NATIONAL LEAGUE
Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants claimed the National League Cy Young Award for the second successive year on Thursday, winning in a close vote over Cardinals starters Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.
Lincecum, 15-7 with a 2.48 earned run average for the Giants, received fewer first-place votes than St Louis starter Wainwright in the balloting of members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Wainwright (19-8, 2.63 ERA) finished third in the points tally behind teammate Carpenter (17-4, 2.24 ERA).
Lincecum was named first on 11 of the 32 ballots, cast by two writers from each league city, one fewer than Wainwright, but received 12 second-place votes and nine for third place to finish with 100 points based on a 5-3-1 points distribution.
Carpenter, who got nine first-place votes, finished with a total of 94 points, four more than Wainwright.
The only other time a pitcher won the Cy Young Award without receiving the most first-place votes was in 1998 when the Atlanta Braves’ Tom Glavine had 11 to San Diego Padres reliever Trevor Hoffman’s 13, but out-pointed him 98-88.
The 10-point margin among the top three vote-getters was second closest in NL voting behind the 1987 balloting won by Philadelphia Phillies reliever Steve Bedrosian.
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with
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A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed