
Gray delighted to reward fans with 'special moments'

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Reuters
10 minutes ago
- Reuters
Diamondbacks dismantle Rockies to complete series sweep
August 10 - Adrian Del Castillo had three hits, including his first homer of season, and the Arizona Diamondbacks set a franchise record with nine consecutive two-out hits in an eight-run fifth for a 13-6 victory over the Colorado Rockies in Phoenix on Sunday. Ketel Marte had two hits and three RBIs and Geraldo Perdomo had two hits to extend his hitting streak to seven games for the Diamondbacks, who led 12-3 after five and finished off a three-game sweep. Arizona has won six of its last eight. Every Arizona starter had a hit in the fifth, which began with Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s two-out single off Tanner Gordon (2-5). Marte had the only extra-base hit, a two-run double that capped the rally. Brandon Pfaadt (12-7) set a career high for victories while giving up three runs and 11 hits in five innings. He had two strikeouts and no walks. The teams combined for 33 hits, 11 for extra-bases. Brenton Doyle had two hits and his second homer in as many games and Ezequiel Tovar and Braxton Fulford had three hits for the Rockies, who lost their seventh straight. Kyle Karros and Adael Amador added two hits and two RBIs for the Rockies, who were swept for the 14th time this season. Karros, who made his major league debut Friday, and was 4 for 11 with four RBIs in the series. Marte is 16 for 34 with six doubles and 12 RBIs against Colorado this season. The Rockies have been outscored 79-23 during their losing streak and have given up double-digit runs four times, including 15, 10 and 20 when they were swept by Toronto earlier in the week. Gordon gave up 12 hits and 10 runs in 4 2/3 innings, with six strikeouts and no walks. He has given up 24 runs (23 earned) in his last 10 1/3 innings over three starts. Del Castillo, finished a triple short of the cycle, and his three-run homer with two outs in the first gave the D-backs a lead they never lost. The Rockies had three runners thrown out on the bases, including what would have been the tying run in the fifth in a 4-3 game. Gurriel threw out Warming Bernabel attempting to score from second on Doyle's single for the final out of the fifth. It was 12-3 before the Rockies batted again. --Field Level Media


Daily Mail
38 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Morice Norris gives Lions teammates major surprise just two days after being hospitalized in Atlanta
Morice Norris joined his Detroit Lions teammates at the club's practice facility on Sunday just days after being hospitalized in Atlanta following a frightening collision in the preseason opener. Norris' presence at the Meer Performance Center in Allen Park, Michigan is being reported by The Associated Press. Team spokespeople did not immediately respond to Daily Mail's request for confirmation. A day earlier, Norris spoke out for the first time since being stretchered off the field in Atlanta. 'Amen Amen,' he wrote on Instagram. 'I'm all good man. Don't stress it. Appreciate all the check ins and love.' He was said to be in stable condition after being rushed to the hospital on Friday night. Lions coach Dan Campbell told reporters at the time that Norris was breathing and had movement in his extremities. That news came as a tremendous relief to anyone who saw the 24-year-old laying motionless on the turf after taking an inadvertent knee to the helmet as he tried to tackle the Falcons' Nathan Carter. Players responded to the frightening scene in two ways. First, members of both the Falcons and Lions joined together at midfield to pray for their injured colleague. And when the game resumed, Atlanta quarterback Emory Jones simply held the ball as players from both teams stood still, allowing the clock to run down to 6:31. At that point, an official announced the preseason game had been suspended by the league offices in New York with the Lions leading 17-10. Fans were clearly touched by the gestures, which seemed to have a major impact online. 'Absolute masterclass in sportsmanship by the Falcons and Lions,' one fan wrote online. '50 players trying to make an NFL roster and they rally around their fallen brother in arms and run out the clock. 'Big prayers up to Morice Norris.' 'This is genuinely the classiest thing I've ever seen during a football game,' read a post from The Detroit Times. 'Both teams agreeing to run out the clock completely out of respect for Morice Norris.' 'I'm crying,' another fan added. 'The players are letting the clock run out and standing together praying for Morice Norris. This is unbelievably powerful.' Others called the scene a 'powerful moment of Humanity' while a few simply expressed their 'respect' for both sides. The last NFL game to be suspended due to a player injury was in January of 2023, when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after trying to make a tackle on Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. Hamlin was revived on the field and has since made his return to the NFL. The game was never finished, although both teams still reached the postseason anyway. After an impressive college career at Fresno State, Norris went undrafted in the 2024 NFL Draft but still managed to catch on with the Lions' practice squad after failing to make the team out of training camp.


