Season ends on high note with win over L.A. to deny Galaxy a playoff berth.
CARSON, Calif. — Mauro
Manotas scored two second-half goals tohelp lead the Dynamo to a 3-2 victory over Los Angeles on Sunday and deny the Galaxy a playoff spot.
Los Angeles (13-12-9), which controlled its playoff destiny, missed the postseason for the second consecutive season after its first home loss since May 30.
The Dynamo (10-16-8) had not won on the road in 11 matches, including nine losses. It was the Dynamo's third consecutive season with a double-digit road winless streak.
Ola Kamara scored twice in three minutes to give the Galaxy a 2-0 lead in the 30th.
Romell Quioto made it 2-1 in the 57th minute by cutting back two defenders and sliding it inside the near post. Manotas then tied it on a penalty kick in the 73rd and added another goal five minutes later on a sliding redirection.
MOTOR SPORTS Bump-and-run wins for Logano
Joey Logano earned a shot at NASCAR's Monster Energy Cup title by using an old fashioned bumpand-run on Martin Truex
Jr. to win at Martinsville Speedway.
Truex slid sideways across the finish line and promptly declared Logano won't take his title from him this year.
Logano won the opening race to the third round of the playoffs by using the bumper on his Ford to shove Truex out of his way on the final lap. The contact caused both cars to wiggle, but Truex's slide was nearly sideways while Logano corrected after a swerve and straightened himself out as hurtled across the finish line.
Eight drivers started the day vying for the four spots in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Now one of the slots is gone — to Logano of Team Penske — and NASCAR's so-called “Big 3” is still trying to lock down a berth. Truex, along with
Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, dominated the regular season and as a trio were expected to make it to Miami to race for the winner-take-all title.
Instead, Truex wound up third and was among the fans jeering Logano as he was interviewed postrace on the address system.
Hamilton dons his 5th F1 crown
won his fifth career Formula Lewis Hamilton One championship with a fourth-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix in a race dominated by Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Hamilton's season championship was all but assured and, after a brief bid for the lead off the start and a scary run off the track late, he finished off the title with a drive further into the F1 record books. The British driver tied the late Juan Manuel
Fangio of Argentina for second-most titles in F1 history. Only Germany's
Michael Schumacher has more with seven.
Hamilton, 33, won titles with McLaren in 2008 and with Mercedes in 2014, 2015 and 2017. He also clinched last season's title
at Mexico City.
Verstappen earned his fifth career victory and defended his 2017 race win.
In other news:
• Steve Torrence won his first Top Fuel season championship during eliminations and won the NHRA Toyota Nationals for his fifth consecutive victory and 10th of the year. Torrence beat Leah
Pritchett in the final with a 3.751-second run at 326.32 mph in the fifth of six playoff events in the Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship. J.R. Todd won in Funny Car, Bo Butner in Pro Stock
and Hector Arana Jr. in
Pro Stock Motorcycle.
TENNIS Svitolina reigns in WTA Finals
Elina Svitolina secured the biggest title of her career at Singapore, becoming the first Ukrainian player to win the seasonending WTA Finals trophy.
The sixth-seeded Svitolina rebounded from a oneset deficit for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over No. 5 seed
Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion.
The victory means Svitolina became the eighth player to go undefeated in winning the season-ending title, which features a
three-match round-robin format at the outset, and first since Serena Williams in 2013.
In other news:
• Roger Federer won his 99th career ATP Tour title, beating qualifier
Marius Copil 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the Swiss Indoors final at Basel. He closed the gap on the all-time singles titles list to Jimmy Connors, who leads with 109. The title was the 37-year-old Federer's first in more than four months since winning on grass at Stuttgart in June.
GOLF Schauffele takes final WGC event
Xander Schauffele gave the Americans a sweep of the World Golf Championships and quickly put a winless sophomore season behind him.
Schauffele made birdie on his final three holes — the last one a two-putt birdie from about 30 feet on the par-5 18th hole — to beat Tony Finau ina sudden-death playoff and win the HSBC Champions.
Schauffele began the tournament by celebrating his 25th birthday. He ended it with one clutch shot after another in the closing stretch at Sheshan International in Shanghai for a 4-under-par 68 and his first victory in 13 months. Finau, who started the final round with a threeshot lead in his bid for a second PGA Tour-sanctioned victory, was ahead by one shot until Schauffele made an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th.
In other news: • Cameron Champ birdied five of the last six holes to win the Sanderson Farms Championship, recovering for his first PGA Tour victory after giving up a four-shot lead. Champ, 23, won in his ninth career tour start, closing with a 4-under 68 for a fourstroke victory. He finished at 21-under 267 in the wireto-wire victory at the Country Club of Jackson.
• Scott Parel won the Invesco QQQ Championship, taking the PGA Tour Champions playoff event for his second victory in two months. Parel shot a 4-under 68, parring the final five holes at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., to hold off Paul Goydos (67) by a stroke. Parel finished at 11-under 205.
• Nelly Korda won the Taiwan Championship for her first LPGA Tour victory, closing with a 4-under 68 to beat Minjee Lee (66) by two strokes. Korda, 20, finished at 13-under 275 at Ta Shee Golf and Country Club in Taoyuan, Taiwan.