ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- About the only thing Bryson DeChambeau has transformed more than his golf swing during his career has been his body. After bulking up to hit the ball farther off the tee a few years ago, DeChambeau has slimmed down considerably to conserve energy.

That change, along with a series of others, finally led to some positive results in the opening round of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club on Thursday. DeChambeau had six birdies and two bogeys and took the early lead with a 4-under 66.

"The emotions have definitely fluctuated pretty high and pretty low, thinking I have something and it fails and going back and forth," said DeChambeau, the former No. 4 player who has since fallen to No. 214 in the Official World Golf Ranking. "It's humbling. Golf, and life, always [has] a good way of kicking you on your you-know-what when you are on your high horse. It's nice to feel this today."

DeChambeau, who says he weighs between 210 and 215 pounds, has changed his diet from a daily intake of 5,000 calories to about 2,900. He has stopped eating foods that inflame his body, including corn, wheat, gluten and dairy products. DeChambeau said he lost 18 pounds in 24 days after he started the diet in August.

"It was crazy," DeChambeau said. "It wasn't fat. It was all water weight. You know how I looked before. I was not skinny."

Those weren't the only changes DeChambeau made in his life. The 2020 U.S. Open champion jumped from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, where he is captain of Crushers GC. He changed his equipment company, caddie and swing coach as well.

Through increased strength and swing speed, DeChambeau once believed he could conquer professional golf with brute force. He once boasted about Augusta National Golf Club, the site of the Masters, being a par-67 course because of how far he was hitting balls off the tee. He entered national long-driving contests and performed well.

Even after losing considerable weight, DeChambeau averaged 313.3 yards off the tee Thursday, which ranked sixth in the field when he finished his round. He was gaining nearly 2.5 strokes on the field after hitting nine of 14 fairways.

For 18 holes, at least, DeChambeau was not only hitting it far but also was hitting it straight, which isn't something he had always done in the past.

"That's been the most surprising part because I'm so used to hitting it everywhere," DeChambeau said. "Look, it could happen tomorrow. I don't think it will, but I feel really confident. Golf is a weird animal. You can never fully have it like Arnie (Arnold Palmer) said. You always think you have it one day, and then it just leaves the next. Just got to be careful."

The other parts of DeChambeau's game looked good in the first round too. He hit 15 of 18 greens and was gaining more than 2 strokes on the field in putting.

"Geez, he played great," said Keegan Bradley, who played with DeChambeau on Thursday and shot a 2-under 68. "It looked like Bryson to me. He hit the ball great, putted great, drove it really nice. It was good to see him. He was smashing drives again, and he played pretty much flawless golf."

Often called "The Scientist" because of his physics degree from Southern Methodist, DeChambeau said he might finally be done experimenting with his body and game.

"I want to be just stable now," he said. "I'm tired of changing, trying different things. Yeah, could I hit it a little further? Could I try and get a little stronger? Sure. But I'm not going to go full force. It was great. ... Shoot, I can hit my 8-iron 200 yards now. So it's an asset, and it was a fun experiment, but definitely want to play some good golf now."

PITTSBURGH -- Mitch Trubisky isn't going anywhere any time soon.

With a year left on the backup quarterback's contract, the Pittsburgh Steelers are finalizing a two-year extension with the former No. 2 overall pick, a source confirmed to ESPN.

NFL Network first reported that the Steelers were finalizing the extension with Trubisky.

Earlier Thursday, Steelers general manager Omar Khan had said in an interview with "The Pat McAfee Show" that he was "finishing up an extension" with Trubisky but did not disclose the length of the deal.

"We feel good about our quarterback room, and that was an important piece," Khan said in the interview. "We've got, obviously, Kenny Pickett is our starter. We feel really good about Mitch Trubisky in the role that he's in. He feels good about it. We've added Mason Rudolph. We feel really good about the QB room."

Trubisky was set to count $10.6 million against the cap for the 2023 season, and an extension offers cap flexibility, while also giving Trubisky security as a top-tier backup. The move also comes a day after the Steelers re-signed Rudolph to a one-year deal after he hit the open market in free agency, keeping the quarterback room from 2022 intact.

Though Trubisky, selected as a 2022 team captain, lost the starting job early last season, he was a valuable resource for first-round pick Pickett, and he offered the Steelers a solid insurance policy in spot starts and appearances.

Khan was transparent about his desire to retain Trubisky at the NFL combine in February, hinting at an extension then.

"Mitch has been great," Khan said at the NFL combine. "It's been great to have him around, and I would look forward to having him around here for a long time. Not only this year but for a long time."

Signing a two-year, $14 million contract with Pittsburgh on the first day of free agency in 2022, Trubisky, drafted by the Bears in 2017, joined the Steelers looking to jumpstart his career after a year as Josh Allen's backup in Buffalo. The Steelers drafted Pickett in the first round less than two months after signing Trubisky, but the veteran retained the starting job out of training camp.

The offense, though, struggled to find its footing in the opening games of the season, often lacking explosivity in a conservative game plan. Searching for a spark, the coaching staff inserted Pickett to replace Trubisky as the starter at halftime of the Week 4 loss to the New York Jets. In his first four starts in Pittsburgh, Trubisky threw for 653 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

"The fact that they voted me captain means I gotta come in here, put my hand in the pile and lead these guys in any way I can, even if it's not on the field," Trubisky told ESPN last year.

After moving to a support role for Pickett, Trubisky got one more start in Week 14 against the Carolina Panthers, completing 17 of 22 attempts for 179 yards in a 24-16 win. Trubisky saw action in two other games after Pickett sustained concussions, first helping the Steelers to a win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 6 as he completed 9 of 12 attempts for 144 yards and a touchdown. Then, in Week 13, he threw three interceptions to one touchdown in a loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

In six seasons in the NFL, Trubisky has completed 64.2% of his pass attempts and thrown 68 touchdowns to 43 interceptions in 64 games (55 starts).

BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics have made a habit out of responding to adversity over the past two postseasons.

Celtics center Robert Williams III said he expects his team to do so again when the Eastern Conference finals resume against the Miami Heat with Game 2 on Friday night here at TD Garden, but he said Boston's insistence on putting itself in such positions is eventually going to come back to haunt the team.

