Dodgers will sign Pujols
Los Angeles Dodgers are signing veteran first baseman Albert Pujols to a major league deal, a source said Saturday.
The 41-year-old Pujols left the Los Angeles Angels earlier this month after nearly 10 seasons with the Dodgers’ Orange County rivals. The oldest player in the majors batted .198 this season with five homers and 12 RBI for the Angels.
Pujols was in the final season of a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Angels, who didn’t win a playoff game during his tenure.
The slugger is making $30 million this season, and the Dodgers will pay him only the prorated portion of the major league minimum salary for the rest of the season, roughly $420,000. The rest will be paid by the Angels.
Pujols is fifth in major league history with 667 career homers and 13th with 3,253 hits, but he has been a low-impact contributor to the Angels for the past half-decade. The Angels said Pujols requested his departure from Anaheim because he didn’t want to be a backup.
TENNIS
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had starkly different days at the Italian Open in Rome on Saturday.
Djokovic regained his cool after throwing his racket off the court in a grueling, rain-delayed quarterfinal victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas by 4-6, 7-5, 7-5.
Then the top-ranked Serb returned a few hours later against local favorite Lorenzo Sonego and wasted a late break and two match points in the second set of a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2 victory in his second match of the day.
Nadal, meanwhile, kept his time on court to a minimum by ending the surprising clay-court run of big-serving American Reilly Opelka, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals.
The women’s final Sunday will feature French Open champion Iga Swiatek against 2019 Rome champion Karolina Pliskova.
TRIATHLON
It was quite a day for American women at the season-opening World Triathlon Championship Series race outside Tokyo, one that bodes well for them at the Olympics in less than two months.
Taylor Knibb won the Yokohama Triathlon to book her place on the U.S. team for the Tokyo Games in July, albeit on a different course than the one used Saturday. The 23-year-old Knibb finished the Olympic distance of a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40kilometer cycle and 10-kilometer run in 1 hour 54 minutes 27 seconds.
Summer Rappaport, who had already qualified for the Tokyo Games, was second, while Taylor Spivey finished fourth. Maya Kingma of the Netherlands was third, preventing an all-American podium.
SOCCER
Even sweeter than the powerful long-range strike from Youri Tielemans was Leicester being able to celebrate winning the FA Cup for the first time surrounded by its fans.
And even louder than the Leicester supporters’ cheers at Wembley Stadium that greeted the sublime strike in the 63rd minute was the moment VAR denied Chelsea an equalizer in the 89th minute.
It was former Leicester defender Ben Chilwell’s cross that looked to have been deflected into his own net by veteran captain Wes Morgan. But video replays detected an offside that ensured, after four losing finals, Leicester would finally win world football’s oldest cup competition by 1-0 in the 140th final.
Bid for Arsenal rejected: Spotify co-owner Daniel Ek said a bid to buy Arsenal has been rejected by the Kroenke family which owns the London-based Premier League club.
The Swedish entrepreneur behind the musicstreaming service first revealed his takeover interest last month after owner Stan Kroenke’s ill-fated attempt to lead Arsenal into a European Super League. The project collapsed amid fan anger and government opposition. Protests have continued ahead of games – where fans are locked out due to the pandemic.
Kroenke, who also owns the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, gained full control of Arsenal in 2018.
From Journal Sentinel wire reports