Diamondbacks’ Ryan Waldschmidt: Records steal in loss
Waldschmidt went 2-for-3 with a stolen base in Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Rockies.
Waldschmidt had three multi-hit efforts over his last five games, going 7-for-14 (.500) with three walks and three steals in that span. The outfielder has taken on a starting job in center field this month, and his bat has been a big reason why. He’s hitting .326 with an .815 OPS, six RBI, seven runs scored, four steals and four doubles over his first 14 big-league games. He’s still looking for his first home run, but his calling card in the minors was plate discipline more than power.
Diamondbacks’ Michael Soroka: Sharp in no-decision
Soroka allowed one run on four hits and a hit batsman while striking out two without walking a batter over six innings in a no-decision Friday versus the Rockies.
Soroka didn’t have his best strikeout stuff, but he gave the Rockies little to work with. He’s allowed just four runs over 24.1 innings in May, adding a 21:5 K:BB this month. Soroka has given up two runs or fewer in eight of his 10 starts overall, pitching to a 3.27 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 57:14 K:BB through 55 innings. This is the closest he’s looked to his promising early years before injuries ravaged his career, but durability remains the biggest question for the right-hander. He’ll look to keep rolling with a projected road start in San Francisco next week.
Gurriel was removed from Friday’s game against the Rockies with left hamstring tightness.
Gurriel was taken out of the game after making a sliding catch in left field. It’s not immediately clear how serious his injury is, but the Diamondbacks may provide more details in the near future. Jorge Barrosa entered the game as Gurriel’s replacement and would be the favorite to work as Arizona’s left fielder in any future games the latter has to miss.
A wholesale renovation at TPC Craig Ranch hasn’t been enough to keep the PGA Tour’s best from laying siege to the golf course at the 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson. That onslaught continued on Friday when Si Woo Kim posted a 60 to jump into a five-shot lead.
Kim has had a tremendous 2026 campaign and has long been known as one of the most aggressive players on the PGA Tour, and that combination of form and willingness to attack flagsticks on a soft and gettable golf course created the perfect storm on Friday. Kim got off to a flying start with six birdies on his front nine to go out in 30, putting the vaunted 59 number firmly in play given the scoring we’d already seen in the second round.
Still, one of the hardest things in golf is keeping that kind of momentum going after making the turn, but Kim never let his foot off the gas. Kim added five birdies in his first six holes on the back nine to put himself -11 thru 15 on the par 71 layout, needing just one birdie in his final three holes to enter rare air.
After a great drive and quality approach, he had his birdie putt slide just by the left edge to keep him at 11 under, but the 132-yard par-3 17th awaited with a great opportunity to get the birdie he needed. Adrenaline may have gotten the best of him on the tee, as he flew his pitching wedge too far into the backstop long and left of the flag and got hung up just on the edge of the fairway cut above the green. That left him a downhill swinger from right to left, which he buried dead center with perfect pace to reach 12 under on his round with one hole to go.
With that birdie, all Kim needed was a par at the last to post the 16th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history, while a birdie could match Jim Furyk for the lowest round in PGA Tour history. Unfortunately for Kim, it wasn’t meant to be. After splitting the fairway, he had 200 yards in and pulled a 6 iron, and much like his tee shot on the 17th he was a bit too juiced up and pulled it just long and left to create a challenging up-and-down.
He clipped his chip too well and had it check and stop before it got to the hill, and he saw his par attempt slide by on the low side, cleaning up for his lone bogey of the day to shoot a 60. While it’s hard to be disappointed by an 11-under round of golf, Kim will feel like he let a chance to etch his name in PGA Tour history get away from him. Still, he will take a five-shot lead into the weekend at 18 under in search of his fifth career win — but first since 2023.
Kim’s 134 (64-60) is tied for the second-lowest 36-hole score in PGA Tour history, trailing only Justin Thomas’s 133 at the 2017 Sony Open — and tied with Scottie Scheffler last year for the lowest in tournament history.
While Kim has opened up a sizable lead, given the names chasing him, most notably including Scheffler, there won’t be any time this weekend to try and coast to a victory in his adopted home of Texas. Weather will be a factor on the weekend, with Saturday’s third round tee times being moved up with players going off in threesomes off split tees due to projected inclement weather in the afternoon, and Kim will have to battle the elements, himself and some stiff competition behind him to capture that fifth career victory.
