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Jimenez, traded by Cubs, wins it for ChiSox in 9th
CHICAGO -- It was a dream come true for Chicago White Sox rookie Eloy Jimenez -- just not the dream he thought he would see to fruition.
Jimenez, 22, beat the team that traded him with a ninth-inning home run in the White Sox's 3-1 win over the crosstown rival Chicago Cubs on Tuesday.
"When I signed [with the Cubs], I said I wanted to hit one in Wrigley," Jimenez said after the game. "Now with the White Sox, it feels really good."
Jimenez was traded to the White Sox, along with pitcher Dylan Cease, at the All-Star break in July 2017. The Cubs got lefty Jose Quintana back in the deal, as he helped them to two postseasons before Jimenez made it to the majors. But most observers see a star in the making in the soft-spoken Jimenez. He has six home runs in his past nine games.
"He's done some big things for us in a short period of time since he's been here," White Sox manager Ricky Renteria said. "Hopefully it's a trend that continues."
With the game tied at 1 and James McCann on first, Jimenez hit a 1-0 cutter from Cubs reliever Pedro Strop into the left-field bleachers, completing a magical night for him. Adding drama to the moment, Jimenez said it's the first broken-bat home run he has ever hit.
"It was an amazing moment," he said. "I tried to hit a line drive up the middle. When I hit it over the fence, it was amazing."
It's not often there are audible cheers for the opposition at Wrigley Field, but White Sox fans traveled well to the other side of town for the first of four games between the rivals. They were rewarded as much as the team was.
Jimenez was asked what Cubs fans were saying to him throughout the game.
"Exactly the same as they said before the game," Jimenez responded with a smile. "'You suck.' White Sox fans there, too. They said, 'You're the best.' I was so happy for that."
It doesn't get any easier for the Cubs, who lost at home for just the 12th time this season. They'll face hot hurler Lucas Giolito on Wednesday. He's 10-1 with a 2.22 ERA and will attempt to pitch the White Sox back to .500. In the meantime, Renteria and his team will savior Jimenez's heroics.
"He was filled with a lot of excitement over what he just did," Renteria said of the aftermath of the home run. "He's a young man who's getting to the big leagues and getting tested, and he put us in a good position.
"We were hoping he could get a pitch he could handle. He obviously did."
The biggest names in world table tennis fought it out for glory in Shenzhen, thrilling spectators throughout the course of the tournament with exciting battles aplenty, producing some absolutely out of this world points in the process.
To bring light to just some of the standout points on display: Tomokazu Harimoto’s incredible match winner against Wong Chun Ting is not to be missed while Xu Xin showed us how to turn defence into attack with breathtaking results.
When the opponent just continues to return the ball despite your best efforts, what do you do? Sometimes the best answer is to throw a spanner in the works – in the case of Lin Gaoyuan’s match against Maharu Yoshimura an unexpected, but deadly, dropshot proved decisive.
There are plenty more jaw-dropping rallies to see in this edition of DHS ITTF Top 10. Oh, and be sure to stick around to the end of the video to see a simply unbelievable point which left commentator Adam Bobrow shocked!
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Following his on-track actions last weekend at Iowa Speedway, NASCAR has suspended NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series competitor Johnny Sauter for one race.
Sauter was found in violation of Sections 12.1.a; 12.2.b Emergency Action; 12.8.a,c,i NASCAR Member Conduct; 12.8.1.c Member Conduct Guidelines according to the NASCAR penalty report released on Tuesday afternoon.
The suspension stems from an on-track incident involving Sauter and fellow Truck Series competitor Austin Hill.
Sauter got into Hill going into turn one as they raced for position during Sunday’s M&M’s 200. Hill returned the favor a lap later by sending Sauter spinning in turns three and four, which ended with Sauter backing his truck into the outside wall.
