SPORT

Sylmar coach Ray Rivera is smiling. His favorite major league team, the San Francisco Giants, beat the Dodgers twice this week with great pitching. And his favorite high school team, the Spartans, swept a two-game series from Sun Valley Poly with their own great pitching to move three games up in the Valley Mission League race with four to play.

Sylmar pitchers gave up no runs in 14 innings this week. After Matthew Torres threw a no-hitter on Monday against Poly, Alex Martinez took the ball Thursday and recorded six shutout innings in a 10-0 win over the Parrots. He gave up three hits and struck out five.

Tim Sepulveda finished with three hits. Sylmar is 17-6 and 10-1 in league.

Verdugo Hills 10, San Fernando 4: Anthony Velasquez had a two-run double and finished with three RBIs for the Dons.

El Camino Real 5, Chatsworth 1: Ryan Glassman had two hits and two RBIs and Shane Bogacz finished with two hits, including an RBI double, for El Camino Real. Hudson December gave up one hit in five innings.

Taft 5, Cleveland 2: Victor Jara had a two-run single to lead the Toreadors.

Bell 3, Garfield 1: Jayden Rojas struck out six in six innings. He also had two hits.

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 8, Sierra. Canyon 5: The Knights ended a six-game losing streak. Jake Noroian had three hits and Jacob Madrid homered.

Alta Loma 2, South Hills 0: Logan Stein threw a one-hit shutout.

Thousand Oaks 4, Westlake 3: Preston Lee contributed an RBI single to break a 3-3 tie in the seventh and lift Thousand Oaks to victory.

Oaks Christian 6, Agoura 5: The Lions scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to win. Ryan Sheffer tied it with an RBI single and KJ Henrich won it with an RBI single. Carson Sheffer finished with two doubles. Tyler Starling homered for Agoura.

Villa Park 4, La Serna 0: Logan Hoppie struck out six and gave up two hits in six innings.

Aliso Niguel 3, San Clemente 1: Chad Alderman threw a complete game and Henry Drews had three hits.

Softball

Anaheim Canyon 4, Garden Grove Pacifica 1: Kelsey Perez struck out 11 for Canyon.

Carson 4, San Pedro 3: Ashannalee Titialii had two hits and Simi Mafoe homered for Carson.

Chaminade 7, Sierra Canyon 4: Siena Greenlinger had two hits and two RBIs.

The Rams have a roster that is Super Bowl ready.

So on Thursday, with the 13th pick in the NFL draft, the Rams looked beyond the Matthew Stafford era to the future.

The Rams selected Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, making him the heir apparent to the reigning NFL most valuable player.

Simpson started only 15 games at Alabama, but that was enough for coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead to determine that he could be developed into an eventual starter.

Stafford, 38, and the Rams are expected to work out an adjustment to his contract for this season, but whether Stafford intends to play beyond 2026 is unknown.

Last season, as a fourth-year junior, Simpson passed for 3,567 yards and 28 touchdowns while leading the Crimson Tide to an 11-4 record.

He is the first quarterback drafted in the first round by the Rams since 2016, when they traded up a record 14 spots to pick Jared Goff with the No. 1 pick.

Fourth-year pro Stetson Bennett is the only other quarterback on the Rams roster. Free agent Jimmy Garoppolo, Stafford’s backup the last two seasons, is mulling retirement, according to McVay and Snead.

After advancing to the NFC championship game last season, and then fortifying the roster by trading for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, the Rams are expected to be a favorite to play in Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Dodgers tout Yoshinobu Yamamoto as a Cy Young award contender, and every one of his starts has been a quality start, including the one he made here Tuesday.

The Dodgers talk up Shohei Ohtani as a Cy Young award contender, and Ohtani has given up one run all season. He pitched six shutout innings here Wednesday.

But the pitcher who delivered the best start of this series against the San Francisco Giants, and the one that stood tall between the Giants and what would have been a humiliating sweep, was Tyler Glasnow.

That was one storyline from an eventful afternoon at the ballpark and, for the Dodgers, a sorely needed 3-0 victory on a day they found themselves a new cleanup hitter, a new closer — and on a day a Giants player blasted a Dodgers player for making a “dirty” play.

Nothing like a little bad blood to breathe a little life into a languishing rivalry.

The cleanup hitter: Kyle Tucker, dropped from second to fourth in the lineup after his average had fallen to .233, ignited a two-run rally in the fourth inning with a double and delivered his first two-hit game in 17 days.

The closer: Tanner Scott, just as the Dodgers planned last year. After Glasnow pitched eight shutout innings and gave up one hit, Scott got the first save situation since the Dodgers lost closer Edwin Díaz to elbow surgery. Scott has a 0.84 ERA this season, including the perfect ninth inning he worked Thursday for the first of what might be quite a few saves this season.

The Dodgers (17-8), remember, signed him for $72 million as their closer last season, but he lost his job and did not pitch in the playoffs.

“It was terrible,” he said. “But I washed it away.”

The “dirty” play was the second of two acts in a sixth-inning drama.

On Tuesday, cameras caught Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing muttering something after looking back at the Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee, who was in discomfort after an awkward slide at home plate. Rushing had tagged out Lee and was headed back to the dugout when he turned back to see Lee on the ground, then kept going.

Rushing did not play Wednesday. On Thursday, in his third plate appearance, Rushing was hit by a pitch from San Francisco starter Logan Webb.

Webb dodged a question about whether the pitch was a response to the thing that happened with Rushing and Lee.

“What thing with Jung Hoo?” Webb said. He simply described the pitch as “fastball, inside.”

Said Rushing: “I like getting on base. Whatever works. If it was intentional, I’ll take it. I’ll take what I deserve. I’ve cleared the air with all of that. I’ve made sure Jung Hoo is good and healthy.”

When the following batter, Hyeseong Kim, grounded to second baseman Luis Arraez, Rushing threw up his hands and slid away from the base to try and prevent shortstop Willy Adames from completing the double play.

The second-base umpire pointed at Rushing and awarded the Giants with the double play. The first-base umpire ruled the Giants had completed the double play anyway, since Adames’ throw beat Kim to first base.

“For me, that’s not good baseball,” Arraez said. “It’s dirty.”

Rushing said the slide was not his response to getting hit.

“I was taught that in college,” he said. “That’s kind of the way you go in, especially when you have a speedster like that with Hyeseong behind me. You’re not going four or five feet outside the bag. You stay within the body length and try to break up a double play. Nothing against any of those guys right there.”

Did Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believe Webb’s pitch was intentional?

“It probably was,” Roberts said. “For me, he [Rushing] said what he said. I don’t think he meant it too personally. But they see it, social media catches it, Webb is an old-school guy. He’s protecting his teammates. I’ve got no problem with it.”

Roberts said he saw nothing wrong with Rushing’s slide.

