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Mets’ slumping slugger Pete Alonso heads to 2nd-career All-Star game

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

PHOENIX — Pete Alonso knows the numbers: His expected batting average is .264 and his current average is .217.“I’ve looked at my expected batting average and based on the numbers, the discrepancy is probably one of the largest in all of Major League Baseball,” Alonso told the Daily News on Wednesday at Chase Field. “I think it’s in the .260s and that’s kind of on par with who I’ve been in the past, but this year it’s not that. Now I’m hitting in the high .210s, but that’s like a 50-point discrepancy and that’s got to be the largest margin in the big leagues. That’s tough.”Coming into Wednesday, his math wasn’t far off. It’s a 47-point discrepancy. Alonso made the All-Star team largely based on his 25 home runs, which currently rank third in the league, tied with Luis Robert of the Chicago White Sox. Earlier this season, Alonso emerged as an NL MVP candidate, but this recent skid has coole...

Brayan Bello stellar again as Red Sox top Rangers 4-2

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

Where would the Red Sox be without Brayan Bello?With the starting rotation decimated by injuries the 24-year-old righty has put the team on his back and given the Red Sox a chance to win every time he takes the mound. Wednesday was no exception as he delivered yet another gem to help Boston top the AL West-leading Texas Rangers 4-2.Though not as sharp as in some of his recent outings, Bello continued to show impressive poise as he worked his way out of a number of early jams unscathed. In the first inning he stranded a pair of runners after Texas got men on second and third with one out, and in the second he shook off a pair of should-have-been-errors that extended the inning and kept the Rangers off the board.From there he retired eight straight Rangers batters into the sixth inning, and Texas’ only damage all day came on a two-run home run by Adolis Garcia, his 22nd of the season, in the top of the sixth. Bello ultimately went seven innings, allowing the two runs on eight hi...

David Ross is in the spotlight again after the Chicago Cubs manager’s umpiring rant goes viral

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

David Ross’ parents called him around 9 p.m. Tuesday after his profane postgame rant went viral.“‘Are you OK?’” he said his mom asked. “My dad was like, ‘Hey, buddy, everything all right?’”It was a reasonable question, and the Chicago Cubs manager assured them he was OK, even if that wasn’t obvious to anyone watching the video of him going off on umpires after a 7-6, 11-inning win over the Milwaukee Brewers in which he was ejected.“Just checking on me,” he said. “The league will check on me too. Make sure I’m OK.”If Ross seems a little more animated of late, it’s for good reason.The Cubs are at a critical juncture of their season and could fall out of contention if they don’t get back on a prolonged hot streak.All-Star left-hander Justin Steele, who faced the Brewers on Wednesday, said Tuesday he believes the Cubs’ luck is about to change.“We’ve just got to keep do...

Celtics to send Grant Williams to Mavericks in three-team trade, per reports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

The writing has long been on the wall that Grant Williams’ time in Boston was over. On Wednesday, the Celtics said goodbye to their fourth-year forward.Williams has been traded to the Dallas Mavericks in a three-team deal that also includes the San Antonio Spurs, according to multiple reports on Wednesday night. The Celtics will receive multiple second-round picks, the Spurs will get Reggie Bullock and a draft pick, while the Mavs will acquire Williams – who was a restricted free agent – on a four-year, $54 million deal via sign and trade, per reports.More to come…

Toxic gas leak in South Africa has killed 16 people, including 3 children, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME and GERALD IMRAY (Associated Press)JOHANNESBURG (AP) — At least 16 people, including three children, were killed by a leak of a toxic nitrate gas being used by illegal miners to process gold in an informal settlement, police and local government authorities said Wednesday.Emergency services initially announced that as many as 24 people might be dead in the Angelo settlement in Boksburg, a city on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg. But police and Gauteng Province Premier Panyaza Lesufi later said the number of deaths had been confirmed as 16 after a recount of the bodies.Teams were still searching the area looking for other casualties. The bodies of the victims remained lying on the ground hours after the leak was reported as emergency services waited for forensic investigators and pathologists to arrive.“We can’t move anybody. The bodies are still where they are on the ground,” said emergency services spokesman William Ntladi.An offici...

