Sports
Orioles try to stay hot in second half as Astros open homestand
Jul 12, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles players celebrate after a game against the Kansas City Royals at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images The Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros begin the next phase of the season after the All-Star break with Friday night’s game in Houston.
Somehow, these teams have managed to reach this stage of the schedule still in playoff contention in the American League.
Remaining in that position will need some adjustments, but there doesn’t appear to be a lack of optimism.
The Orioles hope to pick up where they left off before the All-Star break as they ride a season-best four-game winning streak, including the last three games against the visiting Kansas City Royals.
“Our guys are in a great groove now,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “A good break for the boys and come back ready to go in Houston.”
Baltimore will be on the road for the first time since a July 5 game at Cincinnati.
Houston, which begins the post-break stretch with six consecutive home games, has lost three of its last four games.
“We’ve got to walk into the clubhouse every single day believing that we can win, preparing ourselves to win and execute, doing the small things that we do very well,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “If we do that, we’re going to stay in this fight.”
The Orioles have received notable starting pitching for chunks of the past month and that has boosted the team’s confidence.
“When they’re doing their thing and they’re mowing guys down and they’re getting quick outs, it kind of helps us,” Baltimore infielder Jeremiah Jackson said. “It kind of jump-starts us to go score some runs.”
The Astros will send right-hander Peter Lambert to the hill. Lambert (8-5, 3.14 ERA) has won his last two outings, including a 9-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on July 11 when he allowed one run on three hits over six innings while striking out seven. His only career meeting against the Orioles came back in April, when he allowed two runs on two hits in 4 1/3 innings in a loss to Baltimore.
The Orioles will counter with right-hander Dean Kremer (1-2, 4.09). Kremer made two starts in July after missing more than two months with a quad strain. In his last start before the break, Kremer went five innings, allowing four runs on six hits with four strikeouts in a 9-7 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
Kremer is 4-0 with a 2.59 ERA in six career starts against Houston.
Cristian Javier started Houston’s most recent game but only lasted three innings Sunday at Texas. Since the Astros rely heavily on their bullpen, Javier was asked if he would be willing to switch to a relief role.
“Of course,” Javier told the Houston Chronicle. “I’m here just to try to do the best I can do out there and try to help the team in any way possible.”
The Astros were active during the break, trading pitchers Lance McCullers Jr., who was part of two World Series championships with the team, and Colton Gordon to the Milwaukee Brewers. However, McCullers has been on the injured list for nearly two months with a shoulder ailment, so he wasn’t part of the recent rotation.
The Orioles placed infielder Blaze Alexander on the 10-day IL after he suffered a nondisplaced fracture of his left hand when he was hit by a pitch Sunday. He’s batting .312 in 82 games. Baltimore recalled infielder Christian Encarnacion from Triple-A Norfolk in a corresponding move.
“Especially the way he has been swinging the bat, definitely a gut punch,” Albernaz said of losing Alexander.
The Orioles won two of three meetings with the Astros in Baltimore at the end of April. The Astros avoided a series sweep by winning the second game of an April 30 doubleheader that was scheduled after a postponement the day before. The winning pitcher for Houston that day was McCullers.
–Field Level Media
Sports
BetBoom Team, Vici Gaming earn spots in Dota semis at Esports World Cup
Dota 2 competition at the Esports World Cup BetBoom Team and Vici Gaming became the final two teams to advance to the semifinals of the Esports World Cup Dota 2 tournament thanks to their wins Friday in Paris.
Vici opened the day with a 2-0 victory over Team Falcons, and BetBoom added a 2-0 win over Nigma Galaxy in the quarterfinal stage.
BetBoom and Vici will square off in one semifinal match Saturday with Team Yandex and PARIVISION going head to head in the other after both advanced on Thursday. The winners move on to the grand final on Sunday and the losers will compete in the third-place match.
The Dota 2 event at the Esports World Cup is the final championship of the ESL Pro Tour, now in its fourth season. The tournament has a $2 million prize pool, with $750,000 and 1,000 EWC club points going to the first-place team.
The format consists of three phases: a group stage of 24 teams that competed in a round robin, a survival phase (Tuesday-Wednesday) formatted into a single-elimination bracket that saw four teams advance, then a final playoff stage (Thursday-Sunday), which is single elimination.
The four group winners advanced directly to the playoffs. Teams finishing second through fourth in their groups went to the survival stage, a two-round bracket that decided the other four teams to make the playoff field of eight.
All matches in Phase 1 were two games, while the matches in Phases 2 and 3 are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final.
On Friday, Vici prevailed in 57 on red and 32 minutes on green over Falcons. Guo “Xm” Hongcheng of China led the way for Vici with a kill-death-assist ratio of 29-5-21 across the two maps.
BetBoom took down Nigma in 35 minutes on red and 49 minutes on green. Ilya “Kiritych” Ulyanov of Russia put up a dominant 17-3-28 K-D-A for BetBoom.
The Esports World Cup features competition in 25 titles and a $75 million prize pool. Other upcoming events include League of Legends, PUBG, EA Sports FC, Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Rocket League, Counter-Strike 2 and Fortnite.