“I like that too,” Roberts said. “That’s baseball. They’re going to hit you. You know, Webb has got really good command. I get it. They’ll deny it. I like the way he went in hard. No problem. That’s nothing against Adames, but he went in hard and they turned a double play. That’s good baseball — good, hard-nosed baseball.”

And winning baseball, for a happy flight after a mediocre trip. The Dodgers concluded a 3-4 trip to Colorado and San Francisco, the teams projected to finish in the bottom two spots in the National League West. Up next: the Chicago Cubs, winners of nine consecutive games.

Glasnow faced one batter over the minimum over his eight innings. The one hit he allowed was a single. He struck out nine. His ERA is 2.45, with Yamamoto at 2.48.

Roberts said the combination of Glasnow’s evolving maturity — his ability to respond to setbacks and challenges — makes him a legitimate Cy Young candidate.

“Now, for me, he’s going to be in that conversation,” Roberts said. “And I think for me, that was the missing piece. You know you’re not going to feel great every outing. There’s going to be stress, there’s going to be things that you can’t control, and you got to be able to manage it. And I think now he’s equipped mentally to do that.”

There is one thing Glasnow has yet to accomplish. The Dodgers decided a season-high 105 pitches from an oft-injured pitcher was enough this early in the year.

However, this could have been his big chance: In 133 major league starts and 130 minor league starts, he never has pitched a complete game.

“That,” Glasnow said, “would be sick.”

UCLA women’s basketball team has added some star power as its revamped roster begins to take shape.

Former Iowa State forward Addy Brown announced Thursday she is committing to UCLA, giving the Bruins one of the top players in the portal.

Brown averaged 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 43.1% from the floor and 33.8% from three-point distance with the Cyclones last season. She played just 21 games due to injury, but she is one of the better two-way players in the nation on the transfer market.

The 6-foot-2 forward co-starred with Audi Crooks for Iowa State the past few seasons and was a part of the mass exodus from the Cyclones’ program.

The Bruins reeled in former North Carolina junior guard Elina Aarnisalo and former Texas Christian senior guard Donovyn Hunter a few weeks ago, adding two more experienced players to the depleted starting lineup after a record six UCLA players were selected in the WNBA draft.

UCLA also signed Arkansas sophomore guard Bonnie Deas earlier this month. She is likely to start at point guard for the Bruins and is one of the best rebounding guards in the nation.

Along with returner Timea Gardiner, the Bruins are starting to form somewhat of a core to defend their national championship. Gardiner was a starter during UCLA’s 2024-25 Final Four run, but missed all of this past season with injury and has one season of eligibility left.

A lineup with Deas and Aarnisalo in the backcourt, Hunter at the three and Gardiner or Brown at the four and adding another big or Sienna Betts at the five would be a competitive lineup in the Big Ten.

Before going to TCU, Hunter played two seasons at Oregon State where she earned All-Pac-12 Defensive Team honorable mention and All-Pac-12 Freshman team honors. This past season with a Horned Frogs team that went to the Sweet 16, she was third in scoring with 10.2 points per game and averaged 3.2 rebounds per contest. She also shot 45.7% from the field and was 33.7% from beyond the arc.

Aarnisalo played her freshman year in Westwood after she originally committed to UCLA in 2025. Due to injuries from point guard Kiki Rice at the start of the 2024-25 season, she was forced into action early her freshman season and finished the year averaging 5.1 points per game.

The Helsinki, Finland, native averaged 10.2 points per game for the Tar Heels as a sophomore last season while shooting 47.3% from the field and 40.3% from the arc. The Bruins will desperately need to replace the three-point production lost with the departure of Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker.

UCLA coach Cori Close said she wanted to sign five players from the portal. She probably needs one more guard and a little more forward depth coming off the bench following the departures of Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic.

Lena Bilic and Amanda Muse are returners coming off the bench who got a little bit of playing time in the tournament and should have much larger roles, but they are still relatively unproven in late-game situations. They will get a chance to develop as backups with some more Power Four experienced starters now in the fold.

In the first of the last-16 matches, 2005 winner Shaun Murphy moved into a dominant 6-2 lead over China’s Xiao Guodong.

Murphy scraped through 10-9 against Fan Zhengyi in the first round, calling his match-winning break of 50 in the decider the best break he had ever made at the Crucible after he had trailed 53-17.

But the 43-year-old Englishman found this session to be calmer as he made breaks of 79, 103, 63 and 64 to go 5-0 ahead.

World number nine Xiao took the next two frames, but Murphy ended the session well and took the last with a run of 61 to have a four-frame lead in the first-to-13 match.

That match resumes on Friday at 10:00 BST and Murphy could win it with a session to spare if he wins seven of the eight frames in that session. The third session, if needed, will take place from 19:00.

Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen holds a 5-3 lead against England’s Kyren Wilson, the 2024 champion.

Two-time semi-finalist Allen made breaks of 50 and 78 to race into a 5-0 lead, but Wilson won the last three frames of the session, helped by runs of 75 and 50.

The second session is on Friday from 14:30, before it is played to a finish on Saturday morning.

Enzo Fernandez is wanted by Manchester City, Aston Villa have identified James Trafford as a potential replacement for Emiliano Martinez, Manchester United are keen on Micky van de Ven and Carlos Baleba.

Manchester City are considering a move for 25-year-old Chelsea and Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez this summer. (Athletic – subscription required), external

Aston Villa are interested in Manchester City and England goalkeeper James Trafford, 23, as a potential replacement for Emiliano Martinez if the 33-year-old Argentina goalkeeper decides to leave. (Times – subscription required), external

Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Real Madrid are keeping tabs on AC Milan and Portugal winger Rafael Leao, 26, who is valued at about £60m. (Mail), external

Manchester United are monitoring Tottenham and Netherlands defender Micky van de Ven, 25, along with Brighton‘s 22-year-old Cameroon midfielder Carlos Baleba. (Athletic – subscription required), external

Manchester City are in pole position to sign Nottingham Forest and England midfielder Elliot Anderson, 23, despite interest from clubs including Manchester United and Arsenal. (Sky Sports, external)

Manchester United winger Jadon Sancho, currently on loan at Aston Villa, has given his approval for a return to Borussia Dortmund in the summer, with both parties holding concrete talks over a deal. (Sky Sport – in German, external)

Ivory Coast winger Yan Diomande’s agents have already held discussions with Liverpool and Paris St-Germain, but RB Leipzig are keen on keeping the 19-year-old at the club for at least one more season. (Bild – in German, external)

Brighton centre-back Igor Julio could be set for a return to Brazil with Cruzeiro exploring the situation of the 28-year-old, who spent the first half of the season on loan at West Ham. (ESPN – in Portuguese, external)

Athletic Club are set to appoint former Borussia Dortmund boss Edin Terzic as their manager to replace Ernesto Valverde. (Mundo Deportivo – in Spanish, external), external

