Arizona manager Torey Lovullo was ejected from the Diamondbacks’ Wednesday road game against the San Diego Padres for disputing a balk call.

With runners at first and second and one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Arizona rookie pitcher Jose Cabrera tried to spin off the rubber and fake a throw to second, where Fernando Tatis Jr. stood after walking and stealing second.

Plate umpire Willie Traynor ruled that Cabrera didn’t step toward second and also indicated that his knee buckled, both of which constitute balks. Lovullo came out to argue the call and earned his first ejection of the year.

Bench coach Jeff Banister took over for Lovullo as acting manager.

Moments after the balk call, Xander Bogaerts grounded a two-run single to left, increasing San Diego’s lead to 4-1.

–Field Level Media

Nneka Ogwumike scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds, Rae Burrell finished with 22 points, and the Los Angeles Sparks earned a 106-92 win over the visiting Indiana Fever on Wednesday.

Los Angeles (9-11) ended a run of three consecutive losses, all blowouts, since Kelsey Plum sustained a left leg injury on June 21. Included in that run was a 111-87 setback at Indiana on June 27.

However, in the return matchup on Wednesday, the Sparks found the right combination of balanced offense and defense to pull out of their tailspin. Every Los Angeles player who saw the floor scored, led by all five starters reaching double figures.

Dearica Hamby posted 21 points and a team-high nine rebounds, while Ariel Atkins and Erica Wheeler each added 12 points. Wheeler dished six assists and Ogwumike added five.

Burrell shot 9-for-15 from the floor to finish two points shy of matching her career high. Burrell also delivered in clutch moments during the second half, including one fourth-quarter sequence in which she dished to a streaking Erica Wheeler for a basket, then on the ensuing possession attacked the rim for a twisting reverse layup.

Burrell’s big night also included a pair of 3-pointers, as the Sparks shot 9-for-20 from long range to match their total of made triples from the previous two games combined.

Indiana (12-9) welcomed Caitlin Clark back to the lineup after she missed two games with a back injury, but the third-year guard was limited to 15:39 of playing time. She shot just 4-of-12 from the floor and finished with nine points, four rebounds, three assists and four turnovers.

Kelsey Mitchell led all scorers with 29 points to pace Indiana. Damiris Dantas scored 12, and Tyasha Harris added 10. Monique Billings grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.

The Fever were without leading rebounder and key interior presence Aliyah Boston, however. She was scratched from the lineup due to a right leg injury.

–Field Level Media

Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two of Chicago’s five home runs and the Cubs held on to beat the host Baltimore Orioles 9-7 on Wednesday night.

Crow-Armstrong’s second long ball of the game and 21st of the season put the Cubs ahead for good, 4-3 in the fifth inning, before the teams combined for nine runs across the last three innings.

Michael Conforto and Carson Kelly hit back-to-back solo blasts in the fifth, then two batters later, Crow-Armstrong went deep. Crow-Armstrong earlier hit a solo shot in the third inning, and Seiya Suzuki added a three-run homer in the seventh.

The Cubs, who will go for a sweep of the three-game series on Thursday, produced their offense with eight hits and four walks. They won for the eighth time in the past 10 games.

Tyler O’Neill hit two home runs across the final three innings for the Orioles, and Pete Alonso and Coby Mayo also homered. Jackson Holliday rapped four of Baltimore’s 14 hits, but he never scored a run in what became the team’s third consecutive loss.

Right-hander Colin Rea (7-5) won his second start in a row, allowing three runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out two. Jacob Webb was called upon to pitch the ninth, and the right-hander notched his fourth save by retiring the side in order.

Baltimore right-hander Dean Kremer (1-2) gave up four runs on six hits in five innings in his second start after coming off the injury list. He fanned four and walked one.

Following Crow-Armstrong’s third-inning home run, the Orioles built a 3-1 lead on Alonso’s two-run homer in the fourth.

Chicago’s three-homer fifth inning was followed by a five-run seventh for a 9-3 advantage.

O’Neill entered the game in the seventh as a pinch hitter and delivered his first homer of the game. The Orioles tacked on another run on Taylor Ward’s run-scoring single but stranded two runners on base while trailing 9-5.

Mayo slugged a pinch-hit homer in the eighth before O’Neill made it back-to-back blasts for the Orioles.

–Field Level Media