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Goldschmidt leads Cardinals to win
ST. LOUIS | Paul Goldschmidt hit a game-ending homer in the ninth inning, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Nationals 4-3 on Sunday to snap a three-game skid.
Leading off the ninth, Goldschmidt hit a 2-2 sinker from Dylan Floro (3-3) into the left field stands for his 16th homer of the season and eighth career walk-off shot.
“I was just trying to get on base,” Goldschmidt said. “There’s been a lot of times this year, way more often than not, that I have not come through in the ninth or extra innings. So, I’m just thankful to be able to get the job done today.”
It was the Cardinals’ second walk-off win of the season and first since Nolan Gorman homered on April 22 against Arizona.
“I called the walk-off homer,” Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras said. “We needed it. He needed it. Everybody needs it. It was just a good game. We battled, tough innings, but we never gave up.”
John King, Andrew Kittredge and Ryan Helsley (4-2) combined to pitch three innings of scoreless relief. Starter Miles Mikolas allowed three runs on seven hits in six innings.
“You’re trying to make a push at this time of year,” Mikolas said. “It was a big spot for me coming out here, keeping it close, giving us a chance. We played some great defense.”
Rookie Washington starter DJ Herz allowed two runs on three hits and struck out eight in five innings.
“He didn’t rely on his offspeed stuff,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “He got ahead and stayed with the fastball which was good. Our reports were to try to get the ball up on some of those guys, and he did a great job.”
Contreras homered for the Cardinals on the first pitch he saw from Herz the first inning, his 13th of the season. It was Contreras’ fifth homer in his last eight games against Washington.
Michael Siani hit an RBI single that deflected off the glove of Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams in the seventh to tie the game at 3-all.
“The two-out walks hurt us today,” Martinez said. “Overall, I can’t be really disappointed because we played really well this series against a really good team, too. We just have to come back tomorrow and go 1-0.”
James Wood tripled to right field to lead off the sixth inning and scored on Juan Yepez’s sacrifice fly to right to put Washington ahead 3-2.
Lane Thomas drove in Jacob Young with his second double of the game to tie the game at 2-all in the third.
Pedro Pagés tripled to right-center field to put St. Louis ahead 2-0 in the second and extend his hitting streak to 13 games.
ROSTER MOVES
Nationals: Traded OF Jesse Winker to the New York Mets for minor league RHP Tyler Stuart. OF Alex Call was recalled from Triple-A Rochester.
Cardinals: Recalled RHP Kyle Leahy from Triple-A Memphis and designated RHP Giovanny Gallegos for assignment.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: LHP Steven Matz (lower back strain) will throw up to two innings and 40 pitches when he begins a minor league rehabilitation assignment Thursday.
UP NEXT
Nationals: LHP Mitchell Parker (5-6, 4.34 ERA) opposes Diamondbacks LHP (7-5, 6.11 ERA) in the opener of a three-game series at Arizona on Monday night.
Cardinals: RHP Andre Pallante (4-4, 3.92 ERA) will face RHP Nathan Eovaldi (7-4, 3.31 ERA) in first game of a three-game series against the visiting Texas Rangers Monday on night.
Xavier Edwards becomes second Marlins player ever to hit for the cycle
MILWAUKEE | The Miami Marlins waited three decades before having a player hit for the cycle in a game.
Now they’ve had cycles in back-to-back seasons.
Xavier Edwards became the second Marlins player ever to hit for the cycle Sunday, as the rookie went 4 for 4 and hit his first career homer in a 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. He also scored both of Miami’s runs.
The Marlins had their inaugural season in 1993, but they’d never had anyone hit for the cycle until Luis Arráez accomplished the feat while going 4 of 5 with two runs and a pair of RBIs in an 8-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on April 11, 2023.
“Really cool,” Edwards said. “Luis’s the first and we were teammates for about a month-and-a-half last year. He’s a great guy, great hitter and great teammate. Really cool to kind of follow in his footsteps and get the second one. Definitely very excited and very grateful for it.”
Edwards homered off Tobias Myers on the opening pitch of the game, drew a leadoff walk from Myers in the third, doubled against Jakob Junis in the fifth and tripled off Joel Payamps in the seventh. The triple also was the first of his career.
The homer came on Edwards’ 185th career plate appearance. Myers noted after the game that he and Edwards were former teammates in the Tampa Bay Rays’ farm system.
“He’s a good hitter,” Myers said. “He’s always been that way. He’s always been able to put the ball in play and make things happen.”
By the time Edwards stepped to the plate for the final time with two outs in the ninth inning, he was well aware how close he was to a milestone. But he also had to face Devin Williams, a two-time NL reliever of the year.
“I hate to say it, but I’d been thinking about it for the last two innings or so leading up to my last at-bat,” Edwards said. “I was like, ‘All right, I think I’ve got a single left.’ For whatever reason, I was thinking in my head two-strike hit. I don’t know why. Probably not that great a thought process.”
Sure enough, Edwards hit a grounder to the left side on a 1-2 changeup, sprinted down the line and reached first just ahead of the throw from shortstop Willy Adames.
“I would have been pretty upset with myself if I didn’t hit a single,” Edwards said. “I usually spray a lot of singles, so I would have been pretty upset about not getting a single. So I’m really glad I did.”
Edwards was the eighth player ever to hit for the cycle during the same game in which he hit his first career homer, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The last person to do that was San Francisco’s Fred Lewis in 2007.
This has been an eventful year for Edwards, who missed the start of the season with a foot infection but has come on strong lately. Edwards, who turns 25 on Aug. 9, is batting .379 with a .462 on-base percentage in 25 games.
“He’s hitting the ball the other way, he’s walking, hitting it with power,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “His at-bats are super calm at the plate. There’s not much swing-and-miss. He’s never off balance. He puts it in play. You like him in leverage spots. He’s been outstanding. I’ve said it before: I knew he was going to be pretty good at the plate. I didn’t know he was going to be this good at the plate.”
Even so, Edwards seemed an unlikely candidate to hit for the cycle because he hadn’t hit a homer before Sunday. Only 10 of his 56 career hits have gone for extra bases.
He managed to leave Milwaukee with a couple of souvenir baseballs — one for his first career homer and one for completing the cycle. Edwards had a good idea where he planned to send them.
“Once we’re back home, I’ll probably give them to my mom,” Edwards said. “She’ll take good care of them and put them somewhere safe.”
Simone Biles shakes off
a calf injury to dominate during Olympics
PARIS | The similarities were striking. Maybe fitting in the birthplace of déjà vu.
Simone Biles sitting off to the side at the Olympics. USA Gymnastics team doctor Marcia Faustin by her side. A look of concern on both their faces.
Three years ago in Tokyo, the scene ended with Biles removing herself from multiple finals to protect her safety — prompting an international discussion about mental health.
Yet Biles is determined to write a different ending to the story in Paris. The 27-year-old American star wasn’t dealing with any sort of block or trauma but something far more common to gymnasts, particularly ones who have been doing this two decades.
Just like in Tokyo, Biles and Faustin briefly disappeared. Unlike Tokyo, Biles returned not in a sweatsuit but with her left leg heavily taped after tweaking her calf during her warmup on floor exercise. She spent the rest of the afternoon walking around with a noticeable limp everywhere except the competition floor.
The woman who has been saying over and over and over that this isn’t 2021 went out and proved it on Sunday inside star-studded Bercy Arena, shaking off what U.S. coach Cecile Landi described as a minor calf issue to post the top score in the all-around and put whatever lingering ghosts there may be from Tokyo in the rearview mirror.
Biles finished at 59.566, well clear of reigning Olympic champion and teammate Sunisa Lee, saluting the crowd after her dismount on uneven bars, her final event. She hopped off the podium, danced with good friend Jordan Chiles and has no plans to stop her quest for gold in Tuesday’s team final and Thursday’s individual all-around.
“It was pretty amazing, 59.5,” Landi said. “Not perfect so she can improve even (but) … just really good.”
Landi said the issue popped up a couple of weeks ago and she described it as minor. There was no discussion of Biles pulling out.
Instead, Landi and her husband, Laurent — who have long served as Biles’ personal coach in Texas — encouraged her to take a breath and keep going as Laurent applied heavy doses of tape to her leg.
“We told her to remind herself, like she’s capable of doing it,” Landi said. “She knows she’s got it and it’s OK and then she did. So, really excited for her.”
The issue hardly slowed her down. Biles posted the highest score on floor and vault — both after the injury — as she tries to add to her career total of seven Olympic medals.
The only event final Biles is likely to miss is uneven bars, where she opted not to attempt a unique skill she submitted to the International Gymnastics Federation on Friday. She can still opt to do it during the team final, opening the door for it to be entered into the sport’s Code of Points with her name attached.
Yet that appeared to be far from Biles’ mind when she finished up her bars set. Instead, there was a mixture of relief and the urge to soak in the moment following her dismount at what could be the final competition of her unparalleled career.
The same could be said of her teammates after the heavily favored Americans finished at 172.296, more than five points clear of second-place Italy (166.861) as they search for what they’re calling “redemption” following a runner-up finish to Russia three years ago.
“They’re happy and relieved,” Landi said. “Day 1, now moving on to team finals, all-around finals, a couple event finals hopefully.”
Landi said Biles’ leg was feeling better as she moved through the events and expects her to be available going forward.
The reality is the Americans — especially with Russia out of the mix due to the war in Ukraine — don’t need to rely on her as much as they have in previous Games.
Biles, Lee and Chiles went 1-2-3 in the all-around during early qualifying, though Chiles will miss the all-around final due to rules that limit countries to entering two athletes per competition.
There’s a chance Chiles will make the floor exercise final should she finish in the top eight. Lee is practically a lock for the beam and bars finals, with 2020 floor exercise champion Jade Carey in good position to join Biles in the vault final.
That is, of course, if Biles is healthy.
The injury added a dash of drama to an event that’s become a must-see for athletes and celebrities alike.