The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Premier League 2025-26 preview No 11: Leeds United
Guardian writers' predicted position: 17th (NB: this is not necessarily Louise Taylor's prediction but the average of our writers' tips) Last season: 1st in the Championship Can Leeds resist the increasingly powerful gravitational pull of the Championship? Could they defy the growing expectation that, these days, promoted teams will be restricted to one-season top-tier stays? Daniel Farke is certainly behaving like a man on a mission to avoid immediate relegation and seven summer signings have added much-needed height and aggression to last term's technical but slightly diminutive squad. Yet while the arrivals of Lucas Perri, Jaka Bijol, Sebastiaan Bornouw, Gabriel Gudmundsson, Sean Longstaff and Anton Stach have fortified the goalkeeping, defensive and midfield departments, Lukas Nmecha remains the sole attacking signing. Given Patrick Bamford has been told he will be sold and Mateo Joseph and Joe Gelhardt have left on season-long loans Leeds are racing against time to rebuild the front end of the team. 'We are not naive,' Farke said after the 1-1 friendly against Villarreal. 'We know that in the offence we are not ready for Premier League level. We know that even in comparison to our Championship offence you could say that we are not much improved. 'I can't guarantee that for the first game everything will be ready and we are fully equipped but we definitely have to make sure that, latest, after the first international break in September, we have a really competitive squad for the Premier League. We're not anxious but we are fully aware we need to do something.' In the interim, Joël Piroe, last season's Championship golden boot winner, has a chance to show he is a top-tier striker. If the imports look sound – and the Slovenia centre-half Bijol, a £15m buy from Udinese, seems a particularly shrewd purchase – an awful lot hinges on how swiftly they adapt. Leeds fans must hope the team's framework is sufficiently robust to showcase the talents of last season's stars, most notably the Wales winger Dan James and the Japan midfielder Ao Tanaka. Too many managerial media addresses are anodyne, but the amiable Farke, almost always interesting and evidently emotionally intelligent, is a welcome exception to the rule. The one-time economics student with the look of a former heavy metal star has achieved three promotions to the Premier League, the first two with financially challenged Norwich sides. The 48-year-old German remained dignified in the face of intense speculation regarding his Elland Road future last May. The Leeds chair, Paraag Marathe, ended it by declaring 'he's my man, but the task is undeniably formidable. As Farke says: 'In the past 21 years, Leeds have spent three seasons in the Premier League but that's where this club belongs. My job is to keep us here.' Running Leeds has always been challenging, but the San Francisco-based 49er Enterprises is faced with the tricky task of staying on the right side of profitability and sustainability rules while remaining competitive on the pitch. This balancing act is only complicated by the reality that promotion has coincided with a major redevelopment project intended to expand Elland Road's capacity to 53,000. With a formal planning application now submitted to the city council, building work could start before Christmas. While Robbie Evans, an analytics expert, is the club's new managing director and replaces the former CEO Angus Kinnear, who is now at Everton, the long-serving Adam Underwood has been promoted to sporting director. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Farke believes England's domestic market represents bad value, but central midfielder Longstaff has been bought from Newcastle for an initial £12m, potentially rising to £15m. Only the excellence of Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimarães and Joelinton kept the cricket-loving Tynesider out of Eddie Howe's first XI, but he is too good not to be playing regularly. With 171 Premier League appearances behind him, Longstaff brings invaluable experience and is an excellent character off the field, always ready to support and encourage teammates. Games are often won and lost in midfield and with Longstaff, Stach, Ethan Ampadu, Tanaka and Illia Gruev competing for places, the engine room appears well staffed. Harry Gray, the grandson of Frank Gray and great nephew of Eddie from the Leeds sides of the 1970s, and the younger brother of Tottenham's Archie Gray, is a poised, two-footed striker, equally adept as a No 9 or a No 10. The England Under-17 international has made one first-team appearance last season and does not turn 17 until October, but his cool, incisive finishing, precocious technique and advanced ability to read the game dictates he is the subject of considerable excitement at the club. Leeds are anxious not to rush Gray's development, but Premier League defenders are unlikely to relish being introduced to his precocious skill set. 'I probably have something to prove in the Premier League,' said Wilfried Gnonto this summer. It is important to remember that his exquisite dribbling skills and extraordinary change of pace belong to a winger who does not turn 22 until November. Gnonto has 13 Italy caps, but his challenge is to establish hitherto elusive consistency and nail down a regular place in the starting XI. Few top-tier defenders will welcome the experience of him running at themand the time has come for Gnonto to eliminate erraticism from his game.