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Kershaw dominant over 7 innings, Dodgers beat Cardinals 1-0

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clayton Kershaw continued his dominant start to the season with seven sharp innings, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the struggling St. Louis Cardinals 1-0 on Saturday night.Kershaw didn’t allow a baserunner until Dylan Carlson’s one-out single in the fifth. The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner gave up two hits, struck out nine and walked none, throwing 88 pitches.“Four innings, you don’t really think about (being perfect) but it’s nice to get off to a good start like that and kind of get into that rhythm,” Kershaw said. Back for his 16th season on a one-year deal, the 35-year-old Kershaw (5-1) won his fourth consecutive start. He has yielded one earned run over his last three outings, a span of 20 innings. His ERA dropped to 1.89.“They were swinging a lot, which kept my pitch count down, which was good,” Kershaw said. “I mean it’s a tough lineup. (Paul) Goldschmidt and (Nolan) Arenado are two of the toughest at-bats I have in the...

Sounders’ Frei has sixth shutout in draw with Real Salt Lake

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Stefan Frei finished with three saves to help the Seattle Sounders earn a scoreless draw with Real Salt Lake on Saturday night.Frei’s league-high sixth clean sheet of the season helped Seattle (6-2-2) earn a point for just the second time in its last 11 trips to Sandy.Zac MacMath turned away the only shot on goal he faced for Real Salt Lake (3-5-1). RSL was trying to win back-to-back matches for the first time in its last nine attempts, instead falling to 0-5-4 following a win.The Sounders improve to 4-1-1 in their last six matches. Seattle’s only loss was a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Portland Timbers, conceding four goals in an 18-minute span after grabbing a 1-0 lead. Frei and the Sounders have yielded just three goals in their other 882 minutes of play this season.Seattle moved a point ahead of expansion St. Louis City atop the Western Conference standings thanks to the Timbers’ 2-1 victory over SLC earlier in the night.Real Salt Lake trav...

Perdomo, Walker homer in D-backs’ 11-4 win over Rockies

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Geraldo Perdomo homered among his three hits and drove in four runs, Christian Walker also homered among his three hits and the Arizona Diamondbacks sent the Colorado Rockies to a seventh consecutive home loss, 11-4 on Saturday night.Corbin Carroll had an RBI single in the first to extend his career-best hitting streak to eight games, but was forced to leave the game in the bottom of the sixth with a left leg injury after hitting the left field wall and falling awkwardly to the ground in an attempt to catch Ryan McMahon’s RBI double. He walked off the field gingerly under his own power and was replaced by Lourdes Gurriel Jr.“He is doing OK. I think we dodged a bullet,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, describing Carroll’s injury as a left knee contusion. “All the tests have come back very, very positive and he’s day to day. So, he was just trying to make a play and that’s who he is. I think the impact on his knee, fortunately it hit the padding on the fence and...

Chara sparks Timbers to 2-1 victory over St Louis

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Yimmi Chara scored late in the second half to rally the Portland Timbers to a 2-1 victory over St. Louis City on Saturday night.Chara took a pass from Santiago Moreno and scored in the 82nd minute to help Portland (3-5-2) avenge a 2-1 home loss to expansion St. Louis City (6-3-1) earlier this season.Neither team scored until the Timbers’ Evander da Silva Ferreira delivered on a penalty kick in the 63rd minute.Célio Pompeu notched the equalizer for St. Louis City in the 79th minute with assists from Tomás Ostrák and Rasmus Alm.Portland outshot St. Louis City 15-7 with a 7-1 advantage in shots on goal. The Timbers took one more shot than Cincinnati in a 2-1 loss last week, marking the first time they had the advantage in a match this season. Opponents had taken 89 more shots prior to the last two matches.Aljaz Ivacic finished without a save for Portland. Roman Bürki totaled five saves for St. Louis City. St. Louis City falls a point behind front-running Seattle ...

Where 19 local prospects were taken in the NFL draft, including 4 each from Illinois and Northwestern

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

The Tribune is tracking where players from Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Illinois high schools are selected in the 2023 NFL draft.Day 1Devon Witherspoon, CB, Illinois1st round (No. 5) to Seattle SeahawksA consensus All-American during his fourth season in Champaign, Witherspoon was the second defensive player drafted and the first cornerback off the board. The Pensacola, Fla., native had three interceptions and 14 pass breakups in 2022, didn’t allow a touchdown all season and had the nation’s best coverage grade according to Pro Football Focus.“I’m energetic, physical. I’m a dog on the field,” Witherspoon told reporters. “I’m just very confident in what I do, passionate. I love to show my emotions out there on the field.”It’s the highest an Illinois defensive back has been drafted and the highest the Seahawks have taken a cornerback under the Pete Carroll regime.Peter Skoronski, OL, Northwestern/Maine South1st roun...