Crime Briefs: Girl, 13, shot in Dorchester, Boston Police Department says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

A young teenage girl was shot in her ankle on the Fourth of July while walking down Bowdoin Street in Dorchester.Police responded at 7:55 a.m. Wednesday to Boston Children’s Hospital in Roxbury, where a girl who was shot the night before in Dorchester was being treated.The girl told officers that she was walking in the 200-block of Bowdoin when, the police report summarizes, “she felt a sharp pain to her right ankle … she looked down and saw blood coming.” She said she was unable to walk from the pain.At first, the child and her friend believed that the injury was from a stray firework, according to the report, but police noted it was an apparent gunshot that fractured her fibula. Police canvassed the area “to no avail.”3 men arrested in connection to Mattapan shootingPolice started Wednesday morning very early with a response to the area of Edgewater Drive and River Street in Mattapan for reports of multiple people shot.At the scene shortly after 2 a.m., police found five shooting ...

LA County sheriff calls video of deputy tackling woman ‘disturbing,’ opens inquiry

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County sheriff says a bystander’s cellphone footage showing a deputy violently tackling a woman while she filmed a man being handcuffed, then pepper-spraying her in the face, is “disturbing,” and community groups on Wednesday called for the department’s new chief to hold his agency accountable.The June 24 incident in the city of Lancaster follows several cases that have drawn scrutiny to the department amid allegations of excessive use of force by its deputies. It’s also testing the reform efforts of the new sheriff, Robert Luna, a former Long Beach police chief who has vowed to overhaul the nation’s largest sheriff’s department since taking it over in December after defeating incumbent Alex Villanueva.Both officers were pulled off field duty, Luna said during an afternoon news conference, and could face discipline ranging from letters of reprimand all the way up to dismissal if misconduct is found. He didn’t identify ...

20-year-old dies after launching fireworks in Hawaii parking lot on the Fourth of July

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — A man in Hawaii died after setting off fireworks on the Fourth of July holiday, police said. Police and firefighters responding to a report of an illegal fireworks accident Tuesday night at a Big Island parking lot found a man lying on the ground with a head injury. Police identified him as Glen John Nakata, 20, of Kailua-Kona. “Bystanders stated they saw Nakata holding a fireworks launcher above his head when a firework went off, sending the young man to the ground,” the Hawaii Police Department said.He was taken to a hospital where he died. An autopsy will determine the exact cause of death. It’s unclear what kind of fireworks he was handling.The illegal use of fireworks is an ongoing issue in Hawaii. Last month, Gov. Josh Green signed legislation creating a task force to stop the importation of illegal fireworks and promote compliance with state fireworks laws. The measure noted that the use of illegal fireworks has caused deaths, injuries, brush...

US releases video of Russian fighter jets harrassing American drones over Syria

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russian fighter jets flew dangerously close to several U.S. drone aircraft over Syria on Wednesday, setting off flares and forcing the MQ-9 Reapers to take evasive maneuvers, the Air Force said.U.S. Air Forces Central released a video of the encounter, showing a Russian SU-35 fighter closing in on a Reaper, and later showed a number of the so-called parachute flares moving into the drone’s flight path. The flares are attached to parachutes.Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, commander of 9th Air Force in the Middle East, said three of the U.S. drones were operating over Syria after 10:30 a.m. local time, on a mission against the Islamic State group which was not detailed, when three of the Russian aircraft “began harassing the drones.”In a statement, Grynkewich said one of the Russian pilots moved their aircraft in front of a drone and engaged the SU-35’s afterburner, which greatly increases its speed and air pressure. The jet blast from the afterburner can poten...

Father of the bride, teen who tried to save friend among 5 killed in Philadelphia shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:25:53 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A father who was preparing to walk his eldest daughter down the aisle. An aspiring actor who appeared as an extra in the “Creed” movie franchise. A teenager who tried to help a wounded friend. These are the stories of those killed in the all-too-familiar thrum of another mass shooting.Five people in a working-class neighborhood of Philadelphia were gunned down Monday in what became the deadliest among a rash of U.S. shootings that occurred around the July Fourth holiday. A gunman in a ski mask and body armor appeared to fire on people at random while they were on the street or in a car, authorities said. Ralph Moralis, 59; Joseph Wamah Jr., 31; Dymir Stanton, 29; Lashyd Merritt, 21; and DaJuan Brown, 15, were killed in the shooting. Four others, including two 2-year-old boys, were also wounded.The alleged shooter was arraigned Wednesday on multiple charges including five counts of murder. The victims’ families remain shattered as they now cope with the feel...