Weekend contenders
T2. Scottie Scheffler, Sungjae Im, Wyndham Clark, Kensei Hirata (-13) T6. Jordan Spieth, Keith Mitchell, Tony Finau, Tom Hoge, Jackson Suber Tyler Duncan (-12) T12. Taylor Moore, Zach Bouchou, Chan Kim, Seamus Power (-11) T16. Brooks Koepka and six others (-10)
It’d be hard to draw up a much better leaderboard going into the weekend than this at the Byron Nelson. Just about every big name that is in the field is in serious contention after two rounds of play.
Scheffler and Kim play a lot together in Dallas and seemed right at home paired together (along with Brooks Koepka) in the first two rounds. Scheffler was able to draft a bit off Kim’s incredible play on Friday, catching fire himself on the back nine with three birdies and an eagle in a four-hole stretch from No. 11 to No. 14 to surge into a share of second with a 63. Scheffler will spend the weekend trying to break out of his runner-up streak, as he’s finished second in three of his last four events, but he will need something special on the weekend to reel in Kim.
Sungjae Im and Jordan Spieth played the role of Kim and Scheffler in the early wave, with Im closing out his round in style by making a hole-in-one on the 7th and then an eagle on the 9th after starting the day on the back nine.
That flurry to close got Im into the clubhouse with a 10-under 61, besting Spieth’s 9-under 62 in the same pairing. Those two surged into the top 10 with their efforts in the second round and head into the weekend looking to snap lengthy winning droughts. Im hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2021, while Spieth is still chasing his first win since he picked up the 13th victory of his career back in 2022. Both have been trending in the right direction of late, but they also have struggled with putting together four complete rounds to truly give themselves a chance at a victory.
Koepka was the story from the first round. After somehow managing to shoot 8 under despite missing 11 fairways in his first round, he wasn’t so lucky on Friday and watched Kim and Scheffler dart past him on the leaderboard. His 2-under 69 was still good enough to keep him in the top 20, but he’s now eight shots behind Kim and three shots behind Scheffler heading into the weekend. While the rough this week isn’t much of a penalty, Koepka found a few too many fairway bunkers and left himself some poor angles that kept him from keeping pace with his playing companions.
The tournament inside the tournament
The cut line this week didn’t capture many notables in the field — although, a 6 under cut is rather incredible to look at — but the drama outside those at the very top chasing Kim is the effort of Blades Brown, who turned 19 years old on Thursday, trying to earn special temporary exempt status this week. Brown has been playing some great golf this year and after a top 10 at Myrtle Beach two weeks ago, he earned his spot in the field and needs a solo 21st finish or better to get exempt for the rest of the season — which means he can take unlimited sponsor exemptions. That’s a huge deal for a young player, and after two rounds of play, Brown is T38 at 8 under for the week. He’ll need to pile up the birdies as the weekend wears on if he’s going to climb into that top 20 conversation to earn status.
Updated 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson odds, picks
Si Woo Kim (2/3)
Scottie Scheffler (13/5)
Jordan Spieth (20-1)
Sungjae Im (25-1)
Wyndham Clark (25-1)
Keith Mitchell (33-1)
The things working in Kim’s favor this week are the fact that he’s as aggressive as it gets when trying to make birdies on a golf course that invites and rewards that kind of play. He’s also comfortable playing with Scheffler (and Spieth), which is a good thing given he very well could find himself in a final pairing on Sunday with the World No. 1. The bad news is Scheffler loves playing with Kim too, as they feed off each other and typically when that happens, Scottie ends up getting the better of it. I think at this point, even facing a five-shot deficit, my money would be on Scheffler — who is in second going into the weekend but now has longer odds than when the tournament started. The heart says Spieth or Kim, but the head says Scheffler.
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DENVER (AP) The Colorado Avalanche, the NHL’s best team during the regular season, are in serious danger thanks to a Vegas squad that’s on a run after a late-season coaching change.
“I don’t think people had this on their bingo card,” Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Dylan Coghlan said. “We knew we could do it.”
Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev scored in a 2:07 span in the third period and the Golden Knights stunned the Avalanche 3-1 on Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Final.
Eichel tied it, then set up Barbashev for the go-ahead goal with 8:38 remaining. Barbashev added an empty-netter with 1:03 left. The comeback stunned the capacity crowd and wiped out the top-seeded Avalanche’s 1-0 lead.
By winning twice at Ball Arena, the Golden Knights put the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche in a huge hole. Since 1982, road teams that started 2-0 in the conference finals have a 13-0 series record.
