In Brief: Royals sweep Baltimore
BALTIMORE (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr. beat out an infield single to drive in the go-ahead run and send the Kansas City Royals into an AL Division Series with a 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles for a two-game sweep of their Wild Card Series.
The Royals advance to face the AL East champion New York Yankees.
Witt provided the go-ahead RBI in each of Kansas City’s wins in the Wild Card Series after hitting .332 during the regular season as the AL batting champion.
The Orioles were swept in their only playoff series for a second consecutive year.
ROSE STILL NOT GOING INTO HALL
By The Associated Press
Pete Rose still isn’t going into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The career hits leader’s banishment from baseball 35 years ago was often referred to as a lifetime ban, and his death this week led some to believe that would end.
But Rose was actually declared permanently ineligible by Major League Baseball rules for betting on the game.
As in forever unless there is a formal reinstatement.
Since players or officials on MLB’s ineligible list can’t be considered for election into the Hall of Fame, Rose’s status didn’t change when he died Monday at age 83.
DREAM FIRE TANISHA WRIGHT
By The Associated Press
The Atlanta Dream have fired coach Tanisha Wright.
The franchise made the move public on Wednesday.
Wright took over the team in 2021 and helped them reach the playoffs the last two seasons.
The Dream lost both years in the opening round of the postseason, including to New York last month.
Atlanta went 15-25 this year and had to win its last few games to qualify for the playoffs.
There’s a strong young nucleus with Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray leading the way along with veteran center Tina Charles.
CARLOS ALCARAZ WINS CHINA OPEN
BEIJING (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz has won seven straight points in the decisive tiebreaker to beat top-ranked Jannik Sinner 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (3) and win the China Open to extend his recent mastery over his biggest rival as the Italian deals with an ongoing doping case.
The third-ranked Alcaraz has now won all three of his meetings with Sinner this year after also coming out on top in semifinals at Indian Wells and the French Open.
Sinner was the defending champion in Beijing but had to refocus after the World Anti-Doping Agency announced on Saturday that it was appealing a decision to clear him of wrongdoing following two positive steroid tests.
The match lasted 3 hours, 21 minutes to make it the longest contest in tournament history (since 2004).