Dodgers’ Betts unseats Judge for MLB’s top jersey
NEW YORK — Dodgers star Mookie Betts supplanted Yankees slugger Aaron Judge on Friday for baseball’s top-selling jersey in his first year on the West Coast.
Judge’s pinstriped No. 99 had been the most popular uniform in the majors for three straight years, but he’s been bumped by his former AL East rival, according to data released by Major League Baseball.
Betts was traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Dodgers in February, and Los Angeles signed the 2018 AL MVP to a $365 million, 12-year deal that runs through the 2032 season. Betts’ No. 50 is the first Dodgers uniform to top the list since MLB began releasing sales rankings in 2010.
Not hard to see why. Betts is in the running to become the second player, after Frank Robinson, to win MVPs in both leagues. The 27-yearold is hitting .293 with 16 home runs, nine stolen bases and a .930 OPS during this pandemic-shortened season.
Judge slotted second ahead of Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper, who is in the second season of a $330 million, 13-year deal.
Fernando Tatis Jr., a breakout star with the San Diego Padres, ranked fourth ahead of fellow youngster Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals. It’s the first time two players 21 years old or younger cracked the top five since Harper and Mike Trout in 2012.
Davis, Lakers beat Nuggets to take 3-1 lead in West finals
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Los Angeles Lakers are a victory away
from returning to the NBA Finals — and only another comeback from 3-1 down by the Denver Nuggets can stop them.
Anthony Davis scored 34 points, LeBron James had 26 and the Lakers beat the Nuggets 114-108 on Thursday night in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.
Davis got the Lakers off to a fast start with his scoring and James helped them finish it with his defense, forcing Jamal Murray into some late misses after the guard had kept the Nuggets in it with an array of high-difficulty baskets.
James added nine rebounds and eight assists, and the Lakers had 12 offensive rebounds for a whopping 25-6 advantage in second-chance points.
Buehler looks playoff ready, Dodgers beat A’s
LOS ANGELES — Walker Buehler proved he and his fickle right index finger are playoff ready, Corey Seager homered and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics 5-1 on Thursday night to earn their major league-leading 40th victory of the shortened 60game season.
Buehler allowed one hit in four innings, struck out six and walked one in his first career appearance against the A’s. The right-hander returned earlier in the day after missing 12 games with a blister on his finger that landed him on the injured list twice in the last 4½ weeks.
Buehler threw 65 pitches, enough to confirm his status as a starter in next week’s NL wild-card playoff that the Dodgers will host. He had not pitched since Sept. 8 at Arizona, where he lasted just 2.2 innings before leaving with finger issues.
Dylan Floro (3-0) got the victory, pitching one inning of relief and striking out one.
Seager went deep — the Dodgers’ 108th homer of the season — on the first pitch from Mike Fiers leading off the third for a 2-0 lead. Will Smith snapped an 0-for-10 skid with a RBI single in the first.
Fitzpatrick handles Jaguars again, this time with Dolphins
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Different team, familiar result for Ryan Fitzpatrick against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Fitzpatrick accounted for three touchdowns and led Miami to a 31-13 victory Thursday night, becoming the first NFL quarterback to notch six wins over the same opponent with six teams.
The lopsided outcome also gave the Dolphins (1-2) their first double-digit victory in 39 games, ending the longest drought in the league.
Fitzpatrick completed his first 12 passes — a career high — as Miami scored touchdowns on its first three drives for the first time since 2011. He ended the night celebrating another victory over the Jaguars (1-2).
He improved to 6-2 as a starter versus Jacksonville, with wins coming with Cincinnati (2008), Buffalo (2012), Tennessee (2013), Houston (2014), the New York Jets (2015) and now Miami.
Fitzpatrick also ran for 39 yards and a score, his 37-year-old legs looking as fresh as any in Miami’s backfield.
He completed 18 of 20 passes — the last one to himself — for 160 yards and two touchdowns in his latest successful outing against the Jags, who made countless mistakes while failing to consistently move the chains and get off the field on third down.
Virus again slashes French Open crowd sizes; now only 1,000
PARIS — With only one week separating the end of one and the start of the other, the Tour de France and the French Open were shaping up as a double bill of sports entertainment, with masked but nevertheless live crowds, that would bear out President Emmanuel Macron’s arguments that the country can live with the coronavirus.
The virus, however, had different ideas.
Whereas the three-week Tour reached Paris last Sunday having pulled off the coup of getting through the country’s worsening epidemic without any virus positives among its 176 riders, the French Open isn’t proving so lucky with its timing.
Play is still scheduled to start Sunday, but as infections soar across France, organizers’ plans to have thousands of spectators there each day to cheer for Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and others have been drastically scaled back to allow just 1,000 daily visitors.
Georgia State football game postponed
Georgia State has postponed Saturday’s college football game at Charlotte because of the coronavirus.
The school says it decided not to play out of an abundance of caution because of positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing.