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Sabrina Ionescu leads Liberty past Mystics, New York’s first home playoff win since 2014

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Sabrina Ionescu scored 29 points, hitting seven 3-pointers, to help the New York Liberty beat the Washington Mystics 90-75 in Game 1 of their WNBA playoff matchup on Friday night.Jonquel Jones added 20 points and 12 rebounds to give New York its first home playoff victory since 2015. Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Tuesday night in New York.Ionescu scored eight points in the third quarter, including the final five of the period with a deep 3-pointer and then a floater in the lane just before the buzzer to give New York a 69-57 advantage.Myisha Hines-Allen scored a playoff career-high 21 points for the Mystics.Breanna Stewart, the Associated Press Player of the Year, had a rough night for the Liberty, finishing with 10 points on 3-of-16 shooting.WINGS 94, DREAM 82ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Satou Sabally scored 32 points, Arike Ogunbowale had 24 and Dallas rallied from an early deficit to beat Atlanta in the opener of a best-of-three series.Teaira McCowan had 17 poi...

Rockies get 7 hitless innings from Anderson, beat Giants 3-2 on throwing error in 9th

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Chase Anderson worked seven hitless innings as Colorado took a combined no-hit bid into the ninth, and the Rockies beat the San Francisco Giants 3-2 on Friday night when Nolan Jones scored the game-ending run on a throwing error by left fielder Mike Yastrzemski.The Giants didn’t get a hit until J.D. Davis led off the ninth with a double off Nick Mears, but they led most of the game. Anderson walked five and gave up a run in the second.“I looked up there I think in the sixth or seventh inning and was like, ‘Man, I’ve got the same amount of balls and strikes?’ This is not a recipe for success — on most nights,” Anderson said. “But I was able to make the pitches I needed to.”San Francisco’s Logan Webb took a shutout into the eighth, when he gave up a tying RBI single to Ezequiel Tovar.After Davis’ double in the ninth, LaMonte Wade Jr. drew his third walk of the game with one out and Patrick Bailey’s infield single loaded the bases with two down. Wilmer F...

Castellanos hits 3-run homer in 1st inning in Phillies’ 5-4 victory over Cardinals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Nick Castellanos hit a three-run homer, lifting the NL wild-card leading Philadelphia Phillies to a 5-4 victory over St. Louis on Friday night to assure the Cardinals of their first losing season since 2007.“I’m doing my job,” Castellanos said. “Am I thrilled about every aspect of my season personally? No, because I know I’ve hit periods of inconsistency. I’m always a person to drive to get better. I have an unhealthy knack for never really being satisfied with anything I do.”It’s only the second time in the last 24 seasons (2000-present) that the Cardinals (65-82), currently in last place in the NL Central, have endured a losing season. St. Louis has MLB’s second-longest active streak of winning seasons at 15 (2008-22). The Yankees currently have 30 winning seasons.St. Louis stranded 15 runners. The Cardinals loaded the bases in the eighth and ninth and scored just one run.“I don’t think we played our best baseball out there tonight,” Philadelphia manager Rob...

Fernando Tatis Jr. homers, drives in 3 runs as Padres beat A’s 8-3 in Bob Melvin’s return

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Fernando Tatis Jr. homered in the first, added a two-run single in the second and set a career high for hits while playing in his 400th career game, leading the San Diego Padres past the Athletics 8-3 on Friday night in manager Bob Melvin’s return to Oakland.San Diego’s José Azocar hit a three-run shot in the ninth for his first career home run, in his 269th at-bat.The A’s showed a video tribute after the first inning for Melvin, their winningest manager who spent nearly 11 seasons guiding the A’s before departing to manage the Padres after the 2021 season. He hadn’t been back for nearly two years.Tatis surpassed his previous career best of 135 hits from 2021. He also joined Juan Soto and Manny Machado with at least 25 home runs — becoming the third trio in San Diego history to do so in a single season. They join the 2001 Padres of Phil Nevin, Ryan Klesko and Bubba Trammell and the 2019 group of Hunter Renfroe, Machado and Franmil Reyes...

Man snags 2 foul balls in span of 3 pitches at Citi Field, gives them to his mom as birthday gift

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Patrick Wedderburn exchanged hugs with family and friends Friday night as he held aloft his once-in-a-lifetime haul in section 321 at Citi Field — two foul balls snagged in a three-pitch span during the eighth inning of the Mets’ 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.But the 23-year-old from Farmingville on Long Island didn’t hesitate when asked what he planned to do with the baseballs.“I’m gonna give her both of them,” he said as he gestured to his mother, Christa, who was at the park as part of her birthday celebration.Patrick, wearing a Pete Alonso jersey, said he was looking at his phone in the fifth row of section 321 — two levels behind home plate at Citi Field — when the first foul ball off the bat of TJ Friedl landed in the second row.“I looked up, I saw it bouncing right there, I dove over, grabbed it,” Patrick said.Friedl then fouled a pitch off towards the third base side before hitting another Drew Smith offering into section 321.“Before I could even think abou...

