12A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2017
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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Perez homers in 10th to give Royals 9-6 win over Ms
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez hits a two-run home run against the Se-
attle Mariners in the 10th inning of a baseball game Wednesday in Seattle.
SEATTLE — Less than two
months after sitting 10 games below
.500, the Kansas City Royals are roll-
ing into the All-Star break and on the
cusp of the lead in the AL Central.
Salvador Perez hit a two-run
homer in the 10th, Alex Gordon
added a two-out RBI single later in
the inning and the Royals completed
a three-game sweep with a 9-6 win
over the Seattle Mariners on Wednes-
day night.
Perez drove the second pitch from
reliever James Pazos (2-2) out to
right field for his 17th homer of the
season, an inning that started with an
error by Seattle’s Robinson Cano. It
was the third home run of the game
for Kansas City, adding to earlier
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two-run shots by Mike Moustakas
and Lorenzo Cain.
Kansas City won for the sixth time
in seven games and handed Seattle its
seventh straight loss at home. The
Royals are a half-game behind Cleve-
land for the lead in the AL Central.
“I didn’t really think about. I just
knew we would find a way to do it,
get back into it,” Kansas City man-
ager Ned Yost said.
Perez said he was looking for a
pitch on the outside half of the plate
after striking out in both the sixth and
eighth innings on pitches away.
Fire run
unbeaten
streak to 11
with draw
in Portland
Flying ants raid
Wimbledon on
hottest day of
tournament
By HOWARD FENDRICH
Associated Press
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
PORTLAND — After a draw
against the Timbers, the music was
playing loud in the Chicago Fire’s
locker room and the players were
in a festive mood.
The surging Fire are undefeated
in the last 11 games. The 2-2 tie in
Portland on Wednesday night was
the latest in a string of matches
without a loss that started May 6.
“If you’re happy outside the
field, you’re happy on the field,
and I think that’s the case right
now,” said Chicago’s Arturo Alva-
rez, who had a first-half goal. “We
just have to continue. It’s a long
season, I’m sure we’re going to
hit some ups and downs, but at
the end of the day we just have to
make sure we stick together with a
positive mindset and win as many
games as we can.”
The Fire (11-3-4) have won
nine games over the 11-game
stretch. Last season, Chicago fin-
ished the season with just seven
total victories and an MLS-worst
31 points.
Fanendo Adi opened the scor-
ing for the Timbers (7-7-5) on a
penalty kick in the 24th minute,
and Alvarez tied it 10 minutes later.
Defender Brandon Vincent got
his first goal of the season early in
the second half to give the Fire the
lead before Sebastian Blanco took
a pass from Diego Valeri and slot-
ted the tying goal past goalkeeper
Matt Lampson in the 70th minute.
“In the end, unfortunately we
dropped two points, but it was a
tough game, fantastic opponent.
These kinds of games are very
helpful for our team to grow, espe-
cially when you get a point on the
road,” Fire coach Veljko Paunovic
said. “Obviously we are not happy
with just the point, but we are
happy with the character and the
way the team played today. “
It was the third straight draw
for the Timbers, who are winless in
five straight games. But Portland
has never lost to Chicago, with
four wins and four draws since
joining the league in 2011.
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Portland Timbers’ Dairon As-
prilla (27) heads a ball next to
Chicago Fire’s Brandon Vin-
cent during an MLS soccer
match Wednesday in Portland.
“I was looking for something out
over the plate. He threw me that pitch
and I didn’t miss,” Perez said.
Mike Minor (5-1) pitched the
ninth to get the victory and Kelvin
Herrera threw the 10th for his 19th
save to cap a stellar performance
from the Kansas City bullpen. The
Royals’ relievers allowed one hit
and struck out four in five scoreless
innings of relief.
“We felt good, the bullpen just
holding the fort until we could score,”
Yost said.
Minor had a scare when Mike
Zunino led off the ninth with a flyball
to deep left field that Gordon caught
one step in front of the wall. Zuni-
no’s near-miss encapsulated Seattle’s
night, rallying from an early 4-0 defi-
cit only to be held scoreless for the
final seven innings.
Submitted Photo
The Lower Columbia 11U All-Stars, one of two Lower Columbia teams which will play in the Co-
lumbia River Classic this weekend.
All-Star weekend for 11U’s
The Daily Astorian
The Lower Columbia All-
Stars will be the host team this
weekend for the Columbia River
Classic 11U baseball tournament.
Columbia Field and CMH
Field will be the two sites for a
full weekend of games, which
begin at 9 a.m. Saturday and
wrap up with a championship
game Sunday afternoon.
Lower Columbia will have
two teams in the tournament
(Lower Columbia All-Stars and
Lower Columbia Red), and the
tournament will include teams
from Longview and Kelso,
Washington, West Linn and
Gresham-Barlow.
Saturday’s pool-play openers
will feature the Lower Columbia
All-Stars vs. the Longview All-
Stars, 9 a.m. at Columbia Field;
and the Lower Columbia Red
vs. the Kelso All-Stars, 9 a.m. at
CMH Field.
Sunday’s championship game
is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. at
Columbia Field.
