BASEBALL
Yu Darvish has agreed to a new contract with the San Diego Padres that guarantees the 36-year-old ace an additional $90 million and will keep him with the club through the 2028 season, a person with direct knowledge of the deal said Thursday.
The right-hander, who has a baffling array of pitches, will make $108 million over six years, including the $18 million he was already due in 2023 before he was set to become a free agent.
Darvish helped the Padres reach the NL Championship Series last season. He was 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA and 197 strikeouts in the regular season, and 2-1 in the postseason.
• The Houston Astros beat Kyle Tucker in arbitration, and the All-Star outfielder will make $5 million rather than his $7.5 million request.
Tucker, 26, hit .257 with 30 homers, a career-best 107 RBI, stole 25 bases and won a Glove Glove last year.
GOLF
PGA: Canadian friends Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin shared the lead at 5-under 66 on the first day of the WM Phoenix Open, which ended with the entire afternoon wave unable to finish because of darkness after a delay of almost two hours caused by morning frost and high winds.
Xander Schauffele opened with a 67. Jason Day and Jim Herman also were 4 under, with Day finishing 10 holes and Herman 13
U.S. OPEN: The U.S. Open has added the NCAA champion and Latin America Amateur champions to the list of exempt players, along with making slight tweaks to categories for players who don’t have to qualify.
Some of the changes were due to golf coming fully out of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for qualifying to be held in England and Japan for international players.
The U.S. Open is June 15-18 at Los Angeles Country Club.
Players who have signed on with Saudi-funded LIV Golf are still exempt from qualifying, which was expected.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Tom McKibbin was a surprise first-round leader of the Singapore Classic after shooting 8-under 64.
The 20-year-old Northern Irishman is ranked No. 308 and has just one top-10 finish on the European tour.
McKibbin was one stroke ahead of Matthieu Pavon of France, Sami Valimaki of Finland and Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren and Simon Forsstrom.
SKIING
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Canadian skier James Crawford edged Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde by one-hundredth of a second to win the gold medal in the men’s super-G in Courchevel, France.
Alexis Pinturault finished 0.26 seconds behind to take bronze, two days after the Frenchman won the combined race in his hometown.
Crawford became the third Canadian man to ever win a gold medal at the world championship. The last Canadian winner was Erik Guay, a two-time goal medalist, in super-G six years ago.
SWIMMING
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Russia was stripped of hosting the 2025 world championships and Singapore was awarded the event by the governing body of the sport.
Russia had originally been chosen in 2019 to host the event in Kazan, which also held the championships in 2015.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris will be out for up to seven weeks because of a knee injury.
Lloris was hurt late in a 1-0 win over Manchester City on Sunday in the Premier League and was pictured wearing a brace on his leg.
Backup keeper Fraser Forster will stand in as Tottenham prepares to face AC Milan in the Champions League round of 16 next week.
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