MLB
Bryson Stott crushed the second grand slam in Philadelphia Phillies postseason history and Aaron Nola tossed seven shutout innings in a performance worthy of a postseason ace that led to a 7-1 win and a two-game sweep over the Miami Marlins in their NL Wild Card Series. The Phillies advanced to an NL Division Series rematch against Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson and the Braves. Game 1 in the best-of-five series is Saturday in Atlanta. J.T. Realmuto also homered for the Phillies.
Zac Gallen settled down after a shaky start and Arizona’s bullpen stepped up at the very end, helping the Diamondbacks sweep their NL Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-2 victory in Game 2. Just two years after suffering through a 110-loss season, Arizona moved into the franchise’s first NL Division Series since 2017. The Diamondbacks will take on the NL West champion Dodgers in the opener of their best-of-five series on Saturday in Los Angeles. The NL Central champion Brewers have dropped nine of their last 10 playoff games, a stretch that started with their Game 7 home loss to the Dodgers in the 2018 NL Championship Series.
The Minnesota Twins swept the Toronto Blue Jays in their AL Wild Card Series with a 2-0 win in Game 2. Sonny Gray pitched five effective innings and Carlos Correa contributed an RBI single and a quick-twitch tag off a pickoff throw from Gray that ended the fifth. The Twins advanced for the first time in 21 years. They will play the defending World Series champion Astros. Game 1 of the best-of-five AL Division Series is in Houston on Saturday. Twins relievers logged 7 1/3 scoreless innings in the series. The Blue Jays left nine runners on base each game.
Adolis García and Evan Carter homered to back Nathan Eovaldi, and the Texas Rangers beat the punchless Tampa Bay Rays 7-1 to finish a two-game AL Wild Card Series sweep. Garcia and Carter, a 20-year-old rookie who became the second-youngest postseason player in franchise history, homered off 16-game winner Zach Eflin, who was unable to save Tampa Bay’s season. Texas advanced to a Division Series at AL East champion Baltimore starting Saturday. The Rays’ scoreless streak reached 33 innings, one shy of the postseason record held by the 1966-74 Los Angeles Dodgers, before Curtis Mead’s RBI single in the seventh.
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Frankie Amaya and Elias Manoel scored five minutes apart early in the first half and the New York Red Bulls kept their playoff hopes alive with a 2-1 victory over FC Cincinnati. A loss to the Supporters’ Shield winners would have eliminated the Red Bulls (9-13-10) from the postseason. Amaya used an assist from Lucas Lima Linhares (Luquinhas) to score for a fifth time this season, giving the Red Bulls the lead in the 12th minute. Manoel took passes from defender John Tolkin and Luquinhas and scored his third goal of the season to make it 2-0 in the 17th minute. Cincinnati (19-5-8), which clinched its first Supporters’ Shield with a 3-2 victory over Toronto last time out, cut its deficit in half on Luciano Acosta’s penalty-kick goal in the 68th minute.
Dániel Gazdag and Julián Carranza had a goal and an assist as Philadelphia scored three times over a nine-minute span of the first half and the Union held on for a 3-2 victory over Atlanta United. Philadelphia (15-8-9) beat Atlanta United (13-9-10) for the fourth straight time at home. The Union ended a five-match streak of playing to draws, which tied a club record. Gazdag ended a scoreless match in the 39th minute, using an assist from Alejandro Bedoya to notch his 14th goal of the season. Mikael Uhre stretched the lead to 2-0 in the 41st minute with an assist from Carranza. Carranza picked up his 13th goal of the campaign, scoring in the third minute of stoppage time off a pass from Gazdag for a 3-0 lead at the half.
GYMNASTICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Led by Simone Biles, the U.S. women have won a record seventh consecutive team title at the gymnastics world championships. The American team of Biles, Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely and Leanne Wong combined for a total of 167.729 points to edge Brazil and France. The U.S. team won by a margin of 2.199 points as the final proved to be a closer contest than anticipated after the Americans put up a dominant performance in qualifying. The U.S. women have won gold in the team event at every world championship that included a team competition since 2011. Their victory in Antwerp broke a tie with the Chinese men and made Biles the most decorated female gymnast in history.
NFL
In Thursday night football, the Chicago Bears take on the Washington Commanders at 8:15 p.m. tonight.
The Chargers have traded cornerback J.C. Jackson to the Patriots, sending him back to where he began his career. Los Angeles is also sending a 2025 seventh-round pick to New England, in exchange for a 2025 sixth-round pick. Jackson has struggled in Los Angeles since signing a five-year, $82.5 million contract last year. He intercepted 25 passes in four seasons for New England, which signed him as an undrafted free agent.
Travis Kelce agrees with the idea that NFL TV coverage is “overdoing it” with the amount of times Taylor Swift has been shown while attending his Kansas City Chiefs' games the last two weekends. Swift was in a suite Sunday night at MetLife Stadium for the Chiefs’ victory over the New York Jets in prime time. Jason Kelce told his brother during their “New Heights” podcast that cameras showed live shots of the suite 17 times during the game. Ian Trombetta, the NFL’s senior vice president of social, influencer and content marketing, said in an interview with The Associated Press that “there’s always chatter around different celebrities and so on that are attending different games, but this took a life of its own."
When the San Francisco 49ers dealt a bevy of draft picks to Carolina last October for Christian McCaffrey, some skeptics asked whether they overpaid for a running back in a passing league. Nearly 12 months later, coach Kyle Shanahan can’t even imagine what life would be like without McCaffrey driving the Niners offense. The addition of McCaffrey immediately transformed the 49ers from a middling offense into one of the most productive. Now with an entire offseason to fully integrate McCaffrey into the system, the Niners offense has gone to an even higher level.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes criticized his own performance four games into the season Wednesday. The two-time and reigning league MVP says he must play better if Kansas City wants to defend its Super Bowl title. Mahomes threw for just 203 yards with a touchdown pass and two interceptions last Sunday night in New York, though he made a couple of big plays with his legs to preserve a win over the Jets. Even with Mahomes playing poorly by his standards, the Chiefs have won three straight after their season-opening loss to Detroit and lead the AFC West. They play at Minnesota on Sunday.
NHL
New Jersey 5 N-Y Rangers 2
Columbus 5 Buffalo 3
Detroit 2 Pittsburgh 1
NBA
James Harden returned to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, with the disgruntled guard who had been seeking a trade back at training camp as an active participant. The 10-time All-Star arrived on the Colorado State campus for practice in spite of a fractured relationship with the Sixers’ front office. He skipped the team’s media day in New Jersey on Monday and the first day of camp in Colorado on Tuesday. Harden in June picked up his $35.6 million contract option for this season with the belief the team would try to trade him. He blasted team president Daryl Morey at a promotional event in China when no trade materialized. Harden didn't speak to reporters Wednesday but he did go through drills.
OLYMPICS
Bedbugs go wherever people go, and they have become a nightmare haunting France for weeks. The government has been forced to step in to calm an anxious nation that will host the Olympic Games in almost nine months — a prime venue for infestations of the crowd-loving insects. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called a meeting of ministers for Friday to tackle the bedbug crisis. The country’s transport minister, Clement Beaune, met this week with transportation companies to draw up a plan for monitoring and disinfecting — and to try to ease what some have called a national psychosis inflamed by the media.
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