BASEBALL

Zack Zehner capped a five-run rally in the bottom of the 12th inning with a two-run triple, giving the Trenton Thunder a stunning 8-7 win over the Portland Sea Dogs in an Eastern League game Saturday night in Trenton, New Jersey.

The Sea Dogs took the lead with four runs in the top of the 12th, including a two-run homer by Brett Netzer and a solo shot by Bobby Dalbec – his third home run of the game.

But Trenton rallied in the bottom half against Jordan Weems, Portland’s fourth pitcher. Weems struck out two batters before giving up RBI singles to Wendell Rijo, Ben Ruta and Chris Gittens, followed by Zehner’s triple.

Dalbec went 4 for 5, including home runs in the fourth and sixth. It marked the first time a Sea Dogs player hit three homers in a game since Portland became an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox in 2003.

Over his last 10 games, Dalbec is batting .343 with 11 RBI. After a slow start, he is batting .248 this season with six home runs and 20 RBI in 30 games.

HOCKEY

NHL: Logan Couture and Timo Meier each had two goals and an assist, and the San Jose Sharks opened the Western Conference finals with a 6-3 win over the visiting St. Louis Blues.

TENNIS

MADRID OPEN: Rafael Nadal’s slump on clay continued with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 loss to ninth-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the semifinals.

It was the third straight semifinal elimination for Nadal, adding to his worst start to the clay season since 2015.

Tsitsipas will try to win his third title of the year Sunday against top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who defeated Dominic Thiem 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) and will have a chance to tie Nadal for the most titles in Master 1000 tournaments with 33.

In the women’s final, Kiki Bertens beat two-time Madrid champion Simona Halep, 6-4, 6-4.

GOLF

PGA: Matt Every opened the rain-delayed third round at the Byron Nelson with an eagle, then had four birdies in a span of five holes to take the lead from Sung Kang before play was suspended because of darkness in Dallas, with the lead group through nine holes.

The start of play was delayed six hours because of heavy rain overnight and into the morning.

Every had a 6-under 30 on the front nine to get to 18 under, a stroke ahead of Kang.

CHAMPIONS TOUR: Steve Stricker birdied the final hole for a 2-under 70 and held onto the lead after three rounds at the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Alabama, with Bernhard Langer among three players two strokes back.

Stricker heads into the final round of the first of five PGA Tour Champions majors at 14-under 202. He was 1 over on the front nine but birdied all three par 5s on the back nine.

Langer, who won the Tradition in 2016 and 2017, shot a 68 and was tied with David Toms (70) and Billy Andrade (69).

EUROPEAN TOUR: Tommy Fleetwood shrugged off the effects of a virus to move into contention to win the British Masters in Southport, England, as a late stumble from Matt Wallace in the third round threw the event wide open.

After going 47 holes without dropping a shot, Wallace bogeyed the 12th and made double bogey on the 15th – after his wayward drive hit a spectator on the head – in shooting a 2-under 70. He was tied for first place at 14-under 202 with Marcus Kinhult (68).

Fleetwood was three strokes back after a 68.

AUTO RACING

NASCAR: The car chiefs for Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson were ejected after their cars failed inspection for a second time before the Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

Eleven cars failed the first round of inspections, including Aric Almirola, who qualified on the outside of the first row. Five of the top eight qualifiers were sent to the back of the pack for failing inspection, including Daniel Suarez and Martin Truex Jr.

INDYCAR: Simon Pagenaud made a daring pass through three turns on the second-to-last lap and sped away from Scott Dixon to win for the first time since the 2017 season finale, prevailing on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Pagenaud beat five-time series champion Scott Dixon by 2.0469 seconds.

FORMULA ONE: Valtteri Bottas smashed teammate Lewis Hamilton’s track record as he won the pole for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Bottas ran a lap in 1 minute, 15.406 seconds on the 2.5-mile circuit. Hamilton qualified second as the Ferrari teammates put themselves in position for a fifth straight 1-2 finish to start the season.

SOCCER

USL: Tommy Clarke scored as the Portland Phoenix opened their 10th season with a 1-0 victory against the Seacoast United Phantoms in Portland.

The Phoenix are members of United Soccer League 2, the fourth tier of the sport in the United States.

MLS: Juan Agudelo, Cristian Penilla and Carles Gil scored, and the New England Revolution beat San Jose 3-1 in interim coach Mike Lapper’s debut at Foxborough, Massachusetts.

GERMANY: American midfielder Christian Pulisic, playing his last home game for Borussia Dortmund, scored on a header as his team beat Fortuna Dusseldorf 3-2 to stay alive for the Bundesliga title heading into the last weekend of the season.

Dortmund is two points behind Bayern Munich, which was held to a 0-0 draw at Leipzig. Dortmund must win at Borussia Monchengladbach and hope for a Frankfurt victory over Bayern Munich to take the title.

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