BASEBALL
David Hamilton hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the fourth inning and also broke the franchise record for stolen bases in a season as the Portland Sea Dogs continued their playoff push with a 4-3 win over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies on Saturday afternoon in their annual Field of Dreams game at Hadlock Field.
It was the fourth straight win and 12th in their last 13 games for the Sea Dogs, who began the day with a two-game lead over the Somerset Patriots in the Eastern League’s Northeast Division second-half standings.
Kyle Hart allowed a two-run homer with nobody out in the first inning but then held Binghamton to just one more hit during his six-inning outing. He struck out seven and walked one.
Hamilton led off the bottom of the first with a double and eventually scored on a groundout by Ceddanne Rafaela. In the eighth, Hamilton reached on a bunt single and then stole his 65th base of the season – one more than Julio Ramirez’s team record set in 1999.
FOOTBALL
NFL: Star tight end Darren Waller has agreed on a three-year contract extension with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Agent Drew Rosenhaus said the sides reached the deal that adds $51 million to Waller’s existing contract that was previously set to pay him about $7 million in each of the next two seasons.
The reworked deal will pay Waller an average of a little more than $13 million a season through 2026. The new money average of $17 million a year exceeds the top existing deal at the position that pays San Francisco’s George Kittle $15 million per season. Waller had previously had the 18th highest average annual salary at the position.
• Though it’s not the contract extension Jordan Poyer was seeking, the Buffalo Bills increased the amount of bonus incentives the starting safety can earn this season.
Poyer’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, confirmed the agreement being reached, with his client now eligible to make as much as $2 million in bonuses – up from $500,000 – in the final year of his contract. ESPN.com first reported the deal.
CYCLING
SPANISH VUELTA: Remco Evenepoel all but clinched his first Grand Tour title after the 22-year-old Belgian protected his lead in the Spanish Vuelta on the three-week race’s final competitive stage.
Well-supported by his Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team, Evenepoel had little trouble ensuring that Enric Mas and the Spaniard’s Movistar team were never able to challenge the two-minute lead he took into the 20th stage in mountains just north of Madrid, where the race ends on Sunday.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR CUP SERIES: Tyler Reddick will start from the pole in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Kansas Speedway.
Reddick leaned on his extensive background driving dirt late models to ride the rim around the mile-and-a-half track. He stopped the clock in 29.899 seconds, denying Joey Logano a second straight pole.
FORMULA ONE: Charles Leclerc will be looking to reignite the Formula One championship race on his home track after clinching pole position in Monza, Italy, for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Runaway points leader Max Verstappen will again have to try to fight his way to the front after being among the many drivers to be hit with grid penalties.
Leclerc – who said he risked everything at the end – set the fastest time on his last lap in Saturday’s qualifying and knew he would start at the front of the grid even before Verstappen crossed 0.145 seconds slower, meaning the Ferrari driver secured pole on merit and not just because of his rival’s grid penalties.
GOLF
PGA TOUR: Scottie Scheffler went 58 tournaments over more than two years between getting a PGA Tour card and getting his first win at the Phoenix Open. That turned out to be just the beginning of a year that topped all others in golf.
A month later, Scheffler went to No. 1 in the world. Two weeks after that, he became a major champion by winning the Masters. And on Saturday, he capped off his remarkable rise when he was announced as the PGA Tour player of the year.
EUROPEAN: The BMW Championship in Virginia Water, England, has been shortened to 54 holes after a day’s play was canceled following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Viktor Hovland and Soren Kjeldsen were tied for the lead at 12 under par at the end of the second round.
Rory McIlroy finished birdie-birdie on the closing par 5s at Wentworth to shoot 7-under 65 – tying his career-low round in the tournament – and was in a three-way share of third place with Thomas Detry (65) and Rafa Cabrera Bello (65), a shot behind the leaders.
CHAMPIONS: Padraig Harrington bogeyed the final hole for a 5-under 66, leaving him just a stroke ahead of Steve Stricker and Bernhard Langer with a round lead in the Ascension Charity Classic in St. Louis.
Harrington, the three-time major winner and most recent European Ryder Cup captain, was at 11-under 131 at Norwood Hills. The Irishman has two victories and four runner-up finishes in his first full PGA Tour Champions season.
LPGA: Ally Ewing shot into the lead with a fast start and stayed there on a soggy course in Cincinnati for a 5-under 67 to build a one-shot lead over Maria Fassi in the Kroger Queen City Championship.
Ewing was at 16-under 200.
Right behind was Fassi, the dynamic Mexican with the powerful swing who matched Ewing with a 67 and will play in the final group with her Sunday with a chance to win her first LPGA title.
Send 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.