MLB
Shohei Ohtani, who has captivated baseball with his unprecedented combination of high-level hitting and premium pitching, has become the first two-time unanimous Most Valuable Player, winning the American League honor. Ohtani, a free agent after finishing his contract with the Los Angeles Angels, received all 30 first-place votes and 420 points in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. He was a unanimous MVP in 2021 and finished second to the Yankees’ Aaron Judge in voting last year. Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. won the National League honor, also a unanimous pick.
Ronald Acuña Jr. was a unanimous winner of his first National League Most Valuable Player award after becoming the first big leaguer with 40 homers and 70 stolen bases in a season. Los Angeles Angels two-way star star Shohei Otani won the American League honor, becoming the first two-time unanimous MVP. There have been 21 unanimous winners, and this year marked the first time two occurred in the same year. Mookie Betts received all 30 second-place votes and 270 points, followed by Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Freddie Freeman with 227 points.
The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas has been approved by Major League Baseball team owners in a 30-0 vote. After years of complaints about the Oakland Coliseum and an inability to gain government assistance for a new ballpark in the Bay Area, the A’s plan to move to a stadium to be built on the Las Vegas Strip with $380 million in public financing approved by the Nevada government. They will remain next season at the Coliseum for the last year of their lease there. Plans are to open the new ballpark in 2028.
NFL
Lamar Jackson threw two touchdown passes in the second quarter and the Baltimore Ravens beat Cincinnati 34-20 after the Bengals lost star quarterback Joe Burrow to a wrist injury. The AFC North-leading Ravens completed a head-to-head sweep of Cincinnati and moved to 2 1/2 games ahead of the last-place Bengals. And that’s far from Cincinnati’s only problem. Burrow left in the second quarter after throwing a touchdown pass and wasn’t able to return. Jackson threw for 264 yards despite losing tight end Mark Andrews to an ankle injury that is likely to end his season.
NBA
Jimmy Butler scored 18 of his 36 points in the third quarter, and the Miami Heat extended the NBA’s current longest winning streak to seven games, beating the Brooklyn Nets 122-115 last night. Duncan Robinson added 26 for the Heat, who have won seven straight for the first time since Dec. 30, 2017-Jan. 14, 2018. Bam Adebayo scored 20 for Miami. Mikal Bridges and Lonnie Walker IV each scored 23 for Brooklyn, which had won its last five games against Miami. Nic Claxton was 7-for-7 from the field and scored 16 for the Nets, and Cam Johnson added 16 as well.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 28 points and seven steals and the Oklahoma City Thunder rolled past the San Antonio Spurs 123-87. Josh Giddey added 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Thunder. Oklahoma City set a Thunder record with 19 steals. Zach Collins and Julian Champagnie led San Antonio with 13 points each. The Spurs lost their sixth straight. The game featured two of the league’s top rookies — San Antonio’s 7-foot-3 Victor Wembanyama and Oklahoma City’s 7-1 Chet Holmgren. Wembanyama finished with eight points and 14 rebounds and blocked two shots. Holmgren had nine points and seven rebounds and three assists.
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Draymond Green was “wrong” and “took it too far” when he put Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert in a headlock. The NBA suspended Green for five games, citing his “history of unsportsmanlike acts” in determining the length. The altercation occurred when Golden State’s Klay Thompson and Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels got in a shoving match near midcourt following a Timberwolves possession. Gobert stepped in and grabbed hold of Thompson before Green rushed in and pulled Gobert away from behind with his arm around the center’s neck in what the league called “an unsportsmanlike and dangerous manner.”
NHL
Kailer Yamamoto scored the deciding goal in the eighth round of a shootout, and the Seattle Kraken beat the reeling New York Islanders 4-3 to snap a three-game losing streak. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jordan Eberle also scored in the shootout for Seattle. Philipp Grubauer stopped Noah Dobson to seal the victory after Yamamoto’s score. Matty Beniers, Alex Wennberg and Yamamoto scored in regulation for the Kraken, all on power plays. Grubauer made 21 saves in regulation and overtime. Anders Lee, Casey Cizikas and Dobson scored in regulation for the Islanders, who lost their seventh in a row.
Jesper Bratt, Alexander Holtz and Tyler Toffoli scored in the third period, and the short-handed New Jersey Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2. The Devils played without forwards Timo Meier, Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes, but they were still able to beat Pittsburgh for the sixth straight time overall. Vitek Vanecek made 23 saves for New Jersey, which had dropped three in a row and four of five overall. Bratt gave the Devils a 3-2 lead 2:35 into the third, beating Tristan Jarry over the shoulder to the blocker side during a 4-on-4 stretch.
Tim Stützle scored with two seconds left in overtime as the Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-4 in the opening game of the NHL’s Global Series in Sweden. Stützle batted the puck out of the air off a crossing pass from Drake Batherson that hit the stick of Detroit defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and beat goalie James Reimer just before the horn sounded as Ottawa earned the victory after squandering a four-goal lead. Brady Tkachuk had two goals — both set up by Stützle — and Josh Norris added a goal and an assist for Ottawa. Jake Sanderson also scored. Joonas Korpisalo made 37 saves. Gostisbehere had a goal and an assist, and Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond and David Perron added goals for Detroit. Reimer stopped 29 shots.
