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SPORTS
East Oregonian
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Perez homer downs M’s
MLB
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez hits a two-run home run against
the Seattle Mariners in the 10th inning of a baseball game Wednesday,
July 5, 2017, in Seattle.
SEATTLE — Salvador Perez
hit a two-run homer in the 10th,
Alex Gordon added a two-out
RBI single later in the inning
and the Kansas City Royals
completed a three-game sweep
with a 9-6 win over the Seattle
Mariners on Wednesday night.
Perez drove the second pitch
from reliever James Pazos (2-2)
out to right field for his 17th
homer of the season. It was the
third home run of the game for
Kansas City, adding to earlier
two-run shots by Mike Mous-
takas and Lorenzo Cain.
Mike Minor (5-1) pitched
the ninth to get the victory and
Kansas City
Seattle
9
6
Kelvin Herrera threw the 10th
for his 19th save. 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.
Kansas City won for the sixth
time in seven games and handed
Seattle its seventh straight loss
at home.
Nelson Cruz, Jean Segura
and Zunino all homered off
American League wins leader
Jason Vargas for Seattle, but the
Mariners were held scoreless
for the final seven innings after
Cruz’s homer leading off the
third.
Headed to the All-Star Game
for the first time, Vargas had his
worst performance of the season
against one of his former teams.
He matched a season high by
allowing six earned runs, and
the three home runs equaled the
number Vargas had allowed in
his previous six starts combined.
Vargas was headed toward
his first loss since May 22 until
Cain’s two-out, two-run homer
in the fifth inning tied it at 6-all.
Cain hit a 3-2 fastball from
starter Ariel Miranda off the
out-of-town scoreboard for his
11th homer of the season.
Tour de France
Aru beats Froome in first mountain stage of Tour
By JOHN LEICESTER &
ANDREW DAMPF
Associated Press
CHAMPAGNEY, France
— After losing two of its
biggest stars in one horror
crash, the Tour de France
needed a pick-me-up.
Italy’s
Fabio
Aru
answered the call.
On the first mountain
climb of this 104th Tour,
after the lower altitudes
where Mark Cavendish and
Peter Sagan were forced out
of the race — the first with a
broken shoulder, the second
disqualified — Aru showed
Wednesday he could be the
man to beat by leaving three-
time champion Chris Froome
in his wake.
Making up for the
bitterness in May of missing
his home grand tour, the Giro
d’Italia, Aru zoomed away
from Froome and other top
riders yearning to ride into
Paris in the yellow jersey on
July 23. The punishing climb
to the Planches des Belles
Filles ski station in eastern
France’s Vosges mountains
was made to look like a mere
speed bump.
Froome played down
Aru’s show of strength in
winning Stage 5, noting there
are still 16 more days of
racing to go. But 32-year-old
veteran also acknowledged
making a rookie’s mistake
by not reacting quickly
enough when the 26-year-old
Sardinian slammed on his
pedals.
Along the steep crowd-
lined hairpin bends through
dense pines, Aru rose from
his saddle and rocked power-
fully from side to side as he
gobbled up the mountain in
his Italian national champi-
on’s jersey of green, white
and red.
Froome got the message,
loud and clear.
“This is going to be the
hardest-fought battle I’ve
had,” he said. “We definitely
cannot give Fabio that kind
of space again.”
Wednesday’s 160.5-kilo-
meter (100-mile) ride started
in the spa town of Vittel
which, like Froome, has seen
better days — with shuttered
hotels fallen into disrepair.
At the foot of the 5.9-kilo-
meter (3.1-mile) finishing
climb to an altitude of 1,035
meters (3,395 feet), every-
thing seemed to be going to
plan for Froome. His Sky
teammates were powering
up the ascent ahead of him,
leading their champion up
at a fierce pace aimed at
dissuading other riders from
attacking.
Aru hadn’t read the script.
AP Photo/Peter Dejong
Italy’s Fabio Aru celebrates as he crosses the finish
line to win the fifth stage of the Tour de France cycling
race over 160.5 kilometers (99.7 miles) with start in Vit-
tel and finish in La Planche des Belles Filles, France,
Wednesday, July 5, 2017.
