Sports
Ace Cristopher Sanchez, Phillies go for series win vs. Rockies
May 5, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sanchez (61) in action against the Athletics during the first inning at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images The Philadelphia Phillies will turn to their ace Cristopher Sanchez on Sunday as they look to win their weekend set with the visiting Colorado Rockies.
The Phillies dropped Friday’s opener 9-7 in 11 innings but fought back with a comfortable 9-3 win Saturday to set up the rubber game.
Sanchez (3-2, 2.42 ERA) is coming off his best start of the season, striking out 10 in eight innings of scoreless ball in a 9-1 home victory over the Athletics on May 5. He allowed just three hits – all singles – and walked one as he kept the A’s lineup guessing all night.
Sanchez believes that dominant performance was the result of his constant desire to improve.
“I’m always working on my pitches, I’m always working on my mechanics,” the left-hander told reporters through an interpreter.
“I like to chase perfection.”
Sanchez, 29, locked up his future with Philadelphia, signing a 6-year, $107 million extension March 24. He has faced the Rockies five times in his career, going 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA.
Philadelphia interim manager Don Mattingly added on Sanchez’s great outing last Tuesday, “I’ve seen him throw the ball good all year long — it’s just some of the results haven’t been as good.”
Mattingly likened it to the turnaround the team has undergone since their 9-19 start: “Nothing seemed to be going our way early and now we’ve got it going in a direction that we like.”
Phillies star Bryce Harper left Saturday’s game in the middle of the first inning due to a migraine, but Mattingly said the former two-time MVP might be able to return Sunday.
Winning Sunday would help Colorado stop its own early-season skid. The Rockies haven’t notched a series victory since sweeping the Mets in New York on April 24-26, dropping eight of their last 11 against the Reds, Braves, Mets (in Denver) and the Phillies.
Right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano (3-2, 3.41) is taking the ball for Colorado. He was the losing pitcher in his last start against the Mets on May 4, but he had a no-hitter in that outing through five before giving up four runs in the sixth. The Rockies ultimately fell 4-2.
Colorado manager Warren Schaeffer wasn’t deterred by the result and has taken positives from what he’s seen from Sugano in his first seven starts in Denver. Schaeffer said Sugano’s success comes from “putting the ball where he wants to” and “mixing well.”
The Rockies are getting exactly the pitcher they expected when they signed Sagano to a one-year deal in February, according to Schaeffer.
“The big arsenal that he has is something we desired in the offseason,” Schaeffer said. “He uses it extremely well. He attacks the strike zone, doesn’t walk guys.”
The 36-year-old was with Baltimore last season after playing in his native Japan as a member of the Yomiuri Giants from 2013-24. He won his only previous start against Philadelphia on April 5, allowing one run in six innings.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Disguised, Sentinels win basement battles at LCS Spring
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
Sentinels and Disguised earned victories as the bottom four teams in the standings were in action on the opening day of Week 6 of the regular season of the LCS Spring event in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Sentinels remained locked into a top-five spot with a 2-0 sweep of Shopify Rebellion, and Disguised kept Dignitas winless in regular-season play with a 2-0 triumph.
Eight teams will compete in best-of-three matches in the round-robin regular season before advancing to the playoffs of the League of Legends event, which will be contested in best-of-five matches in a double-elimination format. The top two teams will qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational.
Sentinels swept its match with a pair of victories on red in 39 and 32 minutes.
Jeong “Impact” Eon-young and Cho “Rahel” Min-seong of South Korea split MVP honors, posting kill-death-assist ratios of 6-4-8 and 10-2-12, respectively, in the match. Australia’s Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami led Shopify Rebellion’s charge with a 5-6-6 K-D-A ratio.
Disguised’s sweep of Dignitas came via a 26-minute win on red followed by a 43-minute victory on blue.
Christian “KryRa” Rahaian of Canada was the MVP of both wins, posting a 4-4-26 K-D-A ratio in the match. Australian Ian Victor “FBI” Huang was Dignitas’ most effective player with a 6-3-7 K-D-A ratio.
The penultimate week of the regular season concludes Sunday with the top four teams in the standings in action. Cloud9 takes on FlyQuest and Team Liquid faces LYON.
Regular-season standings (Win-loss total, map differential)
T1. Cloud9, 5-0, 10-3
T1. Team Liquid, 5-0, 10-3
3. LYON, 4-1, 9-3
4. FlyQuest, 3-2, 8-5
5. Sentinels, 2-4, 7-9
6. Disguised, 2-4, 4-9
7. Shopify Rebellion, 1-5, 3-10
8. Dignitas, 0-6, 3-12
–Field Level Media
Sports
Wild hand Avalanche first postseason loss in dominant fashion
May 9, 2026; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman (38) is congratulated by teammates after scoring on the Colorado Avalanche in the second period of game three of the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Grand Casino Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images Kirill Kaprizov and Brock Faber each finished with a goal and two assists as the Minnesota Wild pulled away for a 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series on Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Quinn Hughes tallied a goal and an assist for Minnesota, which pulled within 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Ryan Hartman and Matt Boldy also scored and Mats Zuccarello had two assists for the Wild.
Nathan MacKinnon scored the only goal for Colorado, which lost for the first time in the postseason after entering with a 6-0 record.
The teams will reconvene for Game 4 on Monday night in Minnesota.
“I thought we came out with desperation,” Faber said. “There’s no excuses for the way we played (in the first two games). I think it was a quick turnaround with an emotional series in Dallas, and we need to move on quicker, and I think we didn’t bring our best in Colorado.
“But tonight was a lot better. Tonight was the way we play.”
Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt turned aside 34 of 35 shots to earn the victory.
Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood allowed three goals on 12 shots before he was replaced in the second period. Mackenzie Blackwood saw his first action of the postseason and stopped 12 of 13 shots in backup duty.
“I felt like it was a good opportunity to get him in and see if it sparked our group and if he could maybe close the door the rest of the way,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said of the goaltending change. “So that’s why I did it. It just felt like they had all the momentum and all the steam early in that game, and we needed to do something.”
Minnesota grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period. Kaprizov opened the scoring with 4:49 remaining in the first period. He raced toward the net, took a pass from Faber and finished with a wrist shot from the left side of the crease.
Hughes scored less than two minutes later to give the Wild a two-goal advantage. He handled the puck from the left circle to the top of the slot and fired a wrist shot through traffic for the power-play goal.
Another power-play goal gave Minnesota a 3-0 lead with 15:37 left in the second period. Hartman parked in front of the crease and knocked in a shot from the point by Zuccarello.
“We didn’t play good enough to win that hockey game tonight,” Bednar said. “We played against a desperate hockey team. It looked to me like they had more determination. They were more tenacious, more physical. We tried to respond, but we didn’t get a lot out of some of our lines tonight.”
The Avalanche got on the scoreboard with 6:49 remaining in the second period. Wallstedt stopped Colorado’s initial shot, but MacKinnon spotted the rebound and punched it in for the power-play goal.
The Wild needed only 20 seconds to respond. Faber scored on a deflection to increase the Wild’s lead to 4-1 with 6:29 to go in the second period.
Boldy capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 3.3 seconds remaining.
-Field Level Media
Sports
Royal Ravens knock Thieves from unbeaten ranks at CDL Major 3 qualifying
YMCA member Austin Manengu works the keyboard as he plays a game of Fortnite during the unveiling of the new gaming lab at the Maplewood Family YMCA in Rochester Thursday, June 20, 2024. YMCA of Greater Rochester in partnership with Metro Sports & Entertainment Group will open two gaming labs for youth and teens this year. The Carolina Royal Ravens rallied from a loss in the opening map to hand the Los Angeles Thieves their first match defeat 3-2 in qualifying for the Call of Duty League Stage 3 Major on Saturday.
Three of the four matches on Day 2 of the third and final week were 3-2 decisions. First-place OpTic Texas downed FaZe Vegas to remain unbeaten, and Boston Breach recorded their first win by edging G2 Minnesota by the one-map margin. In the other match, the Riyadh Falcons topped winless Cloud9 New York 3-1.
The 12 Call of Duty League teams are playing a full qualifying round robin to determine seeding for the third major of the season, to be held May 15-17 as part of the DreamHack Atlanta event.
On Saturday, the Carolina Royal Ravens fell 250-197 on Gridlock Hardpoint to open their match against the Los Angeles Thieves. Carolina drew even with a 6-4 victory on Raid Search and Destroy, then lost again, this time on Exposure Overload, 5-3.
But the Royal Ravens captured the last two maps, Colossus Hardpoint (250-210) and Fringe Search and Destroy (6-4) to win the match 3-2 and blemish Los Angeles’ overall record at 3-1.
Carolina’s Logan “Lurqxx” Brown of the United States was selected the match MVP with 95 kills and a plus-7 kill-death differential.
OpTic Texas had to battle past FaZe Vegas 3-2 despite a fast start. Texas won 250-243 on Den Hardpoint and 6-4 on Gridlock Search and Destroy. Vegas rallied with victories on Scar Overload (4-2) and Gridlock Hardpoint (250-183) before OpTic closed it out with a 6-2 win on Plaza Search and Destroy.
Optic’s Mason “Mercules” Ramsey of the United States was the match MVP with 104 kills and a plus-8 K-D differential.
Boston Breach also started strong against G2 Minnesota, winning 250-247 on Scar Hardpoint and 6-4 on Fringe Search and Destroy. But Minnesota responded with victories on Den Overload (5-1) and Den Hardpoint (250-157) to force a fifth map. Boston emerged with a 6-4 triumph on Scar Search and Destroy for the 3-2 victory.
Breach’s Byron “Nastie” Plumridge of the United Kingdom was match MVP with 97 kills and a plus-12 K-D differential.
The Riyadh Falcons didn’t have to go to a fifth map, but they didn’t make it easy by dropping the opening map to Cloud9 New York, 250-197 on Gridlock Hardpoint. The Falcons then reeled off victories on Raid Search and Destroy (6-4), Exposure Overload (6-1) and Den Hardpoint (250-197) for the 3-1 victory.
Riyadh’s Amer “Pred” Zuibeari of Australia was match MVP with 87 kills and a plus-17 K-D differential.
Sunday’s schedule, Day 3 of Week 3
–Paris Gentle Mates vs. Miami Heretics
–Los Angeles Thieves vs. G2 Minnesota
–Toronto KOI vs. Cloud9 New York
Call of Duty League Stage 3 Major qualifying, with match record and map differential
1. OpTic Texas 5-0, 15-6
T2. Los Angeles Thieves, 3-1, 11-5
T2. Toronto KOI, 3-1, 11-5
4. Paris Gentle Mates, 3-1, 9-7
5. FaZe Vegas, 3-2, 12-9
6. Riyadh Falcons, 3-2, 11-9
7. Vancouver Surge, 2-3, 8-11
8. Carolina Royal Ravens, 2-3, 11-12
9. G2 Minnesota, 1-3, 6-9
10. Miami Heretics, 1-3, 5-10
11. Boston Breach, 1-4, 7-14
12. Cloud9 New York, 0-4, 3-12
–Field Level Media
Disguised, Sentinels win basement battles at LCS Spring
FCC to allow banned drones and routers to receive critical updates until 2029
