Pete Crow-Armstrong hit the first pitch of the game for a home run, Ben Brown beefed up his All-Star credentials with five solid innings and the visiting Chicago Cubs thumped the San Francisco Giants 6-1 on Saturday night for a second straight win in their three-game series.

Rookie Pedro Ramirez smacked his first career homer and Ian Happ added a third for the Cubs, who followed up a 5-1 win in the series opener with another front-running effort.

Crow-Armstrong also had a double and a single on a night that began when he took a Trevor McDonald slider over the fence in left-center field for his 12th homer of the season.

Crow-Armstrong’s double triggered a two-run third. He scored the inning’s first run on a Seiya Suzuki single. Michael Busch later made it 3-0 when he stole home on the front end of a double steal with Happ.

McDonald (2-4) was pulled with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth. Busch then drew a walk from Reiver Sanmartin to increase the lead to 4-0.

McDonald was charged with four runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings. The right-hander walked three and struck out four.

The homers by Happ, his 16th of the season, and Ramirez, in the 29th plate appearance of his first campaign, completed Chicago’s scoring in the fifth.

Brown (3-2), meanwhile, pitched into and out of trouble for 15 outs, limiting the Giants to one run despite serving up seven hits and three walks. He struck out three.

The right-hander has now allowed one or fewer runs in six of his seven starts. He left the game with the same ERA with which he started it, 1.74.

San Francisco’s only run came in the third when Drew Gilbert walked and came around on a Luis Arraez triple.

The Giants went 0-for-7 in the game with runners in scoring position, all while Brown was on the mound.

Ramirez added a double to his homer for the Cubs, who collected four doubles and three homers among their 11 hits.

Rafael Devers had a double and a single while Gilbert walked three times for the Giants, who dropped to 1-4 on their six-game homestand.

–Field Level Media

Nestory Irankunda and Conner Metcalfe scored goals and Patrick Beach excelled in goal in a surprise start as Australia notched a 2-0 victory over Turkey in Group D play on Saturday night at Vancouver.

Irankunda scored in the 27th minute and Metcalfe tacked on in the 75th minute as the Socceroos, who rose four spots to 23rd in the FIFA/Coca Cola rankings with the victory, turned in a stellar performance in their World Cup opener.

Beach, 22, made eight saves in his World Cup debut and just his third cap for the Australian national team.

Beach was chosen to start over Mathew Ryan, Australia’s starting goalkeeper in the 2014, 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Ryan, 34, has 104 caps with the national team.

Turkey, which entered the match above Australia in the rankings but fell five spots to 27th, controlled possession for 72% of the match and had a 30-9 edge in shots, including an 8-4 advantage in shots on goal.

Ugurcan Cakir made two saves for Turkey.

The first Australian goal was set up by midfielder Paul Okon-Engstler, another player just promoted to starter.

Okon-Engstler received the ball back in his own end and spotted Irankunda ready to make a run. He delivered a stellar long pass and Irankunda was able to get the ball despite three Turkish players around him.

Irankunda found a sliver of space and sent a right-footed grounder into the left corner of the net.

Three minutes later, Turkey had a major opportunity. Abdulkerim Bardakci took a blistering left-footed shot from beyond the box and Beach was able to get his fingers on the ball and it caromed off the left goal post.

Turkey also had a stellar opportunity in the 57th minute when Arda Guler lined up to take a direct kick. His left-footed blast was sailing toward the bottom-left corner of the net but Beach dove down to his right to knock it away.

Australia made it 2-0 after Turkey’s Ismail Yuksek misplayed the ball in the midfield. It went directly toward Metcalfe, who dribbled in and ripped a left-footed shot into the bottom-right corner.

Beach also made a diving punchaway save on Hakan Calhanoglu’s right-footed free kick in the 85th minute.

Australia faces the United States – the other 1-0-0 Group D team – on Friday in Seattle. Turkey and Paraguay (also 0-1-0) meet Friday in Santa Clara, Calif.

–Field Level Media

SAN ANTONIO — Jalen Brunson fully understands what leading the New York Knicks to the NBA championship means for him, for his team and for the city of New York.

