Sports
Phillies, Taijuan Walker shoot for road sweep of Rockies
Mar 30, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Taijuan Walker (99) throws a pitch against the Washington Nationals during the first inning at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images The Philadelphia Phillies started their first road trip of the season with a pair of impressive wins over the Colorado Rockies. They will go for the sweep when the teams wrap up the three-game series in Denver on Sunday.
Philadelphia, which squeaked out a 2-1 win Saturday night, will send Taijuan Walker (0-1, 11.57 ERA) against Colorado’s Tomoyuki Sugano (0-0, 1.93 ERA) in a matchup of right-handers.
Walker struggled in his first start of the season for the Phillies, allowing seven on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings against Washington on Monday, but he can turn things around against the Rockies. In 10 career starts against Colorado he is 5-1 with a 2.36 ERA.
He went 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA in two outings against the Rockies in 2025.
Walker can build on the first two starts of the weekend by the Phillies. Aaron Nola and Jesus Luzardo combined to strike out 20 batters and give up just one run each in their outings. Nola benefited from strong run support in a 10-1 win Friday but Philadelphia scored just a pair Saturday night.
The Phillies have struggled to score runs, outside of the 10 runs on Friday, but the players aren’t worried about the offense.
“That’s kind of how seasons go sometimes,” Bryce Harper said. “Some guys have good first months and then have a terrible rest of the season. Or they have a really bad first month and then they win an MVP. That’s why you play the whole season.
“You don’t put too much stock in the first couple games. You just play your game, understand it’s a long season and you’ve just got to find value in playing a full season.”
Philadelphia will go against a pitcher it has never faced. Sugano was sharp in his debut with Colorado on Monday when the Rockies routed Toronto, 14-5. He allowed just a run on two hits but an elevated pitch count limited him to 4 2/3 innings.
Colorado brought in Sugano, 36, to help shore up a rotation that struggled in 2025. The Rockies have pitched better this year but their offense, like the Phillies’, has struggled. Colorado has scored five runs over its last four games.
The Rockies fanned 15 times in their home opener on Friday and 13 more Saturday night.
It has been a factor in the Rockies starting 1-4 in one-run games.
“The big thing (Saturday) with the strikeout is we missed too many pitches in the zone, early in the count,” manager Warren Schaeffer said after the 2-1 loss. “You can’t miss pitches early and chase late, it’s a bad combo.”
Even with the strikeout issues, there have been some bright spots. Rookie TJ Rumfield is batting .360 with a home run, Ezequiel Tovar is hitting .294 after going 1-for-4 Saturday night and Troy Johnston, who played 44 games with Miami last season, is batting .333 with one of Colorado’s five home runs through the first eight games.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Dallas Fuel author epic rally in Overwatch Champions Series
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
Dallas Fuel recorded a 3-2 victory over Spacestation Gaming on Saturday to begin Week 3 of Overwatch Champions Series 2026 — North America Stage 1.
The Fuel remained unbeaten and handed Spacestation Gaming their first loss after overcoming a two-map deficit.
Spacestation Gaming notched a 2-0 win on Lijiang Tower and a 3-2 victory on Suravasa before Dallas responded with a vengeance. The Fuel posted a 2-1 triumph on Blizzard World, 1-0 decision on Rialto and a 107.91m-79.36m win on Runasapi.
Also on Saturday, Team Liquid secured a 3-1 win over LuneX Gaming.
Liquid got off to a fast start with a 2-0 victory on Oasis and a 116.93m-116.92m win on Runasapi. LuneX responded with a 3-1 triumph on Suravasa before Liquid ended the contest with a 5-4 decision on Watchpoint: Gibraltar.
The Overwatch 2 online competition, with a prize pool of $75,000, features six teams playing a regular season with a round-robin format from March 21 to April 5. All matches are first-to-three.
The top four teams advance to the regional playoffs, which are April 10-12 and feature a double-elimination bracket. All matches are first-to-three except for the grand final, which is first-to-four.
