A's beat Cardinals to avoid a sweep
Esteury Ruiz homered for the second time in three games since being recalled from Triple-A, and the Oakland Athletics beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3 on Wednesday to avoid a three-game sweep.
Ruiz drove in two runs, scored twice and stole a base. He has homered twice in six at-bats since his return Monday from Triple-A Las Vegas.
A crowd of 9,551 attended the game, with the three-game series totaling 18,355 fans. The A's, who have announced plans to play in Sacramento from 2025-27 while a new ballpark is built in Las Vegas, have had an average attendance of 6,244 through their first 13 home games.
Tyler Nevin added three hits and an RBI as Oakland improved to 4-9 at home.
Iván Herrera drove in two runs for the Cardinals, who fell to 0-6 in series finales this season.
A's starter Paul Blackburn allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings, ending a scoreless streak of 22 1/3 innings. The right-hander came within two outs of the Oakland record for most consecutive scoreless innings to start a season.
NBA NBA BANS JONTAY PORTER AFTER GAMBLING PROBE >>
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter was banned for life from the NBA on Wednesday after a league probe found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors and wagered on games, even betting on the Raptors to lose.
Porter is the second person to be banned by Commissioner Adam Silver for violating league rules. The other was now-former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in 2014, shortly after Silver took office.
In making the announcement, Silver called Porter's actions “blatant.”
The investigation started once the league learned from “licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets” about unusual gambling patterns surrounding Porter's performance in a game on March 20 against Sacramento. The league determined that Porter gave a bettor information about his own health status prior that game and said that another individual — known to be an NBA bettor — placed an $80,000 bet that Por
ter would not hit the numbers set for him in parlays through an online sports book. That bet would have won $1.1 million.
Colleges NCAA ALLOWS TRANSFERS TO BE IMMEDIATELY ELIGIBLE >>
NCAA athletes will be immediately eligible to play no matter how many times they transfer — as long as they meet academic requirements — after the association fast-tracked legislation to fall in line with a recent court order.
The NCAA posted on social media that the Division I Council's decision becomes official Thursday when its meeting adjourns. It still needs to be ratified by the DI Board next week, but that is expected.
The new rules will go into effect immediately.
Olympics USA BASKETBALL ANNOUNCES ITS MEN'S TEAM FOR PARIS GAMES >>
USA Basketball studied every men's basketball game it has played for about two decades and a clear trend eventually appeared. When the defense isn't good enough, the Americans tend to get themselves into trouble.
And the team for the Paris Olympics was built with that in mind.
LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and Kawhi Leonard were formally announced as members of the U.S. Olympic team on Wednesday.