LOCAL SPORTS
Local armwrestler Gary Kell is in Winnipeg to take part in the Canadian Armwrestling championships on Canada Day, July 1. A multi-year Canadian champ, Kell is looking to add another title to his collection.
NATIONAL SPORTS
Teoscar Hernandez and Santiago Espinal homered as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 on Thursday in the opener of a five-game series at Rogers Centre. Yusei Kikuchi made his first quality start in over a month and Adam Cimber earned the save as Toronto won for the third time in four games. Toronto moved into a second-place tie with Boston in the American League East standings. Tampa Bay fell two and a half games behind the Blue Jays and idle Red Sox, who occupy the top two AL wild-card spots.
Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke led the B-C Lions to a 34-31 victory over the host Ottawa Redblacks on Thursday to kick off Canada Day weekend in the C-F-L. Rourke completed 23 of 31 passes for 359 yards while throwing two touchdowns. Lions’ Keon Hatcher led all receivers with 166 yards on seven catches. The Lions improved to 3 and 0, while the Redblacks are winless in three outings. The Edmonton Elks play the Tiger-Cats Friday in Hamilton. Both teams are winless.
Michael Gligic of Burlington, Ontario, called his opening round in the P-G-A Tour’s John Deere Classic “nice.” That’s one way to describe his 7-under 64 that left him only two shots back of the leader J.T. Poston of Georgia. Coming off a second-place tie last week in Connecticut, Poston eagled the par-5 second and had seven birdies in a bogey-free round at TPC Deere Run. Vaughn Taylor and Christopher Gotterup followed at 65. Ricky Barnes, Denny McCarthy, Chris Naegel and Dylan Frittelli all shot 66.
It didn’t take long for Canadian hopes to be Wimble-DONE this week. Despite being seeded sixth in men’s singles Felix Auger-Aliassime lost in round one, while Bianca Andreescu and Denis Shapovalov both suffered second-round losses Wednesday at the grass-court Grand Slam. Andreescu lost in straight sets to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, while Shapovalov dropped a four-set decision to American Brandon Nakashima.
Thousands of people lined the streets of uptown Saint John, New Brunswick on Thursday to celebrate the Saint John Sea Dogs’ Memorial Cup victory. With team jerseys in abundance, jubilant fans cheered as the cup champions paraded past in an antique fire truck and a Coast Guard inflatable boat. The Sea Dogs beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 6-3 on Wednesday to win the 102nd national championship.
Emily Engel-Natzke wanted to make the N-H-L as a video coach. So when the Washington Capitals named her video coordinator on Thursday, she not only accomplished that goal, but she also became the first woman to hold a full-time job on an N-H-L coaching staff. Caps’ coach Peter Laviolette said the hire was earned and deserved. Engel-Natzke began working as the full-time video coach for University of Wisconsin men’s hockey coach Tony Granato in 2017 following several years assisting with the men’s and women’s programs there.
Thursday’s Scoreboard
CFL
B.C. 34 Ottawa 31
MLB
American League
Cleveland 5 Minnesota 3
Houston 2 N.Y. Yankees 1
Toronto 4 Tampa Bay 1
Seattle 8 Oakland 6
National League
Philadelphia 14 Atlanta 4
Pittsburgh 8 Milwaukee 7
Chicago Cubs 15 Cincinnati 7
L.A. Dodgers 3 San Diego 1
MLS
Austin FC 1 Charlotte FC 0
New York Red Bulls 2 Atlanta 1
Friday’s Games (All Times Eastern)
CFL
Edmonton at Hamilton, 7:30 p.m.
MLB
American League
Tampa Bay (Kluber 3-4) at Toronto (Berrios 5-4), 3:07 p.m.
Kansas City (Keller 2-9) at Detroit (TBD), 7:10 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees (Cole 6-2) at Cleveland (Civale 2-4), 7:10 p.m.
Baltimore (Watkins 1-1) at Minnesota (Ryan 6-3), 8:10 p.m.
L.A. Angels (Lorenzen 6-5) at Houston (Javier 5-3), 8:10 p.m.
Oakland (Kaprielian 0-5) at Seattle (Gonzales 4-8), 10:10 p.m.
National League
Miami (Rogers 3-6) at Washington (Gray 6-4), 6:05 p.m.
St. Louis (Mikolas 5-5) at Philadelphia (Falter 0-2), 6:05 p.m.
Atlanta (Fried 7-2) at Cincinnati (Minor 1-4), 6:40 p.m.
Milwaukee (Burnes 6-4) at Pittsburgh (Contreras 2-1), 7:05 p.m.
Arizona (Kelly 6-5) at Colorado (Senzatela 3-4), 8:10 p.m.
San Diego (Snell 0-5) at L.A. Dodgers (Gonsolin 9-0), 10:10 p.m.
Interleague
Boston (Hill 4-4) at Chicago Cubs (Sampson 0-0), 2:20 p.m.
Texas (Otto 4-3) at N.Y. Mets (Bassitt 6-5), 7:10 p.m.
Chicago White Sox (Lynn 1-1) at San Francisco (Cobb 3-3), 10:15 p.m.