"There's no doubt in my mind that we'll come out ready to play in Game 2," Williams said after Boston's practice Thursday afternoon. "But the problem is we can't keep relying on that.

"We can't rely on our backs being against the wall. There's no time for it. We have to fix it."

After dropping Game 1 of this series to the Heat on Wednesday, the Celtics will be looking to improve on their 4-1 record in these playoffs coming off of a loss, and an 11-3 record in those situations over the past two playoffs.

But that ability to bounce back -- and that it has had to happen so regularly, as Williams pointed out -- goes back to Boston's maddening level of inconsistency over the course of these past two playoffs. Nothing signifies that trend more than the way the Celtics have played at home.

Including Wednesday's Game 1 loss, the Celtics are now 10-10 at TD Garden over the past two postseasons. They were 6-6 here a year ago, including losing Game 6 of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors to end last season, and are now 4-4 at TD Garden in these playoffs.

"There were moments where we executed, there's moments where we played well, and then there were moments where we didn't," Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.

"This series is a test of discipline, it's a test of mentality, and we've got to be extremely detailed in our effort and our consistency."

The only thing consistent about the Celitcs, however, is their lack of consistency. That was once again on display in Game 1, after Boston controlled the run of play through the first 24 minutes -- dominating the paint, taking care of the ball and jumping out to a nine-point halftime lead -- before allowing Miami to explode for 46 points in the third quarter alone to turn the game on its head and allow the Heat to steal back home-court.

Not surprisingly, most of the focus of Thursday's film session was on what happened in those 12 minutes and what Boston needs to correct moving forward.

"It looked exactly like it looked last night," Williams said. "It was a lot of stuff you don't want to see."

"It was pretty much what I thought," Joe Mazzulla said.

There was little that went right. Like after the game, the Celitcs talked a lot about spacing issues offensively gumming things up. The defense was clearly a problem, given the Heat nearly matched their first-half total over the course of 12 minutes.

In specifics, though, Mazzulla was asked about two rotation decisions from Game 1: starting the double-big lineup of Williams and Al Horford together, and then playing guard Payton Pritchard over forward Grant Williams.

The Robert Williams-Al Horford pairing -- as part of a starting lineup with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart -- was one of the NBA's most dominant lineups last season under former coach Ime Udoka. This season, it barely saw the court, as Williams spent the first couple of months of the season rehabbing from September knee surgery, and then Mazzulla tended to stick to more offensively oriented lineups featuring more speed, spacing and shooting.

But Mazzulla went back to that group in Game 6 of the Philadelphia series, a move that helped flip it in Boston's favor and allow the Celtics to reach this point. In Game 1 against Miami, however, Williams was a team-worst minus-14 in 26 minutes, and that five-man unit was outscored by 10 points in nine minutes together.

"That's a good question," Mazzulla said, when asked what he thought of that grouping in the first game. "I thought each lineup presented things that did well. I thought Rob was really good, 6-6, got offensive rebounds, really kind of got us going at the same time. We just have to be more consistent regardless of the lineup. So we've developed an identity this year to play a bunch of different ways, and so we can't just look at it as it's this way versus that way.

"We have a lot of depth ... and so we just have to be able to use that and flex into that, and when we go into those different lineups at different times, we got to maintain our spacing and understand what we're doing when with those lineups out there."

Part of that versatility was also represented in Mazzulla going to Pritchard for 12 minutes in Game 1 and continuing to leave Grant Williams -- an essential part of Boston's playoff rotation a year ago -- off the court this time around.

After playing in every playoff game last year, starting several and playing over 27 minutes per game in Boston's run to the Finals, Williams has played in only nine of Boston's 14 playoff games this time around, and is averaging 12.9 minutes per night.

Mazzulla -- who also went to Pritchard in Game 5 against Philadelphia -- said he went with Pritchard against the Heat because he liked his shooting, playmaking and pick-and-roll defensive ability.

"We have a plan to use the depth we need in order to give us the lineups we think can really help us, and obviously, in the playoffs when minutes are expanding, you look to play seven or eight guys throughout," Mazzulla said. "Grant is always gonna be ready, and we've built a lot of versatility in our lineup where we can go a lot of different ways. We trust that anybody we call on will be ready."

LOS ANGELES -- Bryce James, the youngest son of LeBron James, will leave Sierra Canyon to attend Campbell Hall next season, a source close to the situation told ESPN.

Bryce, an emerging 6-foot-6 prospect, played last season at Sierra Canyon next to his brother, Bronny, who committed to USC earlier this month.

LeBron James has posted videos in recent years that have shown him working with Bronny and Bryce as they continued to develop. While Bronny has generated the bulk of the attention among the James children, Bryce's size and potential have made him a popular player on the current Nike EYBL circuit.

Campbell Hall (Studio City, California) is about 19 miles from Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, California) and costs about $50,000 per year in tuition. According to the source, the James family has made a donation toward the creation of a new multimillion-dollar athletic facility on campus.

Bryce, 15, will play next season with other notable sons, including Richard Hamilton II, the son of former NBA star Richard Hamilton, and Baron Bellamy, son of comedian Bill Bellamy.

Campbell Hall had its brightest days when the NBA's Holiday brothers -- Aaron, Jrue and Justin -- all played there together.

Bryce will play for head coach David Grace, who was most recently associate head coach for Vanderbilt (2019-2021) before a stint as a high school coach in Arizona last season.

Grace said he's excited about potentially helping Bryce reach his ceiling as a basketball player.

"I want Bryce, if I get to coach him, to be Bryce," Grace told ESPN. "Because that's special, and I want him to get the most out of his experience here at Campbell Hall and grow. He's going to have way more than just me helping, but I'm going to try to do my part. I understand where he's coming from to a point. I'm not him. My family wasn't in that spotlight, but I've been around the spotlight and I can share my experiences, or I can just understand his experiences. That's where I'll grow as a coach."

Grace said he's had two experiences as a coach that should help him prepare for Bryce's arrival. He was an assistant at Oregon State (2008-2013) under former coach Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama's brother. Grace said his interactions with President Barack Obama helped him understand the challenges for individuals who are scrutinized.