The incident left Sauter fuming and he responded quickly, re-firing his No. 13 Ford F-150 and quickly catching back up to Hill’s Toyota Tundra. Sauter shoved Hill’s truck up into the outside wall before nosing into the Hill’s driver’s door and eventually driving off from the scene of the incident.
NASCAR promptly parked Sauter for the rest of the event and ordered both Sauter and Hill to come to the NASCAR hauler after the race.
Sauter, who already has one victory this year in Truck Series competition, will remain eligible for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series playoffs. Sauter and his ThorSport Racing team do have the right to appeal NASCAR’s decision.
Since the suspension was announced, Sauter has posted an update on his Twitter account indicating he’d be racing a super late model at Wisconsin’s Dells Raceway Park on Saturday night instead of in the Truck Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Change of plans…Dells Raceway Park Saturday night Dick Trickle 99! Ya know a Real Racer #DickTrickle #SupportYourLocalShortTrack pic.twitter.com/SIxEDeUIbv
— Johnny Sauter (@JohnnySauter) June 18, 2019
MADISON, Ill. – Christian Eckes is set for a busy day when the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series visit World Wide Technology Raceway this weekend.
Between the two series, the day will feature more than three and a half hours of practice, two qualifying sessions, and 350 miles of racing action.
The day’s track activity is scheduled to start at 10:35 a.m. local time and end some time around midnight when the Gander Truck race sees the checkered flag. Nearly 14 hours of uninterrupted track time makes it a long day for everyone involved. It makes it even longer for drivers doing double duty.
Eckes is scheduled to compete in both series. Currently fourth in the ARCA Menards Series with one win in his nine previous starts this season, Eckes has also made a splash in his limited Truck starts over the last season and a half.
He made his Truck debut at Iowa last summer and finished eighth then went to Gateway last where he qualified second, won the first stage and led a total of 34 laps before an accident ended his night early. He finished ninth in his other two starts last season at Martinsville and Phoenix. He started from the pole in both the ARCA and Truck season openers at Daytona in 2019, and he picked up his fourth-career ARCA win earlier this season at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.
Fourteen hours in a passenger car would be tough for anyone, but Eckes is looking forward to the challenge the long day at Gateway will present him.
“It’s one of my favorite race tracks,” Eckes said. “We should have won both of those races last year. It’s going to be a very long day. I didn’t even think about the fact it’s going to be a fourteen-hour day until right now. I think between the ARCA car and the Truck we should have a chance to win both races.”
Despite his youth, he’s still just 18 years of age, Eckes has built a record many drivers with years of experience would envy. He won the Myrtle Beach 400 and then followed that with a win in the famed Snowball Derby in 2016. He’s been a part of Dale Earnhardt,Jr.’s late model program before making the leap to the Toyota driver development program which has allowed him to race for the Venturini family in ARCA and Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series.
Busch has been very outspoken about the performance of his young Gander Trucks drivers this season. While he’s only run one previous race with the team to this point of the season and might not have been fully included in those comments, Eckes wouldn’t shy away from receiving that type of criticism from his owner.
“I think it depends on the person, but for me I would rather hear it up front,” he said. “I don’t know if that works for everybody. We’ve always had a way of coming back after some tough times. I feel like I am good at knowing what I need to do better. You have to be honest with yourself. I appreciate Kyle or whoever it is telling me like it is and pointing me in the right direction.”
That criticism doesn’t necessarily add to the pressure to perform.
“It doesn’t add to that pressure at all for me,” Eckes said. “I agree with him. He has great stuff. We should be able to go out and win in that equipment. I feel like there are a couple of races we have left on our schedule that we should be able to go out and win in the Truck. I don’t let that distract me from what I am doing though. I expect a lot out of myself already.”
Eckes has had a trying season to this point. One of the pre-season favorites to contend for the ARCA Menards Series championship, Eckes missed the third race of the season at Salem Speedway due to an illness the night before the race. Eckes’ health recovered quickly, but his luck didn’t. He was involved in an accident and finished 26th in the next series race at Talladega. Despite giving up nearly two full races worth of points to teammate Michael Self, Eckes is just 115 points out of the championship points lead.
