MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Sonny Gray cruised through seven sharp innings and the Minnesota Twins, despite losing AL batting leader Luis Arraez to an early injury, beat the Kansas City Royals 4-0. Gary Sánchez had a two-run double and Carlos Correa a couple hits for Minnesota, five games behind AL Central-leading Cleveland with 21 games remaining. Arraez got an infield hit, raising his average to .320, and scored in the first, then left after the inning with left hamstring tightness. Acquired from Cincinnati in March, Gray has been a top-of-the-rotation guy for Minnesota all season. He breezed through the Kansas City lineup much of the night, allowing three hits and striking out eight.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina made history with the first pitch of the game, then the record-setting battery helped the St. Louis Cardinals extend their NL Central lead by beating the Milwaukee Brewers 4-1. Wainwright and Molina started together for the 325th time, the most ever by a pitcher-catcher duo in the majors. The duo eclipsed the regular-season mark of 324 held by the Detroit Tigers pair of Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan from 1963-1975. Wainwright gave up one run in five innings. Molina hit an RBI single and threw out a runner trying to steal. Nolan Arenado and Lars Nootbaar homered as the Cardinals stretched their division lead to eight games over the second-place Brewers. Milwaukee is two games behind San Diego for the final wild-card spot in the NL.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs have taken on an almost unbeatable air in the AFC West over the past six years, not only winning the division each time but losing just six games total against some of their longest-standing rivals. Except when it comes to the Los Angeles Chargers. They’ve showed no fear in splitting their past four meetings with Kansas City, including a win in Arrowhead Stadium last season. Justin Herbert will try to lead Los Angeles to another victory on Thursday night in the first NFL game exclusively on Amazon Prime, and become one of three visiting quarterbacks to win each of his first three starts at Arrowhead Stadium.
UNDATED (AP) — Texas Tech is off to a 2-0 start for new coach Joey McGuire. The Red Raiders go into their final non-conference game looking to win back-to-back games over ranked opponents for the first time since 2008. After beating future Big 12 rival and then-No. 25 Houston, they play Saturday at 16th-ranked North Carolina State. Texas Tech is one of seven Big 12 teams at 2-0. The league has a 14-0 record against unranked non-conference opponents, and three losses to ranked teams are by an average of 4.7 points. That includes Texas' 20-19 home loss to then-No. 1 Alabama last weekend.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Oklahoma’s regular-season games against Southeastern Conference teams will have to wait until the Sooners are officially a member. The SEC says it has instructed Georgia and Tennessee to postpone home-and-home games scheduled for the next two seasons. The second meetings with both teams were scheduled for after Oklahoma and Texas leave the Big 12 and start playing in the SEC in 2025. Georgia was set to visit Oklahoma in 2023. The Sooners had been scheduled for a game at Tennessee in 2024. They'll replace the Georgia games with SMU and are still seeking to fill the Tennessee slots.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The athletic directors who lead the schools that play major college football want the sport to continue be governed by the NCAA. But only if that governance can be streamlined. LEAD1, an association of Bowl Subdivision ADs, convened 105 of its 131 members for a meeting in Washington that focused mostly on how best to govern major college football. There has been some momentum in the past year to seriously explore breaking FBS away from the NCAA and creating another structure to run the biggest revenue-generator in college sports. For now, though, the preference is for reform within the current structure.
NEW YORK (AP) — More than 5,500 minor league baseball players have formed a union, completing a lightning-fast organization campaign that launched just 17 days earlier in an effort to boost annual salaries as low as $10,400. Martin Scheinman, the sport’s independent arbitrator, notified Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association that a majority of the 5,567 players in the minor league bargaining unit had signed union authorization cards since the drive started Aug. 28. He did not provide the sides a specific number. MLB had agreed Saturday that it would voluntarily accept a union if there was majority support.
NEW YORK (AP) — Nike released the United States’ World Cup jerseys Thursday, including a mostly white design for home matches that was criticized in advance by a pair of American players and some fans. The home jerseys have red and blue stripes on each sleeve. “We just as angry as y’all !!!” forward Tim Weah wrote last month after a version of the home jersey was posted online. “Tried to tell them” midfielder Weston McKennie wrote. The bright blue away jersey has an ice-dying technique somewhat akin to a tie-dye pattern.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A new surveys shows nearly one in five U.S. adults bet money on sports over the past year. The report from the Pew Research Center shows that 19% of adults surveyed said they bet on sports. The most common way they did so involved bets with friends or family, such as a private betting pool, fantasy league or a casual bet; 15% say they bet this way. Only 8% say they made sports bets in person at a casino, racetrack or kiosk, and 6% did so online. A record 46.6 million Americans say they plan to bet on the current NFL season, according to the American Gaming Association.
UNDATED(AP) — The NFL is set to make its debut with a streaming service on Thursday night. Amazon Prime Video will show the Los Angeles Chargers' game against the Kansas City Chiefs. It's the highest-profile of a series of deals between sports leagues and streaming services. NHL games will be shown on both ESPN+ and Hulu. Major League Baseball has deals with Apple TV+ and Peacock. Industry experts say viewers are becoming more comfortable with streaming games and advances in technology have made it seamless.
WEDNESDAY SCORES
INTERLEAGUE
Final Colorado 3 Chicago White Sox 0
Final Seattle 6 San Diego 1
Final Baltimore 6 Washington 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Cleveland 5 L.A. Angels 3
Final Houston 2 Detroit 1
Final Toronto 5 Tampa Bay 1
Final N.Y. Yankees 5 Boston 3
Final Minnesota 4 Kansas City 0
Final Oakland 8 Texas 7
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final Pittsburgh 10 Cincinnati 4
Final San Francisco 4 Atlanta 1
Final Philadelphia 6 Miami 1
Final Chicago Cubs 6 N.Y. Mets 3
Final St. Louis 4 Milwaukee 1
Final Arizona 5 L.A. Dodgers 3