Wolves, Bournemouth and Sunderland are among the clubs interested in signing 25-year-old Queens Park Rangers and Jamaica striker Rumarn Burrell. (Football Insider, external)

Brentford have taken a strong interest in Dynamo Kyiv and Ukraine striker Matviy Ponomarenko, 20, as a potential replacement for 24-year-old Brazilian Igor Thiago, who could be a summer target for Chelsea and Tottenham. (Teamtalk, external)

Nottingham Forest will attempt to sign Celtic midfielder Arne Engels in the summer after having a bid of £25m for the 22-year-old Belgian rejected by the Scottish club in February. (Teamtalk, external)

Tottenham are in talks with Sebastian Kehl over becoming their new co-sporting director after the 46-year-old German left Borussia Dortmund last month. (Sun), external

As many as a dozen letters — including one from the NBA — were submitted by the attorney for Aspiration Partners co-founder Joe Sanberg ahead of his sentencing Monday in an effort to persuade the judge to trim the 17 years prosecutors have requested for each of the two counts of fraud.

Sanberg pleaded guilty in October to the federal charges of conspiring to bilk investors out of $248 million for portraying the now-defunct Aspiration as a “socially-conscious and sustainable banking services and investment products” firm.

Another letter was also submitted, however, and it wasn’t intended to assist Sanberg.

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s attorney David N. Kelley of O’Melveny and Myers wrote that Ballmer was defrauded of a $60-million investment in Aspiration and that the harm to his reputation is “immeasurable.”

The five-page Victim Impact Statement concludes: “Mr. Ballmer’s losses are not measured solely, or even primarily, on a balance sheet. They are measured in the reputational damage that will take years to remediate, and in the chilling effect on future endeavors intended to do good at scale.

“We ask the court to impose a sentence that accounts for those harms, promotes respect for the law, and deters those who would seek to appropriate the reputations of others to advance fraudulent aims.”

The letter states that the Clippers lost out on a $300 million sponsorship agreement with Sanberg in exchange for the team to wear Aspiration jerseys patches. Also lost was about $20 million the Clippers paid for carbon offset purchases and the $60 million Ballmer invested in the company.

Ballmer, a former long-time CEO of Microsoft, accused Sanberg of targeting him for his well-known interest in environmental sustainability and exaggerating their relationship to convince others to invest in the fraudulent company. In the letter, Ballmer says he met Sanberg only once.

Ballmer was added in November as a defendant in an existing civil lawsuit against Sanberg and several others associated with Aspiration. Ballmer and the other defendants are accused by 11 investors in Aspiration of fraud and aiding and abetting fraud, with the plaintiffs seeking at least $50 million in damages.

The letter dismisses the allegations in the lawsuit as “nonsense,” stating Ballmer was added as a defendant because of his “visibility and resources,” and reiterates that Ballmer himself is a victim of fraud. The action has damaged his reputation, the letter states, “and has further linked Mr. Ballmer to Sanberg’s fraud in the eyes of the public.”

The letter to the court, however, makes no mention of the $28-million contract Clippers star Kawhi Leonard signed with Aspiration for endorsement and marketing work. Players are allowed to have separate endorsement and other business deals, but at issue is whether the Clippers participated in arranging the side deal beyond simply introducing Aspiration executives to Leonard.

Leonard has addressed the accusations only once, denying wrongdoing and saying, “I understand the full contract and services that I had to do. Like I said, I don’t deal with conspiracies or the click-bait analysts or journalism that’s going on.”

The arrangement could be considered circumventing the NBA salary cap, a serious violation of league rules. Ballmer steadfastly denies arranging the deal between Aspiration and Leonard, who by all accounts performed no duties for Aspiration.

The NBA is investigating the complicated relationships between Ballmer, Leonard and Aspiration. One of the letters submitted by Sanberg’s attorney to the judge is from the law firm conducting the probe, and it states that the disgraced executive provided documentation and information helpful to the NBA investigation during two in-person interviews.

“In all our dealings with Mr. Sanberg, both directly and through his counsel, he provided information that was consistent with our review of contemporaneous documents and other evidence,” wrote Dave Anders of Wachtell Lipton. “Mr. Sanberg’s cooperation substantially assisted our investigation, including our ability to develop a more complete understanding of key events.”

Eventually the ledger will include the results of the NBA investigation into the allegations against Ballmer and Leonard. And that finding might impact the reputation of both more than Sanberg’s fraudulent dealings.

Thousand-dollar tickets and hundreds of dollars in fees shocked some hopeful Olympic fans this month, but they did not keep LA28 from boasting strong sales in the committee’s first ticket drop.

LA28 announced Thursday that it sold more than 4 million Olympic tickets during the first ticket drop. The private organizing committee will have a second ticket drop in August with “refreshed inventory across all Olympic sports at a range of price points.”

But after the popularity of the first purchasing period, many of the lower-priced tickets have already been scooped up.

LA28 said roughly half of the total 1 million $28 tickets were sold during the locals presale, which was limited to people living near venue cities in Southern California and Oklahoma City.

The average price per Olympic ticket is less than $200, which includes a mandatory 24% service fee, and LA28 said about 75% of all tickets, including final events, will be under $400. The premier seats at high-demand events command more than $1,000 per ticket, but the highest priced categories make up about 5% of the total ticket inventory.

Artistic gymnastics sold out the quickest in Drop 1. Four Olympic sports — flag football, lacrosse, softball and squash — sold all their available inventory for the first drop. After five days of local presale, global ticket sales opened and drew fans from 85 countries and all 50 states and U.S. territories. The largest international sales came from the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and Japan.

For the first female-majority Olympic Games, LA28 reported that women’s Olympic sessions outsold men’s 93% to 88% during the first drop.

“The response to our initial on-sale was nothing short of historic. Fans from near and far have spoken: the world wants to be part of the LA28 Games,” LA28 chief executive officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement. “The success of Drop 1 is about more than momentum — it reflects LA28’s commitment to delivering a fiscally responsible Games that create a lasting legacy for Los Angeles and its communities.”

Drop 2, which will begin in August, will have additional tickets across all Olympic sports, including those that may have sold out during the first purchasing windows. The registration period for Drop 2 opened Thursday at tickets.la28.org and will continue until July 22. Fans who registered for the first drop of tickets but did not receive a time slot and fans who did not buy their maximum 12 general ticket allotment will automatically be entered into the random lottery Drop 2. The new registration period is only required for anybody who did not sign up for the initial drop.

Fans are still limited to 12 Olympic tickets and up to 12 soccer tickets that don’t count toward the general maximum. There is a four ticket per ceremony limit for the opening and closing ceremony that count toward the 12-ticket maximum, which is cumulative across all LA28 presales and ticket drops.

