x400 relay on opening night, made up some 20 meters down the homestretch to win the women’s version of the race.
NFL
Aaron Rodgers threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson to cap the second and final series of his preseason debut with the New York Jets and help his new squad to a 32-24 victory over the Giants Saturday night. The four-time NFL MVP played in the preseason for the first time since 2018 when he was with Green Bay. Rodgers capped the second series with a perfectly placed pass to Wilson in the front left corner of the end zone with 8:23 left in the opening quarter. That was it for Rodgers who went 5 for 8 for 47 yards and the TD in his two series.
Miami Dolphins rookie wide receiver Daewood Davis was released from a Jacksonville hospital Sunday morning after he was carted off the field during the fourth quarter against the Jaguars Saturday night. The Dolphins announced Sunday that Davis will travel to South Florida with team personnel. Davis was trying to catch a pass from James Blackman in the fourth quarter when he took a hard hit from Jacksonville’s Dequan Jackson, who was called for unnecessary roughness. Davis remained down on the field motionless, was carted off in an immobilized position and taken to a hospital for further evaluation.
NASCAR
NASCAR driver Ryan Preece is headed home from the hospital about 12 hours after his car rolled roughly a dozen times during a terrifying crash at Daytona International Speedway. Stewart-Haas Racing says Preece is traveling back to North Carolina after getting clearance from doctors at Halifax Health Medical Center. The team earlier said Preece was “awake, alert and mobile” and “had been communicating with family and friends.” The 32-year-old Preece was able to climb out of his mangled No. 41 Ford on Saturday night with help before emergency workers put him on a gurney and into an ambulance. He initially went to the track’s infield care center before being transported to Halifax Health for overnight observation.
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
One week after the president of the Spanish soccer federation kissed a player on the lips during the Women’s World Cup awards ceremony, his reputation is in tatters and he's out of his job. Luis Rubiales wrecked his career by offending millions worldwide with his conduct at the final in Sydney, Australia, when he also grabbed his crotch in a victory gesture. A day after he was provisionally suspended by FIFA for 90 days, Spain awoke on Sunday to headlines like the one in El Pais saying “Spain no longer tolerates men like Rubiales.” An emergency meeting of the soccer federation's regional heads will discuss the crisis on Monday when women’s groups will rally in downtown Madrid in support of forward Jenni Hermoso.
OLYMPICS
Nicolas Batum has been part of France’s national team for about 15 years now. He was part of a gold-medal game loss to the U.S. at the Tokyo Olympics. He's been part of many tough losses with medals at stake. But to him, France's loss at the World Cup was far worse. France was a medal favorite in the eyes of many entering the tournament. It won’t even get out of the first round of this tournament. That's a massive embarrassment to a team that will consider itself a gold-medal favorite when it plays host to the Paris Olympics in 11 months.
NCAA
The Big 12 Conference sprung from the old Big Eight, a bunch of entirely public and largely agricultural schools. Now, the busy Power Five conference is adding BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, and four more schools are poised to join next year, creating a footprint that will soon stretch from the sands of Florida to Arizona. The ties that bound so many of the schools are long gone, emblematic of the lost allegiances in college football in general. Shared history and cultural norms, along with geographic sensibilities, have been cast aside as leagues such as the Big 12 pursue every last dollar to fund not just their football and basketball teams but their entire athletic programs.
HORSE RACING
Arcangelo won the $1.25 million Travers by a length at Saratoga on Saturday?, giving trainer Jena Antonucci her second major Grade 1 victory after the colt won the Belmont Stakes. The day was marred by the deaths of two horses, including New York Thunder in the $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial. Arcangelo ran 1 1/4 miles over a muddy track in 2:02.23 and paid $7.40 to win. Disarm was second and Tapit Trice was third in a race that featured all three winners of this year's Triple Crown races. Preakness winner National Treasure was fifth and Kentucky Derby winner Mage was last in the seven-horse field.
In Sunday’s top action, Ichiban, ridden by Jose Ortiz and trained by Linda Rice, won the $200,000 1 and 1/8 mile Fleet Indian Stakes in 1:53.23. City Man, ridden by Joel Rosario and trained by Christophe Clement, won the $200,000 1 and 1/16 mile West Point Stakes in 1:42.63. The Wine Steward, ridden by Manuel Franco and trained by Michael Maker, took first in the $200,000 six-furlong Funny Cide Stakes in 1:10.92. The $200,000 1 and 1/16 mile Yaddo Handicap was won by New Ginya, ridden by Dylan Davis and trained by Christophe Clement.
In other top action Sunday, Cadwell Luvs Gold, ridden by Florent Geroux and trained by Brad Cox, won the $200,000 six-furlong Seeking the Ante Stakes in 1:11.29.
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