BASEBALL

Pedro Castellanos hit a two-run single and Tyreque Reed added an RBI double as the Portland Sea Dogs scored three times in the first inning and held on for a 5-4 win over the Hartford Yard Goats on Saturday in Hartford, Connecticut.

David Hamilton added a solo home run in the second, and Nick Sogard walked with the bases loaded in the fourth.

Willie MacIver had an RBI double as Hartford scored twice in the bottom of the first. Aaron Schunk doubled home a run in the sixth and Michael Toglia hit a solo home run in the ninth.

Victor Santos earned the win for Portland, allowing three runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings.

TENNIS

ITALIAN OPEN: Novak Djokovic beat Casper Ruud, 6-4, 6-3, in Rome to reach his biggest final of the year.

Having missed a big portion of the season because he wasn’t vaccinated against the coronavirus, Djokovic will attempt to extend his five-match winning streak over Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final.

Tsitsipas reached his first Rome final by rallying past No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

In the women’s semifinals, top-ranked Iga Swiatek routed Aryna Sabalenka, 6-2, 6-1, for her 27th straight win and will face another player on a run, Ons Jabeur, as she attempts to defend her Rome title.

Jabeur beat Daria Kasatkina, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, for her 11th consecutive victory after lifting the Madrid Open trophy last week.

FRENCH OPEN: Eighth-ranked Matteo Berrettini withdrew from the upcoming Grand Slam event as he continues his recovery from surgery on his right hand.

The Italian announced in late March that he was having minor surgery. He wrote on Instagram that he’s making good progress but not quite ready to return.

SOCCER

FA CUP: Liverpool beat Chelsea in the first-ever FA Cup final penalty shootout at Wembley to stay in contention for, potentially though unlikely, a quartet of trophies.

Just like in the League Cup final in February, the showpiece ended 0-0 after regulation and extra time before Liverpool prevailed again. This time, the Reds were helped by Chelsea midfielder Mason Mason’s penalty being saved before Konstantinos Tsimikas clinched the 6-5 shootout win with his first-ever goal for the club.

It was Liverpool’s first FA Cup final triumph since 2006 – one of the two previous shootouts that settled the Cup final that both happened in Cardiff while Wembley was being rebuilt.

GOLF

PGA: Sebastian Muñoz shot a 6-under 66 and was 21 under, a stroke ahead of hometown favorite Jordan Spieth, at the Byron Nelson in McKinney, Texas. Spieth shot a 64.

Joaquin Niemann will be the third player in the final group Sunday, alone in third another shot back after a 65. James Hahn almost matched Muñoz’s opening-round 60 at TPC Craig Ranch, shooting 61 to jump 34 spots to a tie for fourth with Justin Thomas (64).

LPGA: Minjee Lee had an eagle-birdie run on the back nine and took a one-shot lead over Madelene Sagstrom in Clifton, New Jersey, heading into the final round of the Cognizant Founders Cup.

Lee, the LPGA Tour’s leading scorer this year, shot a 3-under 69 on a day when Upper Montclair Country Club showed some teeth, with the wind picking up early and rain falling on the leaders for the final 11 holes.

The 25-year-old Australian, who had a three-shot lead at the halfway point, was at 17-under 199 after 54 holes. She’s looking for her first win of the year and seventh on tour.

EUROPEAN: Ryan Fox birdied the 18th hole to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Soudal Open in Antwerp, Belgium.

The New Zealander bogeyed early in his third round at Rinkven International to slip further off the pace, but birdied his next hole, and reeled off five more coming home in a 5-under 66.

Fox was at 11 under overall, one shot ahead of Sam Horsfield, the co-leader in the first two rounds.

CHAMPIONS: Steve Stricker took a three-stroke lead over Steven Alker into the final round of the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Alabama, birdieing the final hole for a 6-under 66.

Playing his third straight tournament after a six-month hiatus for health reasons, Stricker was at 17-under 199 as he seeks his second win in the past three tries in the PGA Tour Champions major at Greystone Golf & Country Club. He had three straight birdies from holes 13-15 after his lone bogey and polished off the round with a fourth.

Alker birdied the final two holes for a 65. A two-time winner this year already, the Charles Schwab Cup points leader is chasing his first major championship.

AUTO RACING

NASCAR CUP SERIES: Christopher Bell qualified on the pole for Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, topping the time set by Tyler Reddick earlier in the session and grabbing his third pole of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Bell turned a lap of 179.575 mph in the first showcase of the Next Gen car at the mile-and-a-half oval west of downtown Kansas City. That was enough to beat Reddick, who went 178.855 mph for Richard Childress Racing, and add to the poles that Bell won at Las Vegas and Talladega.

INDYCAR: Colton Herta stopped an early slide, overcame two late pit stops and eventually pulled away from Simon Pagenaud in Indianapolis to win the wild, wacky and wet IndyCar Grand Prix.

Herta beat the three-time race winner by 3.0983 seconds amid rooster tails coming from the saturated road course. The 22-year-old California driver won for the first time this season and seventh time overall.

HOCKEY

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Host Finland recovered from a first-period scare to beat Latvia 2-1 for a second victory in two games in Tampere, Finland.

Mikael Granlund scored the winner on a power play with 2:52 to go in the final period of the Group B game in Tampere. Rudolfs Balcers put Latvia ahead in the opening period, then Sakari Manninen equalized on a power play in the middle frame. Manninen added an assist on Granlund’s goal.

Germany rebounded from losing to Canada the previous day by defeating Slovakia 2-1 in Group A in Helsinki. Matthias Plachta and Leonhard Pfoderl gave the Germans a 2-0 advantage, with Kristian Pospisil answering with the lone Slovak goal.

CYCLING

GIRO d’ITALIA: A decade after his first Giro d’Italia stage victory, Belgian cyclist Thomas De Gendt claimed his second on the eighth stage and Juan Pedro López remained wearing the pink jersey.

De Gendt was helped by Lotto–Soudal teammate Harm Vanhoucke and edged out Davide Gabburo and Jorge Arcas in the sprint at the end of an undulating 95-mile route that started and finished in the seaside city of Naples.

FOOTBALL

NFL: Former Seattle Seahawks safety Earl Thomas has been arrested in Texas more than two weeks after a warrant was issued over an alleged violation of a protective order.

Beaumont, Texas, television station KBMT reported Thomas was arrested Friday in Orange, where he played high school football. The station reported that the three-time All-Pro was recognized at a restaurant.

The arrest warrant was issued last month in Austin, Texas, where Thomas played in college for the Texas Longhorns. Police said Thomas violated the court order by sending threatening messages to a woman about her and her children, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: Diana Taurasi made six 3-pointers and scored 24 points, and the Phoenix Mercury beat the host Seattle Storm, 69-64, to sweep the home-and-home series.

Minnesota (2-1) beat Seattle (1-3) 97-77 on Wednesday night in Phoenix.

Skylar Diggins-Smith added 14 points and five assists for Phoenix. Brianna Turner had 14 rebounds, and Tina Charles grabbed 10. Diamond DeShields had 11 points and four assists off the bench.

Jewell Loyd hit five 3-pointers and scored 26 points for Seattle. Sue Bird scored two points on 1-of-11 shooting. She missed all eight of her 3-point tries. Stephanie Talbot had 14 rebounds and eight points on 3-of-11 shooting. Ezi Magbegor had 10 rebounds and blocked seven shots.

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