“They understand the situation,” said Vegas coach John Tortorella, who has watched his team go 17-4-1 since he took over on March 29. “I’m not sure where the series goes. I’m not sure where Game 3 goes. But I know I’m not going to have to worry about that, because they get it.”
Carter Hart had another stellar performance, stopping 29 shots. He made 36 saves in a 4-2 win on Wednesday.
Colorado was cruising after Ross Colton opened the scoring in the first period. But things unraveled for the Avalanche in the third. Eichel lined a shot past Scott Wedgewood for his first goal in 11 games to get Vegas on the board.
“I haven’t scored in a million days,” he cracked.
The Golden Knights then took advantage of a miscue – Devon Toews and Brock Nelson struggled to clear the puck along the boards in the Avalanche end – as Eichel sent a pass to Barbashev, who rang in a shot off the post.
This was the fourth third-period comeback by the Golden Knights in this postseason, the most in a single playoffs in team history, according to NHL Stats.
“Just resiliency,” Hart said. “That’s the key word for our group here – we’ve just stuck in games and just grinded it out, and just battled. Resiliency, that’s a term that describes our group really well. We’re never out of the fight, and we’re always grinding in games.”
Game 3 is Sunday night in Las Vegas. The Avalanche are hoping to have star defenseman Cale Makar back in the lineup. He has missed the last two games because of an upper-body injury.
“There’s urgency to get him back since he got hurt,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “He’s doing all the work he can possibly do to get back as fast as he can.”
Before the Golden Knights’ rally, the Avalanche were 45-0-0 when leading after two periods in the regular season and playoffs combined.
“It stings for sure right now,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “But tomorrow we’ll wake up, have a meeting, fly to Vegas and regroup. That’s all you can do.”
Vegas struggled on the power play, going 0 of 4. The team also saw defenseman Brayden McNabb limp to the locker room in the first period soon after taking a check along the boards. He returned for the third period. The hard-checking Golden Knights finished with 32 hits and 16 blocked shots.
“We know how hard it is to win,” Eichel said. “A lot of that falls on playing hard defensively.”
Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson briefly left late in the second period after delivering a check on Barbashev and then ramming his face into the boards.
Wedgewood had 22 saves.
“We can’t ride the emotional roller-coaster like fans,” Bednar said. “If you lose Game 1, you’re getting swept. If you win Game 1, we’re sweeping them. That’s not reality. You have to deal with the task at hand and what’s to come. We’re not going to try and win four games the next night in Vegas. We’re going to try to win one game.”
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The reason this is a smaller position for us is because this isn’t the best of the number. There was plenty of +70 or better available throughout the market earlier before we learned Cale Makar would be unavailable yet again. Without him logging top minutes this blue line group for the Avs leaves a bit to be desired. Vegas doesn’t make anything pretty this time of year but they do like to make life difficult for their opponents. This is a huge chance for them to gain firm control of the series and this price is rich on the group that grades out better on the blue line and in net for me.
How much is Avalanche star defenseman Cale Makar worth to the books? About 20 cents apparently as this number has dropped that much with him ruled out again. But Vegas is again without captain Mark Stone. And the Avalanche simply cannot go down 2-0 heading to Sin City. Since relocating to Denver, the Avalanche are 24-6 in Game 2s at home.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points and 12 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder climbed out of a 15-point hole minutes into the game to beat the San Antonio Spurs 123-108 on Friday night and take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
Jared McCain had 24 points and Jaylin Williams added 18 for Oklahoma City. The Thunder were without Jalen Williams, who sat out with left hamstring soreness.
Oklahoma City’s bench outscored San Antonio’s 76-23, including 15 points by Alex Caruso.
“We just went out there and competed,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They obviously jumped on us early. First game in their building, their crowd behind them, they were excited to play. We just wanted to make sure we competed from that point on. We obviously didn’t give our best effort to start that game, but can’t do nothing about it. It’s behind us. All we can do is focus on the next possession, and we did that.”
Victor Wembanyama had 24 points for San Antonio. Devin Vassell added 20 and De’Aaron Fox had 15 in his series debut.
The Thunder have won two straight after the Spurs’ double-overtime victory in Game 1. Game 4 is Sunday.
Fox (sprained right ankle) and Dylan Harper (right adductor soreness) were cleared to play 45 minutes prior to tipoff.
Fox’s return sparked a historic start.
The Spurs raced to a 15-0 lead, the longest run to open a game in the conference finals since the play-by-play era began in 1997.
Fox opened the run by wrapping in a driving layup and Wembanyama followed by crossing over Isaiah Hartenstein to drill a 3-pointer. Vassell’s 3-pointer put the Spurs up 10-0, leading to an early timeout by Thunder coach Mark Daigneault.
“Other than the first 15 points, our defense was really tight,” Daigneault said. “We got back, settled down into the halfcourt. Our offense had something to do with that. We ran good offense tonight, despite the fact that they were amped up and ready to go, the Spurs were. It’s a discipline series. We did that. We couldn’t be reckless against them, they are too good with the ball, too well coached, too talented. So you’ve got to be able to do it with discipline. I thought we really were disciplined tonight.”
Isaiah Hartenstein broke the drought with a runner over Wembanyama, but the center was immediately greeted with thunderous boos after his physical play against the Spurs in Game 2.
The Thunder went on a 13-2 run when Wembanyama went to the bench and closed the first quarter trailing 31-26.
It was a pattern the Spurs could not overcome.
“It’s my first playoffs,” Wembanyama said. “It’s the first playoffs for many of us. Of course, there was going to be hard trials. It’s to be expected, but now we’re going to see what we’re made of.”
The series continued to be chippy with emotions boiling over early in the second half. Stephon Castle hit the court on back-to-back dunk attempts. The second resulted in a flagrant 1 foul against Ajay Mitchell and technical fouls on Mitchell and Vassell after the two exchanged words following the foul.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams extended Oklahoma City’s first lead to 35-31.
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Game 1 needed overtime to get over the total, and Game 2 was a given that the game would go over after a 31-31 first quarter. I think that the Spurs will bring the same type of intensity in Game 3 as they did in Game 2, where they played extremely well, hitting 49% of their shots from the field and making 40% from 3-point range. Turnovers were the only thing that stopped them, even though they also withstood having 21 turnovers in Game 1. They’ve gone over the total three straight times, and I think they make it four straight. The over is the play.
FanDuel. With Jalen Williams doubtful to suit up, another Thunder role player who should see more run is Jared McCain. The former Sixer recorded 26 minutes in Game 2 as an important spark plug off the bench, after Williams went down. More of a spot up threat from long range when playing alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Ajay Mitchell, McCain took nine threes in Game 2 out of his 14 total shots. When playing between 14 and 28 minutes this season, McCain has at least two three pointers made in 16/24 games as a member of the Thunder, including 4/5 in the playoffs.
SURPRISE, Ariz. – No. 21 Sun Devil Baseball struggled to get the bats going while a series of defensive blemishes would further undo matters in a 7-3 loss to No. 9 West Virginia in the semifinals of the 2026 Big 12 Baseball Tournament presented Allstate on Friday evening at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Ariz.
Arizona State (37-19) posted a season-low three hits in the contest – two of which coming on back-to-back plays in the fourth inning – and had three errors to boot as West Virginia took control late.
Despite the many miscues, the Sun Devils held a 3-1 advantage into the sixth inning behind an exceptional start from Cole Carlon, who allowed just one run on five hits with six strikeouts over 5.1 innings.
Arizona State took the lead in the fourth following a leadoff triple from Nu’u Contrades and a majestic 457-foot home run from Dean Toigo to claim a 2-1 lead. Contrades added another with his legs alone in the top of the sixth with a walk, stolen base and then taking two bases on a wild pitch to the backstop that gave ASU a 3-1 lead.
That was about the extent of the Sun Devil offense as West Virginia (39-13) immediately took advantage of Carlon’s exit from the game, recording three consecutive base hits – two of which coming on bad reads from the outfield – followed by an infield error to plate three runs and a 4-3 lead that it extended to 7-3 in the eighth behind two ASU errors.
The Sun Devils will now await their postseason fate, which will be determined this Monday, May 25 with the NCAA Selection Show, scheduled for 9 a.m. AZT on ESPN2.
Turning point Cole Carlon largely dominated the West Virginia offense for 5.1 innings of action as he allowed just one run on a two-out, two-strike RBI single in the second but otherwise did his part to give the Sun Devils a chance to hold the lead early. Looking after his pitch count ahead of next weekend’s regionals, ASU pulled Carlon after his one-pitch out in the sixth. Finn Edwards lost an eight-pitch battle on the first batter he saw and things spiraled from there. A pair of bad reads on balls to the outfield brought West Virginia back within 3-2. A ground ball followed by a throw into the dirt on a ball to short was unable to be picked by Smaldino allowed two more to score to give West Virginia a 4-3 lead. Sean Fitzpatrick was able to strand two runners in scoring position to keep ASU in striking distance but the damage was done.
Big moment The loudest moment of the game came on Dean Toigo’s 457-foot homer in the fourth inning after Nu’u Contrades flashed the speed with his leadoff triple. The problem was, that was the one big moment in the game for the ASU offense. The Sun Devils managed just those two hits until Matt Polk’s leadoff single in the ninth inning as the team stranded seven baserunners and went 0-for-9 with two outs and just 1-for-11 with runners on base.
Final straw It remained a 4-3 game until the bottom of the eighth when four-straight one-out balls let WVU’s best baserunner onto the base paths in Armani Guzman. His speed forced a tough throw from center on a single as he flew around the bases to try to go first to third, and the ball caromed off his body, rolled into foul territory and allowed Brodie Kresser to take third on the error as well. He would score on a soft two out single from Tyrus Hall, who proceeded to steal second as the throw AGAIN caromed off the baserunner, rolling into the outfield and allowing the speedy Hall to score on another two-bases error as he just avoided the tag at home. That gave WVU a 7-3 advantage. The Sun Devils did keep it interesting in the top of the ninth, getting two leadoff runners on before flying out three times to right field to end the threat and ASU’s appearance in the Big 12 tourney.
The big number
3 – One can take their pick of the three hits or the three errors, both categories effectively hindering ASU’s chances of making a run into the tournament final tomorrow. The three hits were the lowest by Arizona State this season while the three errors were tied for the second most.
PHOENIX (AP) Chad Stevens hit a go-ahead single in the ninth inning after T.J. Rumfield’s RBI double in the eighth tied it and the Colorado Rockies rallied past the Arizona Diamondbacks for a 3-2 win on Friday night.
It was the first hit of the season for Stevens, who was called up from Triple-A Albuquerque on Thursday. The 27-year-old connected off Ryan Thompson (2-1), lofting a single into shallow right field that scored fellow rookie Sterlin Thompson, who started the rally with a double.
Antonio Senzatela (4-0) pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for the win. The Rockies trailed for much of the game but tied it at 2 in the eighth on Rumfield’s double down the right-field line off Juan Morillo.
The D-backs had their season-high five-game winning streak snapped.
Colorado’s Tomoyuki Sugano had his longest outing of the season, giving up two runs and six hits with a walk through 6 2/3 innings. The Japanese right-hander struck out three and provided the team’s first quality start since May 1.
Arizona’s Mike Soroka gave up one run and four hits through six innings, striking out two.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had a sacrifice fly in the second and an RBI single in the fourth to lift the Diamondbacks to a 2-1 lead, but left in the sixth inning with left hamstring tightness after making a sliding catch in left field.
The Diamondbacks made several impressive defensive plays, including two in the seventh that helped preserve their one-run lead. Corbin Carroll made a sliding catch in right field for the first out while Ryan Waldschmidt made a difficult catch in left – crashing against the wall after making the grab – for the second.
The D-backs send RHP Zac Gallen (2-4, 4.78 ERA) to the mound while the Rockies counter with RHP Michael Lorenzen (2-6, 7.03) on Saturday night.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
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Last night we saw the DBacks come back late to walk it off in a 2-1 victory, but they were stifled by reliever Zach Agnos for half the game before scoring. They went 1-9 with runners in scoring position, while leaving 10 men on base, and facing Tomoyuki Sugano tonight, with an xERA nearing 8, should make things a bit easier. I’m siding with Arizona to score some runs and Michael Soroka to hold the Rockies bats at bay. He was one out away from a quality start vs this lineup in his last start, but that was in Denver and he gets the positive shift to his home park now.
The Rockies play a hot Diamondbacks squad that has won five straight games and is only 4.5 games out of first place. The Rockies are 12.5 back in the NL West at 19-32 and have lost their last three games. Arizona has been hitting the ball well during their run, with all their key players hitting at once for the first time all season. Michael Soroka pitches tonight, and he’s 6-2 with a 3:49 ERA, having his best season since 2019 with Atlanta. He beat the Rockies 5 days ago in Denver, allowing only two runs. Diamondbacks to win on the run line.
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