Standings
1. Dallas Fuel, 4-0, +7
2. Spacestation Gaming, 3-1, +6
3. Team Liquid, 2-2, -3
4. LuneX Gaming, 1-3, -3
5. Extinction, 1-3, -4
6. Disguised, 1-3, -3
Prize pool:
1. $30,000, qualifies for Champions Clash, NA Stage 2
2. $15,000, qualifies for Champions Clash, NA Stage 2
3. $12,000, qualifies for NA Stage 2
4. $8,000, qualifies for NA Stage 2
5-6. $5,000, qualifies for NA Stage 2 promotion/relegation
–Field Level Media
Sports
Cloud9 rally past LYON in LCS Spring opener
A custom gaming keyboard backlit with red LED lights waits for tactile input before Manual took on Boone County in a Rocket League match, which was streamed on YouTube on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Cloud9 recorded a 2-1 win over LYON to begin the regular season of the LCS Spring event on Saturday.
LYON posted a 35-minute victory on blue before Cloud9 bounced back with a 33-minute triumph on red and 30-minute victory on blue.
Canadian Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme and South Korean Seung-gyu “Thanatos” Park were tabbed as MVPs for Cloud9, while Australian Jonah “Isles” Rosario earned the distinction for LYON.
Also on Saturday, Disguised overcame dropping the first map in 32 minutes to secure a 2-1 victory over Sentinels. The former capped the win with a 30-minute win on blue.
Canadian/Romanian player Christian “KryRa” Rahaian earned a pair of MVP honors for Disguised, while South Korean Yoo-jin “HamBak” Ham received the distinction for Sentinels.
Eight teams will compete in best-of-3 matches in the round-robin regular season before advancing to the playoffs, which will be contested in best-of-5 matches in a double-elimination format. The top two teams will qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational.
Regular season standings
T1. Cloud9, 1-0, 2-1
T1. Disguised, 1-0, 2-1
T3. FlyQuest, 0-0, 0-0
T3. Team Liquid, 0-0, 0-0
T3. Dignitas, 0-0, 0-0
T3. Shopify Rebellion, 0-0, 0-0
T7. LYON, 0-1, 1-2
T7. Sentinels, 0-1, 1-2
–Field Level Media
Sports
Renato Moicano snaps losing streak with submission victory
Jun 28, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Beneil Dariush (red gloves) fights Renato Moicano (blue gloves) during UFC 317 at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images Renato Moicano of Brazil snapped a two-fight losing streak with a rear-naked-choke submission victory over Scotland’s Chris Duncan at 3:14 of the second round in the lightweight main event of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
Moicano (21-7-1) dominated the fight, allowing Duncan (15-3-0) just one second of control time while landing over twice as many strikes (62-30). Duncan had a four-match win streak snapped, taking his first defeat since Feb. 24, 2024.
In the co-main event, Virna Jandiroba (23-4-0) came away with a unanimous-decision victory (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) over fellow Brazilian Tabatha Ricci (12-4-0) in a strawweight fight. It was a bounceback for Jandiroba after she had a five-fight win streak snapped in a title-fight loss to Mackenzie Dern last October.
Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev of Turkey also had a rear-naked-choke submission win on the main card, beating Brazil’s Brendson Ribeiro (17-10-0) 2:52 into the opening round to improve to 9-0-0 in the light heavyweight division.
Ethyn Ewing (10-2-0) came away with a third-round KO/TKO bantamweight victory to hand Brazilian Rafael Estevam (14-1-0) his first MMA loss. Before that, Tommy McMillen (10-0-0) won his UFC debut in the featherweight division with a first-round KO/TKO via a series of blows culminating with a knee strike which took Italy’s Manolo Zecchini (11-5-0) to the mat.
In the main-card opener, Jose Delano (17-3-0) of Brazil won via unanimous decision (30-26, 29-27, 29-27) over Poland’s Robert Ruchala (11-3-0) in his UFC debut.
–Field Level Media
Dallas Fuel author epic rally in Overwatch Champions Series
Larry David Said He Would Never Write Another Finale, Then He Did The Funniest Thing Ever
