HOUSTON -- Gerrit Cole celebrated his 29th birthday by allowing one hit with 15 strikeouts in a season-high eight innings, and the Houston Astros routed Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners 21-1 on Sunday to complete a four-game sweep.

Cole (16-5) won his 12th straight decision and joined Pedro Martinez as the only pitchers in major league history with 14 or more strikeouts in three straight games. Cole leads the major league with a career-high 281 strikeouts, and his 2.73 ERA in second in the AL behind the 2.52 for teammate Justin Verlander.

Chris Devenski struck out two in a perfect ninth, finishing a series in which Houston outscored the Mariners 41-15.

Jake Marisnick and George Springer homered, and rookie Yordan Alvarez had six RBIs and hit three of Houston's team-record 11 doubles. The Astros are 16-1 against Seattle this year, winning 11 in a row.

Hernandez (1-6) tied his career high, allowing 11 runs. He lasted just two-plus innings and gave up seven hits.

With runners at second and third and two outs in the second, shortstop Dee Gordon couldn't handle Martin Maldonado's grounder, allowing two runs to score on the error. Marisnick sent Hernandez's next pitch into the left-field seats for his 10th homer and a 4-0 lead.

Seattle's day got even worse during a nine-run third that included six doubles, including a pair by Alvarez that drove in three runs. Aledmys Diaz, Kyle Tucker and Maldonado also doubled in runs off Hernandez, who slumped his shoulders and shook his head as he watched Maldonado's ball skip into the outfield on his final pitch. Hernandez's face was expressionless as he slowly walked off the field.

All nine Astros starters scored a run in the first three innings for the first time since June 12, 2015 -- also a game Hernandez started.

Erik Swanson allowed a two-run homer to Springer, who returned after a concussion that caused him to miss three games.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Mariners: OF Jake Fraley sat out on Sunday after leaving Saturday night's game with a sprained thumb. Manager Scott Servais said X-rays were negative but that Fraley would have an MRI on Monday to further assess the injury.

Astros: 1B Yuli Gurriel was out of the lineup for a second straight game with a sore left hamstring but was doing better on Sunday, and manager AJ Hinch said Gurriel should return Tuesday or Wednesday.

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Mariners: Seattle is off on Monday before LH Justus Sheffield (0-1, 5.51 ERA) starts the opener of a three game series against Cincinnati on Tuesday. Sheffield scattered five hits over five scoreless innings in his last start but did not factor in the decision in Seattle's 5-1 loss to the Cubs.

Astros: RHP Zack Greinke (14-5, 3.09) will start for Houston on Monday in the opener of a four-game series against Oakland. Greinke lost his first decision since being traded from the Diamondbacks in his last start after yielding four runs and eight hits over six innings of a 4-2 loss to Milwaukee.

Lucy Elliott, Clare Elms and Penny Yule add to GB gold medal tally at the European Masters in Italy, while Portuguese legend Rosa Mota impresses in her vets debut

British cross-country runners failed to quite match the domination that the 1500m runners demonstrated on Saturday at the European Masters Championships but the women still enjoyed success on a twisting but mostly flat if uneven course at Caorle held over just 4km.

First off was the W55-W80 races which started in heavy rain and a thunderstorm – weather conditions that caused some mid-afternoon events to be cancelled.

After a careful start following her 1500m win of the night before, Clare Elms eased away halfway around the first of two laps and won easily in 14:33 from Austria’s Sabine Hofer (14:57) and Spain’s Esther Pedrosa (15:00), losing her silver medal streak behind the Briton which she had done in all her previous major championships this year.

Elms picked up her third gold by being in the winning team along with Christine Anthony who was fourth (15:40) and Jane Pidgeon (15:55) sixth.

In the W70 race, Penny Forse who has been third in the 1500m the previous night, improved for a clear win over 1500m champion Ros Tabor – with 17:40 to Tabor’s 18:29.

The event also included the W60 race and that was won by the great Rosa Mota, 37 years after she first took a European title in Athens which was then the very first international marathon championship.

Still enjoying her running, the 1987 world and 1988 Olympic champion, was persuaded to compete by some fellow Portuguese masters and enjoyed her first taste of masters competition and runs the 10km next weekend.

Entered as Correia Dos Santos Mota, few realised it was the all-time great who won on the same day as the Great North Run – a race which she won in 1985 and 1990. Mota (pictured below) ran 15:14 to beat Ireland’s Pauline Moran by 12 seconds.

In the W65 race UK’s Dorothy Kesterton finished second in 17:16 to Sweden’s Lubov Popeshina (16:51) while Betty Stracey won W75 bronze in 26:48.

In the W35 to W50 race that followed in better conditions, Lucy Elliott (main image, above) provided the highlight winning her race in style just behind the leading W35s.

Like her Hampshire colleague Yule, she went two places better than the 1500m. Her time was 13:50 and she won by 18 seconds from Agnes Schipper of the Netherlands (14:08) and her run led Britain to team gold too.

Belgian Mieke Gorissen won the overall W35-50 women’s race in 13:29.

Apart from the W50 and W55 team gold, the W35s finished second to Spain and the W65s and W70s were both second to Germany.

British men found medals harder to come by on the country. Richard Pitcairn-Knowles won a M85 bronze in 28:44 while the M60 team took silver behind Italy and the M70 bronzes as Italy won again there.

Ireland’s Bryan Lynch won the M65 race in 14:18 as double 1980 Olympics medallist Kaarlo Maaninka of Finland finished 12th.

There was also an Irish win in the M45s for Maurice McManon (12:07).

Brian Lynch of Ireland wins M65 plus race at Euro Masters cross country @emacvenice2019 pic.twitter.com/AP2l1fvdfk

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) September 8, 2019

Luigi del Buono of the home nation ran the fastest time overall in winning the M40 gold in 11:44 to cap a good day for the hosts with 10 titles in both men and women’s events. Germany won the two oldest men’s and women’s categories and Britain were the third most successful team with two golds and five minor medals.

The 10,000m men’s races were also held on the day in Eraclea and the races took up over 10 hours although numbers were down due to the rather peculiar clash with the cross-country.

For most of the day it looked like it was going to be a barren time for Britain. However, luckily the last two races – the M55 and combined M60/65 race proved fruitful.

In his first major track championships, Andrew Leach decimated the field in the M55 race. Through halfway in 16:38.0, he ran 33:33.04, to win by over a minute from Franco Torresani of Italy.

Paul Fletcher then followed up his superb M60 1500m win of the night before with yet another gold medal run. Utilising his superior speed, he covered the last 1000m in 3:22 to win in 37:53.42 from Netherlands’ Jaap Stijlaart’s 38:02.10.

After winning 5 golds in XC – Elliott, Elms and Forse plus W50, W55 teams, Britain won two more golds in late evening men’s track 10000’s as M55 Anthony Leach and M60 Paul Fletcher (pictured right) strike gold on day of torrential rain and thunderstorms @emacvenice2019 pic.twitter.com/cHJD8vtoFe

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) September 8, 2019

The only other medal winner was M65 Anthony Whitehouse who was second in 38:51.42 behind Boyan Lefterov’s 37:59.43.

In the field, Guy Dirkin won a British bronze in the M65 weight with 15.45m in an event won by Vasileos Manganas of Greece in 17.48m.

The decathlon has proved tough for British medals but Adrian Essex gained silver in the M65 event with 5823 points as he lacked the throwing power of Finland’s Markku Rautasalo, who won with 5873 points.

Penny Butcher won bronze in the W60 heptathlon with 4770 points as Wiebke Baseda won with 5529 points.

Finland’s Leo Saarinen won the M90 shot in a world record 9.89m.

In the 400m qualifying, M80 Anthony Treacher (87.28), M65 Stephen Peters (62.68), M60 John Wright (56.71) M35, David Awde (51.35), W65 Caroline Powell (71.12) qualified as fastest for Monday’s finals.

A total of 29 nations have now won gold medals and the success on the country now means Italy top the medals table with 41 golds, 31 silver and 30 bronzes to Germany’s 38, 35 and 31 and Britain’s 33, 25, 32 which puts them well ahead of Finland’s 14, 8 and 8 and Spain’s 13, 22 and 21.

