WNBA
Sabrina Ionescu tied a franchise playoff record with 36 points and the New York Liberty beat the Atlanta Dream 91-82 last night to advance to the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs. Jonquel Jones added 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Liberty, who will face Las Vegas in the next round that begins Sunday in New York. New York, which entered the playoffs as the top seed, swept the best-of-three series. Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard did all they could to try and stave off elimination. Gray finished with 26 points and Howard added 19.
Kelsey Plum scored 29 points, A’ja Wilson had 24 points and 13 rebounds, and the Las Vegas Aces closed out the Seattle Storm 83-76 last night to advance to the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs for the sixth consecutive season. Las Vegas, which has won 11 straight home games in the playoffs, swept the best-of-three series to set up a rematch of the 2023 WNBA Finals against top-seeded New York starting Sunday. The Aces are trying to become the first team to win three titles in a row since Houston won four straight from 1997-2000 in the league’s first four seasons.
Curt Miller is leaving as coach of the Los Angeles Sparks after the WNBA franchise missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season and second under him. The team on Tuesday announced Miller’s dismissal, saying the sides had “mutually agreed to part ways.” The Sparks will begin their search for a new coach immediately. The Sparks were 25-55 in Miller’s two seasons at the helm. He is 165-141 as a head coach in the WNBA. He guided the Connecticut Sun to the WNBA Finals twice, but they lost both times. Miller was the first openly gay male coach in college or professional basketball when he joined the Sun.
MLB
The Baltimore Orioles clinched their second straight playoff berth, overcoming Aaron Judge’s major league-leading 56th home run to beat the New York Yankees 5-3. The Orioles’ win combined with Minnesota’s loss to Miami nine minutes later assured Baltimore at least an American League wild card. Anthony Santander hit his 44th home run and Ramón Urías and Colton Cowser also went deep for Baltimore, which closed within five games of the AL East-leading Yankees with five games left. The Orioles’ win clinched the season series and the tiebreaker against the Yankees, but Baltimore would have to finish 5-0 while New York goes 0-5 for the Orioles to finish atop the division.
Michael Harris II had three more hits, including a solo home run and an RBI double, and rookie Spencer Schwellenbach shut down the New York Mets again as the Atlanta Braves cruised to a 5-1 win in the opener of a pivotal three-game series. Marcell Ozuna added his 39th home run for Atlanta, which trails the Mets by one game in the National League playoff race with five remaining. New York stayed a half-game ahead of Arizona for the second of three wild cards, while the Braves moved within a half-game of the Diamondbacks for the league’s last playoff spot when Arizona lost 11-0 to San Francisco.
Trevor Story hit a tiebreaking double in a three-run 10th inning, and the Boston Red Sox rallied past the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5. Vaughn Grissom reached base four times, scored once and drove in a run as the Red Sox won their fourth straight. Boston trailed 3-0 after six innings, scored two in the seventh and tied it in the eighth. Story’s one-out double off Tommy Nance put the Red Sox ahead, and Connor Wong and Grissom also drove in runs in the 10th. Boston gave up two in the bottom half but held on. Chase Shugart picked up his first save.
Cody Bellinger tripled, singled twice and drove in four runs, and the Chicago Cubs routed the Philadelphia Phillies 10-4. Kyle Schwarber hit his 38th homer of the season and Bryce Harper hit his 30th for the Phillies, who clinched their first NL East title in 13 years on Monday night. Manager Rob Thomson played his regular lineup, minus catcher J.T. Realmuto, as Philadelphia seeks to secure home-field advantage in the NL playoffs. The Cubs took control with a six-run second inning against Tanner Banks and Taijuan Walker.
Lane Thomas hit a two-run homer and drove in three, Josh Naylor had a pair of RBIs and the AL Central champion Cleveland Guardians clinched a first-round bye in the postseason with a 6-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Tanner Bibee (12-8) allowed one run on four hits in seven innings to win for the first time at home since July 19. Thomas and Kyle Manzardo both went deep against Carson Spiers (5-7) in a three-run first inning as the Guardians improved their AL-best home record to 49-28. Cincinnati’s Spencer Steer had an RBI single in the fourth.
