Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Royals’ Michael Wacha will get X-rays after taking liner off pitching hand
SURPRISE, Ariz. | Royals right-hander Michael Wacha was hit on his pitching hand during his final inning of spring training Sunday, just before the club was to leave Arizona, and will have X-rays on his middle finger to determine the extent of the injury.
Wacha was pitching in the fifth inning of an intrasquad game when Salvador Perez lined his pitch up the middle. The ball hit Wacha’s right middle finger, and he immediately grabbed the hand as Royals manager Matt Quatraro came out to check on him.
Quatraro said he was optimistic that Wacha would be OK. The Royals are counting on him to fill out an almost entirely revamped rotation after signing the 32-year-old veteran to a $32 million, two-year contract during free agency.
Right-hander Seth Lugo, who signed a $45 million, three-year deal, threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings during the intrasquad game.
The injury to Wacha came one day after the Royals said second baseman Michael Massey likely would begin the season on the injured list. He began dealing with back tightness on Tuesday and has been held out of baseball activity, and he was expected to remain in Arizona while the club heads to Springdale, Arkansas, for an exhibition game Monday.
The Royals are playing their Double-A affiliate Northwest Arkansas before heading to Kansas City. They begin the regular season Thursday with the first of a three-game set against AL Central-rival Minnesota.
Carlos Sainz wins F1 Australian GP after early exit for Verstappen
MELBOURNE, Australia | Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ended Red Bull’s Formula 1 winning streak Sunday when the Spaniard took advantage of Max Verstappen’s early exit to win the Australian Grand Prix just two weeks after missing the previous race in Saudi Arabia due to an emergency appendectomy.
Sainz, who started on the front row alongside Verstappen, kept his place into turn one, but passed the Dutchman on lap two at turn nine for the lead and took control once his rival retired two laps later with a fiery mechanical failure.
Verstappen had won the first two F1 races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and was on a nine-race winning streak.
Sainz finished ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc for Ferrari’s first 1-2 result since the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, with McLaren’s Lando Norris finishing in third for his first podium at Albert Park.
His teammate, Australian Oscar Piastri, was fourth.
Sainz, who will be replaced by Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari from 2025, was thrilled to get his third career win against the odds, his first since last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
“I felt really good out there,” he said. “Of course, (I felt) a bit stiff, especially physically. It wasn’t the easiest, but I was lucky that I was more or less on my own so I could just manage my pace, manage the tires, manage everything.
“Life sometimes is crazy, you know. What happened at the beginning of the year, then the podium in Bahrain, then appendix, the comeback, the win, it’s a roller coaster. But I loved it.”
Leclerc, on the podium for the second straight race, was encouraged by Ferrari’s pace, and its ability to take the fight to rival Red Bull during its period of dominance.
“We knew that pole position and the race win was possible because we had very good tire degradation, very good pace,” he said. “That is a very encouraging sign. However, if you look at the first three races, two out of the first three races, they (Red Bull) had the upper hand in the race, so we still have a lot of work to do.”
Norris said it wasn’t a surprise that he was able to earn his first podium since Brazil last year.
“I think when you take a Red Bull out of it, I would say no,” he said. “I think our pace has been good all weekend. We put things together very nicely yesterday. We showed good long run, high-fuel pace on Friday, so I wouldn’t have said we had no chance.”
The race finished under the virtual safety car, ensuring there was no racing for most of the final lap, after Mercedes driver George Russell crashed on turn seven. Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez closed out the top five, and made up just one place from where he started in sixth, after he was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in qualifying.
Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso finished sixth on the road, but fell to eighth after the stewards gave him a 20-second time penalty and three penalty points on his license, for “potentially dangerous” driving in battling Russell on the final lap.
Alonso lifted off the throttle slightly more than 100 metres earlier than he had done going into turn six during the race, while Russell behind him lost control and crashed at the exit of the corner.
Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton also didn’t finish following a lap 17 engine failure for Mercedes’ first double non-finish since the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, ending its record of reliability.
Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda earned RB, the team formerly known as AlphaTauri, its first points of the season — with six points for seventh, having been elevated by Alonso’s penalty.
American team Haas earned its first double points finish since the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, with Hülkenberg and teammate Kevin Magnussen closing out the top-10 in ninth and 10th, respectively.
Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ standings has been reduced from 15 points to four, with Leclerc in second place. Verstappen has 51 points and Leclerc 47.
Coco Gauff has eyes on winning trophy at home, beats Océane Dodin
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. | Third-ranked Coco Gauff came from behind in the first set to beat Océane Dodin 6-4, 6-0 and advance to the fourth round of the Miami Open for the second time in her career.
Gauff won 10 straight games after Dodin took a 4-2 lead in the opening set, thanks partly to nine double-faults by Dodin at critical moments.
