AROUND THE HORN
MLB: Major League Baseball intends to play regular-season games in London in 2023, 2024 and 2026. The Yankees and Red Sox split two games at London’s Olympic Stadium in June 2019. The Cardinals and Cubs were scheduled to play there on June 13-14, 2020, but those games were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Cardinals and Cubs are the leading candidates to play in London next year. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the formation of the MLB London Legacy Group on Monday that will include members from the Greater London Authority and Baseball Softball UK. MLB plans to hold a Home Run Derby at London’s Crystal Palace Park on July 9 this year.
Yankees, Rangers: Nestor Cortes took a no-hit bid into the eighth before Eli White singled, and Anthony Rizzo doubled in a run in the bottom half to lift the Yankees over the visiting Rangers 1-0 for their sixth straight series win. A 27-year-old left-hander making his 22nd big league start and sixth this season, Cortes pitched a career-high 7 innings, walked four and struck out 11, one shy of his high. He threw 68 of 103 pitches for strikes. White, the Rangers’ No. 9 batter lofted a 2-2 fastball into short center field for a clean hit on Cortes’ final pitch. Clay Holmes (4-0) relieved and got Marcus Semien to ground into a double play. Aaron Judge singled in the eighth off Brett Martin (0-3) and Rizzo, in a 2-for31 slide, lofted a curveball to the opposite-field gap in left-center. Aroldis Chapman allowed a two-out single to Jonah Heim in the ninth, then retired Nick Solak on a flyout to finish the two-hitter for his seventh save. The Yankees have won 13 of their last 15 games, taking two of three in the series despite scoring just five runs. The Rangers lost for just the second time in their last seven games. The Yankees had just two hits against Jon Gray, a two-out single in the fourth by Josh Donaldson and a leadoff single in the fifth by former Ranger Joey Gallo. Gray was replaced by Brock Burke with one out in the fifth because of what appeared to be an injury. Jose Trevino singled and DJ LeMahieu walked before Burke escaped bases-loaded trouble by striking out Judge and throwing a called third strike past Rizzo. Gray already has been on the injured list twice this season. He was sidelined from April 9-18 with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand and from April 20 to May 3 with a sprained left knee . ... A day after calling Yankee Stadium a “Little League ballpark” following Gleyber Torres’ game-winning HR over the right field short porch, Rangers manager Chris Woodward said he regretted his remarks. “Probably bad words on my part,” he said Monday. “I gave it a layup for a lot of people. But listen, I meant no disrespect, obviously, to this place. And it’s obviously a world-class organization, ballpark. I talk about it as always being like one of my favorite places to come play, but I understand why Yankee fans will get upset about it. That’s why I love them.”