Bouncing back after a costly penalty in the first round, Joaquin Niemann carded a 5-under 65 in the second round on Friday and made the cut at the U.S. Open.

Niemann received a two-stroke penalty for throwing his club on the sixth hole Thursday, just before play ended for the day at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y. He wound up with an 11 on the par-4 hole and ultimately finished the first round with an 8-over 78.

The 27-year-old Chilean, who plays on the LIV Golf circuit, kept his cool in the second round Friday while posting seven birdies and two bogeys. He birdied five of six holes to start the round.

“Everything was on,” he said after the round. “Hit great tee shots. I kind of went out with a pretty aggressive mindset, so yeah, it worked out.”

Niemann finished the second round at 3-over 143, tied for 46th, safely above the cutline of 4 over and 10 shots behind leader Wyndham Clark.

Niemann’s club toss was determined to be serious misconduct under Rule 1.2b, according to the USGA. That rule states “players are expected to play in the spirit of the game by acting with integrity, showing consideration to others and taking good care of the course.”

“I hit it two times out of bounds on the right, two bad swings,” Niemann explained Friday. “Then, yeah, got pretty frustrated. I’m not someone that like to be in that behavior. I’m the first one to judge myself when I don’t behave on the golf course.

“Yeah, that was a misbehave from my part. I felt like a little bit extra penalized with two-shot penalty, but I think it is what it is. I think I’m going to learn from it. It definitely kind of helped me a little bit to have a better round today.”

A two-time winner on the PGA Tour, Niemann moved to LIV Golf in 2022. He has won eight times on that circuit, including a playoff victory over Talor Gooch at LIV Golf Korea last month.

–Field Level Media

Veteran Martin Perez outdueled Jacob Misiorowski to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 3-2 win over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Friday in the first game of a series matching division-leading clubs.

The Braves broke a three-game losing streak and ended a six-game home losing streak to Milwaukee. Milwaukee has lost two in a row.

Perez (6-3) pitched six innings and allowed one run on six hits and two walks, striking out five. Perez earned his first career win against the Brewers; he entered the game 0-3 with an 8.54 in five career appearances against Milwaukee.

Raisel Iglesias gave up a run in the ninth but still earned his 15th save. He has successfully converted 33 consecutive save opportunities, the longest active streak in the majors.

Misiorowski (8-3), coming off a complete-game shutout win on June 12 against Philadelphia, pitched six innings and allowed two runs on five hits and one walk. It was the first time the right-hander has allowed more than one run in a game since April 26 against Pittsburgh. He was 7-0 with a 0.17 ERA over his previous eight starts.

The Braves were trailing 1-0 when they rallied to score with a pair of runs in the sixth. Mauricio Dubon stroked a two-out bases-loaded single to left field that scored Jorge Mateo and Ozzie Albies.

Atlanta added an insurance run in the seventh inning when Mike Yastrzemski hit a solo homer into the right field stands off reliever Abner Uribe. It was Yastrzemski’s first home run since May 21 at Miami.

The Brewers scored a run in the third inning. With the bases loaded after an intentional walk to Jackson Chourio with two outs, Brice Turang slapped an infield single that allowed Blake Perkins to score.

Milwaukee stranded a runner at third in the seventh and left the bases loaded in the eighth before scoring a run in the ninth. Christian Yelich walked and Chourio doubled off Iglesias. Turang lined an RBI single to left field, but Eli White threw out Chourio at the plate — a play upheld by video review — and William Contreras struck out on three pitches to end the game.

–Field Level Media

Cam Schlittler recorded a career-high 13 strikeouts in six dominating innings for the New York Yankees, who earned a 5-0 victory over the visiting Cincinnati Reds on Friday night.

The Yankees won for the 16th time in their past 22 games and improved to 10-5 since losing Aaron Judge to a fractured right rib thanks to Schlittler’s stellar performance.

Winless in his previous three starts, Schlittler (8-3) allowed four hits and walked none. He threw 66 of 96 pitches for strikes.

Schlittler became the first Yankee with 13 strikeouts since teammate Max Fried on Sept. 18, 2025 at Baltimore. Schlittler (25 years, 134 days) also became the youngest Yankee with at least 13 strikeouts since Al Downing fanned 13 as a 22-year-old on June 21, 1964 against the Chicago White Sox.

The right-hander eclipsed his previous regular-season career high of nine strikeouts. Schlittler also had a double-digit strikeout performance when he fanned 12 in eight innings in Game 3 of last year’s wild-card series against Boston.

Schlittler recorded multiple strikeouts in each of the first five innings. He reached double digits by fanning Eugenio Suarez to end the fourth and got his final strikeout by fanning JJ Bleday for the first out of the sixth.

Schlittler opened the game by hitting Blake Dunn with a pitch. Dunn was caught stealing second as Bleday struck out.

He stranded two in the second by fanning Tyler Stephenson and Matt McLain before stranding Dunn at second in the third. He recorded five strikeouts across the fourth and fifth frames before putting two on in the sixth.

Following a mound visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, Schlittler retired Spencer Steer on a groundout before exiting to a standing ovation.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice homered in the second inning off Cincinnati’s Rhett Lowder. Chisholm hit a solo drive into the second deck in right and Rice hit a 433-foot homer, his 21st, to center field for a 4-0 lead.

Anthony Volpe added an RBI single in the eighth.

Jake Bird, Brent Headrick and David Bednar pitched a scoreless inning apiece to complete New York’s eighth shutout.

In his third start following a shoulder injury, Lowder allowed four runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out five and walked three.

Cincinnati lost for the 11th time in 16 games without Elly De La Cruz (strained right hamstring), who started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Louisville Friday.

–Field Level Media