Grace also was an assistant at UCLA under Steve Alford when Lonzo Ball -- and LaVar Ball -- arrived prior to the 2016-2017 season.

"I got to learn a lot. I got to know how [fame] impacted Lonzo in college," Grace said. "I got to see it every day. We went to Australia before the season started, and the first time I actually saw it was when we played a game against a pro team and the fans came onto the floor after the game to get to Lonzo. And I'm saying, 'Wow, that's the crazy power of social media.' Lonzo hadn't even played a game, an official game at UCLA yet."

Grace has been on the job for two weeks, but he said he's already received nearly 60 calls from coaches around the country who want to schedule Campbell Hall next season. He said his priority will be to create a schedule that challenges his players but also allows them to develop.

"We'll try to put the puzzle together and make sure we play a great schedule," he said.

BOSTON -- As the No. 8-seeded Miami Heat continue their torrid run through the Eastern Conference playoffs, coach Erik Spoelstra reiterated Thursday just how important he felt the regular season was in forming the mental toughness that has helped steer the Heat to within three games of another NBA Finals appearance.

In the midst of his description, Spoelstra made another important note regarding the NBA's play-in tournament.

"I do know the play-in helped," Spoelstra said Thursday. "There are far less teams tanking. Everyone was fighting for it those last two months. Every game was must-see TV and that was in both conferences. So I think [for] the league, that's probably the best thing that's happened in the last decade."

The Heat, who took a 1-0 lead over the Boston Celtics after a 123-116 Game 1 victory Wednesday night, became the first play-in team to ever win a playoff series after defeating the No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. The Los Angeles Lakers, who earned a spot in the Western Conference finals, became the second after knocking off the No. 2-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in the first round.

Spoelstra, who has been open about how much the up-and-down regular season helped prepare his team, said he believes that the Heat wouldn't be in this situation without going through all the struggles they endured.

"It was a blessing to be able to go through all of that," Spoelstra said. "I have not been part of a regular season like that, and I think we all grew and got better from it. To not let it collapse our spirit, but really to harden us, and steel us and bring us closer together and develop that kind of grit and perseverance that's needed in the postseason."

After compiling a 44-38 regular-season record, the Heat lost their first play-in game last month to the Atlanta Hawks before knocking off the Chicago Bulls two nights later to clinch the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Both Spoelstra and his players have discussed how those experiences have shaped the group.

"If we didn't have those moments, those crushing last-second losses, and then also a bunch of guys being out all the time," Spoelstra said, "well, then maybe some of the guys that have contributed so much for us in the postseason, if they didn't have those opportunities where they had to score 20 points for us to win with Jimmy [Butler] or Bam [Adebayo] or whoever out, then they don't have that kind of confidence coming into the postseason. I really don't like that narrative that it only matters in the playoffs. I think we're a perfect example of the opposite of that."

Riding the hot hand of Butler, who has been arguably the most dominant player in this postseason, the Heat have displayed a consistency that was hard for them to maintain throughout the regular season. Now that the Heat have found a positive rhythm, Spoelstra credits the grind of the regular season for putting his team in a position to succeed.

"We are in that struggle fighting for our competitive lives for three straight months because of the play-in and because of all the adversity," Spoelstra said. "We were not doing the typical stuff of like load managing or just counting games; we were doing whatever we had to do to try and put ourselves in a position to win."

Veteran Heat guard Kyle Lowry agreed with the assessment while noting that the regular season is important "to kind of build your foundation."

Despite the fact that it appears the Heat have just turned it on over the past few weeks while racking up postseason wins, Lowry pointed back to the regular season as the training ground the Heat needed for bigger games.

"We've built our habits to know what we're gonna do and that's play hard every single night," Lowry said. "Be ready to go no matter what the situation is, who we're playing against, what we have out there lineups-wise. I think that's the one thing we did build through this year. The habits -- that we know that we can go and play anywhere with anyone at any time."

As frustrating as the regular season was at times for the Heat, Spoelstra said he would welcome the same kind of mental challenge again in the future.

"It seemed like every single game was going down to a last-second shot," Spoelstra said. "If you can be privileged enough to have a regular season like that all the time, that would be unbelievable."

SAN DIEGO -- Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber announced Thursday that the city of San Diego has been handed an expansion franchise, thereby increasing the league to 30 teams.

The news was revealed during an event at Snapdragon Stadium, which is set to be the 35,000-capacity home for the San Diego franchise when it debuts in 2025. MLS' latest expansion team will be owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour, the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation (now the first Native American tribe to co-own a U.S. professional soccer team) and San Diego Padres star Manny Machado.

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"We are thrilled to welcome San Diego to Major League Soccer as our 30th team," Garber said in a Thursday news release. "For many years we have believed San Diego would be a terrific MLS market due to its youthful energy, great diversity, and the fact that soccer is an essential part of everyday life for so many people. Mohamed Mansour and the Sycuan Tribe have an incredible vision for building a club that will inspire and unite soccer fans throughout the city and region."

"I am grateful for the opportunity to join the San Diego MLS ownership group," added Machado in the press release. "I continue to plant roots in this amazing community that means so much to me and build upon my connection with the incredible fans."

Additional owners include the Zephyr Partners' Brad Termini and the Right to Dream's Tom Vernon and Dan Dickinson. Controlled by Mansour's London-based Man Capital firm, the Right to Dream is a Ghana-based academy that also owns the Danish top flight's Nordsjaelland. MLS players including the New England Revolution's Emmanuel Boateng and FC Dallas' Ema Twumasi are products of the Right to Dream academy.

Additional Right to Dream locations have been built in Denmark and Egypt, with plans for a San Diego-based academy in the future.

"We look forward to introducing Right to Dream's unique developmental approach and unparalleled soccer expertise to San Diego and MLS by delivering tangible benefits to the community as we look to open doors and identify and nurture talent from across the county and beyond," said Mansour, who has stated that seven Right to Dream academy graduates took part in the 2022 World Cup.

Tom Penn, former president of LAFC, has been named as CEO for the new MLS franchise, with a name and crest to be revealed at a later date.

