MLB
Pete Alonso launched a three-run homer that tied the score with two outs in the eighth inning and the New York Mets scored twice in the 11th to beat the Miami Marlins 6-5. Alonso also doubled twice and finished with four RBIs. All three of his hits came off the bat at 113 mph or more. Juan Soto scored three times for the Mets, who used eight pitchers and took two of three in the series to finish 3-3 on their season-opening trip. The Mets play their home opener Friday against Toronto. José Buttó threw two perfect innings for the win, and Huascar Brazobán earned his first major league save.
Garrett Crochet pitched eight outstanding innings in his first start with his big new contract, and the Boston Red Sox blanked the Baltimore Orioles 3-0. Trevor Story homered for the Red Sox, and Kristian Campbell — who also got a sizeable new deal from the Red Sox — had two hits. And Rafael Devers finally broke through with his first two hits of the season, including an RBI double in the fifth. Crochet, who agreed to a $170 million, six-year contract earlier this week, followed that up with the longest outing of his career. Baltimore's Zach Eflin allowed three runs in six innings.
Zac Gallen tied his career high with 13 strikeouts while extending his scoreless streak against the New York Yankees to 18 2/3 innings, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a two-run homer in the first off Carlos Rodón that started the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 4-3 win. Gallen rebounded from an opening day loss to the Chicago Cubs by allowing three hits with no walks. He got 10 strikeouts on his knuckle-curve and improved to 3-0 against the Yankees. He also fanned 13 at the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sept. 22, 2022.
Zack Wheeler struck out 10 in seven sharp innings and Trea Turner had three hits in his return to the starting lineup as the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Colorado Rockies 5-1. Wheeler allowed just one run and three hits. He reached double digits in strikeouts for the 26th time in his career by striking out three batters in the seventh. Turner, who missed two games last weekend with lower back spasms, entered as a pinch hitter late in Philadelphia’s home opener Monday against Colorado. Back in the leadoff spot Wednesday, he delivered an RBI single in the seventh. Kyle Schwarber had a run-scoring double and scored on an RBI groundout by J.T. Realmuto. Edmundo Sosa had three hits and two RBIs.
Shohei Ohtani did it again on his bobblehead night. The Japanese superstar hit a tiebreaking home run in the ninth inning, lifting the Los Angeles Dodgers over the winless Atlanta Braves 6-5 on Wednesday. At 8-0, the Dodgers are off to the best start ever by a defending World Series champion. They've trailed in six of those games, but they already have two walk-off wins. And Ohtani has scored in every game. This time, Los Angeles rallied from a 5-0 deficit and two early errors by third baseman Max Muncy that led to five unearned runs for the Braves.
Jack Leiter shut the Cincinnati Reds down for the second game in a row and the Texas Rangers won 1-0 to take the three-game series. The Rangers were outscored 14-5 in the series. Leiter (2-0) retired the first 11 Reds batters until Elly De La Cruz doubled. He left after the fifth inning with a blister on his pitching hand but still tied his career-high with six strikeouts. Josh Smith’s two-out double in the fourth inning scored Joc Pederson with the first run of the game. Hunter Greene (0-1) struck out Jake Burger for the 500th strikeout of his career.
Paul Skenes needed nearly three innings to warm up, then struck out six over seven innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Oneil Cruz hit his second home run of the season and drove in another to give Skenes, the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year, his first win of 2025. The 22-year-old right-hander did not walk a batter and was on the mound when the Rays scored an unearned run in the sixth. Skenes generated 13 swings-and-misses, but did not strike out his first batter until the third inning, a career first for him.
The only thing that flustered Paul Skenes on Wednesday was getting asked about his photo spread with girlfriend Livvy Dunne in GQ magazine. The topic came up only after the Pirates ace dominated the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing one unearned run on three hits in seven innings of a 4-2 Pittsburgh victory. Skenes struck out six and walked none while throwing 102 pitches. His dominant performance came on the same day that GQ published a profile of Skenes and Dunne with photos taken at a house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Skenes says he might “get some flak in the locker room.”
Iván Herrera hit three home runs to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Angels 12-5. Herrera hit his third home run of the game, and of the season, off Brock Burke to cap a seven-run eighth inning for the Cardinals. Herrera hit a two-run homer in the sixth, and a solo shot in the fourth off Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi to give him his first career multi-home run game. Wilson Contreras drew a bases-loaded walk off Burke to break a 5-5 tie after Ian Anderson (0-1) allowed three straight hits to open the bottom of the eighth inning.
