BASEBALL
Tanner Houck struck out six over six shutout innings of five-hit baseball, and Durbin Feltman added a hitless seventh Saturday as the Portland Sea Dogs (6-12) earned a 1-0 victory for an Eastern League doubleheader split against the Rumble Ponies (10-7) in Binghamton, New York.
Alfredo Escalera scored the only run, racing home on Nick Lovullo’s sharp fifth-inning ground single to left.
Bingamton won the opener, also 1-0. Jerry Downs had two of Portland’s three hits.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR: Tyler Reddick held off Gray Gaulding in a two-lap shootout to win the Xfinity Series race at Talladega, Alabama, for his first victory of the year.
Reddick withstood a last-lap move by Gaulding to survive the caution-packed race. Nobody could get by him after a restart from the eighth caution, a red flag after a seven-car wreck.
• Austin Dillon celebrated his 29th birthday by posting the highest speed at Talladega, Alabama, in qualifying at 192.544 mph for his second pole of the year. Aric Almirola, who won at Talladega in October, was second, followed by Clint Bowyer, five-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski and Daniel Hemric.
FORMULA ONE: Valtteri Bottas qualified in the pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. Bottas’ last lap was 1 minute, 40.495 seconds, leaving him 0.059 ahead of Lewis Hamilton, his teammate and the standings leader, in a Mercedes 1-2. Sebastian Vettel was third for Ferrari, 0.302 off Bottas’ time.
TENNIS
BARCELONA OPEN: Dominic Thiem defeated Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals in Spain, becoming the first player other than Novak Djokovic to defeat Nadal on clay four times.
Thiem will try to win his second title of the year Sunday in a final against Daniil Medvedev of Russia, who upset fourth-seeded Kei Nishikori, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
PORSCHE GRAND PRIX: Top-ranked Naomi Osaka withdrew from the semifinals in Stuttgart, Germany, because of an abdominal injury. Anett Kontaveit will play Petra Kvitova in the final after Kvitova beat Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-1.
SOCCER
SPANISH LEAGUE: Lionel Messi scored to help Barcelona clinch the title by beating visiting Levante 1-0, cementing its status as the nation’s dominant club for more than a decade.
After resting until halftime, Messi went on and finally put a shot past Levante goalkeeper Aitor Fernandez in the 62nd minute.
GERMAN LEAGUE: Borussia Dortmund missed a chance to return to first place by losing at home to Schalke 4-2, giving a huge title boost to Bayern Munich, which visits Nuremberg on Sunday. Bayern Munich leads by one point with three games remaining after this weekend.
MLS: Krisztian Nemeth scored twice and Sporting Kansas City rallied for a 4-4 tie with the visiting New England Revolution.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: The Connecticut Sun traded Chiney Ogwumike to Los Angeles for the Sparks’ 2020 first-round pick.
The move reunited Ogwumike with her sister, Nneka, who plays for Los Angeles. They played together in college at Stanford.
GOLF
PGA: Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer shared the lead with Scott Stallings and Trey Mullinax as the Zurich Classic at Avondale, Louisiana, finally got back on schedule.
Rahm and Palmer played 30 holes in the event delayed by rain for more than seven hours Thursday, finishing a 7-under 65 in the alternate-shot second round and shooting 64 in best-ball play in the third. Stallings and Mullinax played 27 holes, shooting 70-62.
LPGA: Minjee Lee overcame a triple bogey to take the lead into the final round of the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open at Los Angeles.
CHAMPIONS: Tom Pernice Jr. and Scott Hoch stretched their lead to three strokes in the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf, shooting a 6-under 48 on the par-3 course at Ridgedale, Missouri.
EUROPEAN: Erik Van Rooyen of South Africa posted a 5-under 68 to take a one-shot lead from Jorge Campillo after the third round of the Trophee Hassan II at Rabat, Morocco.
– Staff and news services
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.