LA28 will have multiple ticket drops with assigned purchasing time slots before ticket sales move to a first-come, first-served format closer to the Games, which open on July 14, 2028. LA28 began its ticketing process earlier than most other Olympic Games with tickets going on sale more than two years in advance of the opening ceremony. The early timeline has created excitement for the first Summer Olympics in the United States since Atlanta 1996, but also prompted concerns about scheduling. Fans clamored for tickets with little information about which teams or athletes would be competing in most sessions.

Tickets are not refundable, but fans can opt for verified resale when LA28 launches its official resale system in 2027. AXS and Eventim is the official secondary ticket marketplace of the LA28 Games and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets have also signed on as additional verified resale platforms.

LA28 will have 14 million tickets available for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which would eclipse the record of 12 million tickets sold for the Paris Games. Paris 2024 sold an about 9.5 million tickets for the Olympics, but used a different ticket system than LA28. For Paris, 3.5 million tickets were sold during the first phase, during which fans were required to buy tickets to at least three different sports instead of the option for single-event tickets available during LA28’s Drop 1 process.

Tickets for the 2028 Paralympics, which will be the first in L.A.’s history, will go on sale in 2027. Ticket sales and hospitality are expected to cover about $2.5 billion of LA28’s expected $7.1 billion budget for the first Games in L.A. in more than 40 years.

A few days ago came the astonishing news that the world record in the half-marathon was obliterated by a 5-foot-5 humanoid robot named Lightning in Beijing.

Now a robot named Ace has achieved another milestone for AI and robotics by defeating expert-level humans at table tennis in Tokyo, according to a study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.

What’s next, a robotic baseball player named Babe that swats 500-foot home runs and throws 120 mph pitches, eclipsing Shohei Ohtani’s real-life achievements and commanding a billion dollar contract?

It’s all fun and games until it isn’t.

Extraordinary athletic achievements by AI robots might seem innocuous, especially compared to far more grave threats described by various experts, including the landmark publication “An Overview of Catastrophic AI Risks” by the Center for AI Safety in 2023.

To name a few: Misinformation and social media manipulation; job displacement and economic inequality; cybersecurity threats; lethal autonomous weapons; environmental impact; psychological dependence; and ultimately, the existential risk to humanity of losing control of rogue AI systems.

For now, let’s get back to ping-pong.

Ace was developed by good, old Sony, the 80-year-old makers of gaming consoles, televisions, smartphones, cameras and audio equipment that we enjoy every day.

Of course Sony has an AI research division, and while most consumers were still going ga-ga over PlayStation 5 Pro 2TB, it developed the first robot to attain expert-level performance in a competitive physical sport that requires rapid decisions and precision execution.

Ace integrates nine synchronized cameras and three vision systems to track the spinning plastic ping-pong ball. Its lightning-fast processing time would be the envy of even Lightning, the humanoid robot that broke the world record in the half-marathon by nearly seven minutes.

“Here we present Ace, to our knowledge the first real-world autonomous system competitive with elite human table tennis players,” the study said. “Ace addresses the challenges of physical real-time interaction through a new, high-speed perception system using event-based vision sensors and a new control system based on model-free reinforcement learning, as well as state-of-the-art high-speed robot hardware.”

Ace showed out in matches that followed International Table Tennis Federation rules and were officiated by licensed umpires. Most of the matches took place in 2025 — before table tennis tale “Marty Supreme” even hit theaters — although Ace defeated professional players as recently as March.

One such human is Mayuka Taira, who said in comments provided by Sony AI to Reuters that the robot’s strengths are what one might expect: unpredictability and an absence of emotion.

“Because you can’t read its reactions, it’s impossible to sense what kind of shots it dislikes or struggles with, and that makes it even more difficult to play against,” Taira said.

Initial real-world applications of Ace-like robots likely would be in manufacturing and service industries, although untapped potential lies across sports, entertainment and safety-critical environments, according to the study.

“These results highlight the potential of physical AI agents to perform complex, real-time interactive tasks, suggesting broader applications in domains requiring fast, precise human–robot interaction,” the study said.

Those domains certainly could include baseball diamonds, basketball courts and gridirons. Hockey rinks could be lumped in provided robots can skate.

AI already is used in MLB. The vaunted Automated Ball-Strike system (ABS) uses AI-powered Hawk-Eye camera technology and computer vision to determine if pitches are strikes or balls. Twelve high-speed cameras track ball flight and AI delivers the definitive call to the scoreboard within seconds of a challenge.

A robotic batter facing a robotic pitcher with calls made by ABS might eliminate any disagreements over balls and strikes.

Terrifying.

Reuters contributed to this story.

Mohammed Kudus (Tottenham Hotspur and Ghana)

Kudus is awaiting further assessment on a quad injury that could require surgery. Ghana risk losing their key creative figure if recovery takes longer than expected. His availability remains uncertain as crucial decisions loom. The Ghana international has been out for more than three months after limping out of Spurs’ 1-1 draw with Sunderland on 4 January.

Eder Militao (Real Madrid and Brazil)

Militao has been ruled out for the rest of Real Madrid’s season after suffering a hamstring tear. The 28-year-old centre-back is targeting a return for the World Cup, but Brazil’s medical staff are cautious given his recent history of muscle injuries.

Reece James (Chelsea and England)

England defender James is once again dealing with hamstring issues while sidelined at Chelsea. Having missed the past two major tournaments, his hopes depend on avoiding further setbacks. The 26-year-old sustained the injury in a 1-0 Premier League defeat by Newcastle in March. Any delay in recovery would put his place in serious doubt.

Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich and Canada)

Canada’s talisman is once again struggling with the recurring muscle issues that have plagued his recent seasons at Bayern Munich. His explosive pace is central to Canada’s threat, but his body seems to be pushing back at the worst possible moment. If he is not fully fit, Canada’s chances take a massive hit.

England and Leicestershire leg-spinning all-rounder Rehan Ahmed is joining Delhi Capitals for the remainder of this year’s Indian Premier League campaign.

The 21-year-old, who has played 27 internationals for England across all formats, will leave immediately for his first taste of the IPL and will be away until at least the end of the group stages of the competition on 24 May.

Delhi are currently fifth in the standings, having won three and lost three of their six games so far.

Ahmed, who will earn £60,000, will miss the Foxes’ next four County Championship matches and at least their first two group games in the T20 Blast.

“We’re absolutely delighted for Rehan and incredibly proud as a club to see him earn this opportunity,” Leicestershire director of cricket Claude Henderson said.

“It’s a real testament to the hard work of everyone within our academy and pathway system, and exactly what we strive for.

“We’re excited to watch him go and express himself, and we’ll be right behind him every step of the way before welcoming him back to Leicester.”

Ahmed has taken six wickets and scored 56 runs across the Foxes’ first two red-ball matches this season on the club’s return to the first division of the County Championship.