Downer halts Harris in showcase final
By MIKE HEGARTY 

Robbie Downer won the inaugural Lexden Open PSA Satellite event, beating Mike Harris before an enthusiastic crowd at the Colchester club.

Downer overcame Nick Mulvey in the semi-finals, while Harris fought back from a game down to beat Robbie Dadds.

Semi Final 1: Rob Downer beat Nick Mulvey (3-1) 11-5, 3-11, 11-7, 11-7
On paper this was a very interesting match up. Both players move well and like to take the ball in early. However, Nick has been recovering this past six months from a torn hamstring and by his own admission was not expecting much from this game. Nick started slowly in the first, allowing Rob to race from 4-4 to 9-4 before conceding the game 11-5.

Nick then woke up in the second, putting in amazing counter-attacks which caught Rob off guard. 11-3 and 1-1. Rob readjusted in the third, playing more patiently. Neither player really managed to consistently find their targets at the back, so a hacky crosscourt game was punctuated by outstanding winners to the front. The same story played out in the fourth game, and it was Rob who won both 11-7, 11-7.

Semi final 2: Mike Harris v Rob Dadds (3-1) 5-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-7
Daddsy started the first game like a rocket, playing super accurate, fast squash which Mike couldn’t deal with. 11-5 to Rob. Mike regrouped for the second game, and Rob’s level dropped just ever so slightly. Mike then set about doing what he does best, creating angles and opportunities to take the ball in. 11-4 and 11-6 to Mike to go 2-1 up.

Rob came out firing again in the fourth, and the crowd started to hope they’d see a fifth game as Rob led up to 7-6. More magic from the Harris racket and the match with it 11-7 on a volleyed backhand trickle boast in the front left.

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Final: Rob Downer beat Mike Harris (3-0) 11-9, 11-5, 11-8
This brought together the top two seeds. Both players had performed very well in the run through, and took to court in front of a packed house. The makings of a perfect final.

Rob started strong. No flashy nick attempts this time. Only solid, relentless pace hitting. Mike seemed a little off, tinning more of his short game than he had before. 11-5 to Rob. Mike never really got into the 2nd game. He hit tin after tin and looked to be concerned about his hamstring although he never mentioned it.

Rob never faltered, though, controlling the middle and shutting down any angles for Mike to work off. 11-4 and 2-0 to Rob. In the third game Mike went into exhibition mode, and the shots started coming off. Outrageous nicks, flicks, holds and James Willstrop style triple fakes. Crowd on the edges of their seats.

Downer came back with winners of his own. From 3-5 down Rob found himself 10-5 match ball up. Mike then found more magical winners and got to 8-10. Rob then spawned a back wall nick roller off an over-hit drive to win! 3-0, but the third game was an absolute treat.

Lexden RFC Open PSA Satellite.
Lexden results

Pictures courtesy of Lexden Rackets and Fitness Club 

INDIANAPOLIS – Joey Logano stole the opening stage of Sunday’s Big Machine Vodka Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a pit strategy call, after the 50-lap segment ended under caution.

A violent crash between Erik Jones and Brad Keselowski – sparked when Keselowski pinched Jones against the curb in turn two, which led to Jones spinning and collecting Keselowski in his wake – led to the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford slamming into the inside tire barrier and landing half on top of the tire pack.

Keselowski climbed out of his demolished race car under his own power, but the third caution of the race was displayed as a result with a lap and a half to go in the stage, freezing the field as a result.

That left Logano, who had stayed out on track during a previous caution at lap 42 when Landon Cassill blew a right-front tire and smacked the wall in turn two, out in front of the field with his No. 22 Ford.

Logano’s stage win was his eighth of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Kyle Larson came to the green-checkered and caution flags in second, followed by Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Newman, who stayed out along with Logano and gained six valuable stage points in his quest to jump inside the 16-driver playoff field. He started the day tied with Daniel Suarez.

Jimmie Johnson, another driver who entered the day on the outside of the playoffs looking in, finished sixth in the opening stage and scored five bonus points for his No. 48 Chevrolet team.

Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Chris Buescher completed the points-scoring drivers in the top 10 at the first stage break of the afternoon.

