Elly De La Cruz and JJ Bleday homered, Hunter Greene tossed seven strong innings and the Cincinnati Reds opened a three-game series against the visiting Chicago Cubs with a 4-0 win on Friday.

De La Cruz hit a solo homer and tripled for Cincinnati, which out-hit the Cubs 13-4 and won for just the fourth time in its last 12 games. Bleday slugged a two-run homer and Spencer Steer had three hits.

Greene (1-1) yielded three hits and struck out 12 batters with one walk in his second start back from elbow surgery in March. He threw 68 of his 93 pitches for strikes.

Brock Burke and Emilio Pagan each pitched a scoreless inning to help Cincinnati complete its sixth shutout of the season.

Seiya Suzuki had two hits for Chicago, which struck out 16 times and was blanked for the ninth time this season.

De La Cruz ended Cincinnati’s 15-inning scoreless drought with a leadoff homer in the fifth inning against Shota Imanaga (5-8). The 400-foot liner was his 15th homer of the season.

Greene allowed just two hits through an efficient first six innings. The Cubs put two runners on with one out in the seventh before Nico Hoerner lined out and Michael Conforto struck out.

Imanaga allowed one run on seven hits over five innings while throwing a season-high 102 pitches. He walked one and struck out five.

The Reds were held scoreless in the sixth against Trent Thornton before tacking on three runs in the seventh.

Jake Woodford made his Cubs debut to start the seventh and allowed De La Cruz’s one-out triple. De La Cruz scored on Sal Stewart’s sacrifice fly and Steer singled in front of Bleday, who homered to right field.

Bleday’s 417-foot blast was his 15th homer of the season.

Steer made his first career start in center field for Cincinnati, which placed Matt McLain on the 10-day injured list with a left calf strain prior to the game. Reds third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes was activated from the injured list and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

–Field Level Media

The St. Louis Blues brought back forward Oskar Sundqvist, who was an unrestricted free agent, on a one-year, two-way contract on Friday.

Sundqvist signed a deal worth $850,000 at the NHL level and $300,000 at the American Hockey League level.

He recorded 17 points (five goals, 12 assists), a minus-18 rating, 26 penalty minutes, 26 blocks and 69 hits in 52 games with the Blues last season.

Sundqvist, 32, has 181 career points (67 goals, 114 assists), a minus-40 rating, 231 penalty minutes, 288 blocks and 651 hits in 545 regular-season games with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2015-17), Blues (2017-22, 2023-present), Detroit Red Wings (2022-23) and Minnesota Wild (2023).

A native of Sweden, Sundqvist also has 13 points (six goals, seven assists), a plus-4 rating, 16 penalty minutes, 18 blocks and 126 hits in 44 playoff games, winning Stanley Cup championships with Pittsburgh in 2016 and St. Louis (its first) in 2019.

The Penguins selected him in the third round of the 2012 NHL Draft.

–Field Level Media

Conor McGregor is officially ready for his first UFC fight in five years after he weighed in at 170.5 pounds Friday for his bout with Max Holloway.

McGregor vs. Holloway 2 is the headliner for Saturday’s UFC 329, which will cap International Fight Week festivities in Las Vegas.

The Irishman has not competed since sustaining a broken tibia against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. McGregor returns to the welterweight division for the first time in six years as he sets out to re-establish himself as a title contender.

Holloway, the 34-year-old Hawaii native, weighed in at 170 pounds. He’ll try to even the series 1-all, 13 years after losing via unanimous decision to a then-up-and-coming McGregor on a UFC Fight Night card.

The theatrics at Thursday’s press conference faceoff were no surprise, as McGregor snatched sunglasses off Holloway’s head and threw them to the ground. It turned out Holloway’s shades were Oakley Meta glasses and they captured video of McGregor tossing them aside.

“Man I’m going to miss those sunglasses,” Holloway posted to Twitter.

Man I’m going to miss those sunglasses @oakleymeta #UFC329 pic.twitter.com/m0HG7nvFaU

— Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) July 10, 2026

–Field Level Media