Even though he missed that early-season race, Eckes believes he still has a solid chance to win the championship. But in order to do that, he and his Kevin Reed-led team cannot give away any more of those valuable championship points.
“I think we have lacked on some of our opportunities, so I give us a B to this point,” he said, grading his performance to this point of the year. “We haven’t capitalized the way I would have liked to. We’ve had great racecars to this point. We need to start putting full races together. We have great speed and everything we need to go do it. We need to eliminate the failures we have, whether it’s on the car or with the driver. If we can do that we’ll be good.”
LE MANS, France – Keating Motorsports has confirmed the team will not appeal the team’s disqualification that cost them the 24 Hours of Le Mans GTE-Am class victory.
The team was informed on Monday that the No. 85 Keating Motorsports Ford GT shared by team owner Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga had been disqualified because the total onboard fuel volume was in excess of the permitted limit.
“As disappointed as all of us are at Keating Motorsports, we have elected to accept the ACO’s decision regarding the disqualification of the No. 85 Keating Motorsports Ford GT from first place in the GTE-Am class in this past weekend’s 87th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said Keating. “Our intention every year at Le Mans, and in every race in which we participate each season, is to compete within the parameters of the rules and with an overall spirit of sportsmanship and professionalism.
“The Keating Motorsports team verified repeatedly before the start of this year’s race that the fuel cell on the No. 85 was at 96 liters in maximum capacity. The fact is that our fuel cell capacity and fuel fill time were both at the proper limits at the beginning of the race.
“However, the new rubber bladder inside the cell expanded by 0.4 of a liter during the race, and our new fuel rig got more efficient by 0.6 seconds after being used a bunch of times over the course of the race’s 24 hours. It is a tough situation, but we failed to build in any margin for error. We were at the limit because we didn’t feel like we had any margin to give.
“Any minute gains from these changes were not factors in what was an otherwise outstanding race for the Keating Motorsports team, our drivers and enthusiastic and supportive sponsor partners. We are proud of our overall performance in the race and believe we clearly showed for nearly the entire 24 hours that we were the team to beat.
“Le Mans is a 24 Hour race that can sometimes be decided by less than a second or a few millimeters. We failed to account for any margin of error this year but won’t make the same mistakes again. We hope to compete in future editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans for many years to come.”
Carson Ferguson is back at the Bojangles Summer Shootout driving for Ladyga Motorsports as he pursues a championship in the same No. 48 once driven by NASCAR star Daniel Hemric.
LAS VEGAS -- Joe Thornton says he'll be back with the San Jose Sharks next season. Whether he'll play for the next decade is a bit more debatable.
"I'll probably play another 10 years. That's what I'm thinking. Five to 10 right now. I got nothing else going on, we'll see," a smiling Thornton said Tuesday in Las Vegas, where the NHL Awards will be held on Wednesday night.
Thornton, who turns 40 on July 2, said he plans to sit down with Sharks owner Hasso Plattner, general manager Doug Wilson and coach Peter DeBoer to "figure something out" in the near future.
"My body feels great. It'll be the first summer in a long time when I don't have to rehab, so I'm excited about that," he said.
Thornton had 16 goals and 35 assists in 73 games last season, with 10 points in 19 playoff games. The veteran center, who won the league scoring title and its MVP award in 2006, settled into an effective third-line center role for the Sharks after years as one of the NHL's premier scorers. Thornton is the active leader in career points with 1,478 and is eighth in NHL history with 1,065 assists.
While he was noncommittal after the Sharks were eliminated in six games by the eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference finals, his teammates said they expected him to return for his 18th NHL season.
The veteran center said he was excited to continue chasing his first Stanley Cup, and the first one in Sharks history, next season.
"We had a good year. With the guys that we have coming back, there's no reason we can't give it another crack," he said.