Matt Duchene scored 42 seconds into overtime as the Dallas Stars beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-3 for their fourth consecutive win. Duchene and Tyler Seguin each had a goal and an assist and Esa Lindell and Roope Hintz also scored for the Stars, who ran their home points streak against Arizona to 17-0-1, one game short of the franchise record against any opponent. Jake Oettinger made 22 saves for Dallas, which increased its lead in the Central Division to five points over Colorado. Clayton Keller, Jason Zucker and Lawson Crouse scored for the Coyotes.
Shea Theodore had a goal and three assists and the Vegas Golden Knights beat Montreal 6-5, sending the Canadiens to their third straight loss. Jack Eichel and Mark Stone each had a goal and two assists, and Brett Howden, Brayden McNabb and Jonathan Marchessault also scored for Vegas (13-3-1). Adin Hill stopped 23 shots. Jesse Ylonen scored twice and Alex Newhook, Johnathan Kovacevic and Justin Barron added goals for Montreal (7-8-2). Cayden Primeau made 36 saves in his third start of the season.
Victor Hedman snapped a tie 11:53 into the third period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2. Brayden Point had a power-play goal and two assists for Tampa Bay, which had dropped three straight. Mikhail Sergachev scored in the second and assisted on Brandon Hagel’s empty-netter. Hedman, who also had an assist, slipped to the left edge of the crease and tapped in the puck for the game-winner after Erik Cernak’s blue-line drive bounced off the back boards. The Lightning dominated the action for several minutes before Hedman’s fourth goal of the season.
Elias Lindholm had a goal and two assists and Jonathan Huberdeau ended an 11-game scoring drought, leading the Calgary Flames to a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Mackenzie Weegar, Dillon Dube and Noah Hanifin also scored for Calgary, which improved to 4-1-1 in its last six games. Huberdeau added an assist. Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander scored for Vancouver, which lost for just the second time in nine games.
Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist, Anze Kopitar scored on the power play and the Los Angeles Kings halted the Florida Panthers’ five-game winning streak in a 2-1 victory on Thursday. Cam Talbot made 30 saves, and the Kings won in their own building for the second time in eight games. Sam Reinhart scored for the third straight game, Sergei Bobrovsky allowed two goals on 26 shots, and the explosive Panthers were held to their lowest scoring output since being shut out at Minnesota in their season opener on Oct. 12.
Mike Hoffman scored two goals, and the San Jose Sharks beat the St. Louis Blues 5-1. Givani Smith had a goal and an assist for San Jose, which had dropped three in a row. William Eklund and Luke Kunin also scored in the Sharks’ highest scoring game of the season. San Jose is 3-3 in its last six games after dropping its first 11 games of the season. Pavel Buchnevich scored for St. Louis, which had won three in a row. Joel Hofer stopped 17 of 21 shots before he was replaced by Jordan Binnington in the second period. The Blues had won their last eight games against the Sharks.
Major League Baseball will play its 2025 All-Star Game in Atlanta, four years after moving the event from Truist Park to Denver’s Coors Field over objections to changes in Georgia’s voting rights laws. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement following an owners’ meeting. Atlanta was awarded the 2021 All-Star Game in May 2019, but MLB moved it in April 2021, just three months before the game was played. Atlanta previously hosted the All-Star Game in 1972 and 2000.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Michigan has announced that football coach Jim Harbaugh will serve the remainder of a three-game suspension from the Big Ten in return for the conference ending its investigation into a years long scheme to steal opponents' play-calling signals. The settlement on Thursday is the latest twist in a story that saw one of college football’s most recognizable programs accused of purchasing tickets to the games of Michigan’s future opponents and sending people to those games to digitally record teams signaling in their plays. Harbaugh was suspended just weeks after an investigation into the allegations by the NCAA surfaced.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL – WOMEN
UAlbany Women 66 St. Bonaventure 56
Harvard Crimson 78 UMass Minutewomen 57
UConn Huskies 80 Maryland 48
Caitlin Clark struggled through a poor shooting performance and No. 2 Iowa failed to score in the last three minutes Thursday night, falling to Kansas State 65-58. Clark, The Associated Press national player of the week in women’s basketball, scored 24 points on 9-for-32 shooting from the field and 2-for-16 sniping from long distance, failing to make her first 3-pointer until just over a minute left in the second quarter. Iowa (3-1), which had been averaging 92 points in its first three games, shot just 36.1% from the field and was 2 for 21 from long distance. Ayoka Lee scored 22 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, to lead Kansas State’s comeback victory.
GRAND PRIX
The first Formula One practice of the Las Vegas Grand Prix was called off less than 21 minutes into Thursday night’s session after Carlos Sainz Jr. ran over a drainage cover. F1's governing body said it had to inspect all the covers on the course. Sainz hit it just nine minutes into the practice on the street course that includes a large portion of the Strip. It caused the Ferrari to bottom out and potentially destroyed his engine. The session never resumed and F1 said the start of the second practice would be delayed. Ferrari was livid.
GOLF
Golf superstar Tiger Woods's ex-girlfriend has dropped her $30 million lawsuit against the trust that owns his $54 million Florida mansion. An attorney for Erica Herman filed a notice in state court last week saying Herman never accused Woods or any of his employees of sexual harassment. Herman's attorney has made that claim on multiple occasions. A separate lawsuit against Woods was rejected by a judge in May. Court records show an appeal of that decision was dropped this week. Herman was Woods’ girlfriend from 2015 until October 2022. She signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2017 that barred her from discussing their relationship publicly.
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