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CUBS SNAP SKID
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Ian Happ hit a tiebreaking three-run home run and drove in five runs on Wednesday night while playing in his hometown as the Chicago Cubs ended their 10-game losing streak with a 10-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Happ’s three-run shot snapped a 4-4 tie and started a six-run inning that helped the Cubs get their first win since May 15. Pinch-hitter Michael Conforto hit a two-run home run later in the inning to extend the lead to 10-4.
Happ also hit a two-run single in the first inning to open the scoring and has reached base in each of his last 40 games in Pittsburgh. He was one of five Cubs with two hits.
Brandon Lowe hit a three-run homer for the Pirates and rookie Konnor Griffin had a solo blast that drew the Pittsburgh into a 4-4 tie in the fourth inning.
Chicago is just the second team in major league history to have two 10-game winning streaks and a 10-game losing streak in the same season, along with the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers.
Jacob Webb (1-1) struck out the side in order in the sixth. Yohan Ramirez (2-2), who allowed Happ’s home run, was charged with four runs in 1/3 inning.
Neither starter factored in the decision as Cubs veteran Jameson Taillon and Pirates rookie Bubba Chandler both allowed four runs in five innings. Taillon has lost his four previous starts. Chandler has gone seven starts since his only win of the season.
Bryan Reynolds had three hits for the Pirates, who had won their previous three games.
Wednesday marked the 2,000th regular-season game played at PNC Park, which opened in 2001. The Pirates have a 1,003-996-1 record there.
UNION FIRES FIRST SHOTS
NEW YORK (AP) -- Baseball players fired the opening salvo Wednesday in what is expected to be long and contentious labor negotiations, asking for expanded free agency and salary arbitration rights along with almost doubling the major league minimum and increasing the money high-revenue teams share with the less-wealthy clubs.
A day before Major League Baseball is expected to make a salary cap proposal, the union outlined its initial economic proposals during a bargaining session at the players’ association office in Manhattan. It included what it called a “competitive integrity tax” that would penalize teams dropping below a payroll floor and called for the luxury tax threshold to rise to $300 million next year.
Baseball’s labor contract expires Dec. 1 and MLB is expected to institute a lockout, management’s equivalent of a strike under federal labor law. Players have vowed they never will accept a salary cap.
“Attendance, viewership, interest -- by any measure you want to use, our game is moving in a positive direction,” Baltimore pitcher Chris Bassitt, a member of the union’s eight-man executive subcommittee, said in a statement. “We’ve put forward proposals designed to continue that trend. Support, incentivize, and reward clubs who are committed to competing, especially small-market clubs. Compensate players fairly for the work they are doing.”
JACKSON DOESN’T WANT TO TALK CONTRACT
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) -- As another set of contract talks drags on, Lamar Jackson says his heart is in Baltimore.
“I love the Ravens. I love this organization. I love this city. This is the team that drafted me, so (this city has) a lot of love for me -- I believe -- and I have a lot of love for the city and this team, as well,” Jackson said. “The restructure is done, and I’m cool with that, but I love Baltimore. Everybody should know that by now.”
Wednesday was the first time Jackson has been available to local reporters in a while, and there was a lot to catch up on: Coach John Harbaugh was fired after last season and replaced by former Ravens assistant Jesse Minter. Baltimore also made no secret of the fact that it was hoping to reach a new deal with Jackson before the start of free agency, but that came and went with only a restructure that freed up cap space. The two-time MVP quarterback has just two seasons left on the five-year deal he signed before the 2023 season.
There was plenty of drama that offseason, when the Ravens used the franchise tag on Jackson and he even requested a trade before eventually coming back. On Wednesday he was upbeat and, as usual, didn’t want to discuss the specifics of recent negotiations.
“I was thinking about how I was going to respond to this question if I got it, but I’m going to give you the same answer I always give,” Jackson said. “I just want to keep those conversations private. We restructured the deal, and that’s what we have right now.”
NO SEC CUPCAKES
DESTIN, Fla. (AP) -- The Southeastern Conference is eliminating “cupcake weekend.”
The league’s athletic directors voted at their annual spring meetings for everyone to play conference games on the second-to-last week of the regular season beginning in 2027.
It means no more Football Championship Subdivision or lower-tier Football Bowl Subdivision opponents before those rivalry games that typically take place during the final week of the season.
“That’s the end of cupcake weekend,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “We never got that one sponsored, though.”
SEC decision-makers have discussed dumping those late-season payday matchups for months. The conference expanded to a nine-game league schedule beginning in 2026, prompting the need for more significant matchups in late November.
“It’s nine conference games and a recognition that you’re populating more weekends,” Sankey said. “And so you really cannot have odd numbers of open or non-conference dates later in the season because then that has a backward domino effect in where you place games early. We ran into some of that in the ’26 season.”
Only four SEC teams - Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi and Mississippi State - have such games set for this season.
TRUMP GETS KNICKS INVITE
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is planning to get an up-close look at the hottest team in basketball.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday that New York Knicks owner James Dolan has invited him to the NBA Finals, when the Eastern Conference champion Knicks host either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs next month at Madison Square Garden.
New York, which is riding an 11-game postseason winning streak after sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals, is scheduled to host Game 3 on June 8 and Game 4 on June 10.
Trump, a New York native, said he initially planned to attend Game 5 of the conference finals at MSG before the Knicks finished off the Cavaliers in four games. The president called Dolan a “great guy” and marveled at New York’s run.
“Boy, what a team,” Trump said. “They have some really great players.”
Trump called the club’s return to the finals for the first time since 1999 “great to see.”
“The Knicks have really suffered for years,” Trump said to laughter. “They’re doing (well) right now.”
Trump has routinely dropped in on prominent sporting events during his time in politics. He’s taken in the College Football Playoff championship and caught a prime-time NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets just days before the 2024 election.
The Knicks have a history of having high-profile celebrities sit courtside at MSG, including filmmaker Spike Lee, who has clashed with Trump in the past.