The Sharks signed star defenseman Erik Karlsson to an eight-year deal on Monday.
Thornton is a nominee for the Masterton Trophy, which is awarded annually to the NHL player voted to best exemplify the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. The other nominees for the award, voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association, are New York Islanders goalie Robin Lehner and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Nick Foligno.
Ready or not, here she comes: Wie back from injury, again, at Women’s PGA
CHASKA, Minn. – Michelle Wie will turn 30 in four months.
Her joints probably feel a lot older.
Since breaking into the golf world’s consciousness shooting 66 as a 13-year-old at the Kraft Nabisco to get into the final Sunday pairing, then wowing PGA Tour pros as a 14-year-old at the Sony Open, Wie has endured more than her share of injuries.
She may only be 29, but she has been playing tour events for 17 years.
All the mileage has taken a toll.
Her wrists, neck, back, hip, knees and ankles have all broken down at some point with the wear and tear.
“I call her a walking cadaver,” David Leadbetter, her swing coach, has cracked more than once. “I don’t think there’s one joint or bone in her body that hasn’t been injured.”
Wie fans might be watching with one eye closed as she makes her return to the game this week from her most recent injury, multiple ailments of the right hand. It’s been so long since she has played healthy, concern runs through more than her own camp.
Is she really ready to play the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship after another long spell away to heal? How much more pounding can her body take? Is rushing back from all these injuries shortening her career’s lifespan, with aching joints appearing to worsen after she was involved in a car accident two-and-a-half years ago? She is battling arthritis in both wrists. She has undergone multiple cortisone injections, and then platelet-rich plasma treatments, after her doctors told her she couldn’t have any more cortisone shots. Most recently, she has been undergoing laser therapy and compression therapy.
“Your hands are everything,” Leadbetter said back in April, when Wie announced she was taking two months off to more fully heal from last fall’s surgery to repair an avulsion fracture, bone spurs and nerve entrapment in her right hand. “You don’t want this to become career ending.”
Leadbetter made that observation as more than Wie’s swing coach.
“She’s almost like a daughter to me,” Leadbetter said. “I’ve known her for so long.
Leadbetter knows Wie’s stubborn nature, how she pushes too hard to play through injuries. Wie acknowledged that stubbornness on Tuesday. She probably shouldn’t have played the International Crown last October. She wasn’t at her best. She appeared to come back from her surgery too quickly this spring. She was 10-over and withdrew after 14 holes of her title defense at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in February, just her second start back. She missed back-to-back cuts in April, at the ANA Inspiration and Lotte Championship. She aggravated her injury in Hawaii, her last start.
“Media-wise and fan-wise, we want Michelle back,” Stacy Lewis said. “I don't think you'll have a player that says otherwise.
“Michelle’s health, I don't know the specifics, but I'd rather see her take more time and really be a hundred percent when she comes back, so she can be the Michelle Wie that everybody has seen on the golf course.
“Over past few years, she has rushed back from a lot of injuries, and it's led to more.”
Wie acknowledged she wanted to play the U.S. Women’s Open two weeks ago, but it would have taken “a miracle” to get ready.
“If I had my choice, I would be playing all through this, but lot of people are in my ear, telling me, reminding me, what has happened in the past,” Wie said. “It's hard to sit out, but you’ve got to listen to people that know what they're talking about.”
Wie considered asking the LPGA for a medical extension to take the rest of this year off, but she decided to commit to the KPMG Women’s PGA after consulting with her doctors.
“My doctors are still saying even if I do take the rest of the year off, it's not something that will get better, just with time,” Wie said. “So, just a matter of rehabbing.”
Wie began chipping and putting two weeks ago and hitting full shots just a week ago.
“Unfortunately, these majors are all really close together,” Wie said. “I'm running on a schedule that's just not really ideal, but the doctors, they gave me advice to wait until the last possible moment to pick up a golf club and that's kind of what I've been doing.”
