Dodgers beat the Padres
From Maddie Lee: Andy Pages’ game-winning at-bat was one of the “greatest” teammate Freddie Freeman has ever seen in person. Manager Dave Roberts commended his “will and determination.” Even Padres closer Mason Miller, the pitcher on the other side, tipped his cap: “Outstanding job by him.”
The Dodgers’ 5-4 comeback victory was sealed with a nine-pitch battle between Pages and Miller. And the Dodgers’ young All-Star candidate beat the best closer in baseball.
“I never thought he was going to strike me out or dominate me,” Pages said through an interpreter. “I was 100% certain I was going to move the ball forward.”
Forward and in the air to right field for the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.
The Dodgers (30-19) evened the series, pulled back into the top spot in the division standings, and handed Miller his first loss as a Padre.
Shaikin: Pitching injuries are piling up again for Dodgers. Can the starting rotation hold up?
Angels walloped by the Athletics
Nick Kurtz had three hits and five RBIs, Brent Rooker and Zack Gelof homered and drove in three runs apiece as the Athletics beat the Angels 14-6 on Tuesday night.
The Athletics scored 12 of their runs with two out.
Kurtz, the reigning American League rookie of the year, sparked a six-run third inning with an RBI single, keyed a two-run sixth with a two-run single and added a two-run double in a four-run eighth.
Reliever Justin Sterner (2-3) escaped a first-and-third, two-out jam in the fourth and earned the win for the AL West-leading A’s, who snapped a three-game skid.
Billie Jean King graduates
From Steve Henson: Long before Billie Jean King won dozens of Grand Slam tennis titles, founded the Women’s Tennis Assn., became part owner of the Dodgers and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she enrolled in what was then called Los Angeles State College.
Three years later in 1964, King left without a degree to devote full attention to her burgeoning tennis career.
Failing to earn the degree bothered her, and King would correct anyone who said she had graduated.
“I said, ‘Don’t ever say ‘graduated.’ I haven’t earned it — yet,’” she said.
“Yet” became a reality Monday when King, 82, received her bachelor’s degree in history from the same school she attended more than 60 years ago — now called Cal State Los Angeles — walking across the Shrine Auditorium stage with the rest of the Class of 2026.
This day in sports history
1897 — British Open Men’s Golf, Royal Liverpool GC: English amateur Harold Hilton wins 2nd Open title by 1 stroke from Scot James Braid.
1900 — The second modern Olympic games open in Paris.
1941 — Ten days after his Preakness victory, Whirlaway races against older horses for the first time and defeats four rivals in the Henry of Navarre Purse at Belmont Park in New York.
1950 — Heavily favored Hill Prince, ridden by Bill Boland, wins the Preakness Stakes by five lengths over Middleground.
1964 — Buster Mathis beats future world heavyweight champion Joe Frazer on points at trials in Flushing, NY to qualify for US Olympic boxing team; Mathis injures thumb, replaced by Frazier who wins gold medal.
1967 — Damascus, ridden by Willie Shoemaker, wins the Preakness Stakes by 2¼ lengths over In Reality.
1972 — Bee Bee Bee, a 19-1 long shot ridden by Eldon Nelson, wins the Preakness Stakes by 1½ lengths over No Le Hace.
1972 — Indiana’s Roger Brown scores 32 points to lead the Pacers to 108-105 to win over the New York Nets and the ABA championship.
1978 — Affirmed, ridden by Steve Cauthen, continues the battle with Alydar and wins the Preakness Stakes by a neck.
1983 — American heavyweight boxer Larry Holmes beats countryman Tim Witherspoon by split decision to retain his WBC title at the Dunes Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas.
1985 — Larry Holmes beats Carl Williams in 15 for heavyweight boxing title.
1990 — Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf’s 66-match winning streak and takes the German Open with a 6-4, 6-3 victory. Graf’s streak is the second longest in the modern era of tennis. Martina Navratilova won 74 straight matches in 1984.
1990 — The 18th triple dead heat in modern thoroughbred history takes place in the ninth race at Arlington International Racecourse. All Worked Up, Marshua’s Affair and Survival are timed in 1:24 4-5 over seven furlongs.
1991 — Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan is named NBA’s MVP.
1992 — 36th European Cup: Barcelona beats Sampdoria 1-0 at London.
1998 — 6th UEFA Champions League Final: Real Madrid beats Juventus 1-0 at Amsterdam.
2000 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (78,217): Chelsea beats Aston Villa, 1-0; Roberto Di Matteo scores 73′ winner.
2005 — Nextel Cup rookie Kyle Busch becomes the youngest winner in Craftsman Truck Series history, holding off Terry Cook and Ted Musgrave in a three-lap closing sprint at the Quaker Steak & Lube 200.