The San Diego project recently surpassed Las Vegas in the race for the league's 30th team. In February, Garber stated that both cities were "the most likely opportunities for 30." By last month, ESPN reported that San Diego's group had gained more momentum. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, the expansion fee for the MLS franchise "is in the $500 million neighborhood."

San Diego will begin playing in MLS nearly three decades after former league commissioner Doug Logan noted in 1996 that the city was a "prime candidate" for expansion. Since then, an increasingly long list of rumors and reports have emerged regarding interested groups that wanted to bring the top flight of the sport to the Southern California city.

In 2018, one year after the Chargers moved from San Diego to Los Angeles, San Diego State University won a local election to redevelop the Mission Valley space that the Chargers once occupied into an extension of its campus that included the soon-to-be developed Snapdragon Stadium. A competing "SoccerCity" measure, led by U.S. men's national team icon Landon Donovan, aimed to lure the next MLS franchise but ultimately lost the local election.

Snapdragon Stadium was built and opened by August 2022, and it is currently home to SDSU's football program, Major League Rugby's San Diego Legion and the National Women's Soccer League's San Diego Wave. In September 2022, the Wave broke the NWSL's single-game attendance record with 32,000 packing the stadium for a regular-season game against Angel City FC. A month later, the Wave set an NWSL playoff attendance record with 26,215 watching a 2-1 win over the Chicago Red Stars at the venue.

After recently hosting a soccer friendly between Liga MX's Club America and Club Tijuana in March 2023, Snapdragon Stadium will continue to host the sport this summer through a men's national team exhibition between Mexico and Cameroon on June 10 and a CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal match on July 12. On July 25, Manchester United will face Wrexham A.F.C. (owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney) in a friendly at the Mission Valley venue.

The San Diego Loyal, a local professional side that plays in the de facto men's second division of professional soccer in the U.S., are reportedly not involved in the MLS project. Led by Donovan as the executive vice president of soccer operations, the team released a statement earlier this month from chairman and owner Andrew Vassiliadis that stated, "We aren't going anywhere."

Regarding additional expansion franchises in MLS, Garber has previously hinted that the league could go beyond 30 teams. However, he told ESPN at the event on Thursday that there were no immediate plans for further growth.

"We never say never to anything because, you know, our plan evolves as the market evolves. We never thought we'd be at 24, we never thought we'd be at 26," he said.

"[But] I don't think sitting here today that we have any plan in the near future to go beyond 30 teams. We've got a lot of work to do to build the league to sort of capture the opportunity that we all see in front of us in the years to come, particularly through 2026, but who knows what the future looks like after that, but nothing in the immediate future for sure."

Right-hander Liam Hendriks was back in Chicago on Thursday and the White Sox closer could make his return from stage-4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as early as Monday.

Hendriks is scheduled to throw live batting practice to White Sox teammates Friday and an assessment will be made from there on when he would pitch in a major league game.

Hendriks, 34, was diagnosed on Jan. 9 and completed his final round of chemotherapy April 5. He began a rehab assignment on May 5 at Triple-A Charlotte, where he posted a 10.80 ERA in six appearances.

"When he throws (Friday), we'll wait and see the outcome, how he feels, what the numbers were (and) evaluate it really well," White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. "He's close, so now we've got to really do a good job of just evaluating him, how close he really is to being Liam Hendriks, not how close he is just to pitch here in the big leagues."

Grifol already said that he does not expect Hendriks to appear in a game before the end of the weekend.

Hendriks recorded 75 saves over his first two seasons with the White Sox, making the All-Star team both years. His 38 saves in 2021 led the American League and he followed up with 37 last season.

Hendriks, a native of Australia, also was an All-Star in 2019 when he was a member of the Oakland Athletics.

In 471 career games (44 starts) for the Minnesota Twins (2011-13), Kansas City Royals (2014), Toronto Blue Jays (2014-15), Athletics (2016-20) and White Sox, Hendriks has a career 3.81 ERA with a 31-34 record and 115 saves. He has 724 strikeouts against 158 walks across 645 innings.

Seven weeks into the season, we're still seeing dominant performances from a number of American League teams, with seven of our top 10 teams residing in the AL.

That has not been the case in the National League, with preseason juggernauts like the Mets and Padres -- teams that went big this offseason to put together playoff-caliber rosters -- struggling. Both are currently below .500 and stumbling in their divisional races, though the Mets' 8-7 walk-off win Wednesday night over the Rays could be the catalyst they needed to get going.

Two teams, however, have risen above the rest to vie for the title of best NL team. After stumbling out of the gate, the Dodgers have overtaken the Braves for best record in the league. Who will reign supreme?

Our expert panel has combined to rank every team in baseball based on a combination of what we've seen and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB writers David Schoenfield, Bradford Doolittle, Jesse Rogers, Alden Gonzalez and Joon Lee to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.

Week 6 | Preseason rankings

1. Tampa Bay Rays

Record: 32-12

Previous ranking: 1

The Rays' pitching factory is truly being put to the test, with Drew Rasmussen, Jeffrey Springs, Shane Baz and Tyler Glasnow all on the injured list. As it currently stands, the Rays are taking things day by day with their rotation -- they haven't officially announced their starting pitchers for the next four days. But Tampa Bay will likely be relying on arms like Jalen Beeks, who has made two opener-type starts in the past week, allowing no runs in six innings. The Rays do have a cushion to figure things out, currently sitting 3.5 games ahead of the second-place Orioles. -- Lee

2. Los Angeles Dodgers

Record: 28-16

Previous ranking: 3

The Dodgers snapped a six-game winning streak when they lost to the Twins on Tuesday, the end of a stretch that saw them win 17 of 21 games. Their offense is clicking, their starters have been effective and their bullpen has turned things around. And as if that wasn't enough, Walker Buehler, who's recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, told reporters he hopes to be a member of the rotation by the start of September. Manager Dave Roberts says that might be a little overly aggressive, but Buehler in any capacity -- in the rotation or out of the bullpen -- would be a major lift. For now, though, the Dodgers seem to have plenty. -- Gonzalez

3. Atlanta Braves

Record: 27-16

Previous ranking: 2

The Braves were cruising along until they lost four straight to the Red Sox and Blue Jays in the past week -- with A.J. Minter receiving the "L" in two of the games, dropping his record to 2-5 with an 8.06 ERA. His overall stats aren't as bad as the ERA indicates, with two home runs in 19 innings and a fine 24-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but he has allowed a .500 average with runners in scoring position and a .340/.385/.511 slash line in "late and close" situations -- thus the five losses.

