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TORONTO — The women’s hockey world gathered Tuesday for the unveiling of a new exhibit at the Hockey Hall of Fame celebrating the sport’s history.

Hall of Famers Angela James and Jayna Hefford put the finishing touches on the exhibit, placing trophies named after them into a display case at the shrine to hockey in downtown Toronto.

James and Hefford hoped the Hall of Fame’s new exhibit would inspire young girls to start playing hockey.

“We have so much history in our game that people don’t know about and we’re still making history,” Hefford said. “As people learn more about the sport and get excited about the history of the sport, that’s how you bring more people in and people get engaged and want to be a part of it.”

James agreed.

“The Hockey Hall of Fame is so inclusive and to be able to capture every league, every association, all of women’s hockey from the 1930s right up to the current times and celebrate that is pretty phenomenal,” James said. “We’re all enrolling in women’s hockey to elevate our game and this is pretty special, I think.”

James, one of the first two women inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010, is now the general manager of the Premier Hockey Federation’s Toronto Six. Hefford is an operations consultant with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018.

The exhibit includes nearly 100 artifacts from over 130 years of women’s hockey history. Some highlights include the Clarkson Cup, Abby Hoffman Trophy, Jayna Hefford CWHL MVP Trophy and Angela James Bowl for CWHL top scorer.

A spokeswoman for the Hockey Hall of Fame said that it had planned to add the exhibit in early 2020 but those plans were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Once public health restrictions were eased, the exhibit’s debut was timed to coincide with this week’s women’s world hockey championship in nearby Brampton, Ontario.

Players representing Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Czechia were in attendance as the tournament begins Wednesday.

“I came to Hockey Hall of Fame with my all-boys team when I was 10 and it was always about the NHL players in the Stanley Cup,” said Sarah Fillier, a forward with Canada’s women’s team who grew up in Georgetown, Ontario. “So I can’t imagine being a young girl now playing hockey, coming here and seeing the history of the women’s game and being really inspired.”

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Guardians overtake Tigers with historical surge

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Guardians overtake Tigers with historical surge

CLEVELAND — George Valera hit a two-run homer in the third inning, Jose Ramírez had a two-run double in the seventh and the Cleveland Guardians became the first major league team to overcome a deficit of 15½ games and take the lead in either division or league play, beating the Detroit Tigers 5-1 on Wednesday night.

Cleveland (86-72) has a one-game lead over Detroit (85-73) with four games to play. The Guardians also have the tiebreaker by taking the season series.

The 1914 Boston Braves were 15 games back in the National League on July 4 and rallied to win by 10½ games according to Elias Sports Bureau. Since baseball went to division play in 1969, the biggest deficit overcome was 14 games by the 1978 New York Yankees to win the AL East.

Tanner Bibee (12-11) won his third straight start and allowed only one run in six innings, extending the streak of Guardians starters allowing two or fewer runs to 19 games. They are the first since the 2019 Tampa Bay Rays to go at least 19 games.

Detroit has dropped eight straight and is out of first place for the first time since April 22, when the Guardians led by a half-game. Jack Flaherty (8-15) took the loss.

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the third when Parker Meadows‘ sacrifice fly drove in Dillon Dingler.

Brayan Rocchio led off the Cleveland third with a double and then scored when Valera’s drive appeared short of the wall in center before it was deflected off the glove of Meadows.

Ramírez broke it open in the eighth with a two-run double to right field that deflected off the glove of Detroit second baseman Gleyber Torres. He became the second player in Cleveland franchise history to reach 3,000 total bases. The other was Earl Averill with 3,201 from 1929 through ’41.

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Phils seal 1st-round bye behind team-record 8 HRs

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Phils seal 1st-round bye behind team-record 8 HRs

PHILADELPHIA — Edmundo Sosa hit three of Philadelphia’s team-record eight home runs, Kyle Schwarber had two to pad his National League lead and the Phillies wrapped up a first-round bye with an 11-1 victory over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night.

Assured one of the top two seeds in the NL, the East champion Phillies (93-65) will open the postseason at home Oct. 4 in a best-of-five division series.

Schwarber hit Nos. 55 and 56, and also doubled and singled. He trails Seattle’s Cal Raleigh by three for the major league homer lead after Raleigh hit his 59th in the first inning of the Mariners’ game against Colorado.

Philadelphia hit seven homers against Atlanta on Aug. 28, with Schwarber getting four of them.

Sosa was activated before the game after being out since Sept. 16 because of a groin injury. Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm and Otto Kemp also homered.

Jesus Luzardo (15-7) struck out 10 in seven innings against his former team. He allowed three hits and one run.

Marlins starter Ryan Weathers (2-2) lasted 4⅔ innings, allowing five earned runs on six hits — three of them homers. Valente Bellozo allowed four homers in the seventh.

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Dodgers activate Sasaki amid bullpen struggles

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Dodgers activate Sasaki amid bullpen struggles

PHOENIX — The Los Angeles Dodgers activated rookie Roki Sasaki from the 60-day injured list Wednesday, and the right-hander is expected to throw out of the bullpen over the final five games of the regular season to see if he can earn a postseason role.

Manager Dave Roberts confirmed the move, saying right-hander Kirby Yates will head to the injured list because of a lingering hamstring issue. The move is retroactive to Sept. 21.

Roberts said he doesn’t have a specific role for Sasaki, but wanted him to take advantage of his opportunities.

“Giving everything he has for an inning or two at a time,” Roberts said. “That’s kind of what I see. Let the performance play out. Just go after guys and be on the attack.”

Sasaki, 23, is 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 34⅓ innings over eight big league appearances this season, all starts. He has also spent time at Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he was 0-2 with a 6.10 ERA over seven appearances, including five starts.

The defending World Series champion Dodgers are searching for bullpen help as the postseason approaches. Tanner Scott blew a save in Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Sasaki agreed in January to a minor league contract with a $6.5 million signing bonus as an international amateur free agent under Major League Baseball’s rules, leaving the Pacific League’s Chiba Lotte Marines under the posting system.

His debut season in the big leagues has been mostly disappointing, but the Dodgers hope he can still have a role in October.

Sasaki is one of three Japanese players on the Dodgers’ roster along with two-way star Shohei Ohtani and right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

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