Despite the effort of his
sudden acceleration with
more than 2 kilometers (1 1/2
miles) left to climb, he was
lucid enough when powering
away to yell at a roadside
spectator who got too close
to him and to toss a water
bottle at the feet of another.
He still had energy to spare at
the top to finish with a sprint.
When Froome finally
reacted, upping his tempo, it
was already too late: Aru was
gone.
“When he left, I stayed
with my team and waited for
the attack from the others,”
Froome said. “But no one
moved. I thought, ‘OK, I
have to go, what can I do?’”
“There’s a flat before the
last climb and perhaps we
waited too long there.”
A consolation: Froome
took the race leader’s yellow
jersey off the shoulders of his
teammate Geraint Thomas,
who couldn’t stay with the
leaders on the climb made
doubly punishing by searing
summer temperatures.
Irish rider Dan Martin
of the Quickstep team was
second to the top, surprising
Froome with his own burst of
speed on a very steep section
near the finish. Froome came
in third, 20 seconds behind
Aru — who had never
climbed the ascent before
but watched video of Froome
winning the first time the
Tour climbed it in 2012.
“It’s extraordinary for me
to win this stage,” said Aru,
a two-time podium finisher at
the Tour of Italy and winner
of the 2015 Tour of Spain. He
was devastated not to have
been there when this year’s
Giro started from his home
island of Sardinia, having
injured a knee in a training
crash.
“I’m
someone
who
prefers to maintain a low
profile. It’s not necessary
to say that I’m extremely
happy. A victory in the Tour
is something fantastic after
difficult months with my
injury,” he said.
“Only my family and the
people close to me know
what I went through,” he
said. “Having the Giro in
Sardinia is not something
that happens every year.
Fortunately my home fans
embraced me anyhow and I
was able to focus on the Tour
immediately.”
“Getting back in the saddle
gave me my smile back.”
The last person to win at
the Planches des Belles Filles,
Vincenzo Nibali in 2014,
also was Italian and went
on to win the Tour that year.
Although not as monstrous as
those to come in the Pyrenees
and Alps, the climb is tough
enough to offer an early
gauge of who the strongest
riders are this year.
Two-time
champion
Alberto Contador doesn’t
seem to be among them. He
placed eighth on the climb,
26 seconds slower than
Aru and six seconds behind
Froome. Three-time podium
finisher Nairo Quintana also
struggled, possibly paying
the price for riding the Giro in
May. The Colombian placed
ninth, 34 seconds behind Aru
and 14 behind Froome.
“We got a little preview
of just where everyone’s at
in terms of their condition,”
said Froome. But the Briton
advised against jumping too
quickly to conclusions on the
basis of this first climb.
“It’s still very open, we’ve
got a lot of racing ahead of us.”
Overall, Froome leads
Thomas by 12 seconds. Aru
jumped from 25th to third
in the standings, and is 14
seconds behind Froome.
Stage 6 on Thursday cuts
through Champagne country
from Vesoul to Troyes and
is flat enough for sprinters
encouraged by the departure
of Cavendish and Sagan to
go for the win.
Wimbledon
Britain’s Konta reaches third round for first time
By CHRIS LEHOURITES
Associated Press
LONDON — Britain’s biggest
hope for a women’s champion at
Wimbledon worked her way into
the third round on Wednesday.
Johanna Konta trailed early but
managed to come back and hang on
for a 7-6 (4), 4-6, 10-8 victory over
Donna Vekic on Centre Court.
“It’s a nice feeling not to have to
keep going out there,” Konta said.
“We were out there a long time and
both of us battled incredibly hard.
“Whoever was going to draw
the short straw was going to be
hurting.”
Konta, seeded sixth, is in the
third round at the All England Club
for the first time in six appearances.
She reached the final at a grass-court
warm-up tournament in Birmingham
last month, but lost to Vekic.
“I think I overall trusted my
game a bit more this time,” said
Konta, who is trying to become
the first British woman to win the
Wimbledon title since Virginia
Wade in 1977. “I’m definitely here
AP Photo/Tim Ireland
Britain’s Johanna Konta celebrates after winning the Women’s Sin-
gles Match against Croatia’s Donna Vekic on day three at the Wim-
bledon Tennis Championships in London Wednesday, July 5, 2017.
with the intention of wanting to be
a part of the event for the full two
weeks.”
