BASEBALL
Sal Gozzo singled home the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth inning and Bryson Stott added a two-run homer as the Reading Fightin Phils rallied Thursday night for a 5-2 win over the Portland Sea Dogs at Hadlock Field.
It was the fifth straight loss for the Sea Dogs, who scored twice in the first inning but were held to two hits the rest of the way. Danny Santana, on a rehab assignment from the Boston Red Sox, lined an RBI single and scored on an error.
Reading answered with a run in the second, then tied it on a home run by Madison Stokes in the eighth.
PARALYMPICS
TOKYO GAMES: Clara Brown, a cyclist from Falmouth, withdrew Friday morning from what would have been her second event in Tokyo – the 500-meter time trial.
Brown finished fourth Wednesday in the opening event of the competition – the 3,000-meter individual pursuit.
She’s still scheduled to compete two more times after cycling moves from the track to the road course at Fuji Speedway, in the 16-kilometer time trial on Monday and the 40K road race on Wednesday.
SOCCER
WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: Christian Pulisic’s availability for the United States’ opening qualifier remains unclear following his positive COVID-19 test.
The top American player was on the 26-man roster announced Thursday for the first three qualifiers after missing Chelsea’s match at Arsenal last weekend. The U.S. starts at El Salvador on Sept. 2.
“It’s going to be just day-to-day, seeing where he’s at,” U.S. Coach Gregg Berhalter said. “He’s still under quarantine conditions in England, and we’re going to have to get him stateside once he clears the quarantine and assess him. It’s really (hard) to tell if he will be available for the 2nd, for the 5th or for the 8th.”
Pulisic is scheduled to report Sunday.
“There’s a lot of tests that he needs to go through before he arrives,” Berhalter said.
Under the compacted schedule caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. travels to El Salvador on Wednesday, hosts Canada in Nashville on Sept. 5 and plays Honduras in San Pedro Sula on Sept. 8.
There will be three more qualifiers from Oct. 7-13, two from Nov. 12-16 and three each Jan. 27-Feb. 2 and March 24-30.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain, who clashed in the semifinals in May, were placed together in the 2021-22 group stage draw, and several other of Europe’s biggest teams were also grouped together.
Real Madrid, the record 13-time winners of the European Cup, will be taking on Italian champion Inter Milan. They are in Group D with Shakhtar Donetsk and Sheriff, the Moldovan side which qualified for the Champions League for the first time.
Barcelona, a five-time European champion, is in Group E with six-time champion Bayern Munich. They’ll also play Benfica and Dynamo Kyiv.
Juventus will go up against defending champion Chelsea, along with Malmo and Zenit St. Petersburg.
ENGLAND: Manchester City left back Benjamin Mendy has been charged with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, police said.
Mendy, 27, was suspended by City pending an investigation. Cheshire Police said the charges relate to incidents that are alleged to have taken place between October 2020 and August 2021. He is due to appear in court on Friday.
Mendy played against Tottenham on the opening weekend of the Premier League season but didn’t play against Norwich on Saturday.
HOCKEY
WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Jamie Rattraw scored twice and Canada overwhelmed the United States 5-1 in Calgary, Alberta, ending the Americans’ winning streak in event at 29 games.
Canada (4-0) took the top spot in Group A to set up a quarterfinal Saturday against the loser of a late game between Germany and Japan. The United States (3-1) will face the Germany-Japan winner.
NHL: The Philadelphia Flyers signed No. 1 center Sean Couturier to an eight-year contract extension worth $62 million.
Couturier counts $7.75 million against the salary cap with his contract that begins after next season and runs through 2029-30. Couturier won the Selke Trophy in 2020 as the league’s best defensive forward, and had 18 goals and 23 assists last season.
• The Carolina Hurricanes agreed to terms with forward Andrei Svechnikov on an eight-year contract, which is set to keep the No. 2 overall draft pick from 2018 with the franchise through the 2028-29 season.
The team said the deal will pay the 21-year-old Svechnikov an average annual value of $7.75 million.
• The Calgary Flames re-signed forward Dillon Dube to a three-year, $6.9 million contract.
Dube, 23, had 11 goals and 11 assists in 51 games last season.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: A’ja Wilson bounced back from one of the worst games of her career with 21 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists to help the visiting Las Vegas Aces beat the Atlanta Dream, 78-71, for Coach Bill Laimbeer’s 300th career victory.
• Brionna Jones scored 17 of her 23 points in the second half, Jonquel Jones had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Connecticut beat the visiting Los Angeles Sparks, 76-72, for the Sun’s seventh straight victory.
• Arike Ogunbowale scored 29 points with nine assists, Isabelle Harrison had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and the Dallas Wings won 82-77 on the road against the shorthanded Washington Mystics.
Tina Charles, Washington’s leading scorer at 25.4 points per game, will miss the next three to five games because of a strained left gluteal.
TRACK AND FIELD
DIAMOND LEAGUE: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce clocked the third-fastest women’s 100 meters in history to beat Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Fraser-Pryce surged clear of her Jamaican rival from the blocks and finished in 10.60 seconds, with Thompson-Herah 0.04 back. A cooling tailwind at 1.7 meters per second was within the legal limit. Fraser-Pryce, 34, took 0.03 off the personal best she set in Jamaica in June, nine years after winning her second Olympic title in the 100.
Both women have improved their times since Thompson-Herah retained her Olympic title in Tokyo in a blazing 10.61, where Fraser-Pryce took silver in 10.74. On Saturday, Thompson-Herah took her personal best down to 10.54 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. That is second all-time to Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 33-year-old world record of 10.49.
FOOTBALL
CFL: Two more Edmonton Elks players have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 14 since the Team returned home after beating the B.C. Lions last week.
The team has not identified any of the affected players, but says players, coaches and staff remain in isolation at home and continue to be tested daily.
The Elks are next scheduled to play at Calgary on Sept. 6.
CYCLING
SPANISH VUELTA: Magnus Cort Nielsen of Denmark earned another sprint victory, winning a hot and hilly 12th stage, while Odd Christian Eiking of Norway kept the race lead.
Cort Nielsen beat Italy’s Andrea Gagioli by almost a wheel length at the finish of the 109-mile route ending in Cordoba. It was the Dane’s second win at this year’s edition of the Vuelta and his fifth career victory at the Spanish race.
Eiking leads Guillaume Martin of France by 58 seconds. Two-time defending champion Primoz Roglic, who is considered the race favorite given the number of mountain stages ahead, is third at 1:56 behind.
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