14 Sports Thursday, August 20, 2020 Photo of the Day Momota sparks stampede with coaching offer TOKYO: It’s an irresistible prospect for budding bad- minton players — a chance to be coached by Japan- ese world number one Kento Momota, who has triggered thousands of responses by offering his services. “Would anyone like to play badminton with me?” Momota wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday. “I also want to teach people badminton. I want people to know how fun this is,” added the badminton star, who was injured in a car crash in February in Malaysia. Momota, a top gold medal hope for Japan at the now-postponed Tokyo Olympics, spent months recu- perating after the crash, which killed the driver of his vehicle and left him with eye injuries. His coaching offer — for just two lucky students — attracted a flood of applicants, ranging from par- ents applying for their children to fellow sports stars. Olympic swimmer Daiya Seto, who won a bronze in the Rio Games for individual medley, tweeted: “Wanna do this!” But Momota replied: “I don’t want you because you might be too good at it!” Former Japan international footballer Hiroshi Kiy- otake also put up his hand, prompting Momota to offer a trade: “Let’s do this in private. Teach me how to juggle a football.” And even Momota’s national badminton teammate Kanta Tsuneyama weighed in asking for a shot. Details are not yet decided, but Momota said he would wait until September before deciding which students to take. The badminton star said in June he had fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in the crash, and was back on track for the Olympics. Tokyo 2020 had been scheduled to open in July, Abdo Feghali overlooks the competition at the national finals of Red Bull Car Park Drift in Oman. — Photo taken from www.redbullcontentpool.com but was postponed for a year over the coronavirus and is not set to begin on July 23, 2021. — AFP Maeda loses no-hit bid but Twins win in 12th inning Dodgers go for 8 straight, Mariners look to halt skid MINNEAPOLIS: Jorge Polanco drove in two runs, in- and a key RBI to help Washington win at Atlanta. Soto cluding the winner with one out in the 12th inning, and finished 2-for-4 with a walk, and he scored a run after Kenta Maeda took a no-hitter into the ninth inning as the driving one in as the Nationals took the lead with a four- Minnesota Twins edged the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 on run rally in the fifth inning. Over the past nine games, Soto Tuesday night in Minneapolis. Polanco drove in Byron is batting .441 (15-for-34) with a double, six homers, 14 Buxton from third with a broken-bat dribbler past losing RBIs and 14 runs. He upped his average to .417. Soto was pitcher David Phelps (2-2) to win it. Maeda set a team one of seven Nationals with multiple hits, including rookie record with eight consecutive strikeouts but failed to gar- Luis Garcia with three. Wander Suero (1-0) pitched a ner the win as the Brewers rallied for three ninth-inning scoreless inning for the win. Daniel Hudson, victimized by runs and force extra innings. Keston Hiura hit a run-scor- the Braves for two ninth-inning homers in Monday’s loss, ing single, and Twins second baseman Ildemaro Vargas worked a perfect ninth for his fifth save. committed a two-run throwing error to tie the game. Eric Sogard broke up the no-hitter to start the ninth with a soft PADRES 6, RANGERS 4 liner over the glove of shortstop Polanco for a leadoff sin- Wil Myers hit a grand slam and former Ranger Jurickson gle. Maeda then departed after throwing a career-high Profar added a two-run homer to lead San Diego to a win 115 pitches. He struck out 12 and walked two. at Arlington, Texas. Cal Quantrill came on with two on and two outs in the ninth to retire Todd Frazier on a fly to center PHILLIES 13, RED SOX 6 for his first major league save. Joey Gallo highlighted a four- Bryce Harper crushed a three-run home run as part of run Rangers fourth with a three-run homer. Neither team a seven-run sixth inning, and Philadelphia sent host scored over the final five innings. San Diego’s Adrian More- Boston to its ninth consecutive defeat. Jay Bruce (four jon made his first start of the season and allowed only one RBIs), Rhys Hoskins and Phil Gosselin also homered for walk with four strikeouts in three hitless innings. Craig the Phillies, who ran their winning streak to four. Philadel- Stammen (2-1) was credited with the win, allowing only one phia will seek to finish a two-game sweep Wednesday af- hit in two scoreless innings after the Rangers scored four ternoon. Rafael Devers had three hits, and Xander runs (three earned) against Javy Guerra. MINNEAPOLIS: Jake Cave #60 of the Minnesota Twins congratulates teammate Byron Buxton #25 on scoring the Bogaerts drove in a pair for the Red Sox, who have been walk-off run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the twelfth inning of the game at Target Field on August 18, outscored 86-41 during their skid. RAYS 6, YANKEES 3 Brandon Lowe hit a three-run homer, and visiting 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.— AFP DIAMONDBACKS 10, ATHLETICS 1 Tampa Bay continued its surge by recording a victory over A five-run first inning set the stage for Arizona’s sixth New York. The Rays improved to 4-1 in the 10-game sea- in the eighth inning to lift streaking Los Angeles to a vic- METS 8, MARLINS 3 consecutive win, a rout of Oakland in Phoenix. Arizona’s son series with the Yankees and also handed New York its tory over visiting Seattle. Austin Barnes scored twice and Brandon Nimmo homered, tripled and singled while Nick Ahmed drove in five runs in the first two innings, and first loss in 11 games this season in games played at Yankee joined Seager with two of the six hits for the Dodgers, leading New York to a victory at Miami. Nimmo, who was Kole Calhoun hit his sixth home run this month. Luke Stadium. Blake Snell (2-0) benefitted from the Rays’ run who have won seven in a row. Kyle Lewis scored on a robbed of a hit on a line drive into a shift and also flied Weaver (1-3) earned the victory after pitching a season- support while allowing three runs on four hits in five in- groundout in the seventh inning and Marco Gonzales out to the warning track, went 3-for-5 with two RBIs while high five innings and allowing a run on three hits and a nings. Gary Sanchez hit a solo homer and Luke Voit hit a matched a career high with nine strikeouts for the reeling raising his on-base percentage to .431. He has four homers walk while striking out six. Ahmed’s three-run home run two-run homer out of the leadoff spot for the Yankees, Mariners, who have lost seven consecutive games. this season and has tripled in consecutive games. The highlighted the big first inning, which included a wild pitch whose 10-0 start in games played at Yankee Stadium Mets, who have won two straight games, also got solo from A’s starter Frankie Montas (2-2) that allowed the first matched the team record set in 1951 and equaled in 1987. WHITE SOX 10, TIGERS 4 homers from J.D. Davis and Amed Rosario, and the latter run to score, plus an Eduardo Escobar sacrifice fly with Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada and Jose Abreu com- totaled three RBIs. New York has seven homers in the the bases loaded. CUBS 6, CARDINALS 3 bined to go 8-for-12 with a home run and eight RBIs as past two games. Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber each clubbed home runs, the top of the order powered host Chicago past Detroit. ASTROS 2, ROCKIES 1 (11 INNINGS) and Chicago held on for a win over visiting St. Louis. Jason Detroit sputtered to its seventh straight defeat as left- INDIANS 6, PIRATES 3 (10 INNINGS) Myles Straw hit an RBI single in the bottom of the 11th Heyward added an RBI triple for Chicago, which earned its hander Tarik Skubal (0-1) struggled in his major league Carlos Santana’s three-run homer in the 10th inning gave and host Houston beat Colorado. Straw finished with two second win in a row over St. Louis. The teams are sched- debut. Anderson blasted the third pitch of Skubal’s career visiting Cleveland its fourth straight win. Against Pittsburgh hits, Yuli Gurriel also had two hits and Andre Scrubb (1- uled to meet for a doubleheader Wednesday to cap off a into the left field seats for his second leadoff home run reliever Sam Howard (1-1) in a game that had been tied 3-3 0) pitched the 11th for the win. Raimel Tapia had an RBI stretch of five games in three days. Cubs starter Yu Darvish against the Tigers in as many nights and third leadoff since the fifth, and with Cesar Hernandez placed on second, single for the Rockies. Houston starter Zack Greinke and (4-1) picked up his fourth straight victory after allowing one homer this season. Chicago right-hander Dylan Cease Francisco Lindor drew a one-out walk.