Sports
Streaking Mariners alone atop AL Wild Card standings
5:05 AM UTC
CLEVELAND — The top spot in the American League Wild Card race belongs to the Mariners. It took a 4 1/2-hour weather delay, 11 innings, their entire bullpen and nearly all of their bench.
After relinquishing a lead late and failing to capitalize on a golden scoring opportunity in the 10th inning, the Mariners pushed across three runs in the 11th on Sunday in a 6-3 win at Progressive Field that secured a sweep over the Guardians and stretched their winning streak to seven games.
“What a long day,” manager Scott Servais said. “You don’t know how guys are going to respond to that delay. … We needed every guy out of the bullpen and got some huge hits there at the end.”
Seattle’s decisive 11th inning was punctuated by a go-ahead single from J.P. Crawford and a two-run home run from Cal Raleigh, who managed to play hero despite not playing for almost all of the duration of a game that, including the rain delay, took place across 8 hours, 20 minutes, spanning both the afternoon and evening. After striking out as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning, Raleigh gave the Mariners insurance runs when he crushed a Trevor Stephan splitter to right field to increase Seattle’s lead to three runs.
“Our guys fight, and they fight all the way to the end,” Servais said. “We don’t know how it’s going to work out or who is going to get the big hit. … We needed someone to break through, and that’s what happened.
That said, Crawford and Raleigh might not have had a chance to win it if not for Abraham Toro. The veteran infielder, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter, made a nice place at second base to induce a tough 4-3-6 double play on Josh Naylor that included a throw from first baseman Ty France to the shortstop Crawford at second to get José Ramírez on a tag play.
“Really heads-up play,” Servais said. “Toro deserves a lot of credit for running the runner back and keeping the double play in order and Ty finishing it when we had him caught up in the rundown. You have to make those kinds of plays, and our guys have a knack for doing it.”
All nine members of the Mariners’ bullpen were pressed into use after starter George Kirby’s workday was done after three innings because of the long delay. The relievers combined to allow two runs over eight innings.
Matthew Festa and Matthew Boyd were among the standouts, as their gutsy performances in the ninth inning (Festa) and 10th (Boyd) turned back the Guardians, who had rallied from a 3-1 deficit by scoring in the seventh and eighth innings.
“I felt good about where we’re at bullpen-wise, and you never know what’s going to happen with the weather,” Servais said. “Credit to our guys. That’s a long time to wait around not knowing if you’re going to play.”
Superstar rookie Julio Rodríguez was a factor before and after the delay. He reached on an error in the first inning and scored on France’s double. After the Guardians tied it in the bottom of the first, Rodríguez put the Mariners in front again with his 23rd home run — a towering shot to the bleachers in left field in the third inning. Rodríguez finished the game 4-for-6.
The win closed a 6-0 road trip through Detroit and Cleveland. After beating up on the lowly Tigers for three games, the Mariners scored first in all three games in Cleveland.
And while the final win might come with the tradeoff of a middle-of-the-night arrival before a day game in Seattle on Monday, no one in the Mariners’ clubhouse seems to care. Especially since they’ll head to the Pacific Northwest in the driver’s seat of the AL Wild Card race after the Rays’ loss to the Yankees on Sunday.
“We went 6-0 on that trip, and everybody chipped in,” Servais said. “I love where our ballclub is right now.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury in U.S. District Court ordered the NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages Thursday after ruling that the league violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.
The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class. Since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could end up being liable for $14.39 billion.
The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit claimed the league broke antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games at an inflated price. The subscribers also say the league restricted competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” only on a satellite provider.
The NFL said it would appeal the verdict. That appeal would go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then possibly the Supreme Court.
Should the NFL end up paying damages, it could cost each of the 32 teams approximately $449.6 million.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.
“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
The trial lasted three weeks and featured testimony from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
“Justice was done. The verdict upholds protection for the consumers in our class. It was a great day for consumers,” plaintiffs attorney Bill Carmody said.
During his closing remarks, Carmody showed an April, 2017, NFL memo that showed the league was exploring a world without “Sunday Ticket” in 2017, where cable channels would air Sunday afternoon out-of-market games not shown on Fox or CBS.
The jury of five men and three women deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching its decision.
Judge Philip S. Gutierrez is scheduled to hear post-trial motions on July 31, including the NFL’s request to have him rule in favor of the league because the judge determined the plaintiffs did not prove their case.
Payment of damages, any changes to the “Sunday Ticket” package and/or the ways the NFL carries its Sunday afternoon games would be stayed until all appeals have been concluded.
The league maintained it had the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs said that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
Other professional sports leagues were also keeping an eye on this case since they also offer out-of-market packages. A major difference though is that MLB, the NBA and the NHL market their packages on multiple distributors and share in the revenue per subscriber instead of receiving an outright rights fee.
DirecTV had “Sunday Ticket” from its inception in 1994 through 2022. The league signed a seven-year deal with Google’s YouTube TV that began with the 2023 season.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco but was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, the 9th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Gutierrez ruled last year the case could proceed as a class action.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.
Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
The average high in Paris on Aug. 1 is 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). The objective is to keep the rooms between 23-26 degrees (73-79 degrees Fahrenheit). The rooms will also be equipped with fans.
“I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has said about the plans for the Olympics.
According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning, and the numbers in Paris are lower than that. The study said that of the 1.6 billion AC units in use across the globe in 2016, more than half were in China (570 million) and the United States (375 million). The entire European Union had around 100 million.
The Olympics mark the most important stop on the athletic careers of the 10,500-plus athletes who will descend on Paris, which has led some high-profile countries to undercut environmental efforts for the sake of comfort.
“It’s a high-performance environment,” Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Strath Gordon explained to The Post.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers seemed determined to keep playing. And playing. And playing.
The teams opened their Eastern Conference final playoff series with Florida’s 3-2 victory in four overtimes early Friday, with the game ranking as the sixth-longest game in NHL history.
Matthew Tkachuk’s goal came at the 19:47 mark of the fourth OT to end this one, which marked the 15th four-overtime game in NHL history and the longest game in franchise history for each team.
The longest game in NHL history came on March 24, 1936, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in the sixth overtime on Mud Bruneteau’s goal at 116 minutes, 30 seconds of extra play.
Florida’s previous record for longest game was 104:31 in Game 4 of the 1996 Stanley Cup final against Colorado. Carolina’s previous record was 114:47 for Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup final.
The only good news for the teams is they had an extended break before this series began. Carolina closed out New Jersey exactly a week earlier, while Florida eliminated Toronto a day later.
But this game ended roughly six hours after Thursday night’s puck drop, and the teams have a Game 2 in less than 48 hours.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