Brice Turang dropped a perfect bunt to score Oliver Dunn in the 11th inning and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2. Pinch-runner Dunn advanced from second base on Garett Mitchell’s groundout off Sam Long. Joey Ortiz walked. Turang, who was 0 for 5 for the game, placed a bunt in front of the plate and raced to first as Dunn scored. Jared Koenig picked up the win with a scoreless 11th.
Easton Lucas allowed one hit over five scoreless innings in his first major league start, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Washington Nationals 4-2 to complete a three-game sweep. It was hardly baseball weather with snow falling outside Rogers Centre, which had the roof closed for the afternoon game. Lucas struck out three and walked two in a composed 74-pitch outing. Filling in for the injured Max Scherzer, the 6-foot-4 left-hander was making his 15th appearance in the majors. Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore gave up three runs on nine hits in six innings with five strikeouts to take the loss.
Seiya Suzuki homered twice and drove in five runs as the Chicago Cubs beat the Athletics 10-2 to complete a three-game sweep. Matt Shaw added two RBI singles for the Cubs, who outscored the A’s 35-9 in the first major league series played at Sutter Health Park, the club’s planned home for the next three years before a proposed relocation to Las Vegas. Suzuki hit an early three-run homer for the second consecutive game when he connected in the second inning off loser Jeffrey Springs. He went deep again leading off the fourth before adding a late RBI single. It was Suzuki’s fourth career multi-homer game. Brent Rooker hit a two-run homer off winning pitcher Jameson Taillon, who went six innings.
Jackson Merrill hit a two-run home run a few hours after finalizing a $135 million, nine-year contract and the San Diego Padres started 7-0 for the first time in their 57-season history by beating the Cleveland Guardians 5-2. Fernando Tatis Jr. raced home on the back end of a double steal to start the scoring in the four-run third inning for the Padres, whose previous best start was 4-0 in 1984, when they went to their first World Series. The Padres’ hot start includes sweeping playoff teams from last year.
Wilmer Flores homered again and Luis Matos and LaMonte Wade Jr. also went deep to lead the San Francisco Giants to a 6-3 win over the Houston Astros to complete a three-game sweep. It’s the fourth homer this season for Flores, who hit just four in 71 games last season. His four home runs were tied with five others for the second most in the majors. Flores got things going with his two-run shot to the seats in left field off Framber Valdez with one out in the first. Matos made it 3-0 with his shot to center field to start the second.
Harrison Bader and Byron Buxton hit home runs to back Pablo López’s solid start and the Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 after rain delayed the start by nearly 3 1/2 hours. Buxton, Carlos Correa and Ty France had two hits apiece for the Twins, who took the rubber match of the three-game series. Lopez pitched seven innings, giving up four hits and one run with a walk and five strikeouts. Jhoan Duran and Danny Coulombe each threw a scoreless inning to complete the win. Chicago’s lone run came on Brooks Baldwin’s home run to center in the seventh.
Victor Robles hit a two-RBI double, Dylan Moore homered and the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers and American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal 3-2 on Wednesday. Luis Castillo went seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Gabe Spier pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and Andres Munoz survived a rocky ninth for his third save and prevent a Tigers’ sweep of the three-game series. Skubal left with two outs in the fifth after giving up six hits and three walks while striking out eight.
Major League Baseball’s average salary broke the $5 million barrier on opening day for the first time, according to a study by The Associated Press. Juan Soto’s record $61.9 million pay from the New York Mets led the way. The Mets topped payrolls for the third straight opening day, at $322.6 million, just ahead of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at $319.5 million. Those two teams each spent roughly five times as much as the Miami Marlins, who at $64.9 million ended the Athletics’ three-year streak as the lowest spender. The average rose 3.6%, up from a 1.5% increase last year.
NHL
Vincent Trocheck scored at 24 seconds of overtime to give the New York Rangers a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night. Trocheck slid the puck past goalie Filip Gustavsson to help the Rangers keep pace with Montreal in the Eastern Conference wild-card race. Both teams have 79 points. Artemi Panarin scored his team-leading 34th goal and Braden Schneider, K’Andre Miller and Chris Kreider added goals for New York. Igor Shesterkin made 20 saves. Minnesota’s Marco Rossi tied it at 4 early in the third. Gustav Nyqvist, Brock Faber and Marcus Johansson also scored, and Gustavsson made 34 saves. The Wild are in wild-card position in the Western Conference with 89 points.