The stage was first slowed by a lap-11 caution, after playoff bubble driver Daniel Suarez popped the outside wall off the second corner and sustained right-side damage to his No. 41 Ford.

INDIANAPOLIS – Stage two of Sunday’s Big Machine Vodka Brickyard 400 ended not with a bang, but with a whimper, scuttled under caution after debris in turn two slowed the pace late in the going.

The field was set to engage in a no-holds-barred shootout to the green-checkered flag, thanks to a blown engine on Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota that compacted the field on lap 89, but the ensuing yellow one lap after the restart with four laps to go until the second stage break ended those hopes.

As such, polesitter Kevin Harvick – who led four times for 78 of the first 100 laps – took the stage victory, 10 bonus points and an all-important playoff point with his No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang.

Kyle Larson was second in a Chevrolet, ahead of four more Ford drivers in Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer and Daniel Suarez.

Kurt Busch crossed the line seventh ahead of Jimmie Johnson, who charged from 12th to eighth before the debris caution froze the field, with William Byron and Aric Almirola completing the top 10.

Those two yellow flags – Busch’s engine failure and the subsequent debris slowdown – were the only two slowdowns during the second stage, after two hard crashes marred stage one on Sunday.

The opening weekend of the Women's Super League season attracted almost 63,000 fans across six games as England enjoyed an unprecedented increase in crowds, building on a surge in interest in women's soccer during the World Cup.

The cumulative crowd was a 12-fold increase on the start of the 2018-19 season when 5,167 fans attended the five games before the English top flight was enlarged from 11 to 12 teams.

The total of 62,921 was reached this weekend thanks largely to Manchester City using the Etihad Stadium and Chelsea using Stamford Bridge, rather than the smaller venues where their women's teams usually play, as the men's clubs were off during the international break.

A WSL attendance record was set Saturday when 31,213 saw Manchester City beat newly promoted Manchester United 1-0. Chelsea had distributed 40,000 tickets for free for the visit of Tottenham on Sunday and 24,564 attended -- still a record crowd for the west London club's women's team.

"We can be cynical about paying for tickets," Chelsea manager Emma Hayes said after her team's 1-0 win, "but I'm not going to criticize it because we've built on the momentum of the World Cup."

Bethany England's long-range strike after four minutes sealed the victory for the two-time WSL champions over a promoted Tottenham side that had eight players making their debuts. Tottenham overhauled the squad after becoming fully professional following its promotion from the second-tier Championship.

"We've won a lot today, not just three points, in people's consciousness women's football will continue to grow and I'm so proud of this football club," Hayes said. "I doubt I'll ever work at a place that has pushed and pushed for women to progress like this place has."

Arsenal opened its title defense with a 2-1 victory over West Ham in front of 1,795 fans at a stadium in Boreham Wood, north of London.

The English Football Association is looking to build on the interest in the women's game that swelled as England reached the World Cup semifinals in July, losing to the United States.

"This weekend has been absolutely incredible in terms of attendance," Tottenham manager Karen Hills said.

Australia's players loosed a blood-curdling collective scream upon Manchester when umpire Kumar Dharmasena's finger raised to deliver them an Ashes victory on English soil for the first time since 2001. If there was a brief moment's purgatory while DRS confirmed the news, it contributed to a far more exhilarating moment than on that last distant occasion.

That corresponding instant 18 years before had been the apogee of anti-climax, as the winning run at Trent Bridge arrived from an Andy Caddick no-ball delivered to Mark Waugh: 3-0 in three Tests, six Ashes series wins in a row for the world's best team. Quite ho-hum really.

Just as so much has changed in the intervening years, there could not have been circumstances much more different in how this victory was finally achieved: all adrenaline, broken tension and sheer elation at doing something none of these players had experienced as anything other than schoolboys staying up late to watch on television back home. It had been a more similar sensation in 1989, when the Australian team, also at Old Trafford, launched into collective celebration on the team balcony upon the achievement of a nine-wicket victory.