Gauff has just one loss in her past 23 matches in the United States. That defeat came against Maria Sakkari at Indian Wells earlier this month.
Gauff, who turned 20 on March 13, is the youngest American player to hold a top three seed at Miami. The reigning U.S. Open champion, who is from South Florida, attended the event growing up and said capturing a title there would be special.
“It would be really cool to win here at home,” said Gauff, who was born in Delray Beach, Florida. “I think the best part about winning here is just being able to drive home with the trophy and not have to fly and pack. … And I’m a Dolphins fan, so maybe if I win here they can win another trophy at the Super Bowl.”
Gauff will face the winner between Naomi Osaka and 27th-ranked Caroline Garcia, which will be played later Sunday afternoon.
Ohtani to speak
to media for first
time since allegations against interpreter
LOS ANGELES | Shohei Ohtani plans to speak to the media Monday for the first time since the illegal gambling and theft allegations involving the Los Angeles Dodgers star and his interpreter emerged during the team’s trip to South Korea.
The interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired by the Dodgers last week when the team opened the season with two games against the San Diego Padres in Seoul.
Manager Dave Roberts endorsed Ohtani addressing the matter publicly. He said it was the two-way superstar’s decision to do so.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Roberts said. “I’m happy he’s going to speak and speak to what he knows and give his thoughts on the whole situation. I think it will give us all a little bit more clarity.”
Mizuhara was let go from the team following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and claims from Ohtani’s attorneys that the Japanese star had been the victim of a “massive theft.”
Major League Baseball has opened an investigation of the matter. The Internal Revenue Service has confirmed that Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker in Orange County, California, are under criminal investigation.
Ohtani made only a brief appearance in the Dodgers clubhouse before Sunday’s Freeway Series opener against his former team, the Los Angeles Angels. The teams are playing three exhibition games before the Dodgers host St. Louis in their home opener on Thursday.
Ohtani was set to bat second as the designated hitter at Dodger Stadium. He’s also expected to play Monday and Tuesday in Anaheim, where he was a two-time AL MVP before leaving the Angels as a free agent to sign a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers in December.
Roberts said Ohtani has not addressed his teammates as a group.
“I think that he’s had one-off conversations with players,” Roberts said.
The manager said he checked in with Ohtani to see how he’s doing.
“He’s kind of business as usual,” Roberts said.
Ohtani has a double locker in the Dodgers clubhouse located between the shower room and fellow Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is slated to make his second start of the season on Saturday against St. Louis.
Extra security was posted in the jammed clubhouse on Sunday. Besides the players and a horde of media, eight temporary lockers were set up at one end for minor leaguers brought over from Arizona for the Freeway Series.
Overhead televisions were tuned to men’s NCAA Tournament games, baseball and horse racing, with former Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Paul Lo Duca offering TV handicapping tips on the day’s races.
The MLB gambling policy is posted in every clubhouse. Betting on baseball — legally or not — is punishable with a one-year ban from the sport. The penalty for betting on other sports illegally is at the commissioner’s discretion. Sports gambling is illegal in California, even as 38 states and the District of Columbia allow some form of it.
“The mood in the room is get ready for baseball because I don’t hear a lot of conversations and speculation,” Roberts said. “That’s why I think tomorrow is going to be good for everyone.”
154 perfect women’s brackets remain on ESPN’s site after Ohio State’s loss
LAS VEGAS | Perfect brackets on the ESPN Tournament Challenge site fell hard after second-seeded Ohio State’s exit Sunday in the second round action of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
Seventh-seeded Duke rallied from 16 points down to defeat the Buckeyes 75-63, causing 1,283 perfect brackets to drop to 154.
Just .05% were perfect on CBS’ site by Saturday night, but there was no update by early Sunday afternoon. CBS does not release totals.
Sheldon Jacobson, who runs the Bracketodds website, said going with chalk in the women’s bracket was more effective than on that men’s side.
That is the way the first round played out over the first two days. Higher seeds were 31-1, with No. 6 Louisville’s 71-69 loss to No. 11 Middle Tennessee on Friday the one exception. The Cardinals’ loss was responsible for 1.58 million brackets taking their first defeat — the highest of the first round.
“At the end of the day, you know a lot of the No. 1s are going to be in the Final Four,” Jacobson said. “Occasionally, you’ll get a two or a three, but it just doesn’t happen very often. The men’s game is far more unpredictable. We can get high-scoring brackets in the women’s game, but so can everybody else.”
South Carolina is the favorite among brackets submitted to the CBS site, but many also believe in Caitlin Clark and Iowa. The Gamecocks were chosen on 41.5% of CBS ballots to win the NCAA Tournament, followed by Iowa at 29.6%.
Then there is a serious drop-off, with USC next at 4.2%. Last year’s champion, LSU, is on 3.2% of ballots.
—From AP reports