"He's a year removed from being one of the most effective relievers in baseball. This game's cruel. It just keeps testing you," manager Brian Snitker said. "He's just going to have to keep getting after it and competing ... and not be careful." The Braves do have a cushion in the National League East, and given that there aren't severe home run or control issues here, they'll likely keep him in high-leverage situations for now. -- Schoenfield

4. Texas Rangers

Record: 26-17

Previous ranking: 5

We're not quite at Memorial Day -- a common time to assess teams' standings -- but it's looking more and more like Texas is in the race for the long haul. Playing the A's over the course of four games doesn't hurt either, as the Rangers took three of four over the weekend, but that doesn't mean they'll walk away with a division title. A wild-card spot still seems to be the most likely outcome, despite their current place atop the American League West.

In the absence of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi has emerged as the leader of the rotation. He had gone three straight starts without giving up a run, all lasting at least eight innings, before giving up three runs in seven innings in Wednesday night's loss to the Braves. Shutting down the A's is one thing, but when he did the same against the Yankees and Angels, it made people take notice. Yes, New York had some injuries in its lineup, but Eovaldi passed the eye test either way. His stuff has been electric. -- Rogers

5. Toronto Blue Jays

Record: 25-18

Previous ranking: 4

The concerns about Alek Manoah's start to the season are getting more and more real. Through nine starts, Manoah has a 5.40 ERA, 1.80 WHIP and -0.4 bWAR. He has given significantly more hard contact this season and has not been throwing as many strikes, a problem for a pitcher who does not rely on strikeouts to get batters out. If Toronto hopes to achieve its World Series aspirations, it will need more from a pitcher it expected to lead the rotation. The team has gotten strong performances from Kevin Gausman, Yusei Kikuchi and Chris Bassitt, which has helped lessen the impact of Manoah's struggles. -- Lee

6. Baltimore Orioles

Record: 28-15

Previous ranking: 7

Baltimore continues to dazzle in the early going of the season. Its most impressive pitcher hasn't been a starter -- rather, it's rookie reliever Yennier Cano, who has 25 strikeouts with no runs or walks in 21⅔ innings pitched. The Orioles' bullpen duo of Cano and established reliever Felix Bautista looks like one of the most dynamic late-inning combos across the game. Combine that with Adley Rutschman putting together a season that could vault him in the MVP conversation and it's hard to imagine this Baltimore team fading into irrelevance. -- Lee

7. New York Yankees

Record: 25-20

Previous ranking: 9

Yankees fans are inching away from the panic button after the team put together a strong week against the lowly Athletics, a series split against the Rays and high-scoring outputs against the Blue Jays (though, New York was shut out by Toronto on Wednesday). In the past week, Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo have carried the offense, hitting five and three homers, respectively. Meanwhile, rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe's statistics continue to creep up after a slow start -- he has hit three homers in the past week. -- Lee

8. Houston Astros

Record: 24-19

Previous ranking: 6

Jose Altuve has been on a rehab assignment in the minors and his return from a thumb injury is approaching. Once Altuve resumes his place as the Astros' everyday second baseman and leadoff hitter, the question then becomes: What does manager Dusty Baker do about Mauricio Dubon? It's a good problem to have, since Dubon has sparkled as Altuve's replacement, with a league-average bat (albeit one fueled by a sky-high BABIP) supported by terrific defense and production on the basepaths. Dubon has been particularly lethal against lefties, and you wonder if he might usurp some of Jake Meyers' playing time in center field when a southpaw is on the mound. Dubon has started 79 games in center over the past three years but has yet to appear at the position in 2023. -- Doolittle

9. Minnesota Twins

Record: 24-20

Previous ranking: 12

Wrist injuries have hampered the progress of Alex Kirilloff over the past couple of seasons. While it's still early, now that he's healthy, he has been producing like the All-Star in the making that he was once ordained to be. After getting his feet wet with a few outings at Class A, Kirilloff advanced to Triple-A St. Paul, where he mashed a .316/.435/.605 line over 10 games. That propelled him back to the big league roster, and 10 games after that promotion, he put up pretty much the same line: .313/.450/.563.

Manager Rocco Baldelli is still limiting Kirilloff's exposure to lefties, and as long as that's the case, we can't declare him a finished product. But if he keeps mashing righties the way that he has, Baldelli might be forced to expand his role. It might be happening already: Kirilloff was in the lineup May 16 at Dodger Stadium when the Twins were going up against future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. -- Doolittle

10. Milwaukee Brewers

Record: 24-19

Previous ranking: 11

Milwaukee has quietly returned to the top of the NL Central after a series sweep of the Royals over the weekend. However, the Brewers' 18-1 drubbing at the hands of the Cardinals on Monday was a reminder that nothing comes easy in the mediocre NL Central, though they did follow that up with a solid win over the Cardinals on Tuesday. Milwaukee's top hitter (Rowdy Tellez) ranks just 39th in the majors in OPS while its top pitcher (Corbin Burnes) ranks 37th in ERA, but manager Craig Counsell's group is doing what it always does -- hanging around the top of the division. The Rays and Astros will be a big test over the next week. -- Rogers

11. Arizona Diamondbacks

Record: 25-19

Previous ranking: 14

Brandon Pfaadt, the D-backs' highly touted pitching prospect, was charged with 13 runs in 9⅔ innings during his first two starts but bounced back Sunday, pitching five innings of one-run ball against the Giants. D-backs manager Torey Lovullo had a talk with Pfaadt in the wake of those first two outings, essentially telling him he was capable of more and that something needed to be figured out. "He took that as a personal challenge," Lovullo said.

