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• MLB: Red-hot Mets lose Senga but beat reeling Braves

  J. D. Martinez highlighted a seven-run third with a grand slam and Kodai Senga won his season debut before leaving with an injury as the New York Mets remained red hot with an 8-4 win over the
  struggling Atlanta Braves on Friday night. 

  Senga allowed two runs – both on Adam Duvall’s second-inning home run – and two hits over 5 1/3 innings with one walk and nine strikeouts after spending the first four months of the season on the injured list with a right shoulder strain.

  He left in the sixth when he strained his left calf after throwing 73 pitches. Senga will have an MRI on Saturday.

  New York won its fifth straight and moved past the Braves for the NL’s top wild card. The Mets (55-48) are a season-high seven games over .500 following their 11th win in 14 games.

  The Mets reached Charlie Morton for seven runs in the third.

  After Tyrone Taylor reached on an error by third baseman Austin Riley, Francisco Lindor was hit by a pitch and Brandon Nimmo walked. Martinez then belted his ninth career grand slam to give the Mets a 4-2 lead. Morton retired Pete Alonso, but Jeff McNeil doubled and Vientos followed with his 14th home run. One out later, Francisco Alvarez homered to make it 7-2.

  Duvall hit his second home run of the game in the ninth and Marcell Ozuna added his 29th, but the Braves lost their season-high sixth straight. That is their longest slide since another six-game skid from Sept. 25-30, 2017.

   

  Profar’s blasts power streaking Padres

  Jurickson Profar hit his second two-run homer to snap a ninth-inning tie and the San Diego Padres won their sixth straight, 6-4 over the Baltimore Orioles.

  Profar took struggling Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel deep in the ninth to score Luis Campusano, who singled with one out.

  Kimbrel blew saves in two of his previous three appearances and has allowed eight runs in his last 3 2/3 innings.

  Profar hit his first two-run shot of the game off Grayson Rodriguez in the sixth to erase a 2-0 deficit.

  San Diego had 13 hits and used eight pitchers one day after Dylan Cease threw a no-hitter at Washington.

  Anthony Santander and Jordan Westburg homered for the first-place Orioles, who have lost four of five and nine of 13.

   

  Red Sox rally, overcome Judge’s long home run

  Masataka Yoshida capped a three-run eighth with a two-run single and the Boston Red Sox overcame Aaron Judge’s major league-leading 36th home run in a come-from-behind 9-7 win over the reeling New York Yankees.

  Judge’s three-run blast in the seventh gave the Yankees a 6-4 lead and was measured at 470 feet. It landed in a small section of stands above a back wall and below a videoboard.

  Austin Wells followed with a solo shot to make it 7-4.

  The Red Sox got two runs back in the bottom half on Ceddanne Rafaela’s two-run homer off Luke Weaver that went over the Green Monster and out of Fenway Park.

  Weaver allowed Rob Refsnyder’s third hit of the game to lead off the eighth and walked Connor Wong.

  Clay Holmes relieved with one out and allowed Wilyer Abreu’s tying double before Yoshida singled home two runs.

  The Yankees have lost five of six and are 10-23 since a 50-22 start.
• Paris get Olympic Games under way with stylish opening ceremony

  Paris kicked off the 2024 Olympic Games by making history with the first opening ceremony to be held outside on a rainy night in France.

  It is the first time in 100 years that the Games have been held in the French capital, and despite the constant showers, thousands of Olympians from the 205 delegations celebrated as they travelled down the River Seine on boats and barges.

  During the nearly four-hour sprawling ceremony, spectators were treated to performances by Lady Gaga, Aya Nakamura and Celine Dion as the city showed off the story of France while commemorating Olympic history.

  On a tour of the city, Paris' most well-known landmarks, including the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral, were on show as fans packed in around the parade route to get a glimpse of the showcase.

  The Olympic flag was delivered to the Eiffel Tower on the back of a mechanical horse travelling down the river, while a masked individual carried the torch across the city.

  An incredible light show on the Tower then restarted the torch relay, as Zinedine Zidane reappeared to hand it to two-time gold medallist Rafael Nadal.

  The Spaniard, with the help of fellow tennis icon Serena Williams, American sprinter Carl Lewis and Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci carried the torch back down the river on its way to the cauldron.

  Some of France's best Olympians helped carry it the rest of the way before judoka Teddy Riner and sprinter Marie-Jose Perec lit the flame in the hot air balloon cauldron, which rose high above the Parisian sky, to officially mark the start of the Games.

  More than 10,500 athletes will compete across 32 sports at the Games, which will close on August 11.

• “The favourite is Thompson”-Boldon highlights Jamaican champion as man to beat in 100m in Paris

  Trinidadian four-time Olympic medallist Ato Boldon has named Jamaican sprinting sensation Kishane Thompson as his favourite to take 100m gold at the Olympic Games in Paris.

  Thompson, 23, is currently the world leader in the event after running a personal best 9.77 to win the 100m title at the JAAA/Puma National Senior Championships at the National Stadium in Kingston in June.

  The MVP Track Club-trained sprinter also produced times of 9.82 and 9.84 in the heats and semi-finals, respectively, at those national championships and, most recently, ran 9.91 shutting down to win at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary on July 9.

  “Thompson is the favourite,” Boldon said in an interview with LetsRundotcom on YouTube on Friday.

  “I know Noah (Lyles) is the World champion. I think Noah made it a little bit more interesting by running that 9.81 into a headwind which kind of almost converts to a 9.77 but there’s no way you can look at the way in which Thompson ran that 9.77 and just go ‘Oh Noah will beat him.’ Noah has his hands full with that guy,” Boldon said.

  Blazing speed acknowledged, one thing that Thompson lacks that his other competitors don’t is experience competing at the highest level of the sport with this being his first time representing Jamaica at any level.

  If there is anything to prevent Thompson from delivering on the form that he’s shown so far this season, Boldon believes that would be this lack of experience on a stage like the Olympic Games compared to his peers.

  “There are things which I see people completely ignoring. Kishane Thompson has not been under the microscope of Olympic favourite. Rounds are a great equalizer. Noah has the medals that he does because of how well he runs rounds. Is Noah suddenly a lock for the silver? No but he does have his hands full,” he said.

  “There are others who are going to be in the 100m that are used to the pressure and pressure is a big thing. If he’s able to pull this off, you write books about stuff like that,” he added.

   Thompson's quest for Olympic glory will begin in the heats of the men's 100m beginning on Saturday' August 3.