Sports

The Kansas City Royals were on the wrong end of a slugfest against the Philadelphia Phillies Sunday afternoon. The Royals came out swinging against Phillies starter Taijuan Walker.

The White Sox made a bad impression on new Yankees reliever Kenyan Middleton. After signing a minorleague contract with Chicago in January, he posted a 3.96 ERA in 39 appearances this season before being traded to New York at the August 1 trade deadline.

Aug. 6—Willson Contreras excitedly embraced the Cardinals when he signed his five-year contract in December. The history. The tradition. The winning. The high expectations. Replacing the legendary Yadier Molina at catcher.

Aug. 4—Big 12 Conference Commissioner Brett Yormark has met some expectations and exceeded all others through his first 13 months leading the league.

Aug. 4—The goal of the message manager Oliver Marmol sought to deliver to rookie lefty Matthew Liberatore during their meeting Wednesday was to help the lefty relax.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — When FIFA decided to expand the Women’s World Cup to a record 32 teams and 64 games this year, the expectation was many qualifiers would arrive in New Zealand and Australia unable to compete at this level. The reality has been exactly the opposite: the group stage of this tournament has been the most competitive, exciting and well-played in history.

Aug. 3—Kelly Maxwell’s rather unexpected stay in the transfer portal all but officially came to a close on Thursday afternoon, and she won’t have to move her belongings far.

Aug. 3—Oklahoma opened fall camp Thursday, but several players will have to wait a little bit longer before returning to practice.

For diehard high school football fans, Aug. 7 has been a date marked on their calendars since the last season ended.

Brady Singer had all his pitches working as he twirled eight shutout innings against the New York Mets on Thursday. The Kansas City righthander surrendered just three hits and struck out four in the Royals’ 9-2 victory, which capped their second consecutive series sweep at Kauffman Stadium and ran their MLB-best win streak to six games.