Whether or not this win sets up 17 years of domination over England, as that one did, remains to be seen. But it was an entirely fitting finish all the same: Josh Hazlewood, alongside Pat Cummins, Australian twin pillars of pace strength in this series, followed up a stinging short ball to Craig Overton by bowling his umpteenth scrambled seam ball in the three Tests he has played, moving the ball late and sharply off the pitch to find England's No. 8 the plumbest of lbws.

It had been harder for Australia than England to win lbw verdicts across this series - at the end of the match the ledger read 18-8 in favour of the hosts - but an ever-increasing and improving focus on hitting the top of the off stump had been central to how Australia found a way to close out the series the very next match after their enormous trauma at Headingley. That day, against a rampant Ben Stokes, Australia's bowlers had failed to look for the stumps enough, and had also lost their heads tactically.

This time, however, the mistakes were not repeated, neither by the bowlers nor the captain Tim Paine, who enjoyed one of his very best days of the series to help ensure the urn was retained without the need for a decisive closing encounter at The Oval. On day five of a Test, with the ball getting old and not too much happening, captains occasionally need to make things happen - throw bowlers round to opposite ends, use some part-timers, change up their fields. It's something the likes of Mark Taylor, Michael Clarke and Michael Vaughan were considered masters at, less so Ricky Ponting and Alastair Cook.

Paine had it all to do in terms of his leadership reputation after the conclusion of the Leeds Test, where by his own admission he had got plenty of things wrong. Here though he gained the morning's first breakthrough with a last-moment decision to replace Mitchell Starc with Cummins, and did the trick again in mid-afternoon when he broke up a tandem between Starc and Nathan Lyon. First, he introduced Marnus Labuschagne in place of Lyon. Next, he replaced Labuschange with Travis Head. Thirdly, he swung Labuschagne around to the opposite end for the final over before drinks. Lastly, he brought Starc back on from the other to the one from which he had operated in the first place.

"All adrenaline, broken tension and sheer elation at doing something none of these players had experienced as anything other than schoolboys staying up late to watch on television back home"

This all had very little to do with Starc getting his first ball of the over bang on target to Bairstow, but the chopping and changing may well have disrupted the batsman's rhythm just enough to miss it. The lbw verdict from Kumar Dharmasena took England past the last pair of recognised batsmen, and gave the Australians hope that a quick ending would eventuate.

But the 2019 Ashes have confounded expectations consistently ever since Edgbaston, turning this into the perhaps the greatest and certainly the most enthralling series since 2005. Jos Buttler and Craig Overton pushed keenly into line, surviving Australian thrusts with pace and spin beyond the tea break and allowing conversations to start about how long there was remaining, how likely the light was to hold, and whether the tourists were starting to tighten up again as per Headingley.

Paine, though, worked in concert with Hazlewood to make the best use of a ball changed when the original went out of shape, finding themselves the beneficiaries of its greater hardness and, for a rare time this series, a tendency towards reverse swing. Buttler had been defending sturdily, covering the movement, but the deployment of a silly point for Hazlewood brought the extra pressure and judgment error required - as Hazlewood's well-disguised inswinger snaked into off stump, Buttler resembled no-one so much as Michael Clarke when confounded by Simon Jones on this very ground 14 years before.

Jofra Archer fell victim to fifth-day variation, lbw to a Lyon delivery tunnelling under his bat, before Overton found another ally in the celebrity tail-ender Jack Leach, promoted above Stuart Broad. Fifty balls Leach defended, taking the strike confidently, and seldom looking under major threat even against the second new ball. Once more, though, Paine made a bold and ultimately beautiful call, calling up Labuschagne with a little over an hour remaining. Finding turn out of the footmarks, his fifth ball spat and jumped up at Leach's gloves, claiming the penultimate wicket in the manner of a latter-day, right-arm Michael Bevan.

At this point, with only one more wicket to get, the Australians might have tightened up once more, but they had learned the hard way to both be more attentive to the mores of playing cricket in England, and to try to relax as much as possible with victory just a wicket away. Paine agreed in the aftermath that this had been a team that put ego to one side and learned, slowly and methodically, how to win in this part of the world. It's a feat that has been beyond four previous touring teams.

