PIRATES
Bryan Reynolds was a late scratch yesterday, so the Pittsburgh Pirates inserted lefty slugger Rowdy Tellez into the starting lineup as a last-minute replacement even though they were facing a left-handed pitcher.
Tellez responded with an RBI single in the second inning and a solo home run in the fourth to lead the Pirates to a 5-0 win over the Cardinals to clinch the three-game series Wednesday afternoon before 20,091 at PNC Park.
It was the fourth consecutive series win for the Pirates (52-50), who moved to within a game of the Cardinals (53-49) in the NL Central and wild-card standings.
The Pirates play Arizona Friday night at 9:40.
The NBA said Wednesday that it is not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer to continue its longtime relationship with the league and therefore has entered into a deal with Amazon Prime Video, a move that would mean this coming season would end a nearly four-decade run of games being on TNT.
That would also suggest the series of media rights deals approved by the league’s Board of Governors last week with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video which are 11-year agreements that will be worth about $76 billion are on the cusp of being finalized, at least from the NBA’s perspective.
The Paris Olympics don’t officially open until Friday. The games, however, already have begun.The U.S. men’s soccer team, which returned to the Summer Olympics on Wednesday after a 16-year absence and lost to France, 3-0.