Pfaadt benefited from getting back some of the late life on his fastball, heeding the advice of assistant pitching coach Barry Enright to get his fingers on top of the baseball and throw it more downhill, according to MLB.com. The D-backs need someone to step up in their rotation beyond Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, and perhaps Pfaadt, 24, can be that guy. -- Gonzalez

12. Boston Red Sox

Record: 24-20

Previous ranking: 10

Boston fell back down to earth after rattling off an eight-game winning streak, dropping six of eight against the Phillies, Braves, Cardinals and Mariners. The Red Sox face questions about who will fill out their rotation following the return of James Paxton from the IL. After Wednesday's victory over the Mariners, manager Alex Cora announced his decision to send a floundering Nick Pivetta to the bullpen, where he'll work as a multi-inning reliever, while others like Corey Kluber have also struggled mightily this season. If Boston hopes to compete in the division, it will need more from its rotation. Every pitcher with at least three starts has an ERA above 4.45.-- Lee

13. Seattle Mariners

Record: 21-22

Previous ranking: 16

George Kirby is pitching his way into the All-Star discussion -- and it would be in front of home fans, with the All-Star Game in Seattle this summer. After allowing one hit in 6⅔ innings to beat the Red Sox on Monday, he ran his record to 5-2 with a 2.45 ERA.

Following an impressive rookie season in which he walked just 22 batters in 130 innings, Kirby continues to pound the strike zone like few starters have ever done. He has walked just four batters in 51⅓ innings -- at 0.7 walks per nine, that's a better rate than Greg Maddux ever had (and would rank eighth best since 1901). His strikeout rate isn't anything special, but he's not allowing a ton of hard contact, with just two home runs and a hard-hit rate that ranks in the 79th percentile. It's a unique profile in today's game, but he's proving that the old adage of "get ahead of the batter" is still an effective way to pitch. -- Schoenfield

14. San Diego Padres

Record: 20-24

Previous ranking: 8

The perception from the outside was that the NL West had flipped. The Padres defeated the Dodgers in last year's NL Division Series, then signed Xander Bogaerts -- leading up to Fernando Tatis Jr.'s return -- while the Dodgers mainly stood pat. But the Padres' regular-season struggles against the Dodgers continue. They lost a combined five of six games to their bitter rivals on back-to-back weekends and have now dropped 11 consecutive regular-season series against them dating to 2021. When this week began, the Padres' vaunted offense was amazingly batting just .198 with runners in scoring position, dead last in the majors. -- Gonzalez

15. Los Angeles Angels

Record: 22-22

Previous ranking: 15

Shohei Ohtani is navigating through what is probably the worst pitching slump of his major league career, posting a 6.12 ERA over his past four starts. Ohtani allowed five runs in the first five innings in Baltimore on Monday -- but he still recorded 21 outs, unleashed a 456-foot home run, fell just shy of the cycle for the second time in less than three weeks and wound up as the winning pitcher. In typical Ohtani fashion, he managed to attain greatness amid struggle. He's helping to keep the Angels afloat within a hypercompetitive AL West. -- Gonzalez

16. Philadelphia Phillies

Record: 20-23

Previous ranking: 17

Ranger Suarez finally returned to make his first start since getting injured in the World Baseball Classic, and while he allowed seven hits and three runs in four innings, it was in Colorado and he gave up a couple of cheap ones (and the Phillies won anyway).

Meanwhile, the Phillies demoted Bailey Falter, which is not a surprise given he's 0-7 in eight starts with a 5.13 ERA. It's just hard for a lefty with a low strikeout rate to survive in today's game, and Falter has allowed a .301 average and .825 OPS. Still, he'll probably be back at some point, which leads us to this factoid: The record for most losses in a season without a win in Phillies history belongs to Russ Miller, who went 0-12 in 1928. You might remember Brad Lidge went 0-8 in 2009 as the closer -- despite the Phillies advancing to the World Series (where he would lose a game, although he did get a win in the NLCS). -- Schoenfield

17. New York Mets

Record: 21-23

Previous ranking: 13

Is it time to start panicking? Maybe not, after the Mets' walk-off win over the Rays on Wednesday night, but New York still went a disastrous 4-9 in a stretch against the Tigers, Rockies, Reds and Nationals -- probably the easiest four-series stretch it'll have all season. Then on Tuesday against the Rays, Justin Verlander made his first home start for the Mets and allowed six runs and eight hits in five innings, serving up two home runs to Isaac Paredes, one with two runners on and one with a runner on. Verlander is hardly the biggest problem, as David Peterson got shelled again Sunday to fall to 1-5 with an 8.08 ERA and was optioned to Triple-A. Carlos Carrasco looks ready to return from the IL and take Peterson's place in the rotation. -- Schoenfield

18. Cleveland Guardians

Record: 19-23

Previous ranking: 20

The Guardians' quest to generate some semblance of a contention-worthy offense is ongoing. They did get some good news on that front, though. Josh Naylor remarkably hit eighth-inning, go-ahead homers in three straight games over the weekend against the Angels, and he did so with nary a reprise of the baby-rocking celebration he unleashed on us all during last season's playoffs. Cleveland's offensive issues have been widespread, but Naylor has certainly been a part of the problem, with an OPS+ of just 84 despite the recent surge. Naylor and Josh Bell, who has struggled just as much, have occupied the 4- and 5-spots in the batting order for most of the season. The Guardians rank in the bottom third of the majors in OPS at those slots. -- Doolittle

19. Pittsburgh Pirates

Record: 23-20

Previous ranking: 18

There's a reason the Pirates were never that highly rated in our power rankings, as their place in the standings was bound to take a hit. It's just hard to see their pitching staff, outside of Mitch Keller, performing at a high level over 162 games. Having said all that, Keller is a current Cy Young candidate who might be in the midst of a magical season. He followed up a complete-game shutout over the Rockies with a seven-inning, 13-strikeout scoreless performance over the vaunted Orioles. It was one of the better pitching performances of the season. Keller's fastball has been electric, which makes his cutter just as dangerous. He's a fun watch on the mound. -- Rogers

20. St. Louis Cardinals

Record: 18-26

Previous ranking: 23

The long-awaited turnaround for St. Louis has begun. Was the very public benching of Willson Contreras the catalyst? Maybe. Maybe not. But it certainly got the attention of the whole team, as the Cardinals had to answer for their own issues as they came to Contreras' defense.

