CHICAGO (AP) — Seth Lugo pitched seven crisp innings, Vinnie Pasquantino homered and the Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 2-0. Lugo allowed four hits in his third straight win. Kansas City improved to 5-0 against Chicago already this season. The surprising Royals have allowed a major league-low 48 runs during their 11-6 start, and the White Sox have scored 34 runs so far — also the lowest total in the big leagues. Andrew Benintendi had two of Chicago’s four hits in its fifth consecutive loss.
CHICAGO (AP) — Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez had an MRI that showed a mild groin strain. It was a promising development for Kansas City after Perez left Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the New York Mets following a fourth-inning collision at home plate with Starling Marte. Royals manager Matt Quatraro says it was the best result the team could have hoped for. The 33-year-old Perez rested during a 2-0 win at Chicago in the opener of a three-game series. Freddy Fermin started at catcher. Perez is batting .339 with four homers and 15 RBIs in 16 games this season.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Sonny Gray struck out six and didn’t walk a batter over six scoreless innings to beat his former club, and Willson Contreras doubled twice and drove in a run for the St. Louis Cardinals in their 3-1 win against the Oakland Athletics. Nolan Arenado hit an RBI single in the first to stake Gray to an early lead against an Oakland team that had won three of four and drew a crowd of 5,508. Esteury Ruiz was called up by Oakland shortly before first pitch from Triple-A Las Vegas and hit a pinch homer in the eighth.
BOSTON (AP) — Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia ran alone for most of the Boston Marathon to win in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 17 seconds. Hellen Obiri repeated as the women's winner. She outsprinted Sharon Lokedi down Boylston Street to win by eight seconds. Switzerland’s Marcel Hug righted himself after crashing into a barrier when he took a turn too fast and still coasted to his seventh win in the men’s wheelchair race. Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the women's wheelchair race. Nearly 30,000 runners left Hopkinton for the 128th Boston Marathon. The sleepy New England town celebrated its 100th anniversary as the course's starting line.
UNDATED (AP) — LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are back in the play-in tournament. So is Stephen Curry, as he and Golden State will be fighting for their season. And Jimmy Butler returns as well, after this round last year was the first step on Miami’s way to the NBA Finals. The postseason gets underway Tuesday with a pair of Western Conference matchups. The Lakers visit New Orleans and Golden State goes to Sacramento. The Eastern Conference takes the stage Wednesday, when Philadelphia plays host to Miami and Atlanta visits Chicago.
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) — The flame that is to burn at the Paris Olympics has been kindled at the site of the ancient games in southern Greece. Cloudy skies frustrated efforts to produce the flame in the customary fashion, when an actress dressed as an ancient Greek priestess uses the sun to ignite a silver torch. Instead, a backup flame was used that had been lit on the same spot, during the final rehearsal. The flame will next be carried from the ruined temples and sports grounds of Ancient Olympia by a relay of torchbearers. The 11-day journey through Greece culminates with the handover in Athens to Paris 2024 organizers.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler is a Masters champion for the second time in three years. And all he wants to do is to keep winning. He manages expectations because he never looks too far behind or too far ahead. It's alarming how far he has come in such a short time. It was only two years and two months ago when Scheffler was still trying to win for the first time on the PGA Tour. And it was only two months ago that he was being questioned for his putting. He is now No. 1 in the world by a margin not seen since peak Tiger Woods.
NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees radio broadcaster John Sterling has announced his immediate retirement at age 85, a few weeks into his 36th season in New York’s broadcast booth. Sterling had cut back his schedule in recent years and was not with the team for its trip to Houston and Toronto. He called 5,420 regular-season games, the last against the Blue Jays on April 7, plus 211 postseason games. Sterling broadcast 5,060 consecutive games from September 1989 through July 2019 after starting with the Yankees as a pregame host.
MONDAY SCORES
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Final Atlanta 6 Houston 1
Final St. Louis 3 Oakland 1
Final Seattle 9 Cincinnati 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Cleveland 6 Boston 0
Final Texas 1 Detroit 0
Final Baltimore 7 Minnesota 4
Final L.A. Angels 7 Tampa Bay 3
Final Toronto 3 N.Y. Yankees 1
Final Kansas City 2 Chicago White Sox 0
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final San Francisco 4 Miami 3
Final Philadelphia 2 Colorado 1
Final N.Y. Mets 6 Pittsburgh 3
Final San Diego 7 Milwaukee 3
Final Washington 6 L.A. Dodgers 4
Final Chicago Cubs 3 Arizona 2
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Final N-Y Islanders 4 New Jersey 1
Final Buffalo 4 Tampa Bay 2
Final Washington 2 Boston 0
Final Pittsburgh 4 Nashville 2
Final OT Detroit 5 Montreal 4
Final N-Y Rangers 4 Ottawa 0
Final Edmonton 9 San Jose 2