KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg hit back-to-back homers for Baltimore while Cole Irvin shut down the Royals in a 5-0 victory for the Orioles. Cowser and Westburg went deep off Kansas City starter Seth Lugo, who had not allowed a home run since last September. Irvin gave up just four hits and two walks while pitching into the seventh inning. That earned Irvin his first win since June 10, 2022, when he also beat the Royals. Lugo allowed four runs, nine hits and a walk in 5 1/3 innings. He had won his three previous starts.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Owen Miller broke a scoreless tie with a two-run single and Colin Rea tossed five shutout innings to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 2-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday. Sonny Gray stuck out 12 batters over 6 1/3 innings for the Cardinals, who have lost four in a row. Rea gave up five hits over five-plus innings and left after walking Paul Goldschmidt to begin the sixth. Miller, who was recalled from Triple-A Nashville on Tuesday, hit a two-run single in the seventh after Blake Perkins and Brice Turang singled with one out.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani has broken Hideki Matsui’s record for the most homers hit by a Japanese-born player in Major League Baseball. Ohtani crushed a two-run homer deep into the right field bleachers off Adrian Houser of the New York Mets in the third inning at Dodger Stadium. The homer was the 176th of Ohtani’s six-plus seasons in the majors. That’s one more than Matsui, who played the final 10 seasons of his 20-year pro career in North America. The homer was Ohtani's fifth for the Dodgers, who signed the two-time AL MVP to a $700 million contract last winter.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Damian Lillard couldn’t be stopped in the first half and couldn’t score a point in the second. It all added up to one of the most unusual dominant performances in recent playoff history. Lillard scored all 35 of his points before halftime in the Bucks’ 109-94 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday to open their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. Lillard set a Bucks record for points in either half of a postseason game.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 28 points, including the go-ahead basket in the final minute, and the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 94-92 in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series. New Orleans’ CJ McCollum missed an off-balance 3-pointer in the closing seconds and the Thunder held on to win their first home playoff game since 2019. Jalen Williams scored 19 points and Chet Holmgren added 15 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks for the Thunder. Trey Murphy III scored 21 points and McCollum added 20 for the Pelicans.
BOSTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum notched his first career playoff triple-double with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists to lead the Boston Celtics past the Miami Heat 114-94 to open their first-round playoff series. Derrick White added 20 points and four assists for Boston, which finished with six players in double-figures. Miami spoiled the Celtics’ NBA finals dreams last season. But Boston fed off the energy of the TD Garden crowd, knocking down 22 3-pointers and outscoring the Heat 31-14 in the third quarter. The Celtics’ lead grew as high as 34 points in the fourth. Bam Adebayo scored 24 points for the Miami, which played without star Jimmy Butler following his right knee injury during the play-in round.
TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Tyler Reddick stole a victory at Talladega Superspeedway when front-runner Michael McDowell, swerving up and down the track trying to block Brad Keselowski, wound up crashing with the finish line in sight. It was a typical Talladega finish — and set off a raucous celebration on pit road with Reddick’s team owner, Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan. McDowell was the pole-sitter and in position to give Ford its much-needed first victory of the year. But his topsy-turvy efforts to block Keselowski — another Ford driver — wound up costing them both. McDowell crashed, Keselowski had to check up and Reddick sped by to win by 0.208 seconds.
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is on the verge of another victory. He just has to wait one day because of the rain. Scheffler chipped in for eagle and was comfortably ahead in the RBC Heritage when storms arrived. Heavy rain stopped play for 2 1/2 hours. By the time play resumed, there was no way to finish. Scheffler was 20-under par and leading by five shots. Wyndham Clark finished with a 65 and posted 15 under. Patrick Cantlay and J.T. Poston also are at 15 under but didn't finish the 18th hole. Scheffler has three holes left to play.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas (AP) — Nelly Korda etched her name in the LPGA Tour record books, winning her record-tying fifth straight tournament with a two-stroke victory in the Chevron Championship for her second major title. Korda joins Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam as the only players to win five consecutive LPGA events. Her previous major victory was in 2021 at the Women’s PGA Championship. The top-ranked Korda shot a 3-under 69 in the final to outlast Maja Stark of Sweden, who birdied her final two holes to shoot 69 and pull within one. Korda stayed aggressive on the par-5 18th, easily clearing the lake in front of the green and setting up an easy up-and-down birdie for a two-shot victory.
SUNDAY SCORES
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Final Washington 6 Houston 0
Final Philadelphia 8 Chicago White Sox 2
Final Cincinnati 3 L.A. Angels 0
Final Boston 6 Pittsburgh 1
Final Colorado 2 Seattle 1
Final San Diego 6 Toronto 3
Final Texas 6 Atlanta 4
Final Seattle 10 Colorado 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final N.Y. Yankees 5 Tampa Bay 4
Final Cleveland 6 Oakland 2
Final Detroit 6 Minnesota 1
Final Baltimore 5 Kansas City 0
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final Milwaukee 2 St. Louis 0
Final Miami 6 Chicago Cubs 3
Final L.A. Dodgers 10 N.Y. Mets 0
Final Arizona 5 San Francisco 3
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Final Boston 114 Miami 94
Final L.A. Clippers 109 Dallas 97
Final Milwaukee 109 Indiana 94
Final Oklahoma City 94 New Orleans 92
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Final Florida 3 Tampa Bay 2
Final N-Y Rangers 4 Washington 1
Final Winnipeg 7 Colorado 6