BROWNSBURG, Ind. – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced Saturday that the team has exercised its contract option on NTT IndyCar Series driver Takuma Sato, retaining him for the 2020 season.

Sato first joined the team in 2012 and returned in 2018. He has earned five wins in the series to date, three of which have come with RLL.

The 2020 season will be Sato’s third consecutive with RLL and fourth overall.

Sato earned his second win of the season, and fifth overall in the series, in the Bommarito 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Aug. 24.

Other season highlights include a win from pole in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, the pole for the DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway and third-place finishes at both the Indianapolis 500 and the first Dual in Detroit.

“We have been very pleased with the results and level of competition Takuma has shown this season,” said Bobby Rahal, co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with David Letterman and Mike Lanigan. “His two wins and two poles don’t fully indicate how competitive he has been overall this season and the fact that he was a contender at many other races. He is an integral part of our team which I believe we have shown. This decision allows us to keep the continuity and continue to build upon our program for 2020.”

“I am very happy to continue our path together again after this season,” added Sato. “Every single member of the team is extremely loyal and have given me unbelievable support. I truly feel at home here and I am so proud of the team. We have had another great season this year and even had some tough times but it only made our relationship stronger. I can’t thank Bobby, Mike, David and entire team enough and I am looking forward to finishing the season strong and also looking forward to 2020.”

Sato, a native of Tokyo, Japan, has made 168 starts in the IndyCar Series since his rookie season in 2010. His Indy car highlights include wins in the 2017 Indianapolis 500, 2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, 2018 Portland Grand Prix, 2019 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama and the 2019 Bommarito 500 at Gateway, with three of the five coming with RLL.

Of his 12 Indy car podium finishes to date, eight have come with RLL and he has earned nine Indy car poles, two of which are with RLL.

Prior to joining the IndyCar Series, Sato competed in 90 Formula One races between 2002-2008, with his highest finish of third coming at the 2004 United States Grand Prix.

JACKSON, Miss. - Ben An kept his 36-hole lead when the second round of the storm-delayed Sanderson Farm Championship was finished Saturday morning.

An had to play 25 holes on Friday and posted two rounds of 6-under 66. He was at 12-under 132, making this the second time in two months he has had a 36-hole lead on the PGA Tour. An finished third at the Wyndham Championship the last time he was in this position.

He was two ahead of Scottie Scheffler (66), George McNeill (67), Tom Hoge (70) and J.T. Poston (70).

Cameron Percy had a chance to join the group at 10-under 134 until he made bogey on the 18th hole Saturday morning.

The third round was played in threesomes off both tees to get the tournament back on schedule.

VIRGINIA WATER, England – It’s 1,131 yards of claustrophobic chaos that annually makes any round on Wentworth’s West Course a study in diminishing returns.

It’s a rarity in golf, at least golf at the professional level, to finish a round with back-to-back par 5s – and conventional wisdom suggests the birdie opportunities would create one-way traffic. But as three days of trial and error have proven, Wentworth’s finish is not a pushover.

For every Ross Fisher, who holed his second shot from 225 yards on the 18^th hole for an albatross on Saturday at the BMW PGA Championship, there’s a Jon Rahm, who was cruising along with a two-stroke lead when he reached the penultimate tee.

“Besides the last two holes, actually, besides basically the last seven strokes, really, the rest of the round was almost bulletproof,” Rahm explained.

Actually, it took the Spaniard, who was 5 under for the day through 16 holes, 11 strokes to play the last two frames, but his point is valid. It all started with a wild drive into the trees left of the 17^th fairway that led to a bogey and ended with a 10-footer for par on the 18^th hole.

“I mean, I'm not even asking for birdies,” Rahm pleaded. “There's two pars, and having a one-shot lead, but still, it's a lot of golf to come.”

Instead, Rahm will start the final day at the European Tour’s flagship event tied with Danny Willett, who rebounded from a bogey at No. 15 with a birdie at the 17^th hole for a share of the lead.

But then, neither Rahm nor Willett had as much of a rollercoaster ride on the finishing tandem as Justin Rose. He eagled the 17^th hole to move to 13 under and into third place just behind the front-runners. “Seventeen was awesome. Felt like I was really in the tournament,” the Englishman said.

In many ways what happened next is a microcosm of Rose’s round, with a bogey at the last to drop him a field goal off the lead.

“I thought I did everything right on 18, too. It's frustrating,” Rose lamented. “That green is so severe. It's kind of why I didn't go for it yesterday and I was in between clubs and I was a little in-between clubs today and I thought the pin on the left, if I did miss right it wasn't the end of the world.”

