BASEBALL
Al Castillo went 3 for 3 with two doubles and an RBI to lift the Reading Fightin’ Phils to a 5-2 win over the Portland Sea Dogs Tuesday night at Reading, Pennsylvania.
Jeremy Rivera hit a solo homer for Portland to tie it at 1 in the third inning, and added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to put the Sea Dogs ahead 2-1.
Reading pulled away by scoring two runs in the bottom of the fifth and seventh innings.
Bailey Falter (1-1) earned the win, allowing five hits, one walk, one earned run and three strikeouts.
SOCCER
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Ajax eliminated another one of the favorites from the Champions League as it won 2-1 at Juventus to reach the semifinals for the first time since 1997 and end Cristiano Ronaldo’s hopes of a fourth straight title.
Having already seen off Real Madrid in the previous round, Ajax showed no fear against Ronaldo and the Italian giant either, advancing 3-2 on aggregate after dominating much of the game.
• Lionel Messi scored two early goals to send Barcelona into the semifinals for the first time in four seasons with a comfortable 3-0 win over Manchester United.
PREMIER LEAGUE: Cardiff kept alive its hope of staving off relegation with a vital 2-0 victory over fellow strugglers Brighton.
Goals either side of halftime from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Sean Morrison moved 18th-place Cardiff within just two points of Brighton and safety.
TENNIS
MONTE CARLO MASTERS: Two-time champion Novak Djokovic struggled with his serve at times but reached the third round at Monaco with a scrappy 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Djokovic double-faulted eight times and needed five match points to beat Kohlschreiber, who lost eight of their previous 10 matches but secured a rare win in the third round at Indian Wells last month.
In another second-round match, three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka faltered against last year’s French Open semifinalist Marco Cecchinato after leading by a set and a break, losing 0-6, 7-5, 6-3.
BASKETBALL
OLYMPICS: The Olympic basketball tournament has been shortened for the 2020 Tokyo Games to cut the number of group matches from five to three for each team.
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) says the new format will feature three four-team groups in both the men’s and women’s tournament.
The top two teams in each group are joined in the quarterfinals by the two best third-place teams.
At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics – where the U.S. won both gold medals – teams were drawn in two groups of six, and so played five games in the first phase before entering the knockout bracket.
WOMEN: Seattle Storm forward/center Breanna Stewart – the reigning WNBA MVP – tore her right Achilles tendon on Sunday in an international game. Playing with her Russian squad the Dynamo Kursk, Stewart landed on her USA teammate Brittney Griner and sustained the injury.
GOLF
MASTERS: An average of 10.8 million people watched the CBS coverage of the final round of the Masters as Tiger Woods got his first victory in a major in 11 years.
CBS said in a release that it was the most-watched morning golf broadcast since 1987, which is the earliest data the network has. The final round was moved up five hours to 9 a.m. Sunday because of the threat of inclement weather. The afternoon encore presentation averaged 4.5 million.
The previous high for a morning golf broadcast, according to Nielsen, was 8.56 million for ABC’s telecast of the 2000 British Open, which was won by Woods at St. Andrews. Last year’s final round of the British Open on NBC averaged 6.48 million, when Woods was in contention, and the final day of the Ryder Cup from Paris averaged 2.67 million.
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