Indianapolis native Cole Hocker won the men’s 1,500 meter final at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. Hocker chased down Olympic champion Matthew Centrowitz to finish in just over three minutes, 35 seconds. The 20-year-old Cathedral High School grad has not officially qualified for Tokyo yet, as he has not yet hit the Olympic standard time, and will have to wait until the final world rankings come out to know if he qualifies. Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse finished third and will be part of the Olympic team, as he had already previously hit the standard.
Clayton Kershaw struck out 13, and the Dodgers used a six-run second inning to beat the Chicago Cubs 7-1 Sunday night in Los Angeles. Zach McKinstry’s grand slam in the second started the scoring for the Dodgers, followed by a two-run home run from Cody Bellinger. Chicago’s lone run came on a Javier Baez homer in the sixth. The Dodgers took the final three games of the series after the Cubs opened the four-game set with a combined no-hitter Thursday.
Former Indianapolis Indians pitcher Max Kranick was perfect through five innings in his MLB debut and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-2 Sunday at Busch Stadium. Kranick was forced from the game after five innings due to a rain delay of over an hour. The 23-year-old only threw 50 pitches and ended with three strikeouts. Elsewhere in the NL Central, Ronald Acuna Jr. homered and drove in two runs to lift the Atlanta Braves to a 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
The Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners split two games Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field. In a completion of a suspended game from Saturday, Taylor Trammell homered in the top of the ninth to lift the Mariners to a 3-2 victory. Zach Collins drove in four runs in Game 2 and the White Sox held on for a 7-5 win in seven innings. The White Sox have a two and a half game lead on Cleveland in the AL Central after the Indians fell 8-2 to the Twins. The Detroit Tigers beat the Houston Astros 2-1 in 10 innings on a walk-off squeeze bunt from Robbie Grossman.
Kyle Busch overcame transmission issues and saved enough fuel to win in the NASCAR Cup Series at Pocono Raceway. Busch’s number 18 Toyota was stuck in fourth gear with a burnt clutch for the final 46 laps, but he was able to conserve enough gas to make it to the finish. Busch assumed the lead coming to the white flag when teammate Denny Hamlin had to come to pit road, and his second win of the season ended a six-race winning streak for Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle Larson finished second, followed by Brad Keseolwski, Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace.
The Indiana Fever waived 2020 first round draft pick Lauren Cox Sunday. The Fever selected Cox out of Baylor with the third overall pick in last year’s draft. The 6-foot-4 forward averaged 2.6 points per game in 25 total games the last two seasons. Cox had played in 11 of the team’s 16 games thus far this season and averaged 1.4 points and two rebounds per game. The Fever are 1-15 and are in the midst of an 11-game losing streak. Indiana returns to action Thursday against Connecticut.