Angel City Football Club announced on Thursday the expansion of its “Immigrant City Football Club” campaign, unveiling a limited-edition apparel collection featuring the slogan “Los Angeles is for Everyone” written in 13 languages representing the city’s diverse communities.

The T-shirt and cap, available in the club’s colors, feature languages such as Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Armenian, Farsi, Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Yoruba, and Zapotec — the latter representing one of the city’s largest indigenous migrant communities, originating from Oaxaca, Mexico.

“Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and that diversity is our strength,” said Chris Fajardo, Angel City FC’s vice president of community relations, in a statement. “This campaign is more than a t-shirt. It’s about showing up for our community, celebrating our differences, and making it clear that everyone belongs here.”

The back of the jersey, written in 13 languages, including Zapotec.

(Angel City)

The products are available on the Angel City online store and will be available at the club’s store at BMO Stadium beginning May 2, during the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month commemorative match against the Utah Royals.

Proceeds from the sale of the merchandise will be donated to the International Institute of Los Angeles (IILA), a nonprofit organization that provides immigration legal assistance, refugee support and essential services for immigrant integration in the city.

The initiative expands on the original campaign launched last year, when the club distributed the first T-shirt in solidarity with Los Angeles’ immigrant communities facing uncertainty in the city due to immigration raids. During the raids, many Los Angeles teams, including the Dodgers and the Galaxy, were criticized for their silence, despite having a large Latino fan base.

Last year, 10,000 T-shirts were printed. They were worn by players as they arrived at the stadium, while Angel City coach Alexander Straus and his coaching staff also wore them on the bench, and one of the team’s investors, singer Becky G, spoke to fans in the stadium in support of immigrants before the game.

This article first appeared in Spanish via L.A. Times en Español.

Dodgers lose to the Giants

From Bill Shaikin: José Soriano leads the major leagues with a 0.24 earned-run average. It’s hard to think of something the Angels could do to make him better.

Shohei Ohtani ranks second with a 0.38 ERA. It’s not so hard to think of something the Dodgers could do to make him better.

On Wednesday, however, that might not have turned the Dodgers into winners. The San Francisco Giants won in the unlikeliest of ways: on one swing, a three-run home run from Patrick Bailey, a catcher who opened play batting .145 and had not hit a home run since last season. After Ohtani pitched six shutout innings, Bailey homered off Jack Dreyer in the seventh.

That was not the only unlikely performance: The winning pitcher was Tyler Mahle, who pitched seven shutout innings for his first victory in 10 months. Mahle started the game with an 0-3 record and 7.23 ERA.

That was the ballgame: Giants 3, Dodgers 0, with San Francisco clinching the series and the Dodgers losing for the fourth time in five games. In two games against the Giants, the Dodgers have scored one run.

Continue reading here

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Mike Trout ties a Garret Anderson record

Mike Trout homered, Nolan Schanuel homered and hit a three-run double and Jose Soriano worked five shutout innings as the Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-3 on Wednesday to avoid a series sweep.

Trout’s eighth homer of the season was a 428-foot solo shot in the bottom of the fifth. That hit tied the 34-year-old Trout with the late Garret Anderson for the Angels’ franchise record of 796 extra-base hits. Anderson died last week of an acute necrotizing pancreatitis at the age of 53.

Soriano, who is 5-0, gave up three hits and struck out five in five innings before leaving with a 3-0 lead. He lowered his ERA to an MLB-leading 0.24. The 27-year-old right-hander is the first MLB pitcher since 1900 to allow no more than one run in the first six starts of a season, and he has the lowest ERA (with a minimum of 30 innings pitched) through a pitcher’s first six starts of a season since 1913, when earned runs became official in both leagues.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB standings

Ducks even series with Edmonton

Cutter Gauthier broke a tie off a rebound with 4:52 left and the Ducks beat Edmonton 6-4 on Wednesday night in Game 2 to even the first-round series, with Oilers star Connor McDavid slowed by an apparent leg injury.

McDavid appeared to catch an edge early in the second period after getting tangled up with teammate Mattias Ekholm and the Ducks’ Ian Moore. McDavid briefly left the game before returning, playing just over 24 minutes.

Game 3 is Friday night at Honda Center. Edmonton opened the series Monday night with a 4-3 victory.

Gauthier put the Ducks back in front after Josh Samanski — making his playoff debut — tied it at 4 with 6:09 to go. Ryan Poehling put it away with an empty-netter with 1:10 left, his second goal of the game. He scored shorthanded in the second.

Continue reading here

Ducks summary

NHL playoffs schedule

Ducks playoffs schedule

All times Pacific

at Edmonton 4, Ducks 3 (summary)
Ducks 6, at Edmonton 4 (summary)
Friday: Edmonton at Ducks, 7 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
Sunday: Edmonton at Ducks, 6:30 p.m., ESPN
Tuesday: Ducks at Edmonton, TBD
*Thursday, April 30: Edmonton at Ducks, TBD
*Saturday, May 2: Ducks at Edmonton, TBD

*-if necessary

Kings playoffs schedule

All times Pacific

at Colorado 2, Kings 1 (summary)
at Colorado 2, Kings 1 (OT) (summary)
Thursday: Colorado at Kings, 7 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max
Sunday: Colorado at Kings, 1:30 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max
*Wed., April 29: Kings at Colorado, TBD
*Friday, May 1: Colorado at Kings, TBD
*Sunday, May 3: Kings at Colorado, TBD

*- If necessary

Lakers series is over

From Bill Plaschke: Who knew?

LeBron James flying down the lane unchecked for a pumping, over-the-shoulder slam.

Marcus Smart diving and scrapping and leading cheers with a scream.

Luke Kennard stepping to the free-throw line and hearing the chant, “MVP! … MVP! … MVP!”

Who knew?

Without their two best players, facing the quicker and more bruising Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, who knew the Lakers would do what they did Tuesday night at a roaring Crypto.com Arena?

They say a series doesn’t start until the home team loses a game, but, believe it, this series is already over.

Continue reading here

Lakers’ ‘Swiss Army knife’ Marcus Smart sets the tone against Kevin Durant, Rockets

Lakers playoff schedule

First round
All times Pacific

at Lakers 107, Houston 98 (box score)
at Lakers 101, Houston 94 (box score)
Friday: Lakers at Houston, 5:30 p.m., Amazon Prime Video
Sunday: Lakers at Houston, 6:30 p.m., NBC
*Wednesday: Houston at Lakers, TBD
*Friday, May 1: Lakers at Houston, TBD
*Sunday, May 3: Houston at Lakers, TBD

*-if necessary

LAFC plays to scoreless draw

Zack Steffen finished with two saves and had his second shutout of the season for the Colorado Rapids in a 0-0 tie with LAFC on Wednesday night at BMO Stadium.

The Rapids (4-4-1) had 71% possession.