Meanwhile, Alex Ovechkin moved three goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record with No. 892 in the Washington Capitals’ 5-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes last night. Ovechkin beat Frederik Andersen for a 10th time in 13 career games against the Danish netminder. The 39-year-old Russian has 39 goals this season and is on track to reach 40 for a record 14th time despite missing 16 games because of a broken left fibula. The first-place Capitals have seven games left this season.
Mitch Marner scored the goal-ahead goal midway through the third period, Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 in an Atlantic Division showdown Wednesday night. John Tavares and Matthew Knies also scored to help division-leading Toronto wrap up a playoff spot and and move three points ahead of Tampa Bay and four in front of Florida. Marner and Knies also had assists. Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist for defending Stanley Cip champion Florida. Gustav Forsling also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 shots.
Martin Necas tied it with 11 seconds left and Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen scored in a shootout to give the Colorado Avalanche a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. Cale Makar pulled Chicago to 2-1 midway through the third period with his career-high 29th goal of the season, and Necas completed the comeback with his 27th. Necas deflected Makar’s point shot past goalie Spencer Knight. Scott Wedgewood stopped 22 shots for Colorado. Ilya Mikheyev opened the scoring for Chicago in the first with a short-handed goal, and Connor Murphy made it 2-0 midway through the second. Knight made 29 saves.
Joey Daccord made 25 saves for his second shutout of the season and fifth overall in the Seattle Kraken’s 5-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night. Andre Burakovsky had a goal and an assist and Michael Eyssimont, Chandler Stephenson, Shane Wright and Adam Larsson also scored. Jared McCann and Vince Dunn each had two assists. Thatcher Demko made 14 saves for Vancouver.
NBA
Donovan Mitchell scored 27 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers matched the second-most wins in franchise history by beating the New York Knicks 124-105. Jarrett Allen added 21 points for the Cavaliers, who have 61 wins, equaling the 2009-10 squad. That was the final season in LeBron James’ first stint with the team. The franchise record is 66 win in 2008-09. New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns had 25 points, 13 rebounds and seven turnovers after missing Tuesday’s game due to knee soreness. OG Anunoby scored 23 points. The Cavaliers trailed 60-53 at halftime before taking control in the third quarter.
Tyler Herro had 25 points and nine assists and the Miami Heat extended their season-best winning streak to six games with a 124-103 victory over the Boston Celtics. Bam Adebayo had 21 points for Miami, which had seven players finish in double figures to cap a 3-0 road trip. The Heat’s run of wins come after a stretch last month in which they lost 10 consecutive games. They played without Andrew Wiggins, Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love. Jaylen Brown had 24 points and nine rebounds for the Celtics, who had their season-best nine-game win streak snapped.
Jordan Poole scored 23 points and the Washington Wizards beat the Sacramento Kings 116-111 Wednesday night to split the season series between the teams. Bub Carrington and AJ Johnson each added 19 points for the Wizards, who entered Wednesday tied with Utah for the fewest wins in the NBA with 16. Tristan Vukcevic had 17 and Anthony Gill added 10. DeMar DeRozan scored 20 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter trying to rally the Kings from a 14-point deficit after three quarters. The Kings outscored the Wizards 34-25 in the fourth, but never got closer than 111-109 inside the final minute. Domantas Sabonis had 18 points and 16 rebounds for the Kings.
Tyrese Haliburton had 22 points and 10 assists and Aaron Nesmith had 16 points to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 119-105 victory over the Charlotte Hornets. Pascal Siakam added 15 points on his 31st birthday. Myles Turner also had 15 points and nine rebounds for the playoff-bound Pacers, who have won three of four. They clinched their second straight playoff spot Tuesday when Atlanta lost to Portland. Miles Bridges scored 18 points to lead Charlotte, which has lost six of seven. The Pacers blew the game open by closing the third quarter on a 19-6 run after Charlotte had cut the deficit to 68-67.
