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

The Miami Marlins look to end their 10-game homestand on a winning note when they host the Washington Nationals in the rubber match of their three-game series on Sunday.

After splitting the first two games, Miami is 3-6 on its homestand which began with series losses to the Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles.

Sunday’s starters will be Washington’s Cade Cavalli (1-2, 4.15 ERA) against fellow right-hander Sandy Alcantara (3-2, 4.01) for Miami.

Alcantara, 30, appeared to be returning to the form that made him a Cy Young Award winner in 2022 when he strung together three straight outings in which he allowed three earned runs or less. He took a step back in his last start, however, allowing seven runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings of a no-decision Tuesday against the Orioles, raising his ERA by nearly a full run.

“Pitch count ran up, Pete (Alonso) hooks the ball down the line for a couple of runs and we have a little trouble handling down there,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “Get another guy to third base and just some times today where he had some counts in his favor, he just didn’t execute well enough with (two strikes).”

Despite the outing, Alcantara is expected to once again be one of the hottest commodities at the trade deadline.

He is 8-6 with a 3.58 ERA in 16 starts against the Nationals.

Cavalli, 27, closed out April with a couple of strong starts but struggled in his first May outing, giving up six runs (three earned) in four innings of a loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday.

Cavalli had a fielding error that contributed to his tough night. He gave up five hits and walked three.

“I felt great all night, that’s the thing,” he said. “It’s not like I was erratic, throwing crazy pitches. It was competitive and just untimely hits. That’s baseball, and I’m going to get back to work and get ready to go on day five.”

Cavalli is 2-0 with a 3.60 ERA in two starts versus Miami.

Cavalli will be challenged if the Marlins can carry over their offensive approach from Saturday. Miami fell behind 4-0, then scored eight unanswered runs before holding on in the ninth for an 8-7 win.

Jakob Marsee hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to put the Marlins up 7-4. Xavier Edwards had tied it 4-4 in the seventh when he hit his second homer in as many days. Kyle Stowers had three hits including a home run.

“Some really good at-bats. Some slug. Come back in a game we were down to start with,” McCullough said. “Offensively this is probably one of our best performances on this homestand and in a while.”

Luis Garcia Jr. had three hits and James Wood homered and doubled for Washington, which had won three straight and got the tying run on base during a three-run ninth.

“This group, what they’ve done all year to this point is they continue to fight, they continue to have good at-bats,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said. “They never feel like they’re out of it, even when you get a gut punch like we did that inning before.”

–Field Level Media

The Athletics aren’t surprised about their rising levels of success as they look for a three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles when they close out a road trip Sunday afternoon.

“The expectation level was there,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “For us as a club, we’ve gotten better each year. Big emphasis on defense. Our emphasis on the mound is throwing strikes and not giving up free bases, which I think we did a good job with (Saturday). Those areas of improvement have allowed us to have some consistency in the way we play.”

Saturday’s 6-2 victory gave the Athletics a three-game winning streak for only the second time this season, maintaining their 2 1/2-game lead atop the American League West.

“The group has matured,” Kotsay said. “Obviously, you’d like to accelerate the progress.”

The Orioles have hit a rough patch with a three-game losing streak and defeats in eight of their last 10 games. Baltimore manager Craig Albernaz said the number of strikeouts for the team’s batters (11) was concerning Saturday.

The Athletics like how Zack Gelof has adjusted to playing at third base. He had been groomed as an outfielder, but he made a couple of notable plays in the infield Saturday.

“The athleticism showed,” Kotsay said. ” … He’s settling in right now and he looks really comfortable over there.”

Athletics slugger Nick Kurtz carries a 33-game on-base streak into Sunday’s game. That’s the longest active streak in the majors, and it paid off Saturday as he scored half of the team’s six runs.

Right-hander Luis Severino (2-3, 4.15 ERA) gets the call on the mound for the Athletics and he’ll be aiming for his fourth consecutive solid start. He won two straight outings before being tagged with the loss Tuesday in Philadelphia while giving up one run in five innings. Each of his last three starts have involved yielding one run, with the other two outings lasting at least into the seventh inning.

Severino is 7-4 with a 5.38 ERA in 15 matchups (13 starts) against Baltimore. Of his 75 career victories, he owns more against the Orioles than any other team.

The Athletics have received good coverage from relievers the past few games.

“We’re going to go through games where the bullpen doesn’t have success,” Kotsay said. “That’s just part of the season. It’s never going to go perfect. For us, our bullpen, I think, has been a strength.”

The Orioles turn to right-hander Chris Bassitt (2-2, 5.91 ERA), who had his second-shortest outing of the season (four innings) Tuesday at Miami, where he gave up four runs in a no-decision. Baltimore has won the last five games Bassitt has started.

Bassitt holds a 3-1 record with a 4.20 ERA in eight career outings (seven starts) versus the Athletics.

The Orioles had infielder Blaze Alexander available off the bench after he sat out Friday with a calf injury.

“I just felt something a little different in my calf,” he said of the ailment, which resulted in only a one-day absence.

The Orioles had infielder Jose Barrero on hand Saturday from Triple-A Norfolk in case Alexander needed to be put on the injured list, but that wasn’t the case.

–Field Level Media