What should, at least for professionals, be a golden opportunity to make up ground late in a round is in fact one of the most challenging finishes on the European Tour and one of the most unique finales in golf. No regular stop on the PGA Tour finishes with back-to-back par 5s.

“Those par 5s, you can make up a lot of ground or it can bite you in the butt,” said Billy Horschel, who is playing the BMW PGA for the first time this week. “I've seen guys make doubles on 17 and 18, and some guys make eagle, eagle or birdie, eagle. It allows a great opportunity where you are coming in Sunday to either make up shots or possibly lose a lot of ground.”

There are those like Fisher, who is 4 under par on Nos. 17 and 18 for the week, who make the most of the opportunity; and then there are those like Rory McIlroy, who is 2 over on the two finishers after closing his round on Thursday double bogey-bogey.

“I hung in there. I made some good pars when I may have put myself out of position. And then I took advantage of most of the par 5s which was good,” said McIlroy who finally got on the board at Nos. 17 and 18 with a birdie at the 17^th hole on Saturday.

These wild swings of fortune are one of the reasons why Wentworth annually produces some of the European Tour’s most drama-filled finishes. Last year it was Francesco Molinari who needed to get up and down for par from the fringe on No. 18 for victory. Even more impressive was the 2014 championship, when McIlroy rallied from seven strokes back with a closing 66 that included birdies at Nos. 17 and 18 for a one-stroke victory.

The Northern Irishman, who is currently nine shots off the lead, will need an even more magical finish this time.

“I'm a realist and I know I won from seven back a few years ago, and I feel like that's something that happens maybe once in your career. Maybe try to make it twice,” he said.

At least a half dozen others are probably imagining a similar finish on Sunday at Wentworth where the chamber of commerce weather is poised to become more of a “proper” English summer. But it won’t be the weather that dictates the outcome, it will be the West Course’s 1,131 yards of closing chaos.

Essex 160 for 5 (Delport 55, Reece 2-24) beat Derbyshire 126 (Harmer 4-19, Nijjar 3-26) by 34 runs

Simon Harmer hadn't had a particularly rewarding Blast season. Unstoppable in the Championship, he had generally become a mere mortal over 20 overs. Then Derbyshire, in their first T20 Finals Day, had to contend with him on a turning Edgbaston pitch and the story changed as his destructive display pointed Essex towards a comprehensive victory and added another satisfying memory to an outstanding summer.

Harmer has been Essex's Championship showstopper: his 78 wickets at 18.12 are the prime reason why they have a title showdown with Somerset at Taunton next week. As Essex's captain in the Blast, however, he had mustered 10 wickets all season and disappeared for nine an over. He was just another player hoping that Edgbaston might look favourably upon him.

All that changed in a second semi-final in which Derbyshire succumbed meekly on a turning surface, falling 34 runs short of Essex's challenging 160 for 5. They didn't play spin particularly well, and a couple of their dismissals could fairly be described as naïve, but when it comes to facing Harmer they are not alone in that charge.

Harmer finished with 4 for 19, his tranquillity never threatened, and he had quite an ally, too, in Aron Nijjar, a 24-year-old left-arm spinner from Romford, who had the onerous task of replacing the modish Australian leggie Adam Zampa on Finals Day in only his second Twenty20 match, conceded 14 runs in his first four balls, but lived to tell a glorious tale as Essex won a T20 semi-final at the fifth attempt.

Harmer and Nijjar took three wickets apiece in the space of 58 balls, five of them hitting the stumps. When the sixth batsman to perish, Alex Hughes, was lured down the pitch by Nijjar and stumped, so fell Derbyshire's top-scorer, on 23. There was another wicket for a spinner, too, when Dan Lawrence bowled Fynn Hudson-Prentice.

Harmer's first ball jolted Derbyshire, their captain, Billy Godleman, the second batsmen to fall as he turned one sharply to hit the left-hander's off stump. He repeated the dose in his third over against Leus du Plooy, another left-hander, another delivery that turned big. Next ball, Anuj Dal, determined to use his feet, ran at one and was bowled through the gate. His last wicket was Daryn Smit, who tried to reverse sweep him past two fielders at backward point, the most befuddled shot of all.

"I'm used to seeing the ball disappear so it's nice to bowl on something that suits me," Harmer said. Essex started their Blast campaign in the South Group so badly that they have essentially been playing knockout cricket for six matches, knowing that one more defeat would be fatal, and the knowledge has improved them.

Nijjar will attract less attention, but his contribution was, in a way, all the more remarkable because he had not bowled a single delivery in Essex 1st XI cricket all season. His last game of note was a 2nd XI match against Hampshire at Southampton in the first week of August. When Wayne Madsen sniffed vulnerability and struck him for 4-6-4 in his first four balls, things looked ominous; for him to then bowl Madsen round his legs, trying to sweep, was a crucial response.

