BASEBALL
The Portland Sea Dogs ended their season in style Sunday at Hadlock Field, setting a team scoring record in a 24-2 rout against the Hartford Yard Goats.
Portland’s No. 8 and No. 9 hitters, Tyler Dearden and Tyler Esplin, combined for 13 RBI. Esplin was 4 for 6, including his first home run of the season, and tied David Hamilton’s franchise record with seven RBI.
Dearden went 3 for 5 with six RBI. Chase Meidroth walked four times and scored three runs, Alex Erro was 4 for 5 with five RBI and four runs scored, and Roman Anthony was 3 for 4 with two RBI and a run scored.
The Sea Dogs’ previous high run total was 20 against Binghamton on May 31, 2019. Hamilton set the individual RBI record last April
Also Sunday, the Sea Dogs announced their team awards. Nick Yorke was named the Most Valuable Player, Luis Guerrero was the Pitcher of the Year, Chase Meidroth was chosen as the Defensive Player of the Year, and Tyler Dearden was named the Charlie Eshbach Citizen of the Year.
Yorke, the Sea Dogs’ second baseman, played 109 games and led the team in runs (73), hits (118), RBI (61) and doubles (25). Guerrero pitched in 43 games before earning a promotion to Triple-A Worcester on Sept. 6. With the Sea Dogs, he was 3-2 with a 1.81 ERA and an Eastern League-leading 18 saves. Meidroth saw time at third base (53 starts), shortstop (15) and second base (15). He made just six errors.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Stephanie White was honored as the WNBA’s Coach of the Year after guiding the Connecticut Sun to a 27-win season and a No. 3 seed in the playoffs.
White, the former Indiana Fever and Vanderbilt coach, took over a team that made it to last years finals before coach Curt Miller left for Los Angeles and star player Jonquel Jones, a former MVP, was traded to New York and point guard Jasmine Thomas left to join her former coach out west.
• Kayla McBride scored 28 points and Napheesa Collier added 26 points and 13 rebounds as the Minnesota Lynx beat the Connecticut Sun 82-75 in Uncasville, Connecticut, to force a deciding Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.
Alyssa Thomas scored 26 points and DeWanna Bonner added 24 for the No. 3 seeded Sun, who won Game 1 by 30 points on Wednesday, but now must win a road game to advance.
• A’ja Wilson scored a playoff career-high 38 points to help the defending-champion Las Vegas Aces finish off a first-round sweep of the Chicago Sky with a 92-70 victory in Las Vegas.
CYCLING
SPANISH VUELTA: Sepp Kuss won the Spanish Vuelta to become the first American to win one of cycling’s top races since Chris Horner earned the Vuelta victory in 2013. The other Grand Tour events are the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.
It was a surprising victory for Kuss, who entered the race in a supporting role to his Jumbo-Visma teammates Jonas Vingegaard – the two-time Tour de France winner – and Primoz Roglic, a three-time Vuelta winner.
Vingegaard and Roglic finished second and third overall, capping a dominant performance and a historic treble for Jumbo-Visma, which swept all three Grand Tour events this year. Roglic won the Giro d’Italia in May and Vingegaard repeated as Tour de France champion in July.
COLLEGES
FOOTBALL: No. 13 Alabama is out of the top 10 of The Associated Press poll for the first time in eight years, and Georgia remained No. 1.
Georgia received 57 first-place votes in the AP Top 25. Michigan held at No. 2 with two first-place votes. No. 3 Texas flipped spots with No. 4 Florida State. The Longhorns received three first-place votes and the Seminoles got one.
The rest of the top 10 included No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 Penn State, No. 8 Washington, No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 10 Oregon.
GOLF
PGA: Sahith Theegala finally captured his first PGA Tour title, building a big lead early and closing with a 4-under 68 in the Fortinet Championship at Napa, California, to win by two shots over S.H. Kim.
With nearly three dozen family members and friends from Southern California cheering him on, Theegala started with a two-shot lead and birdied three of the opening five holes. No one got close to him the rest of the way.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Ryan Fox overcame a three-shot deficit and a triple bogey early in the final round with six birdies on the back nine – the last one from 6 feet on the 18th hole – for a 5-under 67 and a one-shot victory over Aaron Rai and Tyrrell Hatton in the BMW PGA Championship in Virginia Water, England.
Ludvig Aberg, a Swedish rookie, never recovered from an atrocious start. Going for his second straight win, Aberg started with a two-shot lead, but it was long gone by the time he made the turn. He took two double bogeys on the front nine with poor chips and missed putts. He missed five putts from inside 6 feet and closed with a 76, dropping into a tie for 10th.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: Steve Stricker holed a 20-foot eagle putt to catch K.J. Choi and then picked up a pair of late birdies to close out a 4-under 66 as he won the Sanford International in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for his sixth victory this year.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Carlos Sainz Jr. won the Singapore Grand Prix for Ferrari as Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s historic win streaks came to an end.
Red Bull had dreamed of winning every race this year, but Verstappen finished fifth and Sergio Perez eighth after struggling all weekend in Singapore.
Verstappen’s winning run ended at 10 races and Red Bull’s was stopped at 15, including one at the end of last year. Both are Formula One records.
TRACK AND FIELD
WORLD RECORDS: Sweden’s Armand Duplantis broke his own record in the pole vault with a leap of 6.23 meters (20 feet, 5 1/4 inches) at the season-ending Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.
Earlier in the day, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay broke the world record in the women’s 5,000 meters by more than five seconds, finishing in 14:00.21.
TENNIS
DAVIS CUP: Britain secured its place in the Final 8 with a tense 2-1 win over France in Manchester, England, and Italy also advanced to the quarterfinals in November.
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