KANSAS CITY, Kan. >> Gyasi Zardes had his first two-goal inte ational game, 17-year-old Christian Pulisic became the youngest American scorer in the mode era and the United States routed Bolivia 4-0 in an exhibition Saturday night to sweep its three warmup matches for next month’s Copa America. Zard...

LONG BEACH >> The situation seemed perfect. Trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth i ing at Blair Field on Saturday, the Long Beach State Dirtbags had their fastest ru er, Jarren Duran, on second base with their top run producer, Garrett Hampson, at the plate with one out. Instead of a dramati...

NEW YORK >> Julio Urias’ first major league call-up did not last long. The Dodgers optioned Urias, the 19-year-old phenom who debuted Friday against the New York Mets, to Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday. The consensus top pitching prospect in baseball was shelled for three runs in 2 2/3 i ings at...

NEW YORK >> Chase Utley was nowhere to be found. A 98-mph fastball from Noah Syndergaard had just sailed behind his back to begin the third i ing Saturday. Home plate umpire Adam Hamari quickly ejected the pitcher, followed by the Mets’ irate manager, Terry Collins. As Collins raged and 42,227 umpir...

anaheim >> Tim Lincecum did well enough in one milestone outing on Saturday that he can be penciled in for the next one. After Lincecum threw the equivalent of five i ings in an extended spring training game in Arizona, his first competitive outing since last June, the Angels scheduled him to make h...

LAS VEGAS >> This is the unglamorous part of the Nevada desert where they still secretly test stuff. Like, the UFC Fight Pass website, for example. Just a bit West of the Vegas Strip, in a rather non-descript, soon-to-be-abandoned office complex behind an In-And-Out on Sahara Avenue, Eric Winter wou...

NEW YORK >> Julio Urias‘ first major league call-up was a brief one. The Dodgers will send the 19-year-old phenom back to Triple-A as early as Saturday, a source confirmed. The news was originally reported by Fanatics Network on Twitter. Urias lasted only 2 ⅔ i ings against the New York Mets in a sp...

Bryce Dejean-Jones, a star basketball player at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, who also played at USC and for the New Orleans Pelicans, was shot and killed Saturday mo ing when he broke into an Dallas apartment he thought belonged to an ex-girlfriend but instead surprised a stranger. He was 23....

LONG BEACH >> Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton kicked it old school on Friday night at Blair Field with a classic pitcher’s duel between the Big West Conference rivals in front of a season-high 2,391 fans. Starting pitcher Darren McCaughan and the Dirtbags, who are ranked No. 22 by Baseball ...

NEW YORK >> In the best of times, sports allow us to dream about extraordinary things. Take Friday. Carlos Urias flew with his family from Mexico to New York City to see his 19-year-old son Julio make his major league debut. Juan Castro, a coach for the Dodgers, got a call from his own father in Sin...

INDIANAPOLIS >> Tony Kanaan spent the final practice before the Indianapolis 500 talking to the race track. He wanted to be kind to the old lady, to land in her good graces before the historic 100th ru ing of “The Greatest Spectacle In Racing.” “I think this track will pick the wi er. Whatever she p...

LONG BEACH >> Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton kicked it old school on Friday night at Blair Field with a classic pitcher’s duel between the Big West Conference rivals in front of a season-high 2,391 fans. Starting pitcher Darren McCaughan and the Dirtbags, who are ranked No. 22 by Baseball ...

Broadcaster Charley Steiner, midway through the first i ing, was marveling at the kid’s “Zen-like” quality. Center fielder Joc Pederson, just a short time earlier, was describing the situation as something that “doesn’t get any bigger than this.” A writer at ESPN, nearly 12 hours before the first pi...

PARIS >> For a decade, Rafael Nadal ruled Roland Garros the way no other man has dominated any Grand Slam site. On Friday, his powerful left wrist wrapped in a blue brace, Nadal delivered the surprising news he was withdrawing before his third-round match at the French Open because of an injury that...

redlands >> After the Redlands East Valley baseball team knocked off the No. 2 seed Gahr on Tuesday, head coach James Cordes walked off the field with a hint of worry over his offense, an offense that was averaging 1.8 runs over its last four games. But on Friday that worry seemed like a distant mem...

NORWALK >> Of the 19 area entries in Friday night’s CIF-SS Masters track and field meet at Cerritos College, 12 advanced to next weekend’s state championships in Clovis in an excellent day of racing despite a strong headwind. Los Alamitos and Long Beach Poly led the area with five and four qualifier...

There’s the scene from “Back to the Future,” when Doc Brown gets blue in the face, highly doubtful Marty McFly somehow traveled back from 1985 to crash land in present-day 1955. “Then tell me, future boy, who’s President of the United States?” “Ronald Reagan.” “Ronald Reagan? The actor?” Doc laughs ...

NEW YORK >> In the best of times, sports allow us to dream about extraordinary things. Take Friday. Carlos Urias flew with his family from Mexico to New York City to see his 19-year-old son Julio make his major league debut. Juan Castro, a coach for the Dodgers, got a call from his own father in Sin...

NEW YORK >> Alex Wood was in a joking mood Friday about his left triceps injury. The Dodgers’ pitcher said he sustained the injury on a swing last weekend in San Diego, a game in which he finished 0 for 2 at the plate. His modest four-game hitting streak ended that day and he hasn’t picked up a bat ...

Enveloped by uncertainty, Baylor football is facing the possibility of a lost season, NCAA sanctions and the program slipping back toward the losing ways that predated Art Briles’ tenure as coach. The university board of regents began the process of firing Briles on Thursday as it released some of t...