The Texas Rangers signed 2023 postseason hero Jordan Montgomery to a one-year contract on Friday.

Montgomery excelled while helping the Rangers win their lone World Series title. He departed as a free agent after the 2023 season.

The left-handed Montgomery signed a deal worth $1.25 million in base salary that includes performance bonuses, according to multiple reports.

Montgomery, 33, didn’t pitch last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2025. He is still rehabbing the injury.

Montgomery broke into the majors in 2017 with the New York Yankees. He was pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2023 when he was shipped to the Rangers at the trade deadline.

Montgomery went 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA in 11 regular-season starts to help Texas narrowly slide into the postseason as the final American League wild-card team.

He turned it up in the postseason by going 3-1 with a 2.90 ERA in six appearances (five starts). He won two games in the AL Championship Series against the Houston Astros and the Rangers went on to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series.

Montgomery ironically signed with Arizona and earned $25 million in 2024 while experiencing a horrendous campaign. He went 8-7 with a 6.23 ERA in 25 games (21 starts).

Overall, Montgomery is 46-41 with a 4.03 ERA in 166 appearances (161 starts) with the Yankees (2017-22), Cardinals (2022-23), Rangers (2023), Diamondbacks (2024-25) and Milwaukee Brewers (2025). Though injured, Milwaukee acquired Montgomery at last season’s trade deadline.

–Field Level Media

Kendall Coyne-Schofield scored twice to highlight a five-goal second period, lifting the United States to a 6-0 romp over Italy on Friday in the quarterfinals at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Megan Keller collected a goal and two assists and Laila Edwards and Britta Curl-Salemme had one of each for the Americans (5-0-0), who have enjoyed a 26-1 edge in goals thus far in this tournament.

Hannah Bilka also tallied as the United States held a decisive 51-5 advantage in shots on goal.

Gwyneth Philips made five saves to help the Americans record their fourth consecutive shutout of the tournament.

Gabriella Durante turned aside 45 shots for the Italians (2-3-0), who had advanced to the Olympic quarterfinals for the first time in their history.

The Americans applied the pressure from the onset and enjoyed a 20-2 edge in shots on goal during the first period. The Italians, however, had a prime chance to open the scoring but Philips denied Justine Reyes on a breakaway.

The U.S. solved Durante with 6:29 remaining in the session after Keller unleashed a one-timer from the high slot off a return pass from Edwards.

Durante kept the Italians close near the end of the first period by extending her paddle to deny Abbey Murphy’s blast from deep in the left circle.

Held without a point in the first four games, Coyne-Schofield tallied twice within a span of 3:10 early in the second period to give the Americans a 3-0 lead. She collected the puck off the end boards and banked a shot into the net at 1:41 and before capping a pretty passing sequence at 4:51.

Edwards’ shot from above the circles sailed through traffic and beat Durante at 5:17 of the second before Curl converted over six minutes later. Taylor Heise set up Bilka to cap the five-goal period with 1:33 left in the session.

–Field Level Media

MILAN — Czech teenager Metodej Jilek produced the race of his life to beat a powerful field and seize gold in the 10,000 meters on Friday, delivering the Czech Republic its first speed skating title of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

Jilek was joined on the podium by Poland’s Vladimir Semirunniy, who claimed silver, while Dutchman Jorrit Bergsma took bronze.

Nineteen-year-old Jilek, who won bronze in the 10,000m at the 2025 ISU World Speed Skating Single Distances Championships, clocked 12 minutes 33.43 seconds to finish 5.65 seconds clear of Semirunniy, underlining his emergence as one of the sport’s most exciting prospects.

“I feel incredible,” Jilek said. “This gold medal represents all the training I’ve been doing for years — everything I’ve been working towards. It’s amazing.

“I knew even before I came to the Olympics that I could do really well in the 10,000m, that I could win it. It was just a matter of doing the lap times.

“I’ve done thousands of these lap times throughout the summer so I knew what it feels like, what I have to do. It was just about dialing it in.”

His victory made him the Czech Republic’s second Olympic champion of these Games, following Zuzana Maderova’s triumph in the women’s parallel giant slalom on Sunday.

It also marked the nation’s second speed skating medal in Milan Cortina, after Jilek claimed silver in the 5,000m on Sunday.

Competing in his first Olympics, Jilek faced a stacked field that included newly crowned 5,000m Olympic champion Sander Eitrem, France’s Timothy Loubineaud, Semirunniy and 10,000m world record holder Davide Ghiotto of Italy — all considered strong contenders after standout World Cup campaigns.

“Honestly, I wasn’t even that nervous before the race,” Jilek added.

“The only thing I was a bit nervous about is that I woke up a bit sick — I didn’t feel that good. I didn’t know how my body would react.

“Other than that, I knew I could do it. I was pretty confident.”

Drawn in the penultimate pair of the six-pair program, Jilek started in the inner lane alongside 2018 Pyeongchang 10,000 champion Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada and quickly settled into a smooth, controlled rhythm.

He never looked in doubt and ultimately lapped Bloemen, who is two decades his senior.

Jilek had been forced to settle for silver behind Eitrem in the 5,000m, but there was no repeat of that heartbreak on Friday.

Russian-born long-distance specialist Semirunniy was congratulated by Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“‘Poland welcomed me like its own child,’ said Vladimir Semirunniy recently, who won a silver Olympic medal for his new homeland today. A beautiful story. Bravo Wladek!” Tusk posted on social media platform X.

TIMELESS BERGSMA

Bergsma — the 10,000m champion at Sochi 2014, silver medalist at Pyeongchang 2018 and 5,000m bronze medalist in Sochi — turned back the clock with a performance full of his trademark composure and metronomic pacing.

The arena, awash in orange as Dutch fans filled the stands once again, roared the 40-year-old on with every lap as he battled alongside Ghiotto in the fourth pair.

Meanwhile, Loubineaud stayed patient as Eitrem set the early pace in the final pair, conserving energy before mounting a late surge. The Frenchman’s strong finish earned him fourth place once again, while Eitrem faded and ultimately slipped to seventh.

Italy’s Riccardo Lorello, the Milan-born skater who grew up minutes from the venue, missed the podium but impressed once more. The 23-year-old Olympic debutant posted the eighth-fastest time, backing up the bronze he claimed in the 5,000m.

Starting from the inner lane in the first pair, Lorello was greeted by a warm reception as Italian flags waved across the arena. Paired with Denmark’s Viktor Hald Thorup — a late replacement after American Casey Dawson withdrew — Lorello pulled clear early and skated alone for most of the race.

Thorup was unable to keep pace and later recorded a DNF due to cramping.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media