AP National Sports

By IAN HARRISON Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Masai Ujiri believes his Toronto Raptors are building toward something big. They’re just not all the way there yet. The 2019 NBA champions haven’t been past the second round of the playoffs since beating the Golden State Warriors for their first NBA title. Nevertheless, team president Ujiri

By PATRICK DONNELLY Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Purdue Boilermakers are coming off a 29-win season in which they were ranked in the AP top 10 from wire to wire, including the No. 1 spot for one week in December, and drew a No. 3 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Still, they finished one

By KRISTIE RIEKEN AP Sports Writer HOUSTON (AP) — Yordan Alvarez wrecked all of Seattle’s carefully crafted strategy with one colossal swing. The Mariners came to the postseason with a plan. Down to their last out, the October-tested Houston Astros weren’t so easily outmatched. Alvarez smashed a game-ending, three-run homer with two outs in the

NEW YORK (AP) — As is traditional in the fall, NBC’s Sunday night football telecast dominated the weekly television rankings, in this case a game between Cincinnati and Baltimore. Pro football programming held down the top five places in the Nielsen company’s list, and CBS’ telecast of the Texas A&M-Alabama game in college football on

By PAUL NEWBERRY AP Sports Writer ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta United quickly established itself as one of Major League Soccer’s flagship franchises. That’s why the last three seasons have been such a downer. United appears to be starting over after missing the playoffs for the second time in three years. An injury-plagued season ended this

MUNICH, Germany (AP) — Canada star Alphonso Davies will not dress for Bayern Munich’s Champions League Group match on Wednesday night at the Czech Republic’s Viktoria Plzen after sustaining a cranial bruise at Borussia Dortmund last weekend. Davies was hurt in the 45th minute during a challenge with Jude Bellingham for the ball. The English

By ERIC OLSON AP College Football Writer Adrian Martinez had done just about everything in his first four years of college football except play on a winning team. Those wins are finally coming for him at Kansas State. The 17th-ranked Wildcats (5-1, 3-0) sit atop the Big 12 standings in large part because of their

By ARNIE STAPLETON AP Pro Football Writer ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Russell Wilson threw passes at practice Tuesday without any apparent discomfort or restrictions just four days after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in Los Angeles to treat a strained muscle near his throwing shoulder. Wilson strained the latissimus dorsi, the large, flat muscle on

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Eighth-seeded Brandon Nakashima of the United States eased into the second round of the Firenze Open with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Richard Gasquet. Nakashima took little over an hour to see off the Frenchman and will next face Altug Celikbilek. Seventh-seeded Alexander Bublik also progressed at the hard-court tournament. The

By TIM BOOTH AP Sports Writer SEATTLE (AP) — The Kraken are unveiling a lineup with some important additions up front that the team hopes will address some of the problems Seattle faced scoring goals last season. The additions of veterans scorers Andre Burakovsky and Oliver Bjorkstrand should be significant boosts, but most eyes will

By PAUL NEWBERRY AP Sports Writer ATLANTA (AP) — Nick Castellanos had already carried quite a load with his bat. When the Philadelphia Phillies needed his glove in the ninth inning, he didn’t let them down. Castellanos drove in three runs and made a potentially game-saving catch, lifting the Philadelphia Phillies over the reigning World

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer England’s resources at right back are being tested ahead of the World Cup. Reece James was forced off with a right knee injury in the second half of Chelsea’s 2-0 win over AC Milan in the Champions League. Hours earlier Trent Alexander-Arnold was ruled out for two weeks by

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre says he is being treated unfairly in news coverage of a Mississippi welfare scandal, including about payments he received to help fund a pet project of his — a volleyball arena at the university he attended and where his daughter

DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — Jude Bellingham scored for the fourth Champions League game in a row as Borussia Dortmund drew 1-1 with Sevilla. Young players took center stage as Sevilla took the lead with a header from 20-year-old defender Tanguy Nianzou before Bellingham knocked in Thomas Meunier’s low cross. The 19-year-old Bellingham has scored in

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A lawyer for Hope Solo filed a notice with a court indicating the former U.S. goalkeeper wants to object to the settlement of the equal pay lawsuit between her former teammates and the U.S. Soccer Federation. Solo sued the USSF in August 2018 alleging violations of the federal Equal Pay Act

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Manchester City juggernaut has ground to a halt in the unlikeliest of places. Danish struggler FC Copenhagen became the first team to stop City from scoring this season as a Champions League group match overshadowed by early video-review decisions ended in a 0-0 draw. The point was enough to secure

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Antonio Rüdiger equalized in injury time to rescue a 1-1 draw for Real Madrid at Shakhtar Donetsk and secure a spot for the defending champions in the Champions League knockout stage. But celebrations were cut short as Rüdiger and Shakhtar goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin needed lengthy treatment for their clash of heads

PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — Spain has beaten the U.S. women’s national team 2-0. It was the first time since March 2017 that the U.S. lost two games in a row. Laia Codina had the first goal for Spain in the 39th minute. Esther González added a goal in the 72nd. Both teams are preparing for

By JENNA FRYER AP Auto Racing Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR hit Stewart-Haas Racing with an additional $200,000 in fines after ruling Cole Custer and the No. 41 team manipulated the final lap of the playoff elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That brings SHR’s monetary fines to $300,000 over the last week. Kevin