Games

PITTSBURGH — Jared Jones pitched six strong innings, Jake Mangum had an RBI double in the second inning and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the skidding Angels 1-0 on Friday night.

The MLB-worst Angels (53-88) lost for the 10th time in 11 games. The Pirates have won five of six games.

Jones (3-6) blanked the Angels on three hits to win for the first time in eight starts since beating Cleveland on July 18. He struck out nine, walked one, and threw 63 of 91 pitches for strikes.

Wilber Dotel pitched two innings, and Mason Montgomery worked the ninth to complete the four-hitter and the Pirates’ ninth shutout of the season. Montgomery had his ninth save.

Ryan Johnson (3-8) was the hard-luck loser, giving up one run and four hits over six innings with six strikeouts and two walks. He has a 1.67 ERA in his last six starts and has given up zero or one run in five of those outings.

Prized rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin returned from the injured list for the Pirates and made an immediate impact when he scored the lone run from first base on Mangum’s one-out double to right field in the second inning.

Griffin had been sidelined since July 6 after undergoing surgery to repair a torn tendon in his left ring finger. The Pirates signed the 20-year-old to a nine-year, $140-million contract, the richest in franchise history, in April.

The Angels hit back-to-back singles to open the top of the second, but Jones got Christian Moore to foul out, then struck out Jose Siri and Adam Frazier. The Halos have been shut out 12 times.

Up next: Angels LHP Yusei Kikuchi (0-5, 5.65 ERA) faces RHP Braxton Ashcraft (14-5, 3.59) on Saturday night in the middle game of the series.

Critics argue that the administration’s arcade games prioritise entertainment over pressing issues like rising costs and foreign conflicts.

The White House’s unveiling of five arcade-style games on its website, each believed to be promoting a different policy of United States President Donald Trump’s agenda, has ignited backlash, with critics accusing the administration of prioritising entertainment over addressing rising living costs and the ongoing war on Iran.

Announced on Thursday, the games include “Build the Wall” where players run to capture little green figures before they reach a border wall; “Rio Run”, a Snake-style game in which players gather border crossers along a fence; “Supply Line”, in which players reject food items that fail to meet “Make America Healthy Again” standards; “Flappy Bill,” a Flappy Bird-style game in which a bald eagle carries legislation over the National Mall; and “Trump Savings Tycoon”, in which players catch flying cash and gold bars to “fill your kids’ Trump Accounts,” in reference to the administration’s child savings programme.

“Heating oil is near an all-time high but hey you can play Border Czar Tom Homan in a video game,” Senator Matt Lesser wrote on X.

Rights groups have also criticised the administration for the gaming website.

“Makes me sick. They’ve been playing games with people’s lives for years, now they’ve made a video game of what they’re doing,” Amerika Garcia Grewal, co-director of the Frontera Federation in Eagle Pass, Texas, told AFP news agency.

The game designers “have lost touch with what it means to be human and care for others”.

Adriana Jasso, programme coordinator for AMIGOS San Diego Community, who works at the border, said the arcade-style games showed a fundamental “lack of seriousness” from the administration.

“The cruelty, the extremity of the administration … is no longer surprising,” she said.

In recent months, Trump has faced mounting criticism over the economic toll of the war on Iran and his broader domestic agenda.

The conflict has kept the Strait of Hormuz closed for nearly six months, disrupting global supplies of oil and natural gas and fertiliser, and pushing US inflation above the Federal Reserve’s 2-percent target, according to reporting by Texas Public Radio.

Trump has also faced criticism over tariff policies that the Supreme Court partly struck down earlier this year, along with cuts to food assistance programmes and the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits, all of which economists say have compounded the squeeze on household budgets.

The White House, meanwhile, appeared unfazed, posting “CAN’T STOP WINNING” on X alongside a link to the games.

Former Premier League referee Mike Dean says he used set himself mini-challenges during matches “as a laugh”.

Appearing on Jamie Vardy’s podcast, Dean said he would see how long he could go without blowing his whistle, or stay inside the centre circle.

“We used to say ‘we’ll kick off now. Right, see how long we can go without blowing a whistle’,” Dean said.

“I’ve done that a few times in the Premier League, before VAR obviously – went 20, 25 minutes without blowing a whistle.

“I used to do another thing. I used to stand in the centre circle – see how long I could stay in the centre circle before I had to leave.

“That was just me joking about. I got about 15 minutes once.”

BBC Sport understands that referee figures consider Dean’s claims to be unfounded, which would be historical and go back to the pre-video assistant referee era before 2019 when Pro Ref was under different leadership.

It is not the first time Dean has courted controversy for his media statements.

When acting as the video assistant referee for Chelsea‘s 2-2 draw with Tottenham in August 2022, Dean failed to send the referee to the monitor for a red card for Cristian Romero.

The Spurs defender should have been penalised for pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair.

After retiring, Dean said in an interview that he did not intervene because he wanted to save referee Anthony Taylor from extra “grief”.

“I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee,” Dean said.

Dean enjoyed a 28-year career as a professional official, stepping down from on-field officiating in 2022 and retiring after spending the 2022-23 season as a full-time VAR.

The 58-year-old began officiating in 1985 and progressed from refereeing in the Football League 10 years later, and then to Premier League in 2000.

Dean refereed the 2008 FA Cup final and 2011 League Cup final at Wembley.