Slowly but surely the rotation is performing better -- a notion that probably has little to do with Contreras. Miles Mikolas has found some mojo after a brutal start to his season. He has given up five runs in his past 16 innings in three May starts. With a potent offense behind him -- Nolan Arenado is on fire -- that kind of production from St. Louis' pitching might be all the team needs to get back in the race. The Cardinals are not completely back, but their sweep of the Red Sox last week in Boston was as good a sign as any that they're headed in the right direction. -- Rogers

21. Chicago Cubs

Record: 19-24

Previous ranking: 19

A brutal three-city road trip combined with key injuries has led to a poor May for Chicago. The Cubs are a decent team, but they have holes in every part of their game right now. One bright spot is Christopher Morel. He hit three 400-plus-foot home runs in the span of four days last week. One went for 461 feet, one of the longest in baseball this season. Teams should begin to pitch him inside as his power comes from extension. And fans have a right to question why he didn't make the team out of spring training after he hit 16 home runs in a limited time span last season. -- Rogers

22. Miami Marlins

Record: 22-21

Previous ranking: 21

The Marlins finally lost a one-run game on Saturday, when the Reds scored three runs in the eighth to take a 6-4 lead. Miami rallied with a run in the bottom of the ninth and had the bases loaded with two outs, but Alexis Diaz fanned Yuli Gurriel to close out the game. But the Marlins improved to 13-1 in one-run games on Tuesday (and then 14-1 on Wednesday) with a dramatic three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Nationals 5-4. Garrett Cooper doubled with two outs, Luis Arraez singled him home and then Jorge Soler hit a walk-off home run.

The other big news was the MLB debut for 20-year-old right-hander Eury Perez, regarded by many as the top pitching prospect in the game. He allowed two runs in 4⅔ innings against the Reds with seven K's, although those two runs were both homers. He averaged 97 mph with his fastball and got three strikeouts apiece with his slider and curveball. With 16 swinging strikes in just 18 pitches, his stuff was as good as advertised and he looks ready to contribute. -- Schoenfield

23. San Francisco Giants

Record: 20-23

Previous ranking: 22

Perhaps Michael Conforto is finally beginning to heat up. After a dreadful first six weeks of the season, Conforto has accumulated 10 hits -- including three home runs -- over his past 24 at-bats, adding 117 points of OPS in the process. The All-Star outfielder spent all of last season recovering from shoulder surgery. A slow start was to be expected. But if Conforto can get back to his production from as recently as 2020, it will serve as a major boost for a lineup that is also experiencing a resurgence from center fielder Mike Yastrzemski. -- Gonzalez

24. Cincinnati Reds

Record: 19-24

Previous ranking: 25

Cincinnati is very quietly hanging around the edges of the NL Central race. Of course, every team in the division has a chance right now, as no one is running away with it. But considering their place in their rebuilding cycle, the Reds might be the most surprising team in the division. They won series against the Mets and Marlins over the past week -- with the latter coming on the road. Perhaps it will all crater, though, as Cincinnati ranks in the bottom third in hitting and pitching -- and the Reds are under .500 after all. But, catching the Cubs for third place earlier this week is a nice May feather in their baseball cap. -- Rogers

25. Detroit Tigers

Record: 19-22

Previous ranking: 24

Detroit's run prevention has continued to trend in the right direction. Its park-adjusted runs allowed per game reached league average over the past month, a remarkable turnaround from the early weeks of the season. Through April 15, the Tigers were on pace to give up an unsightly 1,007 runs. Say what you will about early-season paces, but that's not good. Detroit was giving up 6⅔ runs per game at that point.

Since then, the Tigers have given up just 3.6 runs per game and are on pace to allow 741 runs on the season through Tuesday. And while that is indeed just average once you adjust for Comerica Park, being average in something as a member of the AL Central is good enough to flirt with second place and be in a position where one short winning streak can vault you into the division lead. -- Doolittle

26. Washington Nationals

Record: 18-25

Previous ranking: 28

The Nationals have played .500 baseball since their 4-11 start and CJ Abrams continues to show improvement at the plate. He's up to four home runs after homering twice in the Mets series, has his OPS just below .700 and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, his hard-hit rate sits in the 45th percentile after he showed little pop as a rookie. The chase rate is still way too high at 41.4% and his defense at shortstop also remains a work in progress as he has made eight errors and ranks at the bottom of Statcast's outs above average metric. Abrams is still just 22 and played just 114 games in the minors, so he's a young and inexperienced player whose career could still go in any number of directions. -- Schoenfield

27. Colorado Rockies

Record: 19-25

Previous ranking: 27

The Rockies suffered a close loss to the Reds on Tuesday, but Chase Anderson, claimed off waivers to make that start, allowed only two baserunners over the course of five scoreless innings. The Rockies' rotation is exceedingly short-handed at the moment, with German Marquez (Tommy John surgery), Ryan Feltner (skull fracture suffered on a comebacker) and Antonio Senzatela (ulnar collateral ligament sprain) all either out for the year or facing lengthy absences. The Rockies are enjoying a much better month of May, in all phases, but they'll need more performances like Anderson's if they hope to remain relevant. -- Gonzalez

28. Chicago White Sox

Record: 16-28

Previous ranking: 26

The White Sox are getting healthier, but it certainly has not been a linear process. Jake Burger returned to the lineup from an oblique strain and has seemingly picked up his power stroke where he left it. Yoan Moncada is back in the fold as well after mostly recovering from back trouble that kept him out of the lineup for over a month. Eloy Jimenez is still recovering from an appendectomy but is at least back with the team. Reliever Garrett Crochet rejoined the big league roster after completing the long road back from Tommy John surgery, and Liam Hendriks could be back in the big league bullpen any day now.