MLB Notes: Bogaerts off to hot start, but how have other ex-Red Sox fared?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

It’s hard not to look at Xander Bogaerts and feel a sense of yearning.The former Red Sox shortstop has gotten off to an awesome start in San Diego. Through the season’s first month he ranks among MLB’s top all-around players, entering the weekend with a .316 average, five home runs, a .919 OPS and 1.5 wins above replacement, which ranked tied for fourth in baseball among all position players.Bogaerts has all but carried the Padres during an otherwise disappointing start. Meanwhile, the Red Sox’ first, second and third options at shortstop are all on the injured list, and Kiké Hernández is currently bouncing around trying to help plug other holes as they pop up.What a difference Bogaerts would make in Boston right now.Seeing Bogaerts thrive from afar stings, but truth be told we won’t really know whether the Red Sox or Padres made the right decision until he’s deeper into his 11-year, $280 million deal. Things could look a lot different if Trevor S...

DIY trans care evades barriers in Missouri, other states

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — With her insurance about to run out and Republicans in her home state of Missouri ramping up rhetoric against gender-affirming health care, Erin Stille nervously visited a foreign pharmaceutical site as a “last resort” to ensure she could continue getting the hormones she needs. Stille, 26, sent a $300 bank transfer to a Taiwan-based supplier for a 6-month supply of estrogen patches and androgen-blocking pills. For three weeks she feared she’d been scammed but breathed a sigh of relief when a large package arrived at her home in St. Peters.“It’s definitely a little scary,” Stille said. “Taking a chance like this, I could have my money stolen and there’s not much I can do about it. But I figured, at this point, that the benefits outweigh the risks.”Stille, and others nationwide, are scrambling to form contingency plans as Republican politicians rapidly erode access to the gender-affirming treatments many credit as life-saving. Fears became...

Should school use ‘Warrior’ nickname? Tribe to have last say

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

SALAMANCA, N.Y. (AP) — The profile of a Native American man, a braid trailing down and feather jutting up, is tiled into a high school hallway, dyed into the weight room carpet and laid into the turf of the football field at Salamanca city schools.School leaders say the omnipresent logo and “Warrior” name for the school athletic teams are sources of pride here, in the only U.S. city built on land leased from a Native American reservation.But as New York joins states moving to ban schools’ use of Indigenous nicknames and mascots because they diminish Native cultures, the tribe may have the last say over whether the logo stays. When the state Board of Regents this month voted to prohibit public schools’ use of Indigenous names, it included an exception for districts that receive written approval from a federally recognized tribal nation in New York.It has put the tribe in an awkward spot.While the Seneca Indian Nation’s leader has endorsed the ban, some citizens of the nation want to ...

China’s manufacturing contracts, signaling recovery concerns

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s factory activity declined in April, an official survey showed Sunday, signaling policymakers’ challenges in sustaining momentum in the country’s economic recovery.According to the government statistics bureau and an official industry group, a monthly purchasing managers’ index declined to 49.2 from March’s 51.9 on a 100-point scale where numbers below 50 indicate activity contracting.Measures of production, new orders and employment dropped from the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing said. But they said the index for production remained above 50, meaning that there was still an expansion. China’s economic growth accelerated in the first quarter of this year after the abrupt end of anti-virus controls. But authorities cautioned that the country will likely face import and export pressures in the coming months amid an uncertain global economic outlook, and warned of inadequate dome...

Jamal Murray’s 34-point masterpiece sets tone vs. Suns: “He’s a bad man”

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:36:35 GMT

First Jamal Murray begged for the ball, and then he begged for the crowd to roar.On Murray’s sixth and final 3-pointer of Saturday’s Game 1 rout over the Suns, Denver’s fiery point guard pleaded for Bruce Brown to feed him as he trailed the play in transition.With both arms extended, Murray implored Brown to pass it to him so he could hammer the final nail in the Suns’ chances in Game 1. After Murray connected and the Suns called a timeout to stop the onslaught, he headed to midcourt where more than 18,000 fans waited to serenade him.“We waited for this,” Murray shouted and then repeated.Murray’s 34-point night was the third time he’s scored at least that many in Denver’s first six games of the postseason. After dispatching the Suns 125-107 in Game 1, the Nuggets improved to 5-1 in the playoffs overall.His zeal and passion are the primary reasons the Nuggets have looked and played like a No. 1 seed thus far. Two-time MVP Nikola Jokic remarked in the postgame locker room how Murray h...