I Dig Sports
SARASOTA, Fla. -- Starter Grayson Rodriguez and reliever Andrew Kittredge will miss the Baltimore Orioles' opener because of injuries.
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told reporters Friday that Rodriguez has pitching elbow discomfort. Hyde said Kittredge needs arthroscopic knee surgery and will be sidelined for multiple months.
Rodriguez, a 25-year-old right-hander, went 13-4 with a 3.86 ERA in 20 starts last season. He struck out 130 and walked 36 in 116 2/3 innings.
Kittredge, who turns 35 on March 17, was 5-5 with a 2.80 ERA and one save in 74 relief appearances for St. Louis last year.
Baltimore opens at Toronto on March 27.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Houston Astros first baseman Christian Walker received some good news regarding the oblique issue that has limited him during spring training.
Walker had flown back to Houston to get the oblique examined. Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters Friday the MRI did not reveal any strain.
Espada said Walker was returning to the Astros' spring training camp Friday and would ease back in.
Walker, who turns 34 on March 28, batted .251 with a .335 on-base percentage, 26 homers and 84 RBI in 130 games for Arizona last season. He signed a $60 million, three-year contract with the Astros in December.
British number one Katie Boulter recovered from a set down to beat Irina-Camelia Begu in the second round at Indian Wells.
The Romanian won the first set in a tie-break but Boulter then took charge to win 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 6-0 in California.
Boulter, 28, is playing just her third tournament of the year and had a bye in the first round while Begu, ranked 74 in the world, beat Ann Li of the USA.
The Englishwoman will face a much sterner test in the third round when she plays Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina, with the seventh seed having beaten Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands 6-3 6-3.
Boulter has dropped to 38 in the world rankings having not played since being knocked out of the Australian Open second round in January.
Scotland co-captain Finn Russell says he pays little attention to criticism directed at him, and has moved on quickly from his crucial missed kick against England in the Six Nations at Allianz Stadium.
Russell had a chance to effectively win the game in London by converting Duhan van der Merwe's 79th-minute try, but his touchline effort slid past the post and England held on for a 16-15 victory.
The Bath fly-half was central to an impressive Scotland attacking display that produced three stunning tries, but some fans and pundits have instead focused on his wayward display from the tee that saw him miss all three attempts at goal.
And he said: "I think that's just part of the job, isn't it?
"If I'm going to be the 10 and the goal-kicker, and I don't get the kicks like I could have done against England, that's all going to come with it.
"That's why you do it, to get these chances and opportunities. Had I got that kick, it would have been a different story. But missing it, that's part of it and that's how it goes. I'm not too stressed about what's been said about my game.
"As long as I'm happy with it myself, that's all that matters. I go back to my family and friends and they're the ones that either pick me up or put me down either way, depending on how it goes.
"My dad was saying, 'unlucky with the kick, but you played really well overall'. For me, that means more than what others say."
'Why Wales game is must-win for Scotland coach Townsend'
Maybe that's why Finn Russell, as opposed to Scotland's other co-captain Rory Darge, did media on Friday. Maybe Scottish Rugby felt they needed some stardust, a galvanising presence to fire up the fans and convince them that, yes, the championship bid is over, but yes again, there is something big to play for here.
The 'something big' is back-foot stuff, though. They're playing to avoid a nightmare rather than to keep a dream alive. Their motivation is to avert the horror show of one win from four with a trip to Paris to come and the grand inquisition of the coaches that would come with it.
Scottish heads are done in. Scotland are ranked number one in the tournament for fewest tries conceded, fewest tackles missed and most ball carries, number two for metres gained, line breaks, breakdown steals and tries scored.
And yet they sit fourth in the table and are already out of contention for the big prize.
Still we hear the mumbo-jumbo from former players in other places about Scotland supposedly talking themselves up. During the week, the great Welsh and Lions scrum-half Mike Phillips joined the list of people who don't understand Scottish rugby and the fatalism that has run through it for close to a quarter of a century.
Phillips said the Scots have been predicting Six Nations glory for 20 years, a comment so remarkable that people here will remember it in the way they remember where they were when they heard Elvis had died.
(Younger readers: swap Taylor Swift for Elvis and replace 'died' with 'releasing a new album' or some such revelation).