On the other hand, starting second baseman Elvis Andrus is now on the shelf with an oblique injury. The White Sox have not been whole all season and it might be a while before we see the full version of their roster. If Chicago doesn't start playing better with some consistency, there might not be much left to play for by the time everyone is back, even in baseball's worst division. -- Doolittle

29. Kansas City Royals

Record: 14-31

Previous ranking: 29

Salvador Perez's recent surge at the plate has lifted all of his numbers to better-than-career-norm levels. He very much looks like an experienced backstop with plenty of productive years left ahead of him, as he turned 33 last week, and is still remarkable to watch at the plate. He'll swing at almost anything, with a chase rate that ranks in the last percentile of the majors. But his exit velocities are outstanding and he's in the 87th percentile in hard-hit rate. This season, somehow, he has even cut down on strikeouts despite a swing percentage that is the highest in baseball. In more ways than one, Perez remains one of a kind. -- Doolittle

30. Oakland Athletics

Record: 10-35

Previous ranking: 30

Most of the news around the Athletics centers around their looming move to Las Vegas, but don't discount the performance by left fielder and designated hitter Brent Rooker. He has put together a strong start to the season, hitting .295/.498/.605 with 11 homers through 38 games this season, placing him among the 15 most valuable position players in the game by Baseball Reference WAR (bWAR). This comes, though, as the A's came to a binding agreement for $1.5 billion to develop a potential stadium on the Las Vegas Strip at the site of the Tropicana Hotel. Whether Rooker or anyone on this current roster is on that team is a whole other question. -- Lee

Marathon runner on the feeling of representing England for the first time over 26.2 miles

On Sunday (May 14), I represented my country for the very first time, writes Anya Culling.

I could have viewed the race as an epic honour, an insurmountable, once in a lifetime competition. However, this would have been an obsolete attitude to adopt. The race was also about meeting and connecting to athletes from other nations and learning from one another.

When I was offered the opportunity to race the Copenhagen Marathon for England, my mind went straight to fear!

My coach [Nick Bester] and I discussed at length about whether I was ready or not. I wasn’t fearful of the other athlete’s personal bests. Yes, they were impressive, but their mental strength was even more amazing. I was scared I would fall short, stand on that start line and crumble under the pressure. This marathon block was a mental build.

Everyone knows that a marathon is a battle with your mind and I feared that would be my Achilles heel. I needed to train my mind to become an enabler rather than a disabler. I would dread a session or hard run workout because I was so scared, putting so much pressure on myself.

Over the four month build-up, I learnt to adopt the mindset of ‘what if it could turn out better than you could have imagined’ – that’s exactly what happened in Copenhagen.

We stayed in the race hotel with many other elite athletes. I shared a room with Phily Bowden who had the race of her life on Sunday. She finished third with a time of 2:29:16 and was the only athlete who wasn’t Kenyan to be on the podium in both the male and female races. Everyone helped and supported each other through those pre-race nerves.

We all ate meals together, shared stories of races that we’d done before and went for shake-out runs as groups. Plus received messages from the same therapist. On the start line, the fist bumps and the words of encouragement confirmed we were racing for ourselves and not against the clock.

I had Nick [Bester] running alongside me and we had formed a solid group by the 5km mark.

We clipped along nicely at around 3:35min/km. I had my sunglasses on while trying to make sure the sweat didn’t wipe up off the splits written on my arm. The sun quickly heated up like a celestial fireball and I knew it was going to get tough.

It was an honour to run in an England kit and Copenhagen will always be such a special race for me. When the going got tough I kept reminding myself of the little English rose printed on the back of my race knickers and my surname in bold across my chest.

The aim was to get bored before it got tough. Get into a rhythm, switch off and sleep run. Try not to surge when I see what I can only describe as the inception of hooliganism in athletics; 30 of my closest friends and family in matching personalised bucket hats blurring in and out of focus around me in the heat.

At the 13.1 mile point I felt good but everyone knows the true half-way mark is 30km. This is where the wheels started to come off and I realised I was completely cooked. My pace dropped slightly at 34km but this is what I had trained for. I stopped looking at my watch and knew I needed to stay strong. It’s the mental battle I had been preparing myself for.

This last 8km is what I was most proud of. I gained two places to show I was still competitive. It was 23 degrees by this point and while the sun burned down on the road, the fire was in my belly. I knew I was still on for a two minute PB.

ICYMI, @philybowden and @AnyaCulling produced some fantastic performances at the Copenhagen Marathon ???????

Bowden finished third in the elite women's race and took over five minutes off her PB to clock 2:29:16 ?

Culling was eighth with an amazing 2:34:45 ? pic.twitter.com/ErbveQ6xZv

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) May 15, 2023

I didn’t allow my brain to think a single negative, that’s a waste of energy. I am strong. I am in control and it’s not over until I say it’s over. I know my body can do so much more than my brain tries to trick me into thinking. I ran across that finish line, towards Phily [Bowden] who was waving the English flag.

I embraced her and our England team staff. Three teammates crossed the line within a second of each other shortly after me. I was trying to cry but didn’t have a droplet of water in me. My Dad made up for that as his eyes welled up.

The marathon isn’t about running, it’s about an insane amount of human energy and emotion. Every single person has their reasons for running 26.2 miles, whether it’s challenging yourself, or for someone else who is going through something even more than you. No matter your time, everyone is just trying to run their best. The marathon could rival literature for the home of love, rapture and heroism.

Finishing time: 02:34:45

Second Brit, eighth finisher. seventh fastest marathon time from a Brit in 2023. 

Average Pace: 3:40/km (5:63/mi)

Elevation: 147m

Average HR: 174

Cadence: 204 average, 250 spm max.

Nutrition: 1 x Maurten 320, 1 x Maurten 120 (split between 6 bottles), 2 carbon gels, 1 normal gel.

Fastest km: 3:27

Slowest km: 3:49

Daniil Medvedev secured his first semi-final spot at the Italian Open with a straight-sets win over Yannick Hanfmann.

The world number three has only dropped one set during the entire tournament.

He will face either third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or Croatia's Borna Coric, who play each other later.

2021 US Open champion Medvedev came into the match off the back of a win over Alexander Zverev, while qualifier Hanfmann was in his first ever ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final.

Both players broke each other's serve in the opening three games, but Medvedev dominated from then on and won in 80 minutes to reach his seventh semi-final so far this season.