KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Drew Waters led off the seventh inning with a pinch-hit triple, Maikel Garcia drove him in with a single and the Kansas City Royals snapped a four-game skid and avoided a series sweep with a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. With the game tied at 1, Waters batted in place of Dairon Blanco and tripled to right field on the first pitch from reliever Chris Roycroft. Garcia hit Roycroft’s second pitch to right to score Waters with the go-ahead run. Lucas Erceg got five outs for the win and Carlos Estévez pitched the ninth for his 13th save in 15 opportunities. Alec Burleson homered for the Cardinals.
NEW YORK (AP) — Cody Bellinger lofted a high fly to deep right field, where Juan Soto positioned himself in front of an unfriendly Yankee Stadium crowd and came up short. That summed up the entire Subway Series, really. Soto was booed all weekend during a disappointing return to the Bronx, while Bellinger delivered several big hits that helped the New York Yankees get the best of their crosstown rivals. Bellinger hit a game-breaking grand slam Sunday night that soared just beyond Soto’s reach at the wall, and the Yankees beat the New York Mets 8-2 to take two of three at home in a matchup of first-place teams.
UNDATED (AP) — The seedings for the 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship in Arlington, Texas starting Wednesday, May 21 have been announced. West Virginia (19-9) is the top-seeded team in the 12-team field after clinching its first outright Big 12 regular season title in program history. The Mountaineers earned a bye and will face the winner of No. 8 seed Cincinnati and No. 9 seed Texas Tech on Thursday, May 22 at 12:30 p.m. CT. Kansas (20-10) earned the second seed, its highest Big 12 seeding in program history, surpassing its previous high of No. 3 in 2014. They will open the Conference Championship against the winner of No. 7-seeded Oklahoma State and No. 10-seeded Baylor at 4 p.m. CT on Thursday, May 22.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler has won the PGA Championship for his third major title. He won by five shots but this one was a nail-biter until the final hour. Jon Rahm made a furious charge and tied Scheffler for the lead on the back nine. But then golf’s No. 1 player was mistake-free and left the blunders to everyone else. Scheffler shot a 71 and picked up the Wanamaker Trophy. That puts him halfway home to the career Grand Slam and leaves no doubt about his status in the game. Bryson DeChambeau was among three players who tied for second.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points, Jalen Williams added 24 and the Oklahoma City Thunder rolled into the Western Conference finals, beating the Denver Nuggets 125-93 in Game 7. The top-seeded Thunder will host the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves starting Tuesday. It’s Oklahoma City’s first trip to the conference finals since 2016. Oklahoma City won a league-best 68 games in the regular season. The Thunder lost to Dallas in the conference semifinals last year as the No. 1 seed in the West. This time, the Thunder had to get past three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and a Denver squad that won the NBA title in 2023.
UNDATED (AP) — There will be a new NBA champion. A lot of them, actually, considering almost all of the players left in these playoffs have not even played in the NBA Finals. The New York Knicks haven’t won an NBA championship since 1973. The Indiana Pacers won their most recent title that year — in the ABA. The Oklahoma City Thunder franchise has one title in its history, that coming in 1979 when the team called Seattle home. And the Minnesota Timberwolves have never even been to the NBA Finals.
TORONTO (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves, Florida scored three times in a 6:24 span in the second period and the Panthers routed the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 in Game 7 on Sunday night to advance to the Eastern Conference final. The defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers will play the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference final, opening on the road Tuesday night. Seth Jones, Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich scored in the second-period burst and Eetu Luostarinen, Sam Reinhart and Brad Marchand — into an empty net — added goals in the third. Marchand, Luostarinen and Aleksander Barkov each had two assists. Max Domi scored for Toronto. Joseph Woll stopped 28 shots.
UNDATED (AP) — The NHL’s playoff final four has a very familiar feel. The Western Conference final is a rematch of the same round last year with the Dallas Stars facing the Edmonton Oilers. The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are in the East final for a third consecutive spring after beating Toronto in Game 7 of their series. They will face the Carolina Hurricanes for the second time in three years. Panthers-Hurricanes starts on Tuesday and Oilers-Stars on Wednesday.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Qualifying day for the Indianapolis 500 turned into a Team Penske disaster when all three of its cars were denied a chance to run for the pole. It comes a year after the same three drivers swept the front row at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The day got off to a horrible start when Scott McLaughlin crashed in morning practice and the team decided to just accept the 12th starting spot in the field. Then, moments before the shootout began, the cars for two-time defending race winner Josef Newgarden and Will Power returned to the garage. IndyCar announced the cars had failed inspection and would not be allowed to qualify.
Christopher Bell passed Joey Logano with nine laps remaining and cruised to victory in an action-packed NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday night. In a slam-bang affair that set a record for lead changes, Bell won by 0.829 seconds over Logano to earn his first All-Star Race victory. Ross Chastain finished third, followed by Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott. The field was bunched for the final time on Lap 217 with the “Promoter’s Caution," thrown by two-time Daytona 500 winner and Fox Sports personality Michael Waltrip, who dropped the yellow flag on the track. The gimmick to guarantee a late restart was a sidebar to an eventful race.
SUNDAY SCORES
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Final Atlanta 10 Boston 4
Final Miami 5 Tampa Bay 1
Final Washington 10 Baltimore 4
Final Cincinnati 3 Cleveland 1
Final Milwaukee 5 Minnesota 2
Final Kansas City 2 St. Louis 1
Final Chicago Cubs 6 Chicago White Sox 2
Final San Francisco 3 Athletics 2
Final Seattle 6 San Diego 1
Final L.A. Angels 6 L.A. Dodgers 4
Final N.Y. Yankees 8 N.Y. Mets 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Houston 4 Texas 3
Final Detroit 3 Toronto 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final Philadelphia 1 Pittsburgh 0
Final Arizona 1 Colorado 0
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Final Oklahoma City 125 Denver 93
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Final Florida 6 Toronto 1