Kyle Isbel snapped Kansas City’s 27-inning scoreless streak by sprinting home on a throwing error in the 10th inning, Cole Ragans gave up three hits in six innings, and the Royals held on to the second American League wild card with a 1-0 victory over the Washington Nationals. Isbel, the Royals’ automatic runner to begin the 10th, reached third on Bobby Witt Jr.’s infield single to short and crossed the plate on Nasim Nuñez’s low throw to first to end Kansas City’s seven-game slide. Lucas Erceg worked a clean 10th for his 12th save and ninth with the Royals. Kyle Finnegan (3-7) took the loss.
The faltering Minnesota Twins took another step backward in the American League wild card race as Jonah Bride had three hits for the 99-loss Miami Marlins with a homer that sparked a four-run second inning off Bailey Ober in a 4-1 victory. The Twins are two games below the postseason cut behind both Detroit and Kansas City. The Tigers and Royals occupy the last two of the three wild card spots. The Twins hold the tiebreakers after winning the season series against both of them but with only five games to go. The Twins have lost 23 of 34 games.
Tarik Skubal allowed two hits in seven scoreless innings and the Detroit Tigers took another step toward an improbable postseason appearance with a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. A leading candidate to win the AL Cy Young award, Skubal struck out seven batters while walking only one. He will get a chance for a 19th win on Sunday if the Tigers need him to beat the Chicago White Sox on the final day of the regular season to make the postseason. The Tigers (83-74) began the day tied with Kansas City for the second and third wild-card spots — the Royals hold the tiebreaker — and one game ahead of the Minnesota Twins.
The Chicago White Sox remained tied with the 1962 New York Mets for the modern major league record of 120 losses in a season, rallying to score three runs in the eighth inning and beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-2. Andrew Benintendi hit a tiebreaking, two-out single to help the White Sox stave off infamy for at least one more night. Jonathan Cannon pitched three-hit ball over six scoreless innings for Chicago. The White Sox have five games left to set a record no team wants: two more against the Angels and three at Detroit.
Jason Heyward hit a go-ahead, two-run homer and made a dazzling defensive play as the Houston Astros beat the Seattle Mariners 4-3 to clinch their fourth consecutive AL West championship. Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker each added a solo home run for the Astros, who are headed to the postseason for the eighth year in a row. The Astros trailed by one in the fifth inning when Victor Caratini singled before moving to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jeremy Peña. Heyward, who wowed on defense in the top of the inning, launched his home run to the second deck in right field off Logan Gilbert to put Houston on top 4-3.
Jacob Wilson’s single with one out in the ninth inning gave the Oakland Athletics a 5-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night in the opener of their final series at the Coliseum. Zack Gelof stole second after leading the inning off with a single, and Wilson hit the first pitch he saw off Josh Sborz into center field to win the game. A loud “Sell the team! Sell the team!” chant rang out in the eighth inning and again when Wilson was being interviewed after the winning hit from the announced crowd of 30,402.
Willy Adames secured his first 30-20 season in the Milwaukee Brewers’ 7-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night. Adames stole second after an infield single, his first of two hits, with one out in the second inning. It was the 20th stolen base for the seven-year veteran to go along with 32 home runs. He and 20-year-old rookie Jackson Chourio (21 homers, 21 stolen bases) are the first Brewers teammates to go 20-20 in the same season. Hoby Milner (5-1) pitched a perfect fifth inning for the win in relief of Tobias Myers. Pirates starter Bailey Falter (8-9) gave up four runs and five hits, striking out five and walking one in five innings.
Masyn Winn homered, doubled and drove in four runs, Lars Nootbaar scored twice, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 7-3 on Tuesday night. St. Louis rallied to spoil the beginning of the last homestand of Charlie Blackmon’s career with a run in the seventh and four in the eighth. Blackmon tripled and doubled. Blackmon, who announced he will retire at the end of the season, received a standing ovation when he led off the bottom of the first before getting hit by Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy.