Leadbetter and Wie are working on a swing that will lessen stress on her arthritic wrists.
“It’s a more body-oriented swing, with the arms, wrists and hands playing less a role,” Leadbetter said. “It’s more about rotation, than sliding.”
Wie, whose five LPGA titles include the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open, hasn’t been a factor in an LPGA event for a year. She is focused on making the most of what her ailing body allows.
“Just doing everything I can to get the inflammation down,” Wie said. “Also, kind of working on different biomechanics, and trying to make my swing more sound . . . trying to figure out how I can move forward without aggravating it.”
Wie said earlier this year that she was inspired watching Tiger Woods overcome back surgery to win the Masters. She said watching the NBA Finals did the same for her. She accompanied her fiancé, Jonnie West, the Golden State Warriors director of basketball operations, during the finals.
“It was pretty inspiring, to see, actually, a tough series, lot of injuries and lot of people playing while they're injured,” she said. “I learned a lot from that, inspired by their tenacity and willingness to win, and doing whatever it takes to be out there. That’s actually what inspired me to be out here this week.”
Watch: Lefty talks some crap on first #PhiresidewithPhil
Phil Mickelson has always had a way with words. And he's had a way with social media since he joined the party last year.
So it was only a matter of time before he found a way to mix the number two together.
Welcome to #PhiresidewithPhil, a video series Mickelson launched on Twitter and Instagram Tuesday, where the five-time major champ tells his followers stories of life on the PGA Tour while sitting next to a flickering candle.
If the first edition is a sign of things to come, we're in for some dookies doozies.
We won't spoil it for you, but listen all the way until the end. It does not stink.
First edition of “Phireside with Phil.”
I’ll be sharing some interesting stories that have taken place through the years and will hopefully have some guests in the future too. #PhiresidewithPhil pic.twitter.com/4NDVTPNKmt
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) June 18, 2019
We'll see you next time on #PhiresidewithPhil ... or as the kids say, deuces.
Lexi, Henderson roll into Women’s PGA with eye on No. 1
CHASKA, Minn. – Brooke Henderson and Lexi Thompson couldn’t get hotter at a better time.
With three major championships over the next seven weeks, they’ll be looking to make the most of their winning form. They each have a chance this week to reach No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings for the first time.
Henderson won the Meijer Classic last week, Thompson the ShopRite Classic two weeks ago.
Ladbrokes makes Henderson the co-favorite to win the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with Jeongeun Lee6 at 11/1 odds, with Thompson at 12/1 odds.
With two victories and a second-place finish in her last seven starts, Henderson has climbed to world No. 5. There’s a load of world ranking points up for grabs in the three upcoming majors.
Henderson reached world No. 2 after winning the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2016 and stayed there for seven weeks. She could get to No. 1 with a victory this week, depending what current world No. 1 Jin Young Ko and others do.
Thompson can also get to No. 1 for the first time with a first- or second-place finish, depending what Ko and others do, but she says she doesn’t get caught up in the world rankings.
“Honestly, I don't think about rankings at all,” Thompson said. “I know I'm No. 2 right now, but I'm just going into every event wanting to win. What I've been doing best is focusing on my game and not trying to force anything, or thinking of the outside picture, or results or anything.”
What does Henderson think she needs to do to narrow the gap between herself and players who have held the No. 1 ranking?
“It always comes down to short game, and I’ve worked really hard on my wedges, especially the last two seasons,” Henderson said. “I feel like I've made really big improvements there. I feel a lot more comfortable when I have those shots inside a hundred yards, knowing that I can make birdie, really easily, or hit it close and save par. I think that really gives me a lot of confidence, momentum, knowing that I can do that a little bit easier than I could before.
“I think a big thing, if I was ever to get to the No. 1 spot, it would have a lot to do with putting. I'm working with my sister and dad on that, pretty much every single week, to try to be a better green reader and maybe make my stroke a little bit more consistent.”
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