Stan Wawrinka, a three-time
Grand Slam champion who lost
in the first round at Wimbledon,
is dating Vekic and was at Centre
Court watching the match.
On Court 16, Daniil Medvedev
expressed his anger after losing his
match by throwing some coins at
the foot of the chair umpire’s chair.
Medvedev, an unseeded Russian
who beat Stan Wawrinka in the first
round, lost to Ruben Bemelmans
6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3 in the second
round.
After the match ended, both
players shook hands with chair
umpire Mariana Alves. Medvedev
then grabbed his wallet and pulled
out some coins and tossed them
toward the chair.
“In the heat of the moment I did
a bad thing and I apologize for this,”
said Medvedev, who denied he was
implying the chair umpire was paid
off. “I was just frustrated. It had no
meaning.”
When the Wimbledon gates
opened Wednesday morning, the
race was on to get the best spot on
Mount Murray.
The hill next to No. 1 Court at
Wimbledon, formerly known as
Henman Hill and also referred to as
Murray Mound, was a coveted spot
for Day 3 at the All England Club
because Konta and Andy Murray
were scheduled to play their second-
round matches on Centre Court.
Thousands of fans on the grounds
and without tickets to the main
stadium often gather on the hill to
watch the action on a giant TV screen.
The area was named Henman
Hill in honor of Tim Henman,
another British player but one who
never was able to win the title. The
nickname shifted to Murray when
he came on the scene and eventually
ended the country’s 77-year wait for
a homegrown men’s winner when
he won the title in 2013.
Following Konta’s victory,
Murray beat Dustin Brown of
Germany 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Rafael Nadal, a two-time
Wimbledon champion, followed
Murray on Centre Court against
Donald Young.
Other women’s winners on
Wednesday include five-time
champion Venus Williams, former
No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and eighth-
seeded Dominika Cibulkova.
For the men, seventh-seeded
Marin Cilic, ninth-seeded Kei
Nishikori, 12th-seeded Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga, 16th-seeded Gilles Muller
and 24th-seeded Sam Querrey
advanced.
Flying ants invade Wimbledon on warmest day of tournament
By HOWARD FENDRICH
Associated Press
LONDON — They were buggin’ out
at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
Hundreds of flying ants swarmed around
various courts at the All England Club,
distracting players during their matches, as
the temperature warmed up considerably,
from the low 70s (20s Celsius) to nearly 85
degrees (nearly 30 Celsius).
It left the racket-wielders swatting
the bugs instead of tennis balls, at times.
Steve Johnson, an American seeded
26th, was startled when one of the crit-
ters buzzed its way into his right ear at
the precise 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. Eventu-
ally it got out, but I didn’t want it to get
any further 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.
“If it got much worse,” Querrey said
after beating Nikoloz Basilashvili of
Georgia 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, “I almost
wanted to stop, because they were
hitting you in the face when you were
trying to hit balls.”
The rules would allow Querrey to ask
the chair umpire to consider halting play,
at which point a Grand Slam supervisor
might head to the court to weigh in.
It never reached that point
Wednesday, although things did get
particularly bad for about a half-hour
that included the end of the second set,
the only one Querrey dropped.
“If I had won that set,” he said, “prob-
ably wouldn’t have bugged me as much.”
Johanna Konta, Britain’s best
chance for its first female champion at
Wimbledon in 40 years, fretted about
swallowing some of the ants during her
7-6 (4), 4-6, 10-8 victory over Donna
Vekic at Centre Court.
“I definitely have taken home a few
— both in my belly and in my bags,” the
No. 6-seeded Konta said.
A reporter asked her whether the
insects were tasty.
“I didn’t think about it,” came the
reply. “I’d rather not.”
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
Steve Johnson of the United States gestures to get rid of
flying ants during the Men’s Singles Match against Mol-
dova’s Radu Albot on day three at the Wimbledon Tennis
Championships in London Wednesday, July 5, 2017.