2006 — Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro breaks down at the start of the Preakness, galloping a few hundred yards while his eight rivals pass him. Bernardini wins the $1 million race, beating Sweetnorthernsaint by 5 1-4 lengths.
2007 — Roger Federer ends Rafael Nadal’s 81-match winning streak on clay with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 win in the final of the Hamburg Masters. It’s Federer’s first clay-court title in two years.
2015 — NASCAR 2016 Hall of Fame inductees: Bobby Isaac, Terry Labonte and Jerry Cook.
2017 — Cloud Computing, ridden by Javier Castellano, runs down Classic Empire in the final strides to win the Preakness by a head. The 13-1 long shot runs 1 3/16 miles in 1:55.98 and pays $28.80 to win. Derby winner Always Dreaming and Classic Empire duel throughout most of the race before Classic Empire jumps in front midway on the far turn.
2018 — Sweden beats Switzerland 3-2 in a shootout for the gold medal at the world ice hockey championship in Copenhagen, Denmark.
2018 — The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, Greystone G &CC: Spaniard Miguel Ángel Jiménez wins by 3 from American trio Joe Durant, Steve Stricker & Gene Sauers.
2018 — The Vegas Golden Knights punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final beating the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 on the road to win the Western Conference finals 4-1. The Golden Knights become the second expansion team in the NHL, NBA, NFL or MLB since 1960 to reach a championship series in their first season. The other team was the 1967-68 St. Louis Blues.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1919 — Babe Ruth won a game on the mound and at the plate. He hit his first career grand slam as the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Browns 6-4.
1925 — The Cleveland Indians scored six runs in the last of the ninth to beat the New York Yankees 10-9. Tris Speaker scored the winning run from first on a single.
1932 — Paul Waner of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit four doubles in one game.
1941 — Lefty Grove of the Boston Red Sox won his 20th consecutive game at home, the longest home park streak in the major leagues. Boston beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-2.
1947 — The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Braves 4-3 in a game that featured 22 hits — all singles. The Pirates had 12 singles, the Braves 10.
1948 — Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees hits for the cycle and collects six RBI in a 13-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox. DiMaggio hits two home runs, a triple, a double and a single, and narrowly misses another extra-base hit when Chicago left fielder Ralph Hodgin makes a spectacular catch at the wall.
1953 — In the 13th game of the season, the Milwaukee Braves surpassed their 1952 attendance of 281,278, when they were in Boston.
1959 — The Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees, 13-6, to place New York in last place for the first time in 19 years.
1962 — Chicago Cubs rookie Ken Hubbs had eight singles in eight trips to the plate. The Cubs swept the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 and 11-2.
1978 — Willie Stargell hit a 535-foot homer off Montreal’s Wayne Twitchell — the longest home run in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium — to highlight the Pirates’ 6-0 victory. It was also Stargell’s 407th career homer, tying him with Duke Snider on the career list.
1983 — Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton passes Walter Johnson to move into second place on the all-time strikeout list. Carlton’s four strikeouts put him at 3,511, just 10 behind Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros.
1984 — Boston’s Roger Clemens earned his first major league victory. The Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-4.
1988 — Mike Schmidt belts the 535th home run of his career during 1st inning off Padres starting pitcher Andy Hawkins, moving Schmidt past Jimmie Foxx into sole possession of 8th place on the all-time home run list.
1991 — Jeff Reardon got his 300th save and Steve Lyons and Jack Clark homered as the Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-0.
1999 — Robin Ventura became the first major leaguer to hit grand slams in both games of a doubleheader, leading the New York Mets to a sweep over Milwaukee, 11-10 and 10-1. He had two slams in a game for the Chicago White Sox on Sept. 4, 1995.
2001 — Barry Bonds hit two homers in the San Francisco Giants’ 11-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves, giving him a total of five in two games, becoming the 23rd player in history to do so.
2006 — Barry Bonds tied Babe Ruth for second place on the career home run list during San Francisco’s 4-2, 10-inning victory over the Oakland Athletics.
2009 — Boston center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury tied a major league record with 12 putouts by an outfielder in a nine-inning game, previously done by Earl Clark of the Boston Braves in 1929 and Lyman Bostock of the Minnesota Twins in 1977. He accomplished the feat in the Red Sox’s 8-3 win over Toronto.
2009 — Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera hit consecutive home runs for the New York Yankees in an 11-4 victory over Baltimore. All three solo shots to right field came in the second inning off Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie — with two strikes.
2011 — The Chicago Cubs make their first visit to Fenway Park since the 1918 World Series.
2018 — Rookie Jordan Hicks of the Cardinals ties Aroldis Chapman’s record for the fastest pitch ever recorded by pumping a couple of fastballs at 105 mph while facing Odubel Herrera of the Phillies. The first one goes for a ball, and Herrera manages to foul off the second before striking out on a pitched timed at 103.7 mph.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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