BASEBALL
Brian Van Belle allowed one run on five hits and struck out eight in six innings as the Portland Sea Dogs beat Reading, 4-2, in an Eastern League game Saturday night at Hadlock Field in Portland.
Van Belle didn’t walk a batter and earned his sixth win of the season.
Ceddanne Rafaela and Alex Binelas each hit solo home runs, Nathan Hickey drove in a run on a groundout and Marcelo Mayer had an RBI double for Portland. The Sea Dogs have won two straight after snapping a four-game losing streak on Friday and improve to 40-28.
Nick Podkul had a home run, a double, an RBI and a run scored for Reading.
NECBL:Ryan McCoy was 2 for 5 with three RBI and two runs scored as Martha’s Vineyard beat the Sanford Mainers, 8-6, in Oaks Bluff, Massachusetts.
Matthew Micell was 2 for 3 with RBI and a run scored for Sanford.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR: A.J. Allmendinger pulled away on the second overtime restart Saturday to win his second NASCAR Xfinity race this year and 17th of his career at the Nashville Superspeedway in the Tennessee Lottery 250.
The 41-year-old Allmendinger pitted on lap 145 and used fresher tires to pass Parker Kligerman, taking the lead for good on lap 177. He seemed poised to cruise to his latest victory for Kaulig Racing in his No. 10 Bailey Zimmerman-Religiously Chevrolet until Chad Chastain spun off Turn 4 with five laps left.
That set up the first overtime. Chandler Smith spun out on the first restart attempt after contact with Josh Berry in Turn 2. On the second restart, Allmendinger left everyone behind and cruised to the victory.
SOCCER
MLS: Bobby Wood had a goal and an assist, Djordje Petrovic made a career-high nine saves and the New England Revolution rallied for a 2-1 victory over Toronto FC in Foxborough, Massaschusetts.
New England (10-3-6) upped its unbeaten streak at home to a club-record 10. The Revolution, however, beat Toronto (3-7-10) at home for the first time in five tries. New England beat Toronto 2-0 on the road earlier this season.
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: Canada captain Christine Sinclair says she’s confident the Canadian women’s national team will come to a last-minute pay agreement with its federation before the players depart for the Women’s World Cup.
“It’s not going to be some long-term deal, but it will at least cover this year,” said Sinclair, who characterized the agreement as imminent before the team departs for Australia on Monday for a pre-World Cup camp.
Both the men’s and women’s national teams have been negotiating new contracts with Canada Soccer for more than a year. Sinclair is among the players who have led the team in its fight for equitable pay and treatment.
TRANSFER: Wolverhampton Wanderers captain Ruben Neves has become the latest high-profile player to move to Saudi Arabia after joining Al-Hilal for a transfer fee of $59.7 million.
The fee is a record for English Premier League team Wolves. The 26-year-old Portugal midfielder follows in the footsteps of Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante, who completed free transfers to Al-Ittihad this month. Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Al-Nassr in December.
BASKETBALL
NBA: Derrick Rose’s tenure in New York is probably finished after the Knicks declined the point guard’s $15.5 million team option for next season prior to Saturday night’s deadline, sending Rose into free agency.
Rose, 34, was acquired by trade from the Pistons in 2021 and played an integral role in leading the Knicks to the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs that season.
It earned him a lucrative contract that summer, but an ankle injury sabotaged Rose’s following season and he never recovered a consistent role. In his last two seasons, Rose appeared in a combined 53 games.
WNBA: Connecticut Sun post Brionna Jones has undergone surgery and will miss the remainder of the WNBA season with a ruptured right Achilles tendon, the team announced on Saturday.
Jones suffered the injury with just over a minute left in Connecticut’s 85-79 road win over the Storm on Tuesday.
TENNIS
BERLIN OPEN: Donna Vekić will play two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová in the final in Berlin after both won twice on Saturday.
The unseeded Vekić upset Maria Sakkari 6-4, 7-6 (8) in their semifinal, shortly after beating Elina Avanesyan 6-2, 7-6 (0) in their rain-delayed quarterfinal.
Kvitová defeated Caroline Garcia 6-4, 7-6 (3), then ended Ekaterina Alexandrova’s seven-match winning streak with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 semifinal win to advance to her 42nd career final.
QUEEN’S CLUB: Carlos Alcaraz reached his first ATP final on grass and moved one win away from reclaiming the top ranking by taking out Sebastian Korda 6-3, 6-4 in London on Saturday.
Alex de Minaur stands between Alcaraz and the trophy and No. 1 ranking. De Minaur knocked out second-seeded Holger Rune 6-3, 7-6 (2), saving the three break points he faced and breaking the 20-year-old Dane’s serve twice.
HALLE OPEN: Alexander Bublik will play Andrey Rublev in the final in Halle, Germany after straight-sets semifinal wins on Saturday.
Bublik defeated Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-5 and Rublev beat Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 6-4 on grass.
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