OLYMPICS
Noah Lyles won the Olympic 100 meters by five thousandths of a second Sunday, waiting some 30 seconds after the finish of an excruciatingly close sprint to find out he’d beaten Kishane Thompson of Jamaica. The word “Photo” popped up on the scoreboard after Lyles and Thompson dashed to the line. Lyles paced the track with his hands draped over his head. Finally, the numbers came up. Lyles won in 9.784 seconds to edge out the Jamaican by five-thousandths of a tick of the clock. America’s Fred Kerley came in third at 9.81 and defending champion Marcell Jacobs finished fifth.
Olympic boxer Imane Khelif says the wave of hateful scrutiny she has faced over misconceptions about her gender “harms human dignity.” She called for an end to bullying athletes after being greatly affected by the international backlash against her. The Algerian athlete spoke about her tumultuous Olympic experience on Sunday night in an interview with SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press. Khelif also expressed gratitude to the International Olympic Committee and its president, Thomas Bach, for standing resolutely behind her while the banned former governing body of Olympic boxing stoked a furor around her participation in Paris.
The United States closed out Olympic swimming with a wide range of emotions. The Americans set two world records on the final night, winning the gold-medal count over rival Australia and easing the sting of the first loss ever in the men’s 4x100-meter medley relay. Bobby Finke set a new standard in the 1,500 freestyle and the American women closed a thrilling nine days at La Defense Arena with another record in their 4x100 medley relay. China stunningly won the gold in the men’s 4x100 medley relay, ending the American run of dominance that stretched back to the introduction of the event at the 1960 Rome Games.
Scottie Scheffler is the best player in golf and has an Olympic gold medal to show for it. The world's No. 1 player stormed from behind with a 62 at Le Golf National for a one-shot victory over Tommy Fleetwood. He overcame a six-shot deficit on the back nine and got plenty of help from a shocking collapse by Jon Rahm. The Spaniard lost a four-shot lead and didn't even make the podium. Rahm shot 39 on the back nine. Fleetwood won the silver medal. The bronze went to Hideki Matsuyama of Japan.
Olympic triathletes plunged into the Seine River as the mixed relay event got underway after organizers said the bacteria levels in the long-polluted Paris waterway were at acceptable levels. Organizers on Sunday night made the decision to hold the event Monday morning with swimming legs in the Seine. The plan to hold the swimming portion of the triathlons and the marathon swimming events in the Seine was an ambitious one. Swimming in the river has, with some exceptions, been off-limits since 1923 because it has been too toxic. Organizers said tests showed water quality at the triathlon site would be within the limits mandated by World Triathlon by Monday morning.
Novak Djokovic has won his first Olympic gold medal by beating Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in the 2024 Games men's tennis singles final. Sunday's victory makes the 37-year-old from Serbia the oldest man to triumph in the event at the Summer Games since 1908. It also gives Djokovic the last significant accomplishment missing from a resume that includes 24 Grand Slam titles and the most weeks spent at No. 1 in the rankings. The final was a rematch of the Wimbledon final that Alcaraz won. The 21-year-old from Spain was trying to become the youngest man to win an Olympic singles gold medal in tennis.
French authorities are making broad use of discretionary powers during the 2024 Olympics and their run-up to keep hundreds of people they deem to be potential security threats away from the biggest event modern France has ever organized. Lawyers told The Associated Press that minorities are often among those targeted with orders not to leave their neighborhoods and to report daily to police. Fearing terror attacks, France has massively boosted security. Those now unable to leave the vicinities of their homes include Amine, a bank apprentice and student restricted to his Paris suburb except for daily check-ins at a police station. The France-born 21-year-old has no criminal record and has not been charged with any crime.
American gymnastics star Sunisa Lee's Olympic medal count keeps rising. Lee earned her third medal of the 2024 Paris Games and the sixth of her Olympic career by claiming bronze Sunday in the uneven bars. Lee says the bronze is a vindication of sorts after she took bronze on the same event in Tokyo three years ago despite what she considered a sloppy performance. Lee has one last chance to add to her medal total when she competes in the balance beam final on the final day of gymnastics competition.
