Portland Thorns claim NWSL title

Lindsey Horan scored in the 50th minute, and the Portland Thorns beat the North Carolina Courage 1-0 on Saturday for the National Women’s Soccer League championship.

It is Portland’s second title. The Thorns also won the NWSL’s inaugural championship in 2013.

The Courage, who finished the regular season atop the league standings, lost both Taylor Smith and Kristen Hamilton to injury in the first half of the physical match in front of 8,124 fans at Orlando City Stadium.

No team has ever won the Supporters’ Shield and the championship in the same season.

The Courage also were trying for backto-back titles.

MLB

DODGERS TAKE GAME 1 OF NLCS» Chris Taylor hit a tiebreaking homer in the sixth inning, Yasiel Puig added a homer and an RBI double to his dynamite postseason, and the Los Angeles Dodgers overcame a short start by Clayton Kershaw for a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday night in the NL Championship Series opener.

Charlie Culberson doubled, drove in the tying run and scored another while replacing injured All-Star shortstop Corey Seager for the resourceful Dodgers, who improved to 4-0 in this postseason.

With another collective offensive effort and four innings of perfect relief pitching, Los Angeles calmly overcame an early two-run deficit and took the first game of this rematch of the 2016 NLCS, won in six games by Chicago on the way to its first World Series championship in 108 years.

Game 2 is Sunday, with Rich Hill starting at home against Chicago’s Jon Lester.