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Will Smith's two homers spark Dodgers' win over Twins

Will Smith's two homers spark Dodgers' win over Twins

Reutersa day ago
July 22 - Will Smith hit two home runs, Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages also went deep and the Los Angeles Dodgers ended a six-game home losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Minnesota Twins on Monday.
Ohtani pitched the first three innings, allowing one run in his sixth start of the season since returning from 2023 Tommy John revision surgery. The right-hander gave up four hits, walked one and struck out three, and he now has a 1.50 ERA.
Right-hander Dustin May (6-6) followed Ohtani and recorded four strikeouts over 4 2/3 scoreless innings. The Dodgers won at home for the first time since July 3 to end their longest skid in Los Angeles since a nine-game drought in 2017.
Byron Buxton led off the game with a home run, but the Twins fell to 1-3 on their six-game road trip. Royce Lewis, a native of Southern California, had three hits to give him five over the past two games. It was his second three-hit game of the season.
Carlos Correa flied out to the center field wall as the tying run in the ninth. Dodgers reliever Kirby Yates got the last two outs for his third save.
Minnesota right-hander David Festa (3-4) gave up four runs on four hits over 5 1/3 innings with one walk and five strikeouts.
Buxton wasted no time getting the Twins on the scoreboard when he hit a home run to left field on Ohtani's second pitch. It was Buxton's 23rd of the season.
The Dodgers answered in the opening inning as Mookie Betts led off with a walk and Ohtani homered to center for a 2-1 lead. It was Ohtani's 35th of the season and third in three games.
Smith hit his first home run of the night in the fourth inning and added another in the sixth for a 4-1 lead. The pair of homers gave him 14 on the season.
Pages connected in the seventh inning for a 5-1 advantage, his 18th of the season and first since July 2.
The Twins put two on with one out in the ninth against Dodgers closer Tanner Scott, who then departed due to an undisclosed injury. Yates entered and walked Ryan Jeffers to load the bases before Kody Clemens' sacrifice fly to center cut the deficit to three. Yates then retired Correa to seal the win.
--Field Level Media
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Brewers can earn fans free George Webb burgers with win Tuesday
Brewers can earn fans free George Webb burgers with win Tuesday

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Brewers can earn fans free George Webb burgers with win Tuesday

For now, we're talking about a hunger of another sort. On Tuesday night, the Brewers can trigger one of the more unique promotions in sports. Free burgers! The Brewers have won 11 consecutive games after defeating the Seattle Mariners, 6-0, on Monday, July 29. With a win in Tuesday night's game, the Brewers will hit a milestone (at least in Milwaukee) 12-game winning streak and earn local fans free hamburgers from George Webb, a local restaurant chain. The restaurant's namesake, George Webb, was an avid baseball fan and the genesis of the 12-game winning streak promotion dates back to the minor league Milwaukee Brewers and through the brief tenure of the Milwaukee Braves. However, it's been the current incarnation of the Brewers who have fed fans with free burgers. How many times has George Webb given out free burgers after the Brewers won 12 straight games? Two times. The most recent was in 2018, when the Brewers won the final seven games of the regular season, prevailed in the one-game NL Central tiebreaker against the rival Chicago Cubs, swept the Colorado Rockies in three games in the division series and then won Game 1 of the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The most famous instance of the Brewers prompting George Webb's 12-game win streak promotion was in 1987. "Team Streak" - as that season's Brewers were called - won the first 13 games of the season. That run included one of the most iconic moments in franchise history, an epic come-from-behind win against the Texas Rangers on Easter Sunday at County Stadium. That was win No. 12, and a dramatic way to earn Milwaukee fans free hamburgers. The next night, the Brewers defeated the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park for their 13th straight win to start a season, which remains tied for the longest such win streak in baseball's modern era. Three days after the Brewers won their 12th straight in 1987, George Webb restaurants handed out almost 168,194 free hamburgers, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network. How have the Brewers gotten to this point? Impressively, the Brewers' 11-game win streak includes six wins against the defending World Series champion Dodgers. It opened with a road win against the Miami Marlins on Sunday, July 6, then proceeded with sweeps at home against the Dodgers and Washington Nationals before the All-Star break. The Brewers opened the season's second half with a sweep of the Dodgers in Los Angeles and then won Monday night's series opener against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. With their current streak of victories, the Brewers have leapfrogged the Cubs atop the NL Central and finished play Monday night with the best record in Major League Baseball. Not too shabby for a team just two of six USA TODAY Sports experts predicted would make the playoffs. Who's pitching for the Brewers on Tuesday night? Glad you asked. It's rookie flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski, who was a controversial selection for the All-Star Game after making just five big-league starts. Countering "The Miz" on the mound for the Mariners will be right-hander Logan Gilbert. The game starts at 9:40 p.m. ET and will be televised by the MLB Network.

Astros' Framber Valdez beats D-backs for 10th straight win
Astros' Framber Valdez beats D-backs for 10th straight win

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  • Reuters

Astros' Framber Valdez beats D-backs for 10th straight win

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Venus Williams, 45, becomes oldest WTA match winner since Navratilova
Venus Williams, 45, becomes oldest WTA match winner since Navratilova

The Guardian

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Venus Williams, 45, becomes oldest WTA match winner since Navratilova

Venus Williams wanted to send a message – to herself and to others – about coming back from a long layoff, about competing in a sport at age 45, about never giving up. Yes, there was something special about just being back on a tennis court Tuesday night. There also was this: She really, really wanted to win. And Williams did just that, becoming the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match in professional tennis, delivering some of her familiar big serves and groundstrokes at age 45 while beating Peyton Stearns – 22 years her junior – by a 6-3, 6-4 score at the DC Open. 'Each week that I was training, I was, like, 'Oh, my God, I don't know if I'm good enough yet.' And then there would be weeks where I would leap forward. And there would be two weeks where I was, like, 'Oh, God, it's not happening.' Even the week leading up, (I thought), 'Oh, my gosh, I need to improve so much more.' So it's all a head game,' Williams said after her first singles match in more than a year and first singles victory in nearly two. The only older woman to win a tour-level singles match was Martina Navratilova, whose last triumph came at 47 in 2004. The former No 1-ranked Williams had not played singles in an official match since March 2024 in Miami, missing time while having surgery to remove uterine fibroids. She hadn't won in singles since August 2023 in Cincinnati. Until this week, she was listed by the WTA Tour as 'inactive'. 'I'm just constantly praying for good health, so that way I could have an opportunity to play with good health,' Williams said. 'A lot of this for me is being able to come back and try to play at a level (and) to play healthy.' Backed by a crowd that clearly was there to see, and support, her at the hard-court tournament in the nation's capital, Williams showed glimpses of the talent she possesses and the skills she displayed while earning all of her Grand Slam titles: seven in singles, 14 in women's doubles – all alongside younger sister Serena – and two in mixed doubles. 'I wanted to play a good match,' Williams told the fans, then added a phrase that drew appreciative roars: 'and win the match.' In Tuesday's second game, Williams smacked a return winner to get things started, then delivered a couple of other big responses to break Stearns, a 23-year-old who won singles and team NCAA titles at the University of Texas and is currently ranked 35th. In the next game, Williams sprinted forward to reach a drop shot and replied with a forehand winner. The first chorus of cheers arrived when Williams walked out into the main stadium at the DC Open, a 7,000-seat arena that's more than twice as large as where she was for her doubles victory a day earlier. Another came when she strode from the sideline to the center of the court for the coin toss. The noise reached a crescendo when Williams began hitting aces – at 110mph and faster – the way she used to. Keep in mind: Williams won four Grand Slam trophies before Stearns was born. Venus Williams hit big serves and groundstrokes just like she always did 'She played some ball tonight,' Stearns said. 'She was moving really well, which I wasn't expecting too much, honestly. Her serves were just on fire.' There also were moments where Williams – whose fiance was in the stands – looked as if it had been just as long as it actually has since she competed, including in the opening game, when she got broken at love this way: forehand wide, forehand into the net, forehand long, backhand long. At the end, it took Williams a bit of extra effort to close things out. She kept holding match points and kept failing to convert them. But eventually, on her sixth chance, Williams powered in a 112mph serve that Stearns returned into the net. That was it: Williams smiled wide as can be, raised a fist and jogged to the net to shake hands, then performed her customary post-win pirouette-and-wave. 'It's not easy. It won't be easy. It's not easy for anyone out here,' said Williams, who next faces No 5 seed Magdalena Frech, who's 27. 'So I know I'll have to fight for every match. But I'm up for that.'

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