SOCCER
Kagawa top Japanese scorer
Shinji Kagawa on Saturday became the top Japanese scorer of all time in the Bundesliga when he chipped in the winner in Borussia Dortmund’s nervous 2-1 victory at Augsburg. Dortmund, who wasted a second-half penalty, bounced back from their midweek home loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League to move five points clear at the top of the Bundesliga on 19 points from seven matches. The 28-year-old Kagawa scored his 38th goal in the league to surpass Shinzi Okazaki with a superb chip over keeper Marwin Hitz.
FOOTBALL
Amazon shows first game
Amazon.com’s first NFL broadcast drew 372,000 viewers who watched the game an average of 55 minutes on the Internet giant’s Prime Video service — a small part of the overall audience for Thursday’s game. At least 1.6 million viewers initiated a stream of the Green Bay Packers’ 35-14 victory over the Chicago Bears, the NFL’s oldest rivalry. Twitter’s Thursday night streams last year averaged 266,000 viewers at any given time, the metric that best compares with traditional TV ratings. Twitter’s games were distributed for free, while Amazon’s were included in its paid Prime subscription. Amazon is paying more than US$50 million to air 11 Thursday night games this year, five times what Twitter paid for a similar package last year. The Thursday night game in the same week of the season last year only aired on the NFL Network, making direct comparisons difficult. This year’s game was down 13 percent from CBS’s first “Thursday Night Football” broadcast last year, according to trade Web site Deadline.com, although that game was earlier in the season.
FOOTBALL
Trevathan suspended
Chicago Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan has been suspended by the NFL for two games without pay for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Green Bay Packers’ wide receiver Davante Adams during Thursday’s game. The NFL said that Trevathan had been guilty of violating player safety for the tackle that occurred in the third quarter of the game that Green Bay won 35-14. Adams was taken to hospital after the tackle and released on Friday. “I regret the level I hit him at,” Trevathan told reporters after the game. “But you got to understand I had momentum and I was just trying to make a play.”
BASEBALL
Romine plays all positions
Detroit utility player Andrew Romine on Saturday played all nine positions as the Tigers beat Minnesota 3-2 in an inconsequential MLB match. It did not go exactly as planned for manager Brad Ausmus, but it was pretty close, as Romine became the fifth major leaguer to play every position in a single game. “Moving around and stuff, it got hectic, but it was fun,” Romine said.
SOCCER
Mourinho wary of break
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho fears that his side could struggle for momentum after a majority of his players left for international duty following their 4-0 Premier League win over Crystal Palace on Saturday. Mourinho said the break could upset the team’s rhythm with the potential for injuries an additional concern. “We had the first break and two days after the players came back we had to play another game. It’s not a good situation for us, but moaning doesn’t help. We have to wait for them and hope there are not many problems,” he said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB