Update on the latest sports
APMLB-SCHEDULE
O’Neill homers, Cards win 2-1 to salvage split with Dodgers
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Tyler O’Neill hit a tiebreaking homer, Cardinals relievers combined for five scoreless innings, and St. Louis salvaged a split of its four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 2-1 win.
The Cardinals climbed within three games of the San Diego Padres for the final NL wild-card spot, while the Dodgers fell 2 1/2 games behind the NL West-leading San Francisco Giants.
O’Neill’s fifth-inning drive off Phil Bickford was his 25th homer this season. The blast made a winner out of Alex Reyes, who pitched two scoreless innings in his fifth appearance since being demoted from the closer’s role.
NFL-COWBOYS/BUCCANEERS
Bucs and Cowboys kick off NFL season
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tom Brady and the Super Bowl champion Buccaneers open the 2021 NFL season Thursday with a prime-time matchup against Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys.
Tampa Bay is hoping to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since Brady led the 2003 and 2004 New England Patriots to consecutive crowns. The Bucs return all 22 starters from the squad that finished last season on an eight-game winning streak, including a 31-9 rout of the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
The Cowboys are coming off a 6-10 finish in which they played most of the season without quarterback Dak Prescott. He’s due to play Thursday night for the first time since suffering the severe ankle injury that ended his year last October. He didn’t play in the preseason, either, after straining his right shoulder early in training camp.
TENNIS-US OPEN
Women’s semifinal matches on tap
NEW YORK (AP) — A pair of unseeded teenagers take the stage Thursday night in the U.S. Open women’s semifinals: 18-year-old Emma Raducanu (ra-doo-KA’-noo) of Britain and 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez of Canada.
The 73rd-ranked Fernandez takes on No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka in the first semifinal. That will be followed by the 150th-ranked Raducanu against No. 17 seed Maria Sakkari (SA’-ka-ree) of Greece.
Raducanu is the first female qualifier to get to the final four at the U.S. Open in the professional era, which began in 1968. None of the four women remaining in the tournament has ever played in a Grand Slam final.
In other action Thursday, Jamie Murray of Britain and Bruno Soares of Brazil reached the men’s double final. The seventh-seeded duo defeated the eighth-seeded team of John Peers of Australia and Filip Polasek of Slovakia.
Murray and Soares, who won the U.S. Open and Australian Open doubles together in 2016, will face Rajeev Ram of the U.S. and Joe Salisbury of Britain for the championship.
