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PANAMA CITY, Panama — A team can repeat its mistakes so many times before it gets punished. So it proved for the United States men’s national team in its 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat to Panama.

In its first four games, the U.S. had managed to avoid defeat. But even as it accumulated eight points from those matches, there were some warning signs. Slow starts were one. A lack of execution at times in midfield was another. And there was a perceived lack of intensity that more than one player mentioned. It’s a lesson that after five qualifiers — three of which were on the road — the U.S. should have figured out how to handle by now. Instead, it’s one they’re still learning.

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“We’re professionals. We expect to have a certain level of play and we didn’t have that tonight,” said U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner. “I think it all boils down to intensity and not quality on the ball or anything.”

All of this left the U.S. vulnerable to a Panama side that has so far during this qualifying campaign proved to be a tough team to break down. And the Canaleros eventually broke through, courtesy of a set piece goal credited to Anibal Godoy but which also looked like it went off U.S. forward Gyasi Zardes.

“It was clear we didn’t have our best stuff,” said U.S. manager Gregg Berhalter. “It was the hope that we get out of there with a point. And, you know, disappointed to give up a goal the way we did, and lose the game. You know it’s a typical CONCACAF game, very physical ,very aggressive. I think we came up short in a number of areas, so it’s about now it’s about rebounding, focusing on the game on Wednesday in Columbus.”

There were lessons for Berhalter too. Granted, the triple fixture windows that are a staple of this World Cup qualifying campaign demand a certain amount of squad rotation. But on this night Berhalter’s changes were near wholesale, retaining just three field players from the starting lineup that took the field three days ago against Jamaica. Some of those changes were forced as both Weston McKennie and Antonee Robinson were left at home due to a quad injury and U.K. quarantine restrictions, respectively.

Others were more difficult to fathom. Out was Ricardo Pepi, he of the three goals in his first two international appearances, replaced by Zardes. So were presumed mainstays Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson, with Acosta filling Adams’ role in the center of midfield and Timothy Weah deputizing for Aaronson. Mark McKenzie came in for the in-form Miles Robinson.

Some of the moves worked, but it was as much about execution as it was about personnel. McKenzie was steady alongside Walker Zimmerman. But the midfield trio of Acosta, Yunus Musah and Sebastian Lletget (who seemed reluctant to play forward) that Berhalter trotted out was completely ineffective, ceding control early and only getting it back at times in the second half with the halftime introduction of Adams and Aaronson.

The question then, before the opening whistle and after, was did Berhalter overdo it? He cited Adams recent return to the lineup of club side RB Leipzig as one reason he didn’t start. There was also the travel and the humid conditions.

“Now, it obviously doesn’t look like the best choice,” he said about the lineup changes. “But I think we have to wait till Thursday [against Costa Rica]. Because if we would have played the same players from the last game, first of all, two of them weren’t even here, so that was going to be impossible. But if we would have played the same players in…this game, I’m not sure we would position ourselves in the best way to win again on Wednesday, Again, the conditions that we’re dealing with here with the travel with the weather made it complicated. And we had to make a I guess a somewhat risky decision.”

It didn’t pay off. Berhalter said part of his thinking was to get mobility and fresh legs into the lineup, but rarely did that presumed energy reveal itself. The U.S. won only 45.2% of its duels. The U.S. also struggled to execute the basics on the ball, especially in midfield. It almost as if the midfield wasn’t aware that the game was going to be much more of a street fight than the relative stroll against Jamaica game three days ago. Musah was guilty of dribbling into trouble. Acosta had some poor touches that resulted in turnovers. Both types of errors sparked Panama counterattacks that succeeded in getting the crowd into the game.

“The quality wasn’t high enough in the final ball when we did get in those [attacking] positions,” said Berhalter. “I think the ability for our players to turn and play forward was lacking today. And overall, again, we performed below the expectations that we have for ourselves.”

There was also the issue of the U.S. press. It was completely out of sync in the first half, allowing Panama to play out of its own half pretty easily.

“In the first half, it was probably a little bit of a lack of energy and competitiveness,” Adams said.

Berhalter added: “We didn’t have that pop; we didn’t have the legs that we needed. And we suffered for it.”

Berhalter also clarified his remarks, insisting that it wasn’t his intention to play for a draw, but more to see “how the game was going.”

“We made some adjustments, and we were hoping to get some momentum,” he said. “But when the game keeps going longer at a certain point, you’re like, ‘Okay, we get out of here a point we’ll be doing okay, based on everything,’ and unfortunately we didn’t do that. But to be clear, the mindset, prior to the game was not to play for a point. We wanted to win the game we put a line up on the field that we thought could win the game, and we just didn’t do it.”

When a team is missing the likes of Christian Pulisic, Giovanni Reyna, and — at least on this night — McKennie, there is bound to be a drop-off. But Berhalter is finding out just how pronounced that difference in performance can be for some players when the U.S. goes on the road. He brought up the team’s youth, but the U.S. is rapidly reaching the point where that can no longer be used as an excuse. Berhalter has the team he has, and he needs to make sure that he puts a midfield out on the field that can execute, even under tough conditions.

One would hope that with the presumed return to the starting lineup of Adams and McKennie the U.S. will have more heft in central positions. That will then have a knock-on effect elsewhere on the field, freeing up the U.S. attack. They’ll need all of that this Wednesday against a Costa Rica side full of experience.

With this defeat, the pressure is on the U.S. once again. They’ll need a victory on Wednesday to ease it.

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Stanton won’t blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

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Stanton won't blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.

Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.

“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”

Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”

He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.

“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”

While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.

Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells were among the Yankees who used torpedo bats during their season-opening sweep of the Brewers.

Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.

Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.

“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”

Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.

“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.

“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”

As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.

“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”

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Rangers’ Eovaldi gets season’s 1st complete game

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Rangers' Eovaldi gets season's 1st complete game

CINCINNATI — Nathan Eovaldi pitched a four-hitter for the majors’ first complete game of the season, and the Texas Rangers blanked the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 on Tuesday night.

Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.

It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.

“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”

In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.

“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”

The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.

“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”

Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.

“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”

Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.

The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: USC flips Ducks’ Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

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Source: USC flips Ducks' Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.

Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.

Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).

The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.

Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.

Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.

Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.

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