Allmendinger wins at Roval; playoffs’ final 8 set
CONCORD, N.C. — AJ Allmendinger spoiled NASCAR’s playoffs by winning Sunday’s elimination race on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Allmendinger is fantastic and wasn’t going to move over just because he’s not part of the championship field.
Allmendinger, who is in his first full season of his Cup return, led 46 laps for Kaulig Racing to win for the first time in NASCAR’s top series since Indianapolis in 2021. Allmendinger, who became a father within the past month, was sobbing when he collected the checkered flag.
“Because you don’t know when you are going to do it again,” cried Allmendinger, who turns 42 in December. He said he normally gives the checkered flag away to a fan but was keeping Sunday’s flag for his newborn son.
“That was probably the drive of my life,” he said later.
Allmendinger then went into the stands to pose for selfies with the fans chanting his name. It was the third Cup Series win for Allmendinger, who has raced across 16 Cup seasons but took a break from NASCAR’s top series in 2019 and 2020. Kaulig slowly lured him back with five Cup races in 2021, all the way to this year’s full season in Kaulig’s second year fielding cars at the elite level.
“I hate crying right now, but it’s a freaking Cup race, man. You don’t know when it’s ever going to happen again,” Allmendinger said. “This is why you do it. This is the only reason you do it. You fight. All the blood, sweat, tears. It’s our second year in the Cup Series.”
Allmendinger won four consecutive Xfinity Series races on the hybrid road course/oval but wasn’t entered Saturday for Kaulig because he’s already exhausted his allotted five starts in the second-tier series. Allmendinger won twice in Xfinity Series, and it’s unclear if he’ll be in the Cup Series or return to the Xfinity Series next year.
Either way, his win was pivotal in the playoff elimination of Kyle Busch, the two-time series champion who had to win Sunday to advance to the round of eight. Busch gave it a few tries but couldn’t get into second place — William Byron finished second — and Busch settled for third.
Busch was uncharacteristically optimistic after elimination and said he’ll try to win each of the final four races.
“I would love to be the spoiler. That would be fun,” Busch said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’ll keep building.”
Also eliminated was Ross Chastain, last year’s title runner-up, 2012 champion Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace, whose first playoff appearance ended in the round of 12 on his 30th birthday with 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan watching from Wallace’s pit stand.
“We weren’t supposed to be here, according to a lot of people, but we proved them wrong,” said Wallace, who finished 16th. “… Got to continue to work. I don’t think we’re a winning car yet, but we’re light years from where we were a few races ago.”
It was a brutal day for Chevrolet, which lost both popular Chastain of Trackhouse Racing and a resurgent Busch, who won three times in his first season driving for Richard Childress Racing. He’s been a boost to the organization, which won its last championship in 1994 with the late Dale Earnhardt.
“First year at RCR, means a lot to me for Richard having me and for the Chevy guys having me, everybody, to get this far,” Busch said. “Rides on me to get to the next round, so I’ve just got to do a better job.”
Keselowski knocked a Ford team out, while Toyota lost a championship chance with Wallace.
Moving on
The remaining eight drivers in the championship race are led by Byron and Ryan Blaney, who both won in this round to earn automatic berths out of the round of 12.
Denny Hamlin advanced in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, as did Tyler Reddick, who drives for Hamlin and Jordan at 23XI Racing. Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr., the regular season champion, advanced with Hamlin for Gibbs to get three cars through.
Kyle Larson drove a backup car to a 13th-place finish to join Byron, who has a series-best six wins this season, representing Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet in the next round. Larson crashed in Saturday practice and Hendrick Motorsports, which is located about a mile from the speedway, had to work into the night to get a car through Sunday morning inspection.
Ford has Blaney of Team Penske and Chris Buescher of RFK Racing, which didn’t advance Keselowski through but still has one driver racing for the championship.
Hamlin had already locked himself into the round of eight earlier in the race via stage points, so his last-place finish Sunday was irrelevant.
“We’ve already shifted our focus to Vegas and we’ll see what we can do there,” Hamlin said. “Really optimistic for the next three weeks.”
Up next
The round of eight of NASCAR’s playoffs opens Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Joey Logano is the defending race winner and Byron scored his first win of the season at Las Vegas in March.
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Jesse Rogers
DENVER — The Chicago Cubs are signing first baseman Carlos Santana, a source told ESPN on Sunday.
Santana, 39, hit .225 with 11 home runs in 116 games for the Cleveland Guardians this season before being released by the team Friday.
The move is expected to become official Monday.
The 16-year veteran has a career .778 OPS while playing for seven teams, though most of his time was spent with the Guardians, whom he rejoined this year after spending a decade there to start his career.
Though he is a switch-hitter, Santana is likely to see at-bats as a right-hander almost exclusively as the Cubs are 17-19 this season when a left-hander starts against them. Left-handed hitter Michael Busch is the regular starter at first base, but he has been spelled by veteran Justin Turner often this season.
It’s unclear what Santana’s signing means for the immediate future of Turner, who is considered the clubhouse leader on the team. With rosters expanding to 28 on Monday, the Cubs have several options open to them to keep Turner if they desire.
In other moves Sunday, the Cubs claimed right-hander Aaron Civale off waivers from the Chicago White Sox, recalled right-hander Porter Hodge from Triple-A Iowa, optioned left-hander Jordan Wicks to their top farm club and designated left-hander Tom Cosgrove for assignment.
The Cubs also are calling up outfielder Kevin Alcantara and sending down Owen Caissie, a source told ESPN.
Civale, 30, is 3-9 with a 5.26 ERA in 18 starts for the White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers this season. The Brewers traded him to the White Sox in June to acquire first-baseman Andrew Vaughn.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Civale is expected to come out of the bullpen for the team.
“It’s just length options in case we need it,” Counsell said. “It’s just to be covered with another guy that can start.”
Hodge is 2-1 with a 6.85 ERA and two saves in 26 appearances for Chicago this year. In his past nine appearances with Iowa going back to Aug. 1, he struck out 20 and allowed six hits over 12 scoreless innings.
The 25-year-old Wicks, a first-round pick in the 2021 amateur draft, is 0-1 with an 8.71 ERA in six relief appearances with the Cubs this year.
Cosgrove has a 2.25 ERA in two appearances for the Cubs this season.
The Cubs will enter the final month of the season as the No. 1 seed in the National League wild-card race, trailing the first-place Milwaukee Brewers by 6.5 games in the NL Central entering Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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David Purdum
Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz will remain on nondisciplinary paid leave “until further notice” while a gambling investigation continues, Major League Baseball announced Sunday.
MLB said in a statement Sunday that the league and players’ association had agreed to extend the leaves of Clase and Ortiz, adding, “We will not comment further until the investigation has been completed.”
The investigation stems from unusual betting interest in individual pitches by Ortiz in two Guardians games in June. A sportsbook reported “suspicious betting” on the first pitch thrown by Ortiz to be a ball or hit batsman to begin the second inning of a June 15 game against the Seattle Mariners and again in the third inning of a June 27 game against the St. Louis Cardinals. In both instances, Ortiz threw a first-pitch slider that was well outside the strike zone.
Integrity firm IC360, which works with sportsbooks, sports leagues and state regulators to monitor the betting market, sent out an alert to clients regarding the unusual activity involving Ortiz’s pitches on June 27. Ortiz was placed on nondisciplinary paid leave July 3.
Clase, the Guardians’ closer, was put on nondisciplinary paid leave weeks later, on July 28.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission, which oversees the state’s sports betting market, has said it is investigating the situation alongside and independently of MLB.
Betting on the result of pitches is a niche market, offered by only a select few U.S. sportsbooks. New Jersey and Ohio have taken steps to prohibit state-licensed sportsbooks from offering such markets, commonly referred to as microbetting, but for now, some sportsbooks continue to offer betting on the result of individual pitches.
Clase, the American League leader in saves in 2024, had 24 saves and was 5-3 with a 3.23 ERA this season. Ortiz, meanwhile, was 4-9 with a 4.36 ERA in 16 starts.
Entering Sunday, the Guardians are three games back in the American League wild-card race.
BOSTON — Jarren Duran was running to third base when he realized he needed to pick up the pace again and head for home.
Duran’s inside-the-park homer Sunday, a three-run shot, gave Boston the lead in the fifth inning and helped the Red Sox avert a three-game sweep with a 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Fenway Park.
With Carlos Narvaez on third and Alex Bregman on first, Duran lined the first pitch from starter Mitch Keller into the right-center gap.
The ball got past right fielder Alexander Canario, who tried to cut it off, and rolled into the Fenway triangle. Then it caromed off the side wall of Boston’s bullpen and briefly got past center fielder Oneil Cruz near the 420-foot sign in right-center.
As the crowd roared, the speedy Duran raced around third and easily beat a wide relay throw to the plate standing up.
“When I was starting to round second, I was like, OK, I’ve got to make sure I get to three,” Duran said. “I thought I was going to be standing up [at third]. I found myself kind of lay back a little bit, then [third base coach Kyle Hudson] came back to me waving and I was like, ‘I’ve got to get going again.'”
It was the second inside-the-park homer by the Red Sox at Fenway Park this season. Wilyer Abreu hit one on June 30 and became the sixth player in major league history with a grand slam and an inside-the-park homer in the same game.
“I was just happy I didn’t have to slide after all,” Duran said. “I was like, this is going to be more of a fall than a slide.”
Duran’s inside-the-park shot was the first of his career.
“Everybody’s doing the same thing in the dugout,” Boston manager Alex Cora said, comparing his players and coaches to the cheering crowd.
“We become fans. Everybody’s loud, everybody’s sending him.”
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