BASEBALL
Rays win 12th straight
The Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday won their 12th straight game to start the season, one short of the major-league record, as Randy Arozarena hit a three-run homer in a 9-7 victory over the Boston Red Sox. The 1987 Milwaukee Brewers and 1982 Atlanta Braves both opened 13-0, tying for the best mark in big-league history. Tampa Bay’s 12-game winning streak matches the team record set in June 2004. Taj Bradley (1-0) won his MLB debut for the Rays. The 22-year-old right-hander allowed three runs and struck out eight over five innings. Arozarena made it 3-0 with an opposite-field homer off Chris Sale (1-1) in the first.
ICE HOCKEY
Islanders clinch playoff spot
Brock Nelson scored twice on Wednesday as the New York Islanders beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 to wrap up a playoff spot. The Islanders were awaiting the outcome of the Florida Panthers-Carolina Hurricanes game to determine their first-round opponents. Hudson Fasching and Anders Lee also scored for New York, while Ilya Sorokin made 16 saves to close out the regular season. Elsewhere, Wyatt Johnston scored twice, and Tyler Seguin had a goal and an assist as the Dallas Stars beat the St Louis Blues 5-2 to take the Central Division lead, while the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks 3-1 to finish fifth in the Pacific Division.
RUGBY UNION
Japan eyes 2030s events
The Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) on Wednesday said that it wants to host the men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups in 2035 and 2037. Japan reached the quarter-finals as hosts of the men’s showpiece in 2019, the first time the tournament was held outside the traditional powerhouse nations. Australia is to host the men’s event in 2027 and the women’s tournament two years later, while the US is to stage the 2031 and 2033 tournaments. “We’ve informed them [World Rugby] that we are aiming to host at the earliest [2035 and 2037], and we will go forward looking at when the conditions will allow us to really stage it,” Kyodo news agency quoted JRFU chairman Kensuke Iwabuchi as saying. France is to host the men’s World Cup in September and October, while England is to stage the next women’s event in 2025.
SOCCER
Referee attack earns ban
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya midfielder Ibrahim Bayesh has been suspended for two years for trying to attack a referee after being sent off in a game on Sunday, the Iraqi Football Association said. Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya lost 3-2 to Al-Kahraba after a last-gasp goal, to drop to second place in the league. “Ibrahim Bayesh mocked the referee as he was shown a second yellow card, and after that a red card, as a result [the player] ran towards the referee and tried to attack him, and he threatened and insulted the referee,” Iraq’s federation said in a statement on Wednesday. Hammadi Ahmed, a member of the club’s administrative board, also received a two-year ban after he pushed the referee and directed “harsh and obscene words” to the refereeing staff, the federation said. Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya have to play three home matches without fans and were ordered to pay a fine of 10 million Iraqi dinars (US$7,637) after their fans rioted after the game.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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