The stands were buzzing and filled with stars. Tom Cruise posed for selfies while waiting for Biles to emerge. Snoop Dogg had front-row seats, and Ariana Grande, Jessica Chastain, John Legend and Anna Wintour were also on hand.
Biles arrived in Paris as the face of the U.S. Olympic movement and maybe the Olympics themselves. The buzz around her return to the Games has been palpable, with NBC leaning heavily into her star power by splashing Biles’ face on countless promotions in the lead-up to Paris.
Her gravitational pull is real. Athletes across the Olympic spectrum have said they want to make it a point to catch the most decorated gymnast of all time put on a show that is uniquely hers. Among them: LeBron James and the U.S. men’s basketball team, which was busy Sunday with their Olympic opener.
James & Co. may have a chance to catch Biles later this week, provided her calf cooperates, hardly a given in a sport where the injury rate is nearly 100%.
Biles has spent the last 11 years largely avoiding the kind of physical setbacks that have ended the Olympic journeys of so many others.
Not for Biles — not yet anyway — as her chance at a golden send-off remains very much in the offing even if she literally is now forced to take it one ginger step at a time.
Hamilton declared winner of F1 Belgian GP
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium | Lewis Hamilton was promoted to first place at the Belgian Grand Prix after race officials disqualified his Mercedes teammate George Russell for driving an underweight car on Sunday.
Russell crossed the line first after making only one pit stop, finishing just ahead of Hamilton. He celebrated the win in Spa, which would have been the third of the British driver’s career.
But race officials found that his car weighed in below the established limits and ruled to disqualify his result.
“It is heartbreaking to be disqualified from today’s race. It had been an unbelievable grand prix for us to make the one-stop strategy work,” Russell said. “Despite the disqualification, I am of course proud to have crossed the line first. It is also good that the team was still able to take the victory with Lewis.”
Hamilton took his record haul to 105 F1 career victories for the former seven-time world champion. He has now won two of the last three races after his triumph at Silverstone earlier this month ended a wait of nearly 1,000 days without a win dating back to the penultimate race of 2021. His resurgence comes after he decided to join Ferrari next season and put an end to his 12 years with Mercedes.
“I feel for George, and you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification, but we have been back in the fight for victories in the past few races,” Hamilton said. “It is incredibly competitive now.”
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri moved up into second place, while pole-sitter Charles Leclerc of Ferrari completed the podium.
Points leader Max Verstappen was fourth after the three-time defending champion started from 11th following a 10-place grid penalty for using one too many engines in his Red Bull.
Lando Norris endured another poor start in his McLaren and was fifth, allowing Verstappen to extend his championship lead to 78 points.
“All in all it was quite a positive day for me, considering we started at P11, and we finished in front of Lando, who is my main rival in the championship,” Verstappen said.
Russell’s disqualification ruined what had been deemed a masterclass in tire management by the 26-year-old driver who started from sixth. He only boxed once while the other top drivers all stopped twice over the 44-lap race.
His only stop came on lap 10, so Russell stayed out for 34 laps on the same tires and fended off Hamilton who had spent 18 laps on his last set.
After Russell shouted for joy after the checkered flag, his team radio half-jokingly praised him as “the tire whisperer.”
But that was all for naught.
“We have to take our disqualification on the chin,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said
“We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it… To lose a 1-2 is frustrating and we can only apologize to George who drove such a strong race.”
After struggling early on this season, Mercedes has now won three of the last four races. Russell triumphed in Austria and Hamilton in Britain.
With McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari all producing similar pace – and avoiding race-ending crashes — the victory was a question of small margins and getting the pit-stop and tire strategy right. The top six all crossed within 10 seconds.
The seven winners in 13 races after the Hungarian GP had already made this season the most competitive since 2012.
Verstappen has now gone four races without a win after he won four of the first five grands prix this year.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was sixth, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, who had started second in another poor showing for the under-pressure Mexican driver. Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin, and Esteban Ocon in his Alpine and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo closed out the points.
The Spa track, set in the rolling forests of the Ardennes, is the longest in F1 at seven kilometers (4.3 miles). It stayed dry on Sunday in contrast to the constant drizzle the day before that led to a F2 race being postponed.
With 14 of 24 races down, the season now enters a summer break until the Dutch GP on Aug. 25.
Dallas Cowboys DE
Sam Williams suffers
torn knee ligaments
OXNARD, Calif. | Dallas Cowboys defensive end Sam Williams suffered torn ligaments in his left knee while taking part in special teams drills Sunday, and will need season-ending surgery.
Williams got hurt during a blocking drill with the Cowboys not yet in pads. He was tended to by trainers for several minutes, then didn’t put any weight on his leg while being helped onto a motorized cart that took him off the field.
The 6-foot-4, 261-pound Williams was expected to have a bigger role as edge rusher this season after the defensive end Dorance Armstrong and outside linebacker Dante Fowler left the Cowboys in free agency during the offseason.
A second-round draft pick out of Mississippi in 2022, Williams played in 32 regular-season games over the past two seasons, including all 17 last year. He has 8 1/2 career sacks.
—From AP reports