The route to this glory had been pockmarked by the Newlands scandal, a blow to the national team's psyche but also a valuable moment of reflection, but had also been characterised by plenty of measures intended for learning. Dukes balls in the Sheffield Shield, Australia A tours of England, an internal trial match in Southampton to make a late call on the final squad of 17, and a tactical commitment to shutting down the scoreboard of England, bowling accurately and trying most of all with the bat to survive.

"This group has done it better than most if I am honest, hence the result," Paine said. "We've known for a while England play different than we do over here. This team has made a real effort of putting their ego aside and roll up their sleeves and do the job asked of them, rather than worry about how it looks or the brand or style we play. We want to play winning cricket and need to adapt to conditions that allow us to do that, and this group have done that superbly."

So the still-newish ball was handed to Hazlewood with 14 overs remaining, and as he had done all series, he tried to move it off the seam and not through the air. Overton was pinned in front, the air cracked with Australia's scream and the Ashes urn was retained. Paine was elated, pumping his fist as he ran, while nearby the batsman of the series Steven Smith could not stop jumping for joy.

"It's been a long, long time," said Paine. "We know how difficult it is to win over here. We are the lucky ones who have been here. Every player has some story or sacrifice which is what makes moments like this so great. It doesn't happen, retaining the Ashes in England, very often but we'd like to win next week."

There was a period in recent Australian cricket history when winning the Ashes in England felt like a birthright; this team have deservedly regained what was somehow lost along the way.

Joe Root has insisted he "definitely" wants to carry on as captain of England despite failing to reclaim the Ashes.

Australia's victory at Old Trafford gave them an unassailable 2-1 lead in the series, meaning Root has led two unsuccessful attempts to win the urn. It was also Australia's first successful Ashes campaign in England since 2001. But while Archie MacLaren, more than a century ago, was the last England captain to survive two Ashes series defeats to lead England into a third, Root is adamant that he is the man to do the same.

"I definitely want to carry on as captain," Root said. "I have been given a fantastic opportunity to captain the Test side and will continue to work very hard at doing my best at that.

And while Root admitted defeat was "bitterly disappointing", he took heart from England's final-day resistance, suggesting it provided encouragement for the future.

"It's tough to take, losing the Ashes. It's bitterly disappointing. But when you find yourself in a situation like today you learn a lot about your team and the guys. I thought everyone showed a lot of courage, resilience, and character. Everyone should be really proud about how they approached the day.

"I thought the guys fought extremely bravely. They dug in, they fought and they put a high price on their wicket. It almost makes it a little bit harder to take but, at the same time, I could not be more proud with how we fought today."

A significant part of England's problems have been Root's own lack of runs. On Saturday he became the first England captain to register three ducks - two of them golden - during a series and his average for the four games is a modest 30.87. But while he accepted he had to find a way of doing better, he also made the point that the batsmen on both sides - with one notable exception - had struggled.

"If you take Steve Smith out, it would be very similar for both teams," Root said. "It has been a series dominated by the ball. Both batting sides have very experienced players who have not performed how they would have liked and that tells a story by itself.

"Bowling at Smith in this form is difficult and you have to make sure you take all your chances. We did not do that and that cost us. 

"The teams have put all batters - bar Smith - under pressure and it's been challenging. But I have to find way of scoring runs. You have to look at areas you want to get better both in yourself and as a team.

"In many ways we were an inexperienced team. We have to learn quickly. We were not as good as we would have liked to be or consistent throughout the whole game. This can't keep happening. You are not going to win many games if you start behind. There is still plenty to learn for this group."

Root also insisted there was plenty to play for in the final Test at The Oval. While the Ashes have gone, England can still level the series - Australia would, as current holders, retain the urn even if the series finishes 2-2 - and the introduction of the World Test Championship provides further motivation.

"Every game against Australia matters," Root said. "We have to make sure we finish this summer strong. We have an important Test match against Australia and we have the Test Championship to play for. We have to get something out of this series.

"I know the Ashes are not coming back but, in terms of the Test Championship at the end of the two-year cycle, those points could be crucial. You never want to lose an Ashes series but turning up at The Oval and putting in a strong performance is crucial for this group."

England's team for the final Test, which starts on Thursday, will be announced on Monday.