Sports
USWNT star Sam Coffey (knee) recovering after surgery
Apr 11, 2026; San Jose, California, USA; United States midfielder Sam Coffey (17) during the first half against Japan at PayPal Park. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images United States Women’s National Team midfielder Sam Coffey is recovering after undergoing minor knee surgery earlier this week, her club team, Manchester City, announced Friday.
Manchester City didn’t elaborate on the nature of Coffey’s injury or the surgery. The team said Coffey would “work on recovery over the summer.”
Coffey, 27, left the NWSL’s Portland Thorns for Manchester City on an $875,000 transfer fee in January. She played in 10 games and helped Manchester City win the Women’s Super League Championship.
Coffey has scored five goals in 46 matches for the USWNT and is one of the team leaders. She helped the squad win the gold medal in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Coffey will miss games against Brazil on June 6 and June 9. She is expected to be fully recovered before World Cup qualifying begins in November.
Coffey played four seasons (2022-25) in Portland and had five goals and 17 assists in 98 matches. She helped the Thorns win the NWSL title in 2022.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Grayson Rodriguez to make first start for Angels vs. Dodgers
Feb 24, 2026; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Angels pitcher Grayson Rodriguez (21) reacts in the dugout with his team after being relieved in the second inning against the San Francisco Giants during a spring training game at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Allan Henry-Imagn Images Grayson Rodriguez is scheduled to make his first start for the Los Angeles Angels as they hope to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers on Sunday in Anaheim, Calif.
The 26-year-old right-hander was considered the club’s top offseason acquisition, imported from the Baltimore Orioles at a heavy price — outfielder Taylor Ward — despite having missed the entire 2025 campaign because of an elbow injury that eventually required surgery.
Rodriguez has not pitched in a major league game since July 31, 2024.
He was deemed healthy enough to pitch for the Angels in spring training and threw 12 2/3 innings in four starts, but suffered from shoulder inflammation and was shelved indefinitely.
After two minor league rehab outings, including last Sunday for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga, Rodriguez once again has been given the green light. He is slated to be reinstated from the injured list to face the Dodgers in the Freeway Series.
“I just thank God that I’m here,” Rodriguez told reporters on Saturday before the Dodgers’ 15-2 win. “It was a tough road for sure. My wife, my family, they helped me through it.
“Rehab, there’s a lot of dark days with that. And for a little bit just kind of wondering why certain things kept happening. Finally, obviously, getting to this organization and working with this medical staff, we got our thumb on it and got after what needed to be better, and here we are.”
Rodriguez made 43 starts for the Orioles in 2023 and 2024, going 20-8 with a 4.11 ERA. He has seen the Dodgers just once, pitching the first five innings of a 6-4 home loss for the Orioles on July 17, 2023. He did not get a decision after allowing four runs.
His Angels debut will come against a team that’s won four in a row, outscoring its opponents 30-4. The Dodgers opened this series with a 6-0 win before recording a season-high 15 runs in the rematch.
Hoping for that same offensive output will be right-hander Roki Sasaki (1-3, 5.88), who has gotten a total of six runs of support this season in his three losses.
The 24-year-old has never faced the Angels in his two-year career.
Once seen as a candidate for a role in the bullpen, where he pitched effectively last postseason, Sasaki is now being counted upon to help anchor the starting rotation with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow having gone on the injured list.
“It seems like every year we go through it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts lamented to reporters before the game Saturday about the health of his pitching staff. “What I have learned is we get through it. It doesn’t feel great when you’re in it, (but) in baseball, it happens all the time with pitching.”
The Dodgers have benefited this week from the return of shortstop Mookie Betts, who missed 33 games with a strained right oblique.
The eight-time All-Star and 2018 American League MVP has just four hits in five games since his return, but they’ve been impactful. He has homered in two of his past three starts.
– Field Level Media
Sports
Report: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander voted to repeat as NBA MVP
May 11, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) during the second half in game four of the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been voted the NBA Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive season, ESPN reported Sunday morning.
The official announcement of the winner is set to come at Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
Gilgeous-Alexander will become the 14th player in league history to win back-to-back MVPs. He will be the first player to win consecutive MVP awards since Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and the first guard to win consecutive MVPs since Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Signed to a four-year, $273.3 million super maximum contract extension in the offseason, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.1 points, 6.6 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 68 games (all starts) this season.
Gilgeous-Alexander, 27, is averaging 25.3 points, 5.3 assists and 4.7 boards in 530 career games (521 starts) with the Los Angeles Clippers (2018-19) and Thunder.
The guard led the Thunder to their first NBA championship last year. Aiming for back-to-back titles, Oklahoma City will open play in the Western Conference final on Monday against the San Antonio Spurs.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Carolina Hurricanes Waiting Game Continues Ahead of Eastern Conference Finals
When the NHL holds its postseason tournament, it’s supposed to be a grind for whatever teams can make it to late May and June.
But there has been nothing hectic or grueling about these Stanley Cup playoffs for the Carolina Hurricanes.
They’ve hardly had anything to do.
Across a period of more than a month, they’ve played eight games. Won them all, and that’s what has caused this spring inactivity.
They’ve waited more than a week to not only learn who they’ll play – either the Buffalo Sabres or Montreal Canadiens — in the Eastern Conference finals, but when they’ll play again.
There’s progress on that front because we know a date – Thursday night. When the Hurricanes return to the ice for Game 1 in Raleigh, N.C., it will be another case of the conversation revolving around the pros and cons of rust vs. rest.
This latest layoff for the Hurricanes at least comes with a point of reference – to some degree, they’ve already gone through this once this postseason, waiting a week between the opening round and the Eastern Conference semifinals. This gap in games will cover nearly two weeks.
So coach Rod Brind’Amour has leaned on that recent experience to get through the past week.
“We always say ‘sharpening the knife,’ ” Brind’Amour said. “We’ve got to keep razor sharp on what we do well.”
Not all has gone perfect for the Hurricanes in these playoffs. The first line has been rather inactive on the scoresheet, but that ought to be considered a blessing to go 8-0 and still wait on Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov to kick it into gear.
The goaltending part has gone better than any Hurricanes fan could have hoped for. Frederik Andersen has been splendid in tending to the crease for the entirety of Carolina’s postseason run so far.
He was pretty much a part-timer during the regular season, ringing up a 16-14-5 record as rookie Brandon Bussi made waves in the nets. But Brind’Amour went with the experience angle when choosing who to send out for the first game against the Ottawa Senators.
There hasn’t been a reason to make a change, so it has been Andersen all the time.
And given the reduced rate of games for the Hurricanes, the whole part-time job aspect might be right down Andersen’s alley.
For a team in the middle of the playoffs, some of the quotes from Carolina players sound like comments that might be heard in September on the dawn of a new season.
“I’m really excited to get going again,” captain Jordan Staal said.
As the Hurricanes have waited, one thing hasn’t changed from when the horn sounded on Game 4 in Philadelphia as the Hurricanes dismissed the Flyers into offseason vacation.
Carolina still needs to win eight more games to achieve its goal. So don’t worry, the grind will come.
Grayson Rodriguez to make first start for Angels vs. Dodgers
Report: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander voted to repeat as NBA MVP