Derbyshire were the last of the 18 counties to reach Finals Day and for all but the most committed follower of county cricket they could hardly have been more of an unknown quantity. Names did not as much trip off the tongue as go clean out of the mind. Obscurity, for a few hours at least, was in vogue. A side that reached the final stages by toppling Lancashire at Old Trafford were clearly capable of being better than the sum of their parts, and they will be deflated by their display.

Essex took command with an opening stand of 78 in 8.1 overs, Cameron Delport the dominant factor. His 55 from 31 balls gave him 408 runs for the tournament and the highest strike rate, at 172.15, of any of the 13 batsmen who had passed that 400-run mark. He might have fallen early, a leg-side swing against Logan van Beek falling safely when he was only 6, but his strokeplay became increasingly daunting until he deposited Hughes to long-off.

Once Delport had been silenced, Derbyshire shook themselves down and gradually got back into the match on a grippy surface that suited their medium-paced mix. Lawrence, who has grown into the T20 format this season by adopting a more aggressive approach, made little impact as he carved Hughes' knuckle ball to third man; Ryan ten Doeschate, lbw to Luis Reece's offcutter, also missed out.

Tom Westley, Delport's opening partner, played the other innings of substance, 39 from 34 balls, although he, too, had fortune on his side, on 13, when van Beek failed to throw him out from mid-on. Westley's departure to Reece at deep backward square leg preceded a problematic finish for Essex as they failed to find the boundary for 37 deliveries, from Ravi Bopara's third-man dab off Reece to Adam Wheater's square drive four balls from the end when Ravi Rampaul narrowly missed his yorker.

Bopara has crabbed all season about batting as a finisher at No. 6, and who found himself up at five for Finals Day. His scoring rate in the closing overs has been spectacular, justifying his place in the order, but it was a more restrained Bopara (28 from 23 balls when a ramp shot went awry) who guided then to 160 for 5. It was easily enough.

Billy Godleman suggested the Edgbaston pitch had offered "excessive turn" and bemoaned his side's failure to adapt to conditions after losing their T20 Blast semi-final against Essex.

Derbyshire lost eight wickets to spin - four to Simon Harmer, three to Aron Nijjar and one to Dan Lawrence - and struggled badly in the middle overs after flying out the blocks, and Godleman suggested that "the better team won" on the day.

"There was excessive turn," he said, "which obviously provides challenges for hitting boundaries, but our job as professionals is to adapt to whatever conditions we're given, and try to find a way to be effective.

"Unfortunately for us, Essex were a lot better at that today than we were."

Godleman said that he was "slightly concerned" at the interval after Essex had posted 160 for 5 - the highest total across the two semi-finals - and that his side had conceded an above-par total.

"I thought the way that Alex [Hughes], Matthew [Critchley], and Luis [Reece] bowled," he said, "taking pace off in the middle, I could see that it would be difficult against their spinners in the second half of the game. I thought anything over 140 would be difficult."

But Godleman reflected that his side had come a long way in the past three seasons, which have all been under the stewardship of specialist T20 coaches - first John Wright, and then this season Dominic Cork.

"We're very proud, very happy with the accomplishment of making it to Finals Day. It's obviously bittersweet - you get here, you're part of the day, it's such a great atmosphere, and you just think 'win two games and we'll lift the trophy'.

"I think once these 24-48 hours pass by, the real context of what we've done as a club, playing with only one overseas player, giving opportunities to a lot of our talented homegrown cricketers, and being able to beat a lot of the big counties home and away, make it to Finals Day - we're really proud."

Godleman suggested that his side had taken plenty from their quarter-final loss to Hampshire in 2017, and said that in the future he hoped they would reflect on this defeat as something to learn from in the future.

"Two years ago, we made a quarter-final and got beaten quite badly by Hampshire," he said. "This year, we made a quarter-final, we won it convincingly, and some of the guys who played in the defeat to Hampshire a few years ago really gained from that experience.

"Hopefully next year, or in the next 24 months, we can make another Finals Day and draw upon this experience."

A Bernardo Silva hat trick helped Manchester City to secure the joint second-biggest Premier League victory in history with an 8-0 thrashing of a bewildered Watford at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

The champions, responding to their first league defeat since January at Norwich City last weekend, blew Watford away by becoming the first side to score five goals in the first 18 minutes of a Premier League game.

- ESPN Premier League fantasy: Sign up now!
- VAR in the Premier League: Ultimate guide

David Silva got City up and running after finishing off a delightful pass from Kevin De Bruyne in the first minute, before Sergio Aguero's 100th Premier League goal doubled the hosts' advantage from the penalty spot.