Predictions of greatness? Many Scottish rugby fans look 20 years older than they actually are because of all the angst they've gone through. Phillips has been living in an alternate reality this whole time.
Borthwick is leading an international team for the first time, having previously held coaching roles with England and Japan before guiding Leicester Tigers to the Premiership title in 2022.
Attack coach Richard Wigglesworth and Kevin Sinfield, who began as defensive lead before moving into a skills role, joined Borthwick from the Tigers backroom.
Defence coach Joe El-Abd is also working in his first international job, combining the role alongside his responsibilities with second-tier French side Oyonnax until the end of the season, while 33-year-old scrum coach Tom Harrison is younger than hooker Jamie George, who will win his 100th cap against Italy on Sunday.
Asked whether it was easy to ignore noise from outside England's camp, Itoje said: "It's a requirement.
"We play a public sport, in front of 80,000 at Allianz Stadium and millions at home every time we pull on an England jersey.
"We want people to be engaged with rugby and have an opinion because if they don't, it probably means they don't care but as players, what we need to do is focus on what we deem important. That is the skill of anybody who lives a relatively public life.
"People will have an opinion on what you do but what really matters is the opinion you have and the opinion of those in your circles."
Itoje's backing of the coaching staff was echoed by utility back Elliot Daly, who has been rewarded for his impressive form off the bench with a starting berth at full-back against the Azzurri.
Responding to Carling's comments, Daly told BBC Sport: "I don't think that is true.
"The coaches have been around this environment for a while, especially Wiggy, Steve and Kev. As a group, they work really well together.
"The relationship the players have with the coaching staff is a really good one."
England: Pearson; Bracken, Hall, Allison, Ridl; Bellamy, Hanson; Scola, Gulley, Raymont, Sodeke, Burrow (capt), Kpoku, Kpoku, James.
Replacements: Tuipulotu, McEachran, Maka, Beckerleg, Treacey, Davis, Davies, Kinder.
Italy: Fasti; Drago, Todaro, Ducros, Faissal; Celi, Bellotto; Pelliccioli, Corvasce, Vallesi, Midena, Opoku-Gyamfi, Bianchi, Casartelli, Milano (capt).
Replacements: Casiraghi, Boccato, Bolognini, Melegari, Fardin, Redondi, Beni, Zanandrea.
AVONDALE, Ariz. Joe Gibbs Racings Christopher Bell undoubtedly starts the NASCAR Cup Series two-race Western Swing as the driver to beat.
The 30-year-old is the defending winner of Sundays Shriners Childrens 500 at Phoenix Raceway and has won two of the first three series races this year, including the last two.
A victory Saturday would make Bell the first driver to win three consecutive races in the Next Gen car era. His dominance extends beyond 2025he leads all drivers with 10 top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in the last 15 races dating back to August. No other driver has more than seven top fives in that span.
I dont really have a message to send to any of them, but its nice to be able to capitalize on race wins, Bell said after winning last week in Austin, Texas. Last year, there were so many race wins that got away whenever I had the fastest car. The last two weeks at Atlanta and here, I kind of won without the fastest car, so its really nice to get those back that I lost last year.
Im excited about whats to come. We have high expectations, high hopes, and goals for this year. Frankly, the last couple of years being at Joe Gibbs Racing in this No. 20 car, I havent been living up to the standards that I hold for myself. Our goal going into 2025 is to do that, or my goal is to do that for myself. I know Adam Stevens feels the same way. He believes were capable of a lot of great things. We havent done that yet in the NASCAR Cup Series season. Maybe 2025 will be the year.
There is no doubt that Bells JGR teammates are hoping his early season success becomes contagious. Three-time Daytona 500 winner and perennial championship contender Denny Hamlin sits 17th in points. The driver of the No. 11 Toyota started this race from the pole last year and has a pair of wins in the desert (2012, 2019).
Chase Briscoe, who earned the Daytona 500 pole in his first start for JGR, is ranked 15th after the No. 19 team won a penalty appeal from NASCAR this week. Ty Gibbs, who won the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix, is 36th in the standings and is still searching for his first top-10 of the season.
Despite Bells strong start, Daytona 500 winner William Byron leads the Cup Series standings entering Phoenix, holding a two-point lead over Team Penskes Ryan Blaney, who won the series championship at Phoenix two years ago.