LAFC (5-2-2), who had lost back-to-back game for the first time in more than a calendar year, are winless in three straight.

Hugo Lloris had two saves and leads MLS with seven shutouts.

Continue reading here

LAFC summary

MLS standings

Galaxy lose to Columbus

Dániel Gazdag and Diego Rossi each scored to help the Columbus Crew beat the Galaxy 2-1 on Wednesday night in a game delayed for over two hours because of severe weather.

Columbus (2-4-3) has given up just three goals in its first four home matches of the season.

Gazdag scored in the 41st minute when he redirected Hugo Picard’s cross with the outside of his foot.

Continue reading here

Galaxy summary

MLS standings

Final NFL mock draft

From Sam Farmer: This might be the first time in the NFL’s modern era that Pittsburgh has hosted the draft, but the whole format was actually invented here.

In 1935, the league’s founders met at the Fort Pitt Hotel and voted unanimously to put in place a selection process in reverse order of the previous season’s standings. That would promote competitive balance, which has been a hallmark of the NFL ever since.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Las Vegas Raiders. The franchise went 21-41 over the past four seasons and its offense scored a league-worst 241 points last season.

Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who led Indiana to a national championship, won’t be at the draft but almost certainly will hear his name called first. He’s likely to be the only quarterback selected in the opening round.

A look at how the draft could unfold:

Continue reading here

This day in sports history

1950 — The Detroit Red Wings edge the New York Rangers 4-3 in Game 7 to win the Stanley Cup.

1950 — The Minneapolis Lakers become the first team to win back-to-back NBA championships by defeating the Syracuse Nationals 110-95 in Game 6 of the finals. George Mikan leads the Lakers with 40 points in a game marred by three fights, four Minneapolis players fouling out, and Nats coach Al Cervi being ejected for complaining too vociferously about a call.

1954 — The NBA adopts the 24-second shot clock.

1969 — Jerry West scores 53 points to lead the Lakers over Boston 120-118 in the opening game of the NBA finals.

1989 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores 10 points in his last regular-season game as a Laker in a 121-117 win over Seattle.

1989 — NFL Draft: #1 pick UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman by Dallas Cowboys.

1993 — The Dallas Mavericks avoid matching the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers as the worst team in NBA history, beating Minnesota 103-100 for their 10th triumph of the season.

1993 — Orlando’s Nick Anderson scores 50 points in the Magic’s 119-116 win over the New Jersey Nets at The Meadowlands. Anderson’s feat is overshadowed by Shaquille O’Neal, who rips down the backboard in the first quarter, delaying the game 45 minutes.

2002 — Brent Johnson of the St. Louis Blues ties an NHL record with three straight shutouts in the playoffs. That had not happened in 57 years. Johnson reaches the milestone with a 1-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

2005 — NFL Draft: University of Utah quarterback Alex Smith first pick by San Francisco 49ers.

2011 — The Portland Trail Blazers rally from 23 points down in the second half, including an 18-point deficit to start the fourth quarter to defeat Dallas 84-82 and tie the first-round series at 2-2. Portland’s Brandon Roy scores 18 in the fourth quarter, including a 4-point play and the go ahead jumper with 39 seconds left. Roy outscores Dallas 18-15 in the quarter.

2017 — Kenyan runner Mary Keitany breaks Paula Radcliffe’s women-only marathon world record with a third victory in London. Keitany completes the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours, 17 minutes and 1 second to shave 41 seconds off Radcliffe’s 12-year-old mark.

2020 — NFL Draft: LSU quarterback Joe Burrow first pick by Cincinnati Bengals.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1903 — The New York Highlanders, who later changed their name to the Yankees, won their first game as a major league team, 7-2 over the Washington Senators.

1913 — New York Giants ace Christy Mathewson beat the Phillies 3-1, throwing just 67 pitches.

1939 — Rookie Ted Williams went 4-for-5, including his first major league home run, but the Red Sox lost to Philadelphia 12-8 at Fenway Park.

1946 — Ed Head of the Brooklyn Dodgers no-hit the Boston Braves 5-0 at Ebbets Field. Head was making his first start after a year’s military service.

1952 — Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians and Bob Cain of the St. Louis Browns matched one-hitters. Cain wound up as the winner, 1-0.

1952 — Hoyt Wilhelm of the Giants hit a home run at the Polo Grounds in his first major league at-bat. He was the winner, too, and pitched 1,070 games in the majors — but never hit another homer.

1954 — Hank Aaron hit the first home run of his major league career. The drive came against Vic Raschi in the Milwaukee Braves’ 7-5 victory over St. Louis.

1962 — After an 0-9 start, the expansion New York Mets won their first game beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1 behind Jay Hook.

1964 — Ken Johnson of the Houston Colt .45s became the first pitcher to lose a nine-inning no-hitter when Pete Rose scored an unearned run to give the Cincinnati Reds a 1-0 victory.

1978 — Joe Morgan of the Cincinnati Reds makes an error at second base, bringing his major league record of 91 consecutive errorless games to an end.

1989 — Nolan Ryan came within two out of his sixth career no-hitter, losing it when Nelson Liriano tripled in the ninth inning as the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1. Ryan finished with his 10th lifetime one-hitter.

1990 — Steve Lyons of the Chicago White Sox plays all nine positions during an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs.

1999 — Fernando Tatis of St. Louis became the first in major league history to hit two grand slams in one inning in a 12-5 win over the Dodgers. Tatis also set the record with eight RBIs in one inning.

2008 — The Chicago Cubs won their 10,000th game, joining the Giants as the only franchise to reach that mark with a 7-6 10-inning victory at Colorado.

2009 — Ichiro Suzuki lined James Shields’ second pitch of the game for a home run, the only run of Seattle’s 1-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. It was the 22nd time a leadoff homer was the deciding run in a game, and it was just the second time it happened for the Mariners.

2012 — Ivan Rodriguez, who has caught more games than anyone in big league history, announces his retirement after a 21-year career.

2013 — B.J. Upton and his brother Justin hit back-to-back homers for the first time, leading the Atlanta Braves past the Colorado Rockies 10-2 to complete a doubleheader sweep. It was the 27th time in major league history that brothers homered in the same game, but only the second time they went deep in consecutive at-bats. Lloyd and Paul Waner of the Pittsburgh Pirates also accomplished the feat on Sept. 15, 1938.

2022 — Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers becomes the 33rd member of the 3,000 hit club.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

England’s new head coach Brian McDermott has offered Man of Steel Jake Connor a path back into the national squad for this autumn’s Rugby League World Cup.

McDermott, confirmed in the role on Thursday, has described the Leeds Rhinos half-back as a “game-breaker”.

Connor, 31, was controversially left out of Shaun Wane’s squad for last autumn’s Ashes home series against Australia, which England lost 3-0.