Olympic swimmers spoke out about the Chinese doping scandal that has hung over these Paris Olympics as the events finished. China won the men’s 4x100-meter medley relay in 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds, with two of the four members of the relay team on the list of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive ahead of the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. Britain's Adam Peaty says he believes dopers should be out of the sport altogether.
MLB
DJ LeMahieu hit a game-winning single through a five-man infield in the 10th inning to give the New York Yankees a rain-delayed 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. Juan Soto launched a tiebreaking homer in the seventh and Gleyber Torres had two hits for the Yankees, who won for the seventh time in eight games. New York remained tied atop the AL East with Baltimore, which won 9-5 at Cleveland. Aaron Judge was intentionally walked three times by the last-place Blue Jays, who purposely gave him a free pass with the bases empty in the second inning Saturday. The previous Yankees batter to receive three intentional walks in a game was Bernie Williams against Tampa Bay in September 1999.
Wilyer Abreu homered twice and tied a career high with four RBIs a day after the death of his grandmother, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 7-2 victory over the Texas Rangers. Boston leadoff man Jarren Duran connected on a tiebreaking homer for the second time in less than three weeks at the home of the Rangers. The first of those two made Duran the MVP in the AL’s 5-3 victory in the All-Star Game on July 16. The second gave Boston a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning. Corey Seager and Josh Jung homered for Texas.
Griffin Canning pitched five stingy innings for his first win in six weeks and the Los Angeles Angels held off the New York Mets 3-2. Matt Thaiss and Kevin Pillar each had a sacrifice fly for the Angels, who knocked the Mets out of playoff position in the National League by winning the final two in a three-game series. Los Angeles’ bullpen gave up two hits over four scoreless innings, with Roansy Contreras working a perfect ninth to earn his second save. New York has dropped consecutive one-run games for the first time all season. Canning permitted three hits with four walks and eight strikeouts to win for the first time since June 24.
Kiké Hernandez had two doubles and two RBIs and Cavan Biggio added a run-scoring single as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics 3-2 and snapped a streak of six road series losses. Alex Vesia (2-3) struck out two batters in the seventh inning and earned the victory. He was one of five Los Angeles relievers who combined for six strikeouts and no walks in 4 1/3 innings of one-hit ball. Anthony Banda pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save in his second opportunity. Brent Rooker hit his 28th homer of the season, a two-run shot in the first inning, for Oakland, which had won five of its last eight games going into Sunday.
Kyle Schwarber led off with a homer and Zack Wheeler pitched eight scoreless innings as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Seattle Mariners 6-0 on Sunday. Bryson Stott, Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm homered as part of a five-run eighth inning to give Philadelphia breathing room. Schwarber added a double and a single for a three-hit day as the Phillies snapped a six-game losing streak. Wheeler allowed just two hits and struck out nine in his longest outing of the season. Seattle’s Logan Gilbert started out in a hole as he gave up the home run to Schwarber on the third pitch of the game.
MJ Melendez hit a pinch-hit three-run homer in the ninth inning to rally the Kansas City Royals to a 3-2 win over the Detroit Tigers. Trailing 2-0 going into the top of the ninth, Hunter Renfroe and Freddy Fermin reached on singles with one out. Adam Frazier nearly hit a pinch-hit homer, but the ball curled foul and he flew out to center field. Melendez then hit a 362-foot blast, his 13th of the season, to give Kansas City the lead. Chris Stratton (4-3) got the win with a scoreless eighth. The Royals’ Hunter Harvey pitched the ninth for his first save.
Tyler Alexander combined with four other Rays pitchers on a three-hitter, Brandon Lowe hit an RBI double in the third inning, and Tampa Bay beat the Houston Astros 1-0. Alexander entered with two outs in the first and gave up two hits in 4 1/3 innings to pick up his third straight win. Pete Fairbanks closed it out for his 21st save in 23 opportunities. The Rays, who were sellers at the trade deadline, have won seven of 10 and are five games out of an AL wild card spot. Spencer Arrighetti struck out a career-high 12 batters in six innings for the Astros.
