LOCAL SPORTS
The X-Women, Saint Mary’s Huskies and Acadia competed in a pre-season exhibition rugby tournament Saturday afternoon at Memorial Field. The X-Women went 2-0, while Acadia was 1-1 and Saint Mary’s 0-2. In the first game, the X-Women crushed the Huskies 50-0. Saint Mary’s then played Acadia, where the Axewomen triumphed 30-7. The final match was another shut-out for the X-Women, 31-0 over Acadia. AUS regular season play opens on Saturday – the AUS defending champion X-Women travel to Charlottetown to take on UPEI at 2 pm.
In Soccer, the Capers and X-Women renewed their rivalry in pre-season action Saturday afternoon with a 1-1 draw. The X-Women took an early lead in the 52nd minute, but the Capers tied it up just a couple of minutes later. The X-Women host Acadia on Friday at 5 pm in their AUS regular season opener.
NS U16 AAA: Cabot Highlanders shut out the Jets 4-0 in Port Hawkesbury. The teams play again in Membertou tomorrow at 2.
NS U18 Majors Pre-Season: The Pictou County Weeks Majors blanked the CB West Islanders 8-0 at the Wellness Centre. The teams meet again today at Noon at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre.
NATIONAL SPORTS
Bo Bichette hit a tiebreaking three-run double in the seventh inning on Saturday to lift the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-1 victory over the host Pittsburgh Pirates. The Blue Jays won for the fourth time in five games and maintained their lead for the final wild-card berth in the American League. Bichette and George Springer each had two hits for the Blue Jays, who can sweep their three-game series with the Pirates on Sunday afternoon.
Dylan Cease came within one out of his first career no-hitter, and the Chicago White Sox pounded the Minnesota Twins 13-0. Cease got a huge ovation when he came out to start the ninth inning. With fans on their feet, he struck out Caleb Hamilton and retired Gilberto Celestino on a fly to centre. Luis Arraez then dumped a single into right-centre on a 1-1 pitch, ending Cease’s bid for Chicago’s third no-hitter in as many years.
Ryan Mountcastle hit two of the Orioles’ five homers and drove in four runs, and Baltimore defeated the Oakland Athletics 8-1. Adley Rutschman, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander also homered for the Orioles, who have won four straight and are only one-and-a-half games behind Toronto in the race for the American League’s third wild-card spot. Baltimore is 10 games over .500 for the first time since May 12th, 2017.
Robbie Ray swallowed a bug, and ate up the Guardians again. Ray pitched six solid innings as the Seattle Mariners won their sixth straight, 4-0 on Saturday over slumping Cleveland. Ray, who won the A-L Cy Young Award last year with Toronto, allowed six hits against Cleveland. Seattle, trying to end a 20-season playoff drought, currently holds one of the A-L’s three wild-card spots and has won 13 of 17.
Rafael Nadal’s nose was just fine. So was his tennis. No stitches or even a bandage, 48 hours after he drew blood by accidentally smacking himself with his racket _ and not a trace of trouble, as usual, against Richard Gasquet. Nadal improved to 18-0 against Gasquet across their careers and ran his head-to-head set streak to 34 in a row by winning their third-round matchup at the U.S. Open on Saturday. Nadal now meets American Frances Tiafoe (TEE’-ah-foh) for a quarterfinal berth.
Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa is the last Canadian standing at the U-S Open in New York. She and women’s doubles partner Giuliana Olmos will play in Sunday’s Round of 16 against Californians Ena Shibahara and Asia Muhammad. Earlier Saturday, Denis Shapovalov lost a five-set, four-hour-plus men’s singles thriller to Russian Andrey Rublev, while Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Quebec, and her Russian partner Daria Saville lost their second-round women’s doubles match.
Saturday’s Games
Women’s World Hockey Championship
Semifinals at Herning, Denmark
U.S. 10 Czechia 1
Canada 8 Switzerland 1
Placement round at Frederikshavn, Denmark
Finland 3 Hungary 2 (OT)
Japan 5 Sweden 4
Major League Baseball
Interleague
Toronto 4 Pittsburgh 1
American League
Boston 5 Texas 3
Kansas City 12 Detroit 2
Tampa Bay 2 N.Y. Yankees 1
Baltimore 8 Oakland 1
Chicago White Sox 13 Minnesota 0
Seattle 4 Cleveland 0
L.A. Angels 2 Houston 1 (12 innings)
National League
San Francisco 5 Philadelphia 4
Washington 7 N.Y. Mets 1
St. Louis 8 Chicago Cubs 4
Atlanta 2 Miami 1
Milwaukee 8 Arizona 6 (10 innings)
L.A. Dodgers 12 San Diego 1
Colorado at Cincinnati (Postponed)
MLS
FC Dallas 3 Minnesota 0
Chicago 0 Columbus 0
Philadelphia 2 New York Red Bulls 0
Cincinnati 2 Charlotte FC 0
Nashville 3 Austin FC 0
Sunday’s Games (All times Eastern)
Women’s World Hockey Championship at Herning, Denmark
Bronze-Medal Final: Czechia vs. Switzerland , 9 a.m.
Gold-Medal Final: United States vs Canada, 1:30 p.m.
CFL
Winnipeg at Saskatchewan, 6 p.m.
Major League Baseball
Interleague
Toronto (Stripling 6-4) at Pittsburgh (Brubaker 3-11), 12:05 p.m.
American League
Oakland (Martinez 3-3) at Baltimore (Watkins 4-5), 1:35 p.m.
Texas (Dunning 3-7) at Boston (Crawford 3-6), 1:35 p.m.
Kansas City (Castillo 0-1) at Detroit (Manning 1-2), 1:40 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees (Montas 4-11) at Tampa Bay (TBD), 1:40 p.m.
Minnesota (Bundy 7-6) at Chicago White Sox (Giolito 10-8), 2:10 p.m.
Seattle (Kirby 6-3) at Cleveland (Quantrill 11-5), 2:40 p.m.
Houston (Urquidy 12-5) at L.A. Angels (Davidson 2-4), 4:07 p.m.
National League
Miami (Lopez 8-8) at Atlanta (Fried 12-5), 1:35 p.m.
Colorado (Marquez 7-10) at Cincinnati (Lodolo), 1:40 p.m. (First game)
Colorado (Urena 3-5) at Anderson (0-2), TBA (Second game)
Washington (Fedde 5-9) at N.Y. Mets (Carrasco 13-5), 1:40 p.m.
Chicago Cubs (Stroman 3-6) at St. Louis (Mikolas 10-10), 2:15 p.m.
Philadelphia (Suarez 8-5) at San Francisco (Rodon 12-7), 4:05 p.m.
Milwaukee (Alexander 2-1) at Arizona (Gallen 10-2), 4:10 p.m.
San Diego (Clevinger 5-5) at L.A. Dodgers (Heaney 2-1), 7:08 p.m.
Major League Soccer
Atlanta at Portland, 5:30 p.m.
Colorado at D.C. United, 7:30 p.m.
CF Montreal at Toronto FC, 7:30 p.m.
Sporting Kansas City at LA Galaxy, 8 p.m.
Orlando City at Miami ppd.
New York City FC at New England, 8 p.m.
Houston at Seattle, 9 p.m.
Vancouver at San Jose, 9:30 p.m.
Real Salt Lake at Los Angeles FC, 10:30 p.m.