He’s heard it from Walt Frazier, who was a part of NBA champions in 1970 and ’73. He’s talked about it with Bernard King and Patrick Ewing, stars who got the Knicks close in the 1980s and ’90s, and he’s lived it though his father, Rick Brunson, a former player and now an assistant coach for the team.

Jalen Brunson knew what it would take to carry the Knicks to their first title in 53 years, the price he would have to pay to get his team to the Finals for the first time in 27 years, and what he would have to do to get the Knicks over the finish line against San Antonio and its superstar forward Victor Wembanyama, one of the league’s faces of the future.

Now it’s time to reap those rewards and put to rest one of the most dubious title droughts in pro sports history.

Brunson poured in 45 points, 29 in the second half, to lead New York to a come-from-behind 94-90 win over the Spurs in Game 5 of the Finals on Saturday night, clinching the best-of-seven series 4-1. Three of the Knicks’ wins came on the road with each of them coming down to the final minutes and requiring comebacks from New York.

Brunso, the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, was the ticker that never flickered.

The 45 points tallied by Brunson set a Knicks record for a Finals game, supplanting the 38 scored by the legendary Willis Reed in 1970. Reed scored his in the third game of a series that went to seven and ended with the big center literally willing New York to the title over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Brunson’s effort in this series was just as arduous and will go down in Big Apple lore with Reed’s performance in that distant Knicks championship run. The undersized New York captain took a beating as the Spurs employed four different players to defend him and knock him around every time he touched the ball. His bruises had bruises and his lumps had bumps.

“I’m hurting right now, oh, I do hurt right now,” Brunson, 29, said after the win. “I’m feeling maybe a little bit worn down physically just because of the game and what (San Antonio was) trying to do. Mentally, I feel fresh. I feel like that’s where I thrive. I’m just happy we’re able to find ways to win the games.”

There was nothing more San Antonio could do. Brunson was just too good. He’s one of just 11 different players to score at least 45 points in an NBA Finals game, for a total of 15 games.

San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson had a matter-of-fact response when asked what his team could have done differently against the Knicks star.

“Make (Brunson) score less points,” Johnson explained. “He’s aggressive. He got to spots. We were undisciplined at times. He got going, then he got going later on. He’s a heck of a player. He deserves everything he’s got.”

On a night when the Knicks got next-to-nothing offensively from Karl-Anthony Towns (two points) and OK production from Game 4 hero OG Anunoby (11 points, eight rebounds), it was up to Brunson to make the plays that produced the victory and the championship. His 15 points in the final quarter were one more than the rest of his teammates combined (14).

“You know, people say (Brunson is) too small. People say he’s a 1B or a 2B or whatever,” New York coach Mike Brown said of the three-time All-Star, listed at 6-foot-2. “He is a freaking 1A. He is an MVP candidate. Brunson — he is him, man, when it comes to New York basketball. He is freaking him.”

Brunson averaged 32.6 points per game in the Finals, scoring 30 or more in four of the contests. As hard as it is to fathom, he got better as the series went on, racking up 32, 36 and then 45 in the last three slugfests.

“That’s who Captain is, man,” Towns said about Brunson. “Captain always finds a way to get back into court and produce as a testament to who he is. It’s just his story, (he’s) never given up, always has been the underdog, always been looked down upon.”

“Shout out to everybody told him he couldn’t do it.”

After the final buzzer on Saturday, Brunson — a white towel over his head — ran on the floor toward half court, but he was overcome with emotion, and stopped and crouched near the scorer’s table. At his side were teammates Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges, his running buddies and fellow former stars at Villanova, loving him up before literally lifting Brunson to a standing position.

He had carried the Knicks to the title — and now, fittingly, it was his teammates that helped him to his feet. The weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders. The hopes and dreams of the whole of New York City and its rabid and vocal fan base had finally been realized.

After the game, Brunson clutched the Larry O’Brien Trophy and offered a weary smile. There’s a trip to the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan in his and the Knicks’ future, as the team will be feted in the time-honored Big Apple parade tradition at long last.

It will be a day cherished for a generation of New Yorkers, an “I-remember-where-I-was-when” moment, for fans young and old.

Someday there might even be a statue of Brunson outside Madison Square Garden. If so, let’s hope it’s as tough and as durable as the man is himself.

–Steve Habel, Field Level Media