Saturday’s Schedule, Pool Play
(At Columbia Field)
9 am: LC All-Stars vs. Longview
11:15: LC All-Stars vs. West Linn
Green
1:30: Longview vs. West Linn Green
3:45: Longview vs. LC Red
6:00: Gresham vs. West Linn Green
(At CMH Field)
9 am: LC Red vs. Kelso
11:15: LC Red vs. West Linn Gold
1:30: Kelso vs. Gresham
3:45: Kelso vs. West Linn Gold
6:00: LC All-Stars vs. West Linn
Green
8:15: LC All-Stars vs. Gresham
Rosters
Lower Columbia 11U All-Stars
4 Teague Palmberg, Astoria
6
Dean Helvey, Naselle
7
Garrett Hillard, Astoria
9
Karson Hawkins, Astoria
10 Nick Rusinovich, Knappa
22
Jude Miller, Knappa
27 Merrick Benesch, Astoria
44 Jaxon Dietrichs, Knappa
45
Ethan Hopkins, Ilwaco
77 Cannon Johnson, Naselle
88 Parker Kilponen, Naselle
Coaches
Jamey Hillard
Jeff Hawkins
Bryce Kilponen
Lower Columbia 11U Red
1 Zander Bachman, Knappa
3
Jacob Rogers, Ilwaco
5
Aiden Giles, Astoria
7
Cody Nicholson, Knappa
8
Benton Moore, Astoria
12 Tyler Lindstrom, Knappa
13
Dylan Carlson, Astoria
17
Dylan Nyman, Astoria
22 Patrick Anderson, Astoria
34
Bryce Yeager, Astoria
40 Treven Moreland, Knappa
50
Kaemon Sawa, Ilwaco
Coaches
Ryan Anderson
Daryl Moore
Kenny Yeager
LONDON — They were
buggin’ out at Wimbledon on
Wednesday.
Hundreds of flying ants
swarmed around various courts
at the All England Club, distract-
ing players during their matches,
as the temperature warmed up
considerably, from the low 70s to
nearly 85 degrees.
It left the racket-wielders swat-
ting the bugs instead of tennis
balls, at times.
Steve Johnson, an American
seeded 26th, was startled when
one of the critters buzzed its
way into his right ear at the pre-
cise moment that he came up with
a forehand winner during what
would become a 6-3, 6-3, 4-6,
6-3 victory over Radu Albot of
Moldova.
Johnson did a little dance while
he extracted the invader.
“Thankfully, I ended the point
right there, because I wouldn’t
have run for the next ball. It just
got in there. Eventually it got out,
but I didn’t want it to get any fur-
ther than it did,” Johnson said.
“They were everywhere,” he
said. “It was a mess out there. I’ve
never seen that here before.”
Local media have reported
about a wave of flying ants across
Britain this week, a migration of
sorts that is a result of just the right
combination of heat, humidity and
wind.
“Well,” Johnson said, “they
migrated to Wimbledon.”
Especially during the early
afternoon on Day 3 of the grass-
court Grand Slam tournament.
Before Johnson headed out to
Court 18, 24th-seeded American
Sam Querrey played his match
there, and dealt with the same
type of issues created by the little
winged things.
Olympic panel praises ‘outstanding’ LA, Paris hosting plans
By GRAHAM DUNBAR
Associated Press
GENEVA — Los Angeles and
Paris have been praised by an Interna-
tional Olympic Committee panel for
having “outstanding” plans to host
the 2024 Summer Games.
Storytelling skills and cut-
ting-edge technologies from LA,
plus “stunning backdrops” in Paris
where the modern Olympics was
reborn, were anticipated eagerly by
an IOC evaluation commission which
assessed the bidders in a 180-page
dossier and 15-minute video pub-
lished Wednesday.
“Their candidatures have put the
Olympic Movement in a win-win
situation, with very little to separate
the two projects,” said Patrick Bau-
mann, the panel chairman and an IOC
member.
Both cities should get hosting
rights for the 2024 or 2028 Olympics
on Sept. 13, at the IOC’s annual meet-
ing being held in Lima, Peru. Paris is
viewed as favorite for 2024.
The evaluation was prepared for
IOC members who will meet bid
leaders at a key campaign event on
July 11-12 in Lausanne. Members are
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
A Los Angeles 2024 sign stands in front of Staples Center, in Los Angeles.
also now expected to ratify the pro-
posal for a double hosting award,
which the IOC executive board for-
mally made last month.
In statements issued Wednesday,
both cities’ bid campaigns said they
were delighted with the evaluation.
Challenges highlighted for the
two cities include public transport
and traffic management plans in Los
Angeles, which groups most venues
in four clusters: Downtown, Valley,
South Bay and Long Beach:
The panel noted that the IOC
would want to review in advance new
laws that are needed to guarantee tax
and funding aspects of the Paris proj-
ect. Many events would take place
in the city center, and use the Eiffel
Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Louvre
art gallery as a backdrop.
LA’s privately-financed project
scored better than Paris, which calls
for hundreds of millions of dollars of
taxpayers’ money, in the IOC’s own
polling of public support for hosting
the Summer Games.
It is always unclear in Olympic
bidding contests how much the tech-
nical analysis of candidates’ plans
affect the choice of more than 85 IOC
members eligible to vote.
Still, Los Angeles and Paris have
long been viewed as high-class, low-
risk options. The IOC has seemed
grateful to have them after years of
spiraling spending and cost overruns
by host cities, and public opposition
that ended other bids.
IOC President Thomas Bach has
pushed for a double award since
December, aiming to seize the chance
of stability for the next decade.
Seeking to avoid construction
costs and risks of creating white
elephant venues, LA and Paris are
praised for proposing to use existing
and temporary arenas for 97 and 93
percent, respectively, of their Sum-
mer Games’ needs.
The only permanent venue yet to
be built in Los Angeles is the $2.6
billion stadium in Inglewood to be
shared by the NFL’s Rams and Char-
gers. It would host the opening cere-
mony on July 19, 2024.