BASEBALL
Kutter Crawford allowed one run on three hits while striking out seven in 4 1/3 innings and the Portland Sea Dogs beat the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 9-4 in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Game 2 was tied 3-3 after three innings when it was suspended because of rain.
Hudson Potts hit a two-run home run as Portland scored five times in the top of the second inning. Grant Williams added an RBI single and Pedro Castellanos a two-run double. Ronald Hernandez added a two-run homer and Ryan Fitzgerald a solo home run in the top of the seven for Portland.
CYCLING
TOUR de FRANCE: Defending champion Tadej Pogacar kept control of the Tour de France on a rain-soaked second day in the Alps as a crash-filled opening week took its toll on rivals.
Both last year’s runner-up Primoz Roglic and former race leader Mathieu van der Poel dropped out of the race before the grueling 144.9-kilometer (90-mile) route from Cluses to Tignes.
Australian rider Ben O’Connor won the ninth stage after launching a solo break with 17 kilometers to go. Sergio Higuita was unable to follow the 25-year-old as O’Connor powered up the Col du Pré for the finish at Tignes. It’s his first tour win.
O’Connor finished more than five minutes ahead of Mattia Cattaneo in second. Pogacar responded to a late attack by Richard Carapaz to defend his overall lead by finishing sixth, just over six minutes behind O’Connor.
UAE Team Emirates rider Pogacar has a lead of 2:01 over O’Connor ahead of the first rest day on Monday.
GIRO d’ITALIA: Marianne Vos sprinted away from a four-rider breakaway to win the third stage while Dutch teammate and reigning Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen retained the overall lead.
The 34-year-old Vos, who won Olympic gold in London in 2012, attacked along with Lucinda Brand, Liane Lippert and Elise Chabbey on a hard climb with 47 kilometers left in the second consecutive mountain stage. Their group stayed away to the finish, with Vos winning the sprint ahead of Brand in second and Lippert in third.
AUTO RACING
INDYCAR: Josef Newgarden snapped his streak of late race misfortunes to win for the first time this season, in Lexington, Ohio, earning the first IndyCar victory of the year for Team Penske on the same weekend the storied organization celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first win.
Newgarden led all but seven of the 80 laps Sunday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The two-time IndyCar champion dominated the two races leading into Sunday, but late yellows altered the outcome and denied Newgarden two trips to victory lane.
FORMULA ONE: Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position, clinching a third straight victory and extending his lead over title rival Lewis Hamilton to 32 points after nine races.
It was Verstappen’s fifth win of the season compared to three for Hamilton, who dropped down from second place to fourth late on after going too wide on a turn and rolling over a kerb, damaging one of his tires.
Disappointment for Hamilton, who has not won for two months, elation for the Dutchman Verstappen in front of his adoring orange-shirted fans after another clinical drive.
SOCCER
MLS: Toronto FC fired head coach Chris Armas on Sunday in the wake of a 7-1 loss at D.C. United, the club’s sixth straight defeat.
Under the first-year coach, Toronto (1-8-2) is winless in seven and languishing in last place in the 27-team league.
Toronto is mired in its second-worst start to a season. Only 2012, when the team lost its first nine games and didn’t reach the five-point mark until its 13th outing (1-10-2), was worse.
WORLD CUP QUALYFING: The United States’ first home World Cup qualifier, against Canada on Sept. 5, will be at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.
The the match will follow the Americans’ opener at El Salvador on Sept. 2 and precede a Sept. 8 match at Honduras.
U.S. players will train in Nashville starting Aug. 30, many flying in from European weekend matches.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, three World Cup qualifiers are being squeezed into FIFA international fixture windows designed for two matches. Because of that, U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter says he expects to use more players that he otherwise would have.
GOLF
PGA TOUR: Cam Davis won the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit for his first PGA Tour title when Troy Merritt missed a 6-foot par putt on the fifth hole of a playoff.
Davis missed putts to win on each of the playoff holes. The 26-year-old Australian left 6- and 18-foot putts high, a 25-foot putt low and a 19-footer high. He misread a break on a 12-foot putt on the fifth playoff hole, then won when Merritt made bogey.
Davis closed with a 5-under 67 to match Merritt (68) and Joaquin Niemann (68) at 18-under 270 at Detroit Golf Club. Niemann dropped out of the playoff with a bogey on the first extra hole, his first bogey of the week.
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS: Cameron Beckman ran off five straight birdies to start the back nine and then held on at the end for a 4-under 68 and a one-shot victory over Ernie Els in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in Endicott, New York, his first title on the PGA Tour Champions.
Els, who started the final round with a three-shot lead, closed with a 72 to finish second.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Australian golfer Lucas Herbert completed a wire-to-wire victory at the Irish Open in Thomastown, Ireland, shooting 4-under 68 in the final round to win by three strokes and also secure a place at the British Open.
It was Herbert’s second title on the European Tour, after the Dubai Desert Classic in January 2020.
LPGA TOUR: Jin Young Ko closed with seven straight pars for a 2-under 69 and a one-shot victory in the Volunteers of America Classic, in The Colony, Texas, her first start since losing the No. 1 world ranking.
Ko sank her shoulders when she made her par putt from just outside 3 feet on the final hole at Old American Golf Club, holding off Matilda Castren of Finland, who also shot 69.
The South Korean star won for the first time this year, and the timing couldn’t have been better. She had held the No. 1 ranking for nearly two years until Nelly Korda supplanted her last week by winning the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
WNBA: Kelsey Plum had 23 points and passed 1,000 for her career, and the Las Vegas Aces set a franchise record for points with an 118-95 win over the Atlanta Dream in Las Vegas.
Plum reached the milestone on a 3-pointer that made it 90-77 with 8:47 left in the fourth quarter and added 11 more before the end of the game.
A’ja Wilson added 19 points and nine rebounds and Liz Cambage had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Aces (14-4), who maintained at least a share of first place in the WNBA standings.
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