Trio helps Wings rally past Dream 94-82 in playoff opener

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Satou Sabally had 32 points, Arike Ogunbowale scored 24 and Teaira McCowan added a double-double to help Dallas overcome a slow start and beat Atlanta 94-82 in a first-round playoff opener on Friday night.Sabally notched a playoff-high for the fourth-seeded Wings, sinking 11 of 20 shots from the floor — with three 3-pointers — and all seven of her free throws. She also had five rebounds, four assists and four steals. Ogunbowale added nine rebounds, seven assists and four steals for the Wings, who went 3-0 against Atlanta in the regular season. McCowan totaled 17 points — on 6-of-7 shooting — and 14 rebounds, including seven on offense. It was her second career postseason double-double.Rhyne Howard, the top pick in the 2022 draft, finished with 36 points for the Dream, who were playing in the postseason for the first time since 2018. Howard made 13 of 29 shots, including 8 of 15 from beyond the arc. Allisha Gray pitched in with 21 points, seven boards and thre...

Tarik Skubal throws 7 dominant innings, Javier Baez drives in 4 in Tigers’ 11-2 victory over Angels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Tarik Skubal struck out nine over seven stellar innings of three-hit ball, and Javier Báez had a homer and a three-run double in the Detroit Tigers’ 11-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.Jake Rogers also homered for the Tigers, who have won four of six. Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter drove in two runs apiece as Detroit opened its 10-game California trip with a blowout in a weekend series between two teams about to miss the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season — the longest active postseason droughts in the majors.Skubal (6-3) was dominant in his third straight victory, issuing no walks and retiring the Angels’ first nine hitters before Kyren Paris’ bunt single leading off the fourth. Skubal struck out the side in the sixth, and he finished the seventh after a mound visit from Detroit’s training staff.The Tigers scored a season-high seven runs in the eighth inning off reliever Jhonathan Diaz before Angels infielder Edu...

How China schooled the West on climate change

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

The West: China’s doing nothing on climate. Also the West: China’s dominating green tech, we must fight back! Brussels this week launched an investigation into China’s subsidies for electric cars — a move that risks higher tariffs and a trade war with Beijing. But the announcement, from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, also exposes a deeper truth: decades of drift have left Europe in danger of losing the auto industry it considers a part of its soul.For years, the West has complained that China was a climate villain. That the enormous coal fields of Shanxi somehow excused slow burn climate policy in Washington, Paris or Berlin. Now Beijing is the one lecturing the West about climate credentials.China’s efficient electric car industry has “made great contributions to the global response to climate change and the green transformation, including in the European Union,” said the Chinese commerce ministry in a statement slamming the EU probe.“What we are...

Poland is shaken by reports that consular officials took bribes to help migrants enter Europe and US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s conservative governing party was hoping to make migration a key campaign theme ahead of the country’s national election. But not like this, with arrests, dismissals and an attempted suicide among its own ranks.The Law and Justice party is being rocked by reports that Polish consulates issued visas in Africa and Asia in exchange for bribes, opening the door for migrants to enter the European Union — which some hoped to use as a way into the United States.Details about the corruption scandal are coming to light a month ahead of the country’s national election Oct. 15, leaving Law and Justice struggling to control the damage. A former deputy foreign minister who was dismissed amid reports of his involvement in the scandal was hospitalized after an apparent suicide attempt.Law and Justice has been the election frontrunner in a field of several parties, and it’s not clear if the affair will dent its support. But opposition politicians have seized on t...

The cost of damage from the record floods in Greece’s breadbasket is estimated to be in the billions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:12 GMT

ZAGORA, Greece (AP) — The apples were almost ripe for harvesting when the worst storms in more than a century struck Greece’s breadbasket in Thessaly.Now, farmers on the forested slopes of Mount Pilion, which overlooks the plain of Thessaly, say they face millions of euros in damage from the flooding that began earlier this month. They will be lucky to salvage a third of their crop — and that will only happen if wrecked road access to their orchards is patched up in time.As bad as the damage suffered by the Pilion farmers was, their peers in the plain were hit by even greater devastation from last week’s disastrous floods that left 16 people dead, days after wildfires killed 20 people in northeastern Greece.The storms flooded 720 square kilometers (280 square miles), mostly prime farmland, totally destroying crops. They also swamped hundreds of buildings, broke the country’s railway backbone, savaged rural roads and bridges and killed tens of thousands of livestock...