Gunnar Henderson hit a two-run homer and Adley Rutschman drove in three runs as the Baltimore Orioles beat the MLB-leading Cleveland Guardians 9-5. Henderson went deep in the fourth inning against Gavin Williams for his 29th home run of the season, giving the Orioles a 6-2 lead. Three batters earlier, rookie Jackson Holliday hit a solo homer as Baltimore split the four-game series. Corbin Burnes won his third straight decision and recorded his 1,000th career strikeout. Josh Naylor hit a three-run homer for the Guardians, who have won five of their last seven games and are 67-44 overall.
The woeful Chicago White Sox have lost their 20th consecutive game, the majors’ longest skid in 36 years and one short of the American League record, as Chris Flexen was chased early in a 13-7 defeat against the Minnesota Twins. Royce Lewis hit a three-run homer off Flexen in a six-run second inning that gave Minnesota an 8-0 cushion. The White Sox rallied and cut it to 10-7 in the eighth, but couldn’t get any closer and fell to 27-87 this season. Chicago’s franchise-record losing streak is the longest in the big leagues since the Baltimore Orioles dropped 21 games in a row — the AL mark — to begin the 1988 season.
Matt Chapman hit his 17th homer and saved a run by barehanding a slow roller to third base, lifting the San Francisco Giants to an 8-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds. LaMonte Wade Jr. and Tyler Fitzgerald also homered for the Giants, who took two of three from the Reds in a series between teams on the fringes of contention in the NL wild card race. Robbie Ray made his third start of the season, allowing two runs on three hits in five innings. The Giants led 3-2 with two outs on the sixth when TJ Friedl hit a slow roller to Chapman, who barehanded it and threw to first for the out.
Luis García Jr. homered for the second consecutive day, rookie James Wood hit a bases-loaded triple, and the Washington Nationals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3. Mitchell Parker threw six shutout innings for his first victory since June 16 for Washington, which has won back-to-back games since a five-game skid that matched a season high. Gary Sánchez homered for the NL Central-leading Brewers, who dropped the final two of a three-game series and have lost four of five overall. Milwaukee went 2-4 against Washington this year, the first time the Brewers lost a season series to the Nationals since 2015.
Edward Cabrera struck out eight in five impressive innings and Jonah Bride hit a three-run homer as the Miami Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves 7-0 to split their four-game series. Cabrera allowed just three hits and two walks. It was the first time in 11 starts this season that he didn’t give up a run. Three relievers finished the six-hitter. Xavier Edwards went 2 for 5 with an RBI and a run, extending his on-base streak to 21 games. All-Star lefty Max Fried had a disappointing return from the injured list for the Braves. He gave up five runs and four hits in 3 1/3 innings, walking a season-high five.
Joc Pederson’s three-run home run in the seventh inning rallied the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 6-5 win as Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Paul Skenes got a no-decision after taking a shutout into the sixth inning. Pederson hit a two-out drive to left-center field off Colin Holderman to turn a 4-2 deficit into a one-run lead. Pederson’s 17th homer of the season came after Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll walked. Skenes allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings against the highest-scoring team in the NL while striking out four and walking three.
David Peralta hit a three-run home run an inning after robbing Sam Hilliard of a shot and the San Diego Padres beat Colorado 10-2 for their first series win against the lowly Rockies in three tries this season. Kyle Higashioka and All-Star Jurickson Profar also homered for the Padres, who had lost five straight games to the Rockies until winning 3-2 on Saturday night. San Diego improved to an MLB-best 11-3 since the All-Star break. The Rockies had the chance to clinch the season series, which they lead 6-4 with a three-game series remaining in Denver in two weeks.
Justin Steele pitched three-hit ball into the seventh inning and the Chicago Cubs topped the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 for their fourth win in five games. Mike Tauchman and Miguel Amaya both homered in the sixth and finished with two hits and two runs scored to help the Cubs overcome an early 2-0 deficit. Chicago took three of four from its NL Central rival in a weekend series at Wrigley Field. St. Louis rookie Masyn Winn lofted a two-run homer in the third for the only scoring off Steele. The shortstop’s ninth home run was his third in six games and second of the series. Michael Busch and Cody Bellinger had RBIs as Chicago pulled ahead with two runs in the fifth.
© 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