Riyad Mahrez curled a brilliant free kick into the net in the 12th minute, with a Bernardo Silva header and a Nicolas Otamendi tap-in completing the 18-minute rout.

Watford brought on an extra defender just after the half-hour mark to try to stem the tide, seeing themselves through to halftime without further damage, before Bernardo Silva added a sixth goal three minutes into the second period.

Bernardo Silva completed his first top-flight hat trick with a close-range finish to make it seven, before De Bruyne hammered home a superb eighth as City came up one short of Manchester United's record 9-0 victory over Ipswich Town in 1995.

The San Diego Padres have fired manager Andy Green, general manager A.J. Preller announced Saturday.

"I want to thank Andy for his tireless work and dedication to the Padres over the last four seasons," Preller said in a statement. "This was an incredibly difficult decision but one we felt was necessary at this time to take our organization to the next level and expedite the process of bringing a championship to San Diego. Our search for a new manager will begin immediately."

Bench coach Rod Barajas will serve as interim manager for the rest of the 2019 season.

Green was 274-366 in four seasons as Padres manager. They won no more than 71 games in any of his three full seasons in charge and are 69-85 this year.

In August 2017, the Padres gave Green a contract extension that ran through the 2021 season.

San Diego's .428 winning percentage with Green is the fourth worst in the majors since 2016, ahead of only the Detroit Tigers (.406), Baltimore Orioles (.408) and Miami Marlins (.427), according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Padres' 4.0 runs per game, .236 batting average and .695 OPS since 2016 are all MLB worsts.

The big offseason signing of Manny Machado to a 10-year, $300 million contract couldn't turn the Padres' fortunes, as San Diego will miss the playoffs for the 13th straight season.

The new manager will inherit a lineup that includes Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Chris Paddack as well as one of baseball's best farm systems.

Japan's world number four Naomi Osaka says she is "most comfortable" playing on hard courts.

Osaka, 21, is enjoying a strong run of form at the Pan Pacific Open in her home city Osaka, reaching the final by beating Belgium's Elise Mertens, 23.

The two-time Grand Slam winner cruised past Mertens 6-4 6-1 in her second game of the day, after overcoming Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva 6-4 6-4.

"For me, I learned a lot from when I played her at Wimbledon," Osaka said.

"And I know that a hard court is where I feel most comfortable."

Osaka added: "Also, I'm playing in Japan, so I thought I had the advantage this time around."

The reigning Australian Open champion will play Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final, after the 28-year-old beat Germany's Angelique Kerber 6-3 6-3 in the other semi-final.

Roger Federer and John Isner won their Laver Cup singles matches as Team Europe lead Team World 5-3 after day two of the event.

Nick Kyrgios had overcome a 0-4 deficit in the first-set tie-break to take the opening set in Geneva, Switzerland.

But Federer fought back from two games down in the match tie-break to defeat the Greek 7-6 (7-5) 5-7 10-7.

Federer maintained his unbeaten run in Laver Cup singles matches with a 5-0 record.

Kyrgios won a spectacular 31-stroke rally with a backhand winner early in the game which saw him claim the opening set, but a weak service game from the Greek at 5-5 in the second set gave the world number three the advantage.

"It was really close that first set so it was tough to lose," Federer said. "The crowd could feel it, I could feel it.

"I needed to get some energy going but you can't do that if you don't play any good shots and Nick was playing very well.

"I was just trying to stay focused. If you can turn the momentum, the crowd gets back into it and I need some earplugs next time, it was just phenomenal."

Earlier, American Isner temporarily gave Team World a lifeline by defeating Alexander Zverev 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 10-1.

The 34-year-old was two games from defeat but overcame the German, with the overall score standing at 3-3 prior to Federer and Kyrgios taking to the court.

"Maybe we're turning the tables just a little bit," Isner said. "Team World is in this and we're here to win, so let's get it going!"

A first-set tie-break saw world number six Zverev beat the American 7-2. In the second set, the score was tied at 4-4 when Isner broke Zverev's serve, going on to win the set 6-4.

But a match-deciding tie-break saw world number 20 Isner win seven points before Zverev was able to get a point on the board, his only point in a 10-1 tie-break.

Later on Saturday, Rafael Nadal will play his first matches of the weekend when he faces Milos Raonic in the singles, before teaming up with Stefanos Tsitsipas to face Kyrgios and Jack Sock in the doubles.

Day two of the three-day tournament awards two points per win, with the first team to reach 13 points declared the winner.

The Laver Cup is into its third year but this is the first time the tournament is an officially sanctioned ATP Tour event.

The previous tournaments in Prague and Chicago took place on an exhibition basis.