AP National Sports

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer There was a distinct New Zealand flavor to the new era for English cricket that was launched at Lord’s. Brendon McCullum took his first training session as coach of the men’s test team that will be captained for the first time by Ben Stokes in England’s opening match of

By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 was many things. It was excruciatingly long, wildly unpredictable and perhaps above all else, immensely entertaining. It was, as William Byron described after getting caught up in a 12-car crash, “chaos out there.” In race that took five hours, 13 minutes to

By ROB HARRIS AP Global Soccer Writer PARIS (AP) — French authorities defended police on Monday for indiscriminately firing tear gas and pepper spray at Liverpool supporters at the Champions League final, while blaming industrial levels of fraud that saw 30,000 to 40,000 people try to enter the Stade de France with fake tickets or

By TALES AZZONI AP Sports Writer MADRID (AP) — A Real Madrid fan at the Champions League final held a Paris Saint-Germain shirt with Kylian Mbappé’s name and the number of European titles the France forward has won. Zero. Madrid supporters celebrating the club’s 14th European title back in Spain kept reminding Mbappé that he

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy (AP) — Henrik Stenson has checked out the Italian course staging next year’s Ryder Cup for the first time since being appointed as captain of the European team. He had a couple of assistants with him at the Marco Simone course outside Rome. Italian golfer Edoardo Molinari has been named as the

By NOAH TRISTER AP Baseball Writer Detroit hasn’t made the postseason since 2014, and the Tigers are reaching the point where they should expect their rebuild to pay dividends. It’s not happening this season so far. The team is 17-29 and 11 games out of first place in the AL Central. Detroit started slowly last

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer A little more than a mile from the United Nations, where Russia’s war in Ukraine is front and center, the crowd at Madison Square Garden chanted goaltender Igor Shesterkin’s name in the final moments of a playoff victory. Similar scenes played out in the nation’s capital during the first

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Carter Graham had four hits and drove in three runs and top-seeded Stanford had eight extra base hits to defeat second-seeded Oregon State 9-5 in the first-ever Pac-12 Tournament. It was the 16th-straight win for the third-ranked Cardinal, the longest since they won 18-straight in 1996. After the Beavers, who gave

By KEN MAGUIRE AP Sports Writer LONDON (AP) — Miami punter Lou Hedley had to fly 13,000 miles to western Australia to cash in on his name. The tattooed Aussie and thousands of other international athletes at American colleges have been told they can’t profit from their name, image and likeness on U.S. soil —

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer MIAMI (AP) — Jimmy Butler followed up one amazing performance with another. It just wasn’t enough for the Miami Heat. The last shot of Butler’s season was a 3-pointer that missed — and in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, that’s the way most of the shots from

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma is back to try to defend its national championship at the Women’s College World Series. The top-seeded Sooners beat Central Florida in Super Regional games on Friday and Saturday to qualify and will face Northwestern in their World Series opener Thursday in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma has won four of the

By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Denny Hamlin held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch in overtime to win the longest — and perhaps wildest — Coca-Cola 600 in history. Hamlin won for the 48th time in the Cup Series, and for the time in a points race at Charlotte

SEATTLE (AP) — Raul Ruidiaz’s goal helped lead the Seattle Sounders to a 2-1 victory over Charlotte FC on Sunday. Following the victory, the Sounders improved to 5-6-1, while Charlotte dropped to 5-8-1.

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer MIAMI (AP) — Somewhere, Gregg Popovich must be pleased. Ime Udoka and Steve Kerr played for Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs, both served as assistant coaches under him, and neither makes any effort to hide the affinity they have for the NBA’s career victory leader. And now, Udoka

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer MIAMI (AP) — Not this time. After being thwarted on the doorstep of the NBA Finals three other times in the previous five seasons, the Boston Celtics have broken through. The beasts of the East, again. And now a chance at an NBA title awaits. Eastern Conference finals MVP

By MIKE FITZPATRICK AP Baseball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Nick Plummer launched a tying homer in the ninth inning for his first major league hit, Eduardo Escobar doubled home the winning run in the 10th and the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-4 for a three-game sweep. Nick Castellanos put Philadelphia ahead

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Jimmy Obertop hit a three-run home run in the eighth and two runs scored on a bunt in the ninth as fifth-seeded Michigan pulled away from second-seeded Rutgers for a 10-4 in the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament. Jake Marti’s sacrifice bunt in the fourth inning scored Ted Burton,

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Nneka Ogwumike’s putback of her own miss with 7.3 seconds left lifted the Los Angeles Sparks to an 85-83 win over the Minnesota Lynx. Rachel Banham’s jumper with 26.6 seconds to go pulled Minnesota even for just the second time. The game was also tied at 65 after the Lynx erased a

By STEPHEN HAWKINS AP Sports Writer FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Sam Burns made a 38-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole at Colonial to beat Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world and his good buddy. The playoff came just more than two hours after Burns had finished his round of