Last years regular-season champion, 23XI Racings Tyler Reddick, is third in the standings, five points behind Byron. Bell and Hendrick Motorsports Chase Elliott are both 21 points back.
Eight different drivers have earned top-10 finishes in two of the first three races, but no one has placed in the top 10 in all three. Byron, Reddick, and Bell are the only drivers with two top-five finishes.
While the season has already produced a repeat winner, competition has been intense, with a series-record 125 lead changes in the first three races.
Two-time series champion Kyle Busch has emerged as a frontrunner after a difficult 2024 season. He led late in last weeks road course race and has two top-10 finishes this year. His 55 laps led in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet rank fourth this season, a positive sign after missing the playoffs and failing to win a race for the first time in 20 years.
Busch leads all active drivers in laps led at Phoenix (1,190) and pole positions (four) at the one-mile desert track.
I would like to think were ahead of the game there, Busch said. Were in a better spot or in a better position. We had some good hires over the offseasonsome good engineers and some good people from other teamsto kind of up our performance. Anytime you do that and you chase good people, thats what youre going for, right? Youre going for the performance that they can bring to the table. So fresh ideas, different things, and whatnot.
Theyre not going to outwork us, thats for sure, Busch added. But I think the next test is definitely going to be the next two weeksgoing to Phoenix, the short track, a place where we have struggled latelyto see how we can turn that program around.
Team Penskes Joey Logano leads all drivers with 126 laps led this season but has yet to post a top-10 finish. His teammate Austin Cindric has led 106 laps but has just one top-10 result. Wood Brothers Racings Josh Berry has led 56 laps but is still searching for a top-10 finish.
Beyond Bells quest for history, British driver Katherine Legge will make her NASCAR Cup Series start, becoming just the eighth woman to start a race in the modern era (since 1972) and the first since Danica Patrick in the 2018 Daytona 500.
Legge will drive the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, replacing regular driver B.J. McLeod for the weekend. The 44-year-old has prior stock car experience, most recently competing in the ARCA season opener at Daytona. She also has five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts, dating back to her 2018 debut at Mid-Ohio.
A veteran of open-wheel and sports car racing, Legge has raced two full IndyCar seasons (2006-07) and made four Indianapolis 500 starts, with a best finish of 22nd in 2012. She has more than 100 IMSA starts, earning four class wins and 18 podiums from 2007-2024. She made her Chili Bowl Nationals debut this year and is the first female driver inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Hall of Fame.
MERRILL, Mich. On May 2 the Ohio CAT Great Lakes Super Sprints Presented by PERFIT & ARP season will begin at Limaland Motorsports Park.
When it does, Kobe Allison will look to build off his best career seasons in 2023 and 2024, hoping to win a race this season. To do so, Allison knows there are areas of his race night that need to improve.
Allisons stats in 360 Sprint Car racing go back to 2018 with the former National Racing Alliance Sprint Invaders and the Great Lakes Super Sprints.
Since that time, his stat lines read like the build-up of a dramatic novel, with each year showing improvement and better finishes. From three top 10 finishes in 2018, to his first top five in 2019, a write-off year in 2020, two top 10 finishes in 2021, back in the top five in 2022, and his best statistical season in 2023 with 12 top 10s and three top five finishes.
During arguably the most competitive GLSS season to date in 2024, Allison still racked up five top 10s and a top five finish.
The 2025 season is about taking all theyve learned and built and getting to victory lane. The native of Lima, Ohio is committed to the full Ohio CAT Great Lakes Super Sprints schedule, with eyes on select events outside of the Ohio region
Man, finally secure an A-Main win, Allison said of his goals for this year. We have came so close too many times. We know if we can improve our qualifying efforts and keep the car in one peace, weve got a shot. We kick ourselves in the foot with too many poor qualifying efforts and then chase our tail for the rest of the night.
That first career win isnt the only thing on Allisons mind heading into this season.
We have to keep the car in one piece, Allison remarked. This is a long season and to stay in it for a title you have to first finish all the A-Mains.
CONCORD, N.C. At the end of the 2024 season, Drake Troutman was looking for a chance.