At the time, Wane said the decision to omit Connor was “not really difficult” and that he had made it based on the player’s form, adding that: “When picking a squad, the thing you will never hear from me is: ‘He’s won the Man of Steel.’ I don’t pay attention to stuff like that.”

Wane stepped down in January, with former Leeds head coach McDermott taking over until the end of the World Cup, to be staged in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea this October and November.

McDermott played down questions over Connor’s temperament and said the half-back is part of England’s World Cup plans, saying: “Yeah, he is for sure. Absolutely.

“I think the rhetoric and the narrative around Jake was tremendously unfair.

“I understand where Jake Connor comes from in that he’s liked by some and disliked by others. OK, that comes in the nature of the game.

“We could sit around a table and debate whether he’s a nice person or not.

“I just don’t think that’s a fair narrative to be made public and that was the rhetoric around him.

“What nobody can argue is that he’s a tremendous player. He’s a fantastic player. He’s a game-breaker.”

McDermott won four Super League Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups, the World Club Challenge and the League Leaders’ Shield in eight years as Leeds head coach.

The 56-year-old, currently working as an assistant coach at NRL club Gold Coast Titans, has taken the England role on a part-time basis, in contrast to his full-time predecessor Wane.

“I would be interested in taking the job beyond the World Cup,” McDermott said.

The Yorkshireman was selected by the Rugby Football League from a five-man shortlist, which also included current Leeds head coach Brad Arthur, Warrington’s Sam Burgess, St Helens’ Paul Rowley and former England head coach Steve McNamara.

England’s World Cup campaign in Australia begins against Tonga in Perth on 17 October, with games against France and Papua New Guinea to follow.

As a player, Stoney lifted 12 major trophies – including two league titles and four FA Cups – during her time at Chelsea, Arsenal, Charlton Athletic, Lincoln Ladies and Liverpool.

She won 130 England caps and skippered her country, appearing in three World Cups. She also captained Great Britain in the 2012 London Olympics.

Stoney retired from playing at the age of 35 in February 2018.

“Destined for a career in management, she became the first ever head coach of Manchester United eight years ago, leading the club to promotion to the top flight in her first season in charge before consolidating their position in the league’s upper echelons,” said the WSL.

“Now heading up the Canadian women’s national team after a spell at San Diego Wave, Stoney’s impact on the game – particularly during its formative years – was profound, while her position as a trailblazer managerially has ensured that her name is firmly embedded in the history books.”

Harrop made her WSL debut for Birmingham City in 2011 and won the FA Cup with them in 2012.

She made 135 appearances for her hometown club before joining Tottenham Hotspur in 2020 and retired in 2023.

The WSL said Harrop was “a player who played the entirety of her 12-year career in the Barclays WSL and once held the title of being the division’s record appearance holder … earning legendary status during her time with the Midlands outfit [Birmingham City] and establishing herself as one of the game’s pioneers”.

It felt like the Olympics. Crowds cheering. The American flag standing tall above the bleachers. Trainers jumping with anticipation. A swimmer staring in disbelief at the clock after his final stroke. The Jumbotron announced: Kristian Gkolomeev — 20.89 seconds. A new world record in the 50-meter freestyle.

Well, kind of.

I’ve left out some details. There was only one swimmer. The crowd? Just doctors, trainers and filmmakers. This was not in an Olympic city nor an Olympic year, but in Greensboro, N.C., in 2025. And there were no iconic rings on the banners, just “Enhanced Games.”

Yes, Gkolomeev swam faster than César Cielo, the official record holder at the time (20.91 seconds). But he did it “enhanced” — a polite way to say that he used performance-enhancing drugs. At the Enhanced Games, doping isn’t punished. It’s required.

The concept, as described by the organization: “to create the definitive scientific, cultural and sporting movement that safely evolves mankind into a new superhumanity.”

Backed by investors such as Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital, the Enhanced Games embodies a techno-utopian ideal: athletes as canvases for chemical optimization, testing the limits of human health for a lot of money. Gkolomeev earned $1 million for his record.

So far, the competition has happened at one-off pop-up events. But in May, Las Vegas will host the first full-scale Enhanced Games, a four-day meet in swimming, track and field, and weightlifting. The group advertises a “potential prize purse of $7.5 million for just a single day of competition,” plus appearance fees.

Does it need to be said? Apparently yes: The Enhanced Games glorifies the risky use of enhancement drugs.

Steroids can harden arteries, elevate stroke risk, damage the liver and permanently alter hormone systems. They are not electrolyte tablets or a little preworkout creatine. If Lance Armstrong had been rewarded — rather than sanctioned — for doping, what would have happened to competitive cycling?

Fans — and especially kids — mimic their idols. As risky as the drugs are for athletes at the Enhanced Games, with its “medical commission” to give the illusion of safety, the substances are even more dangerous when used by people without medical supervision.

The games also expose the economic neglect that drives athletes toward such competition. As Benjamin Proud, the British silver medalist who recently joined the Enhanced Games, put it: “It would have taken me 13 years of winning a World Championship title in order to win what I could win in one race at these games.”

Indeed, the Enhanced Games might look like an easy way out. Only nine swimmers worldwide received prize money and performance bonuses above $75,000 in 2025, according to World Aquatics.

Investors clearly hope to make money off the games as well. The organization is moving closer to becoming a publicly traded company. The economics are not mysterious.

But the Enhanced Games are not just another sporting event. They are an arena for biomedical experimentation and should be regulated as such. The games should face limits similar to those imposed on other high-risk industries, including age restrictions and strict advertising rules.

We already know how to govern legal, profitable activities that carry serious health risks.

In the United States, that means oversight from the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission — bodies that regulate drug protocols and police misleading commercial claims. A steroid-based competition should not be treated as a sport but as a medical experiment and a marketing stunt.

Regulations on pharmaceutical advertising offer a useful model for the Enhanced Games. Prescription drugs are advertised every night on television, but only under strict rules. They require fair balance (content must present benefits and risks with comparable prominence, readability and duration) and a “major statement” of risks (most serious risks must be spoken aloud and not obscured by visuals or music).

Right now, when you play Gkolomeev’s “world-record” video on YouTube, a medical-risk warning appears for barely five seconds — then vanishes. If a cholesterol drug must audibly warn viewers of stroke risk, why shouldn’t a steroid-based competition do the same?

Enhanced Games content should be accompanied by clear warnings of the risks of performance-enhancing drugs and be clearly labeled, age-gated and distributed as high-risk content more akin to pornography than to a boxing match.

Prohibition is not the answer. Trying to shut down these games only fuels a controversy-driven brand. Just recently, the Enhanced Games sued organizations such as World Aquatics and the World Anti-Doping Agency, alleging antitrust violations and that blocking athletes from participating at the Enhanced Games is illegal. As those organizations fight back, they will be seeking to protect the integrity of mainstream sports, but they will also inadvertently be promoting the Enhanced Games.

