MLB
Corey Seager and Adolis García homered early, Nathan Eovaldi pitched seven smooth innings in another playoff clincher and the Texas Rangers completed an A.L. Division Series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles with a 7-1 victory in Game 3. The wild-card Rangers have won all five of their postseason games and are headed to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2011. AL East champ Baltimore won an AL-high 101 games and was never swept in a series during the regular season. Nathaniel Lowe also homered for Texas, which is taking three-time World Series champion manager Bruce Bochy to his first ALCS.
José Abreu hit a three-run homer for Houston in a four-run first inning against Sonny Gray and piled on with a two-run shot in the ninth to power the Astros past the Minnesota Twins 9-1. Houston leads the AL Division Series 2-1. Yordan Alvarez hit his fourth home run in three games and Alex Bregman had a homer and an RBI single for the defending World Series champions. The Astros moved within one win of a seventh consecutive appearance in the AL Championship Series. Cristian Javier had nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings. Game 4 is 2:07 this afternoon at Target Field.
The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies play game 3 tonight tied at a game apiece in the National League Division Series. The Phillies will start right-hander Aaron Nola in Game 3 at 5:07 tonight in Philadelphia. The Braves have not yet named a starting pitcher. The Phillies are trying to regroup after an epic Game 2 meltdown in a loss to the Braves. Travis d’Arnaud and Austin Riley each hit a two-run homer, and a great catch by Michael Harris II and an alert backup and throw by Riley ended the game.
The Los Angeles Dodgers cobbled together a 100-win regular season against the odds, using a strong offense to compensate for a beat-up starting rotation. Time is running out for that formula to produce even one postseason win. The Dodgers are down to their last chance in Game 3 of the National League Division Series, facing a 2-0 deficit against the Arizona Diamondbacks when the series continues at 9:07 tonight in Phoenix. Much has been made of L.A.’s bad starting pitching in the first two games, but it’s also been true that the Dodgers’ vaunted offense hasn’t been doing much. Mookie Betts is 0 for 7 over the first two games while Max Muncy is 1 for 7 and Freddie Freeman is 1 for 6.
The Baltimore Orioles won an AL-leading 101 games during the regular season. The Los Angeles Dodgers also reached triple digits in victories. Those impressive accomplishments earned both teams a bye in the opening round of the playoffs. Clearly, the time off did them no good. Tossing in the 104-win Atlanta Braves and the defending World Series champion Houston Astros, baseball’s four top seeds went a combined 2-6 on their home fields to start the best-of-five division round. Is it time to say goodbye to the bye?
NHL
Jonathan Marchessault scored, Adin Hill made 23 saves and the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights beating the Seattle Kraken 4-1 last night after a banner-raising ceremony. Conn Smythe winner Marchessault scored in the first game of the season for the fourth straight year and the fifth time in seven seasons with Vegas. Chandler Stephenson, Ivan Barbashev and Jack Eichel also scored for the Golden Knights. Jared McCann scored Seattle’s lone goal. Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves.
The Golden Knights raised their Stanley Cup championship banner in the most Las Vegas way possible. Captain Mark Stone placed the Stanley Cup next to an oversized slot machine on the ice Tuesday night before the season opener against the Seattle Kraken. He then pulled the lever. Three Cups representing the jackpot came up. Then the banner began to emerge from the slot machine as the capacity crowd roared and players looked on.
The Chicago Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard did not disappoint in his NHL debut. The Chicago Blackhawks rookie picked up an assist and dazzled occasionally with his skating as Chicago rallied past Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2. The 18-year-old Bedard, the top pick in the NHL draft, played over 21 minutes. He often shared the ice with Crosby, one of his idols. Bedard registered five of the 35 shots Chicago fired at Tristan Jarry as the Blackhawks began a new era with an impressive victory over the veteran-laden Penguins. Crosby scored his 551st career goal for Pittsburgh but the Penguins let a 2-0 lead slip away.
Jonas Johansson made 28 saves in his first start in place of the injured Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nicholas Paul had two third-period power-play goals and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Nashville Predators 5-3 in their NHL regular-season opener. Johansson was signed to be Vasilevskiy’s backup. Vasilevskiy had back surgery two weeks ago and is expected to miss another six to eight weeks. Brandon Hagel converted a penalty shot, and Nikita Kucherov also scored twice for the Lightning. Nashville’s Juuse Saros stopped 29 shots. Ryan O’Reilly, Juuso Parssinen and Tommy Novak had goals in Andrew Brunette’s debut as Predators coach.
WNBA PLAYOFFS
In WNBA Finals, New York is at Las Vegas at 9 tonight for Game 2. The Liberty have a 1-0 lead.
The Chicago Sky have an agreement in place with Teresa Weatherspoon to make her their next coach, according to her agent, Richard Gray. He confirmed the news in a text message to The Associated Press. The Sky have been searching for a coach since James Wade left in the middle of the season to take an assistant job with the NBA's Toronto Raptors. Emre Vatanseyer was interim coach for the rest of the season, including a playoff series loss to the Las Vegas Aces
NBA PRESEASON
Boston is at Philadelphia tonight at 7
Sacramento is in L.A. to take on the Lakers at 10 p.m.
GYMNASTICS
Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton has pneumonia and is in intensive care in a Texas hospital. Retton’s daughter, McKenna Kelley, shared Retton’s condition in an Instagram post. Kelley said the 55-year-old Retton, who became the first American woman to win the Olympic all-around title, is “fighting for her life” and not able to breathe on her own. Kelley started a fundraising campaign on Retton’s behalf for medical expenses. Kelley wrote that Retton does not currently have medical insurance.
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