Michael Conforto and Brett Wisely each hit three-run homers in San Francisco’s six-run third inning, and the Giants won their fifth straight against playoff contenders by crushing the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-0. The Giants have nearly perfected the role of spoiler recently, going 7-1 against Baltimore, Kansas City and Arizona. San Francisco stretched its season-high winning streak by bashing five homers against the Diamondbacks, including three off Brandon Pfaadt in the first three innings. The Diamondbacks lost their third straight and had their lead over Atlanta for the final NL playoff spot drop to a half-game with four games remaining.
The San Diego Padres clinched a playoff spot Tuesday night when they stunned the Los Angeles Dodgers with a game-ending triple play to preserve a 4-2 victory over the NL West leaders. After missing the postseason last year, Manny Machado and the Padres earned the eighth playoff berth in franchise history. They are guaranteed at least a National League wild card with five games remaining in the regular season. San Diego is two games behind Los Angeles with two games left in their series at Dodger Stadium. The party was on in the Padres’ clubhouse, with music pumping and lights flashing as players drenched each other in alcohol.
The Baltimore Orioles are headed to the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since the 1990s, clinching no worse than a wild-card berth thanks to a 5-3 win over the New York Yankees paired with Minnesota’s loss to Miami. Baltimore has only a remote chance of overtaking the Yankees for the AL East title. The Orioles trail by five games with five games left but hold the tiebreaker after clinching the season series. Coming off their first AL East title since 2014, the Orioles started 23-11 and were 55-31 before play on July 3 but have gone 32-39 since.
The Houston Astros have clinched their fourth straight AL West title with a 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners, overcoming a terrible start to reach the playoffs for an eighth consecutive year. The Astros are the first team to win four straight AL West crowns since Oakland won five in a row from 1971-75. It’s the first time they’ve won four consecutive division titles, after winning three in a row twice before. Houston limped out to a 7-19 record and trailed Seattle by a season-high 10 games on June 18. But the Astros won their next seven to start a 13-2 stretch as they improved to 46-42 by July 5. They moved past the Mariners into first place in mid-August and cruised home to the division crown.
The Athletics already have carved out a Jekyll-and-Hyde legacy as one of Major League Baseball’s most successful and sad-sack franchises with nine World Series titles and 19 seasons of futility punctuated by 100 or more losses. Now, legions of A’s fans view the team as the sport’s most treacherous under the ownership of billionaire John Fisher, an heir of the family that founded The Gap in 1969 — one year after the A’s moved to Oakland, California, from Kansas City, Missouri. As the A’s close out 57 seasons in Oakland before moving to Sacramento and then Las Vegas, it’s heralding the end of an era that’s crushing a community’s soul.
NFL
Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre told a congressional committee Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Favre made the announcement as part of his testimony about a welfare misspending scandal in Mississippi. Favre does not face criminal charges, but he has repaid just over $1 million in speaking fees funded by a welfare program in the state. He was also an investor in a biotech company with ties to the case that said it was developing concussion drugs. It is unclear if Favre’s disease is connected to his football career or head injuries.
NHL PRESEASON
N-Y Rangers 6 N-Y Islanders 4
Montreal 3 New Jersey 0
Boston 4 Washington 2
Carolina 2 Tampa Bay 1
Buffalo 3 Pittsburgh 2
Ottawa 2 Toronto 1
Anaheim 4 San Jose 3
Vancouver 3 Seattle 1
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
The Pac-12 is suing the Mountain West over what it calls unlawful and unenforceable fees that could cost the rebuilding conference more than $40 million for adding Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State and San Diego State. The antitrust lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in California and is seeking a declaratory judgment by a judge. The Mountain West has exit fees of upward of $17 million for departing schools. There are also poaching fees that were put in place in the Mountain West’s scheduling agreement with Oregon State and Washington State, the only current Pac-12 members this season.
The starting quarterback for undefeated UNLV has announced on social media that he will not play in any more games this season. Matthew Sluka said Tuesday he will instead use his redshirt year. Sluka posted on X that he committed to UNLV based on ‘representations’ that were made to him, which were not upheld after he enrolled and which he said would not be fulfilled in the future. The senior transfer from Holy Cross has thrown for 318 yards and six touchdowns and rushed for 286 yards and a touchdown for the 3-0 Rebels, who host Fresno State on Saturday.
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