If we want kids to admire clean athletes rather than those using banned drugs, the Las Vegas launch must not reach the world as a Super Bowl would. The Enhanced Games should not be televised or allowed to stream online to minors. Otherwise, Las Vegas, in May, risks becoming an unregulated public-health experiment mislabeled as a sporting event.

Fabricio Ramos dos Santos is a lawyer, entrepreneur and sports investor.

Zack Steffen finished with two saves and had his second shutout of the season for the Colorado Rapids in a 0-0 tie with LAFC on Wednesday night at BMO Stadium.

The Rapids (4-4-1) had 71% possession.

LAFC (5-2-2), who had lost back-to-back game for the first time in more than a calendar year, are winless in three straight.

Hugo Lloris had two saves and leads MLS with seven shutouts.

LAFC’s Mathieu Choinière hit the post with a shot from outside the area in the 56th minute.

EDMONTON, Canada — Cutter Gauthier broke a tie off a rebound with 4:52 left and the Ducks beat Edmonton 6-4 on Wednesday night in Game 2 to even the first-round series, with Oilers star Connor McDavid slowed by an apparent leg injury.

McDavid appeared to catch an edge early in the second period after getting tangled up with teammate Mattias Ekholm and the Ducks’ Ian Moore. McDavid briefly left the game before returning, playing just over 24 minutes.

Game 3 is Friday night at Honda Center. Edmonton opened the series Monday night with a 4-3 victory.

Gauthier put the Ducks back in front after Josh Samanski — making his playoff debut — tied it at 4 with 6:09 to go. Ryan Poehling put it away with an empty-netter with 1:10 left, his second goal of the game. He scored shorthanded in the second.

Pavel Mintyukov, right, of the Ducks battles against Kasperi Kapanen of the Oilers in the second period.

(Codie McLachlan / Associated Press)

Gauthier also scored on a first-period power play and set up Alex Killorn’s second-period goal on a man advantage. Killorn added two assists.

Jacob Trouba added a goal, fellow defenseman Jackson LaCombe had three assists and Lukas Dostal stopped 33 shots.

Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist for Edmonton. He returned for Game 1 from a lower-body injury against Nashville on March 15.

Connor Murphy and Zach Hyman also scored for the Oilers, and Connor Ingram made 22 saves.

Jess Warner Judd does not remember much about that night in Rome.

It has been a long and difficult journey since, but the 31-year-old speaks with admirable ease about the traumatic events which have led her to a London Marathon debut in 2026.

“I’m very lucky to have had sort of a second chance at running. It’s a second chance I just didn’t think I’d probably have,” Warner Judd tells BBC Sport.

“I remember having really horrible discussions after trying to restart my track season and it quickly not happening. The doctors, who were brilliant, saying that I would probably have to retire if I kept trying before I had therapy, because my body wasn’t going to cope.”

The distressing details of what unfolded at Stadio Olimpico are recalled vividly by her husband Rob, who witnessed it all from the stands alongside Warner Judd’s father and coach, Mike, in June 2024.

Less than 10 months had passed since Warner Judd celebrated one of her proudest achievements, placing eighth in the world over 10,000m, but it became evident early in the European Championship final that something was amiss.

The noticeable lack of co-ordination. The veering out into lanes two and three. The distress increasingly visible across her face.

“It got to the point around five or six kilometres in when Mike and I had got as close as we could to the track and were shouting at her to stop,” says Rob.

Warner Judd struggled on until, with 600m to go, she collapsed.

Should City and Arsenal win all their remaining five games they will both end on 85 points, meaning goal difference or goals scored could be the determining factor come May.

This is how tight it is – both teams have played the same number of games (33), have the same number of points (70) and their results are identical too – having won 21, drawn seven and lost five of their matches.

The only factor separating the two sides is the number of goals scored, with City netting 66 to Arsenal‘s 63.

Such is the topsy-turvy nature of this season’s race, City could find themselves trailing by six points by the time they next play in the league at Everton on Monday, 4 May – if Arsenal beat Newcastle and Fulham during that period.

City have previously scored five or more goals against Burnley in five different Premier League games – the most one side has done against another in the competition – and would have been eyeing up similar before this match.

Although City had 65% possession, a total of 28 shots with an expected goals (xG) of 3.54, they could only muster one goal through Haaland’s winner in the opening five minutes.

“Not many Arsenal players would have expected Burnley to get a result today, but if you are an Arsenal player or fan, you would take a 1-0 loss for Burnley,” former City defender Nedum Onuoha told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“Arsenal play Burnley in a few weeks and they will probably not be as wasteful with their chances as City, with so much on the line. Before you know it City are chasing Arsenal. I don’t think psychologically it matters that much.

“Now they have played each other, there is no longer this talk about the title decider in April. You have your five games, they have their five games. If you do well enough and win your games, the league title could very much be Arsenal‘s.

“They have to back themselves. The fact this only finished 1-0 to City when they had 28 shots, maybe this is the boost they need to turn their form around.”

Former Premier League goalkeeper Tim Krul added: “Arsenal have been so close the last few years, I think we all half want them to get it. But you can’t rule out Manchester City.

“My money would be on City, just with the experience. They are serial winners with the best manager in the world looking after them. You can’t not back them.”

Clayton was a significant outsider with bookmakers to win this year’s tournament. He wasn’t even fancied to make finals night.

Given his record, it was something that clearly rankled with the former plasterer.

Speaking at the Premier League media launch in early February, Clayton said: “It motivates me alright because people don’t rate me, obviously they rate the others more. Let’s see on finals night.”

A 6-4 victory against Luke Littler in the Rotterdam final last time out earned Clayton back-to-back night wins for the first time this season.

He now holds a 16-point buffer over defending champion Luke Humphries who is fifth going into night 12 in Liverpool on Thursday.

“He has sewn up a place at the O2 in London,” Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle said of Clayton after his triumph in Rotterdam.

“Jonny Clayton will be there, that is certain. He is so far clear of the rest.”

A week earlier, Clayton produced a remarkable comeback to win 6-5 against seven-time champion Michael van Gerwen in Brighton having been 5-2 down in the final.

After his victory against reigning world champion Littler in Rotterdam, Clayton revealed he re-watched his win against van Gerwen from a week earlier.

“I don’t watch many games back, but I watched last week’s game against Michael and it hurt a little bit when somebody said I was favourite to finish bottom. That really hurt,” he said.

“That really annoyed me to be honest. It’s going well for myself and I’ve got a massive smile on my face.

“I’ve been here three times before and I’ve done finals night on each one.”

At 51 Clayton is comfortably the oldest player in this year’s field, although he is consistently proving to be a thorn in the side of the game’s younger talents.

And with the £350,000 Premier League winner’s prize still well within his sights, Clayton can have no doubts that his long-delayed full-time move into darts was entirely justified. And then some.