The tournament continues Saturday with the semifinal matches:
— BetBoom Team vs. Vici Gaming
–Team Yandex vs. PARIVISION
Dota 2 Esports World Cup payouts (prize money, club points)
1. $750,000, 1,000 — TBD
2. $340,000, 750 — TBD
3. $200,000, 500 — TBD
4. $120,000, 300 — TBD
5-8. $70,000, 200 — Team Spirit, Rune Eaters, Nigma Galaxy, Team Falcons
9-12. $40,000, 0 — LGD Gaming, 1w, Team Liquid, Aurora Gaming
13-16. $20,000, 0 — MOUZ, Xtreme Gaming, Virtus.pro, PlayTime
17-20. $10,000, 0 — GamerLegion, Level UP, REKONIX, OG
21-24. $7,500, 0 — Poor Rangers, L1 Team, Team Nemesis, Inner Circle x Insanity
–Field Level Media
Sports
Flyers sign D Jamie Drysdale to 4-year deal
Apr 27, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale (9) skates with the puck against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the first period in game five of the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG Paints Arena. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images The Philadelphia Flyers secured a key piece of their blue line Friday, signing defenseman Jamie Drysdale to a four-year, $26 million contract, the team announced.
The deal allows the two sides to avoid arbitration, carries an average annual value of $6.5 million and keeps the 24-year-old under contract through the 2029-30 season.
Drysdale secured a long-term deal after his best NHL season. He scored a career-high eight goals (three game-winners) and tied his personal best with 32 points over 78 games in 2025-26, ranking second among Philadelphia defensemen in scoring.
“Since we acquired him, Jamie has worked extremely hard and taken big steps in his development,” general manager Daniel Briere said. “We believe his best hockey is still ahead of him, and he’s going to play an important role in strengthening our blue line as we continue to build.”
Drysdale’s teammates selected him as the recipient of the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to Philadelphia’s most improved player.
Philadelphia acquired Drysdale and a 2025 second-round draft pick from the Anaheim Ducks in January 2024 in exchange for forward Cutter Gauthier. The Toronto native was originally selected sixth overall by Anaheim in the 2020 NHL Draft.
Drysdale has registered 25 goals and 77 assists in 295 career games with the Ducks and Flyers. He reached 100 career points during the past season, becoming the third-fastest defenseman from his draft class to hit the milestone.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Bryson DeChambeau: 'Onto the weekend' after 2-stroke penalty
Jul 17, 2026; Southport, ENG; Bryson DeChambeau reacts after making a birdie putt on the ninth green during the second round of The Open Championship golf tournament at Royal Birkdale. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images Bryson DeChambeau was handed a two-stroke penalty following his second round at the Open Championship on Friday in Southport, England, after R&A rules officials determined he had taken actions to improve “the area of his intended swing” on a shot 13 holes earlier.
For a few hours, there was a legitimate question as to whether DeChambeau would continue playing the final major championship of the year. He declined to speak to reporters about his penalty, and his agent, Brett Falkoff, claimed he was “100 percent” serious when he appeared to tell rules officials he won’t be back for the third round.
At 12:02 a.m. local time, DeChambeau posted to social media and left no doubt about where he’d be Saturday.
“Obviously disappointed with the ruling,” he wrote. “I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is. This fires me up. Onto the weekend. Let’s get it.”
A popular but divisive figure in the world of golf, the LIV Golf star originally posted a 4-under 66 to move to 7 under, one shot behind Australia’s Lucas Herbert. Now, rather than waking up Saturday in second place and the final pairing for the third round, DeChambeau will enter the weekend three behind Herbert instead of one, his bogey 5 at the fifth hole changed to a triple-bogey 7.
The downgrade for DeChambeau altered Saturday pairings, pushing Jackson Suber to the final group with Herbert. DeChambeau and Sam Burns, who shot 62 on Friday, are scheduled to tee off at 10:30 a.m. ET followed by Cameron Young and Ryan Gerard, then Suber and Herbert.
DeChambeau hit his drive at the par-4 fifth hole far right and eventually found the ball in a native area. Replays showed the two-time major winner stamping down on different patches of tall grass near his ball. It may have affected not the lie of the ball, but the path for his eventual swing.
DeChambeau vehemently disagreed with the ruling as officials shuttled him back to the scene of the alleged misdeed before he could enter the scoring trailer to sign his second-round scorecard.
U.S. TV cameras captured a discussion several minutes long, and at points DeChambeau could be seen gesticulating and getting animated.
“He’s a lot of things. He’s not a cheater,” Falkoff later told reporters. “He’s a big boy. He’ll see how he feels. But he certainly feels he was unfairly penalized.”
More than an hour after his round ended, the R&A, who organize The Open, cemented their decision. A new score was reflected on the massive leaderboard between the 18th green and where DeChambeau stood ripping golf balls on the driving range.
Following that session on the range, which commenced immediately after DeChambeau and his team left scoring, the narrative was less about the infraction and more about what comes next.
TV cameras had shown DeChambeau appear to tell rules officials “I just won’t play tomorrow” before they boarded multiple carts to return to the scoring trailer and the R&A released its decision.
DeChambeau didn’t have a choice whether he would play the weekend at the first three majors of the year, as he missed the cut at the Masters, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open.
The R&A, which organizes The Open, confirmed DeChambeau’s penalty was not for improving the lie of his ball, but rather the path for his eventual swing.
“An improvement means to alter one or more of the conditions affecting the stroke so that the player gains a potential advantage for the stroke,” Grant Moir, the R&A’s executive director for governance, told reporters. “Now, I’ll stress that this applies even when the action is accidental, as it was in Bryson’s case.”
–Field Level Media
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