The former DIRTcar UMP Modified standout had what he needed to get up and down the road with his own No. 7 late model team, but he was still in search of an opportunity to become a legitimate contender on the national stage. Then came the call from G.R. Smith.
Last year, I ran my own deal strictly off sponsorship and I couldnt continue to do that anymore, Troutman said. That was one of those deals where we just tried to get through last year to turn some heads and hopefully get a ride. Im really fortunate that G.R. reached out to me and gave me this awesome opportunity.
I dont really have an option but to make it a long-term relationship. Now that were in this deal together, I feel like Im a really loyal person and I like to have things long-term. I dont like to be hopping around. Me and G.R. have been clicking really good together, hes been awesome to work with and hes given me everything I need to go out and compete on a national level.
Once the deal was done, Smith and Troutman set their sights on a MD3 Rookie of the Year Award run with the World of Outlaws Late Models, which kicked off at Floridas Volusia Speedway Park.
Finishes of sixth and 15th at DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals made it seem like Troutman was on the right track, giving him reason for optimism going into Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals.
The six-night stretch didnt start off how the No. 22* team were hoping, though. Troutman missed the feature on Mondays opening night of DIRTcar Late Model competition and failed to crack the top 10 in the next four nights.
Entering Saturdays finale, Troutmans only goal was to bring the car home in one piece and move on to the next stop on tour. But as the night progressed, he realized he was capable of much more than that.
We sucked so bad all week, every year I go down there, I dont know what I need to do to be better, Troutman said. I was pretty frustrated. We just kind of threw the kitchen sink at it the last night and it all worked out.
A solid qualifying run put Troutman on the pole of his heat race. After leading all eight laps of that contest to make the Redraw, Troutman pulled the top spot for the 50-lap main event.
The Hyndman, Pa., native quickly pulled out to a five-second advantage over the field, and it looked like Troutman had one hand on his first World of Outlaws trophy. The only problem? The driver trailing him was Jonathan Davenport, whod finished second in three of his last four World of Outlaws starts and already won at Volusia earlier in the week.
Superman made quick work of the gap between he and Troutman and passed him with 11 to go to add another Gator to his trophy case. While the win may have slipped through Troutmans fingers, his runner-up against one of the toughest fields the World of Outlaws face all season proved to the rest of the world what he knew from the start the Team22 Motorsports squad could be a contender against the best.
The track was more to my liking that night, Im not really good whenever its wide open, stand on it and pray to God it turns, Troutman said. As soon as you get done qualifying, thats going to tell you how your night goes for the most part. Especially on a track like that, it can be pretty hard to pass sometimes, and the air plays a huge factor in that place. I knew after qualifying we could win the heat race, and if you start up front, youve got a pretty good shot. At that point, its up to you and making sure everything on the car stays together.
After ending the week on a high note, the teams focus shifted toward preparing for the spring slate of racing, which begins next weekend at Smoky Mountain Speedway with the Tennessee Tipoff. But in the break between events, Troutman has been getting up to speed at several tracks hell return to later in the year with the Outlaws, including Swainsboro Raceway, which hosts The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet on March 21-22.
In his Swainsboro debut with the Spring Nationals Series, Troutman instantly became the class of the field by claiming the feature pole. He settled into second behind Team22 teammate Chris Madden.
It was one of the better race tracks weve raced on all year, Troutman said. Im excited to go back there, I thought it raced really well. The track guys did a good job of prepping the track there before the Feature to give us a good, racey race track. I think weve got a pretty good car there, Ive just got to do better behind the wheel. I mean, I knocked the left-front out on Lap 15 or so, that stuffs on me that I need to eliminate.
One night later, Troutman laid down another top-15 showing in his first trip to Senoia Raceway, which will welcome the World of Outlaws for the Billy Clanton Classic on Sept. 13. This weekend, Troutman plans to head to Boothill Speedway in Louisiana to get some laps with the COMP Cams Super Dirt Series ahead of the $50,000-to-win Bayou Classic with the World of Outlaws, Oct. 10-11.
From there, Troutman will head back north to Tennessee for his second trip to the newly-reconfigured Smoky Mountain.
That was a pretty fun race track too, Troutman said. Its all about going to these places and building notebooks. Thats going to be a newer challenge for us this year, we havent really raced at a whole lot of the Outlaw tracks. But in the long run it makes us better, and were excited.
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