Jalen Green scored 22 points, Dillon Brooks added 21 and the Houston Rockets beat the Utah Jazz 143-105 for their 50th win of the season. Jabari Smith Jr. finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds off the bench, Tari Eason had 15 points and nine rebounds and Alperen Sengun had 15 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists for Houston, which shot 54% and was 19 of 45 on 3-pointers. Isaiah Collier had 22 points and 10 assists, Sexton finished with 18 points and Keyonte George had 14 points, for the Jazz, who lost their seventh straight game.
Anthony Davis’ driving floater with 3.4 seconds left capped his 34-point night, his highest scoring game with Dallas, in the Mavericks’ 120-118 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. Davis also had 15 rebounds and five blocks despite missing most of the second period with an eye injury as Dallas overcame an 11-point third-quarter deficit. Klay Thompson had 17 points for the Mavericks. They are ninth in the Western Conference, 1 1/2 games ahead of 10th-place Sacramento. Trae Young had 25 points and 12 assists and Onyeka Okongwu had 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Hawks. They are eighth in the East, trailing Orlando by a half-game and leading Miami by one game.
Harrison Barnes led six San Antonio players in double figures and the Spurs beat the short-handed Denver Nuggets 113-106. The Nuggets didn't have any of their five starters but Jalen Pickett recorded a triple-double in his second career start. Pickett scored 17 points to go with 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Russell Wesbrook led Denver with 30 points but again had a big blunder in the fourth quarter.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 33 points, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Detroit Pistons 119-103 for their 11th straight win. Chet Holmgren added 22 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks for the Thunder. Oklahoma City has a three-game lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers with six games remaining in the race for the league’s best record and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. Tim Hardaway Jr. led the Pistons with 23 points. Detroit All-Star guard Cade Cunningham was out with a bruised left calf. The Pistons also were shorthanded because of their altercation with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.
Kawhi Leonard scored 28 points and James Harden had 21 points and 10 assists to lead the Los Angeles Clippers to a 114-98 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans. Ivica Zubac added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers, who won for the fourth time in five games and 12th in 15 games. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 16 points. Jose Alvarado had 17 points and 10 assists for the Pelicans, who are 3-7 in their last 10. Bruce Bowen added 16 points and Yves Missi grabbed 12 rebounds.
The years long quest by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez to acquire control of the Minnesota Timberwolves seems to finally be in the home stretch, after current owner Glen Taylor opted not to appeal an arbitration panel’s ruling that he must go forward with the $1.5 billion sale. A person with knowledge of Taylor’s decision confirmed it to The Associated Press on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Timberwolves had not offered any public comment. ESPN first reported the decision. All that appears to be left is final approval by the NBA’s board of governors, which is the last step before any sale of a team can be completed.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
UConn's run to the Final Four reveals the partnership guard Paige Bueckers and coach Geno Auriemma have forged over her time with the Huskies. UConn will play in its record 24th national semifinal in the women’s NCAA Tournament on Friday when the Huskies meet UCLA on Friday in Tampa, Florida. Win, and UConn will play for its first national title since 2016. Bueckers is headed to the WNBA Draft following March Madness.
Paige Bueckers is widely expected to become the first WNBA No. 1 overall draft pick from the University of Connecticut since Breanna Stewart nine years ago. Both became can’t-miss stars in college, both are UConn icons, both went to four Final Fours. Stewart did it while making nothing. Bueckers has done it while making millions. And she’s far from the only one cashing in right now. There’s no one-and-done path to the WNBA for women’s players because the NBA and WNBA have different rules regarding draft eligibility. For years, that impeded how and when women’s players could start making money. The name, image and likeness era of college sports has changed just about everything.
SOCCER
Los Angeles FC kept Lionel Messi off the scoresheet in a 1-0 victory over Inter Miami in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal matchup. Nathan Ordaz scored in the 57th minute. Messi had produced a goal or an assist in each of his first six Champions Cup appearances since joining Miami two years ago, including three goals in the early rounds of this year’s tournament. He put two of his five shots on target in Los Angeles, but Hugo Lloris stopped both chances. The clubs meet again in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, April 9.
MISCONDUCT
People at the U.S. Center for SafeSport knew a former police officer was the subject of an internal investigation at his former job but hired him anyway. That's according to details of a letter sent from the center to Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is looking into the matter. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, sent a new letter to the center's CEO, Ju'Riese Colon, this week asking more questions about why it hired Jason Krasley as an investigator even though it had knowledge of his potential legal trouble. Krasley has been charged with multiple sex crimes. His attorney has asserted his innocence.
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