AP National Sports

SCHWÄBISCH HALL, Germany (AP) — German skier Thomas Dressen will miss the start of the World Cup season as he tries to build his fitness ahead of the Winter Olympics following a knee operation. German news agency dpa reports Dressen has ruled himself out of the first two speed events of the season in Canada

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Danish sports minister says a boycott of the World Cup is not the answer despite calling it “a wrong decision” to stage next year’s tournament in Qatar. Ane Halsboe-Joergensen was speaking a day after Denmark qualified for the tournament. He says the team will go to the event. Qatar has

By GERALD IMRAY AP Sports Writer The Kenyan track federation says two-time world championships bronze medalist Agnes Tirop has been found dead at her home after allegedly being stabbed by her husband. Athletics Kenya says it is still working to uncover details of the incident but it has been informed of Tirop’s death. She was

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — The Swedish soccer association says a player on the country’s under-21 team has claimed he was racially abused by an opponent in a European Championship qualifier against Italy. Anthony Elanga is a striker who plays at Manchester United. He says he was subjected to a racist comment in the match in

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer The lack of balance and quality in central midfield continues to hold England back despite all the improvements made under Gareth Southgate. There has been a clamor to get some more ball-players into the midfield to give England a chance of retaining possession better against top opposition after being

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GENEVA (AP) — UEFA is preparing to give Europe’s top soccer clubs greater control of Champions League marketing rights and deals. It’s an issue that helped drive some clubs to launch the failed Super League. UEFA says it “started the search for a marketing and sales partner” to complete

ZURICH (AP) — FIFA says it is analyzing the crowd unrest and assessing punishments after condemning disorder involving Hungary and Albania fans in separate World Cup qualifiers. At Wembley Stadium, Hungary supporters fought with police in the stands just after kickoff on Tuesday as officers sought to arrest a spectator on suspicion of racially abusing

By The Associated Press After a season of piling up whopping win totals, the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers get a day to prep for their all-or-nothing matchup in Game 5 of the NL Division Series. Mookie Betts and the World Series champion Dodgers will play Buster Posey and the rival Giants on

By JOSH DUBOW AP Pro Football Writer From Lamar Jackson’s improbable comeback that ended in an overtime win for Baltimore to the missed kick festival between Green Bay and Cincinnati, the NFL had several more games go down to the wire in Week 5. Four more games were decided with a winning score in either

By JOE REEDY AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — It is only fitting that 70 years after Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ’Round the World” that the Giants and Dodgers will play in another all-or-nothing game. Los Angeles’ 7-2 win over San Francisco on Tuesday night in Game 4 of the NL Division Series evened

By The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers have finally put newly acquired guard Russell Westbrook on the court with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. All three scored in double digits in about 30 minutes of play during a 111-99 preseason loss to the Golden State Warriors. Davis scored 20, James

W.G. RAMIREZ Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Max Pacioretty scored twice and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Seattle Kraken 4-3 in a battle of the two newest teams in the NHL. Vegas, which made its league debut four years ago, held off a rally from the NHL’s latest addition in what turned out

By BETH HARRIS AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts homered and drove in three runs, Will Smith also went deep and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants 7-2 to force a decisive Game 5 in their NL Division Series. The 107-win Giants host the 106-win Dodgers on Thursday night,

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Distance runner Mary Cain, whose career fizzled after what she called four miserable years at the Nike Oregon Project, has filed a $20 million lawsuit against her former coach, Alberto Salazar, and their employer, Nike. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Cain accused Salazar of emotionally abusing her when she joined the team at

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Levi Lewis threw for one touchdown and ran for another, Chris Smith added two rushing scores and Louisiana-Lafayette eased by Appalachian State 41-13. Louisiana-Lafayette scored a touchdown on its first three drives and led 20-6 at the break. Eric Garror intercepted a pass on Appalachian State’s opening possession of the second

By MARK DIDTLER Associated Press TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tristan Jarry had 26 saves, Danton Heinen and Brian Boyle scored early second-period goals, and the short-handed Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 in the regular-season opener. Dominik Simon, Teddy Blueger, Bryan Rust and Evan Rodrigues also had a goal for

By PAUL NEWBERRY AP Sports Writer ATLANTA (AP) — Freddie Freeman hit a tiebreaking home run off Milwaukee closer Josh Hader with two outs in the eighth inning and the Atlanta Braves advanced to the NL Championship Series for the second year in a row. They finished off the Brewers 5-4 to win the best-of-five

WASHINGTON (AP) — Malachi Flynn scored 13 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and the Toronto Raptors closed out their preseason with a 113-108 victory over the Washington Wizards. Sam Dekker scored 12 of his 18 points in the final period to help the Raptors erase an eight-point deficit during the final 12

By GEORGE HENRY AP Sports Writer ATLANTA (AP) — At least the Milwaukee Brewers came out swinging. Milwaukee was 0 for 20 with runners in scoring position during the NL Division Series until RBI singles by Omar Narváez and Lorenzo Cain produced a 2-0 lead against Atlanta in Game 4. But after snapping a 22-inning

By The Associated Press White Sox manager Tony La Russa is waiting to find out if Chicago wants him back after the club was eliminated by the Astros in their AL Division Series that ended Tuesday night. The Hall of Famer was lured out of retirement to help the star-studded White Sox make a deep