DETROIT (AP) — MJ Melendez hit a pinch-hit three-run homer in the ninth inning to rally the Kansas City Royals to a 3-2 win over the Detroit Tigers. Trailing 2-0 going into the top of the ninth, Hunter Renfroe and Freddy Fermin reached on singles with one out. Adam Frazier nearly hit a pinch-hit homer, but the ball curled foul and he flew out to center field. Melendez then hit a 362-foot blast, his 13th of the season, to give Kansas City the lead. Chris Stratton (4-3) got the win with a scoreless eighth. The Royals’ Hunter Harvey pitched the ninth for his first save.
CHICAGO (AP) — Justin Steele pitched three-hit ball into the seventh inning and the Chicago Cubs topped the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 for their fourth win in five games. Mike Tauchman and Miguel Amaya both homered in the sixth and finished with two hits and two runs scored to help the Cubs overcome an early 2-0 deficit. Chicago took three of four from its NL Central rival in a weekend series at Wrigley Field. St. Louis rookie Masyn Winn lofted a two-run homer in the third for the only scoring off Steele. The shortstop’s ninth home run was his third in six games and second of the series. Michael Busch and Cody Bellinger had RBIs as Chicago pulled ahead with two runs in the fifth.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The woeful Chicago White Sox have lost their 20th consecutive game, the majors’ longest skid in 36 years and one short of the American League record, as Chris Flexen was chased early in a 13-7 defeat against the Minnesota Twins. Royce Lewis hit a three-run homer off Flexen in a six-run second inning that gave Minnesota an 8-0 cushion. The White Sox rallied and cut it to 10-7 in the eighth, but couldn’t get any closer and fell to 27-87 this season. Chicago’s franchise-record losing streak is the longest in the big leagues since the Baltimore Orioles dropped 21 games in a row — the AL mark — to begin the 1988 season.
OLYMPICS
SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Noah Lyles won the Olympic 100 meters by .005 seconds Sunday, waiting some 30 seconds after the finish of an excruciatingly close sprint to find out he’d beaten Kishane Thompson of Jamaica. The word “Photo” popped up on the scoreboard after Lyles and Thompson dashed to the line. Lyles paced the track with his hands draped over his head. Finally, the numbers came up. Lyles won in 9.784 seconds to edge out the Jamaican by five-thousandths of a tick of the clock. America’s Fred Kerley came in third at 9.81 and defending champion Marcell Jacobs finished fifth.
PARIS (AP) — Olympic triathletes plunged into the Seine River as the mixed relay event got underway after organizers said the bacteria levels in the long-polluted Paris waterway were at acceptable levels. Organizers on Sunday night made the decision to hold the event Monday morning with swimming legs in the Seine. The plan to hold the swimming portion of the triathlons and the marathon swimming events in the Seine was an ambitious one. Swimming in the river has, with some exceptions, been off-limits since 1923 because it has been too toxic.
PARIS (AP) — Novak Djokovic has won his first Olympic gold medal by beating Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in the 2024 Games men's tennis singles final. Sunday's victory makes the 37-year-old from Serbia the oldest man to triumph in the event at the Summer Games since 1908. It also gives Djokovic the last significant accomplishment missing from a resume that includes 24 Grand Slam titles and the most weeks spent at No. 1 in the rankings. The final was a rematch of the Wimbledon final that Alcaraz won. The 21-year-old from Spain was trying to become the youngest man to win an Olympic singles gold medal in tennis.
NANTERRE, France (AP) — The United States closed out Olympic swimming with a wide range of emotions. The Americans set two world records on the final night, winning the gold-medal count over rival Australia and easing the sting of the first loss ever in the men’s 4x100-meter medley relay. Bobby Finke set a new standard in the 1,500 freestyle and the American women closed a thrilling nine days at La Defense Arena with another record in their 4x100 medley relay. China stunningly won the gold in the men’s 4x100 medley relay, ending the American run of dominance that stretched back to the introduction of the event at the 1960 Rome Games.
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (AP) — Scottie Scheffler is the best player in golf and has an Olympic gold medal to show for it. The world's No. 1 player stormed from behind with a 62 at Le Golf National for a one-shot victory over Tommy Fleetwood. He overcame a six-shot deficit on the back nine and got plenty of help from a shocking collapse by Jon Rahm. The Spaniard lost a four-shot lead and didn't even make the podium. Rahm shot 39 on the back nine. Fleetwood won the silver medal. The bronze went to Hideki Matsuyama of Japan.
PARIS (AP) — French authorities are making broad use of discretionary powers during the 2024 Olympics and their run-up to keep hundreds of people they deem to be potential security threats away from the biggest event modern France has ever organized. Lawyers told The Associated Press that minorities are often among those targeted with orders not to leave their neighborhoods and to report daily to police. Fearing terror attacks, France has massively boosted security. Those now unable to leave the vicinities of their homes include Amine, a bank apprentice and student restricted to his Paris suburb except for daily check-ins at a police station. The France-born 21-year-old has no criminal record and has not been charged with any crime.
PARIS (AP) — American gymnastics star Sunisa Lee's Olympic medal count keeps rising. Lee earned her third medal of the 2024 Paris Games and the sixth of her Olympic career by claiming bronze Sunday in the uneven bars. Lee says the bronze is a vindication of sorts after she took bronze on the same event in Tokyo three years ago despite what she considered a sloppy performance. Lee has one last chance to add to her medal total when she competes in the balance beam final on the final day of gymnastics competition.
NANTERRE, France (AP) — Olympic swimmers spoke out about the Chinese doping scandal that has hung over these Paris Olympics as the events finished. China won the men’s 4x100-meter medley relay in 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds, with two of the four members of the relay team on the list of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive ahead of the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. Britain's Adam Peaty says he believes dopers should be out of the sport altogether.
SUNDAY SCORES
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Final L.A. Dodgers 3 Oakland 2
Final Philadelphia 6 Seattle 0
Final L.A. Angels 3 N.Y. Mets 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Kansas City 3 Detroit 2
Final Tampa Bay 1 Houston 0
Final Baltimore 9 Cleveland 5
Final N.Y. Yankees 4 Toronto 3
Final Boston 7 Texas 2
Final Minnesota 13 Chicago White Sox 7
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final San Francisco 8 Cincinnati 2
Final Washington 4 Milwaukee 3
Final Miami 7 Atlanta 0
Final Arizona 6 Pittsburgh 5
Final San Diego 10 Colorado 2