White Sox’s Seby Zavala Becomes First Player in MLB History to Hit First Three Career Homers in Same Game

Seby Zavala has homered his way into MLB history…

The 27-year-old Latino professional baseball player and Chicago White Sox rookie hit the first three home runs of his career on Saturday night, including a grand slam, but the Cleveland Indians rallied to beat Chicago 12-11.

Seby Zavala

Zavala became the first player in big league history to hit his first three career home runs in the same game, according to Elias Sports Bureau research. The catcher played his 18th game in the majors — he was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte on July 6 to replace the injured Yasmani Grandal.

Batting ninth, Zavala hit a solo homer in the third off Triston McKenzie. He connected for a grand slam off McKenize in the fourth for a 6-1 lead and a solo drive against Bryan Shaw in the seventh.

“I always knew I could swing it,” Zavala said. “Going through a rough patch for a couple of months, I knew if I kept working, something would click and I feel pretty good at the plate.”

With a chance to become the 19th player to hit a record-tying four homers in a game, Zavala singled in the eighth and finished with six RBIs.

Zavala — who will turn 28 on August 28 — played at San Diego State, finishing up with the Aztecs in 2015. Later that year, he was a 12th-round selection by Chicago in the June entry draft. He hit 20 home runs at Triple-A Charlotte in 2019.

His magic wasn’t enough to outpace the Indians on this night, however, as Austin HedgesOwen Miller and Amed Rosario homered to help Cleveland overcome a five-run deficit.

The Indians totaled nine runs in three straight innings to take the lead. Justin Garza (1-0) threw two scoreless innings. Emmanuel Clase got five outs for his 13th save.

Venezuela’s Daniel Dhers Claims Silver in BMX Freestyle Competition at Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

Daniel Dhers is proving age is but a number… 

The 36-year-old Venezuelan professional BMX rider claimed the silver medal in the first ever BMX freestyle competition at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Daniel Dhers

Most of the 18 riders who competed at the Ariake Urban Sports Park are in their early or mid-20s, with eventual gold medalist Australia’s Logan Martin nearly a decade younger at 27.

Dhers, the only rider in the field born before 1990, ended the competitition with a best score of 92.05 to Martin’s 93.30.

Daniel Dhers

Great Britain’s Declan Brooks took home the bronze with a score of 90.80.

Dhers has competed at the highest level for more than a decade but any thoughts of winding down were put aside when, in 2017, BMX freestyle was added to the Olympic program.

Daniel Dhers

“It’s a thing that I didn’t believe I would get to see in my career,” Dhers, who lives in North Carolina, told reporters.

Report”I’m just super happy that I was able to make it through the qualifications, and just can’t believe we are here. So I’m so, so psyched,” Dhers, a four-time X Games champion, said.

Marileidy Paulino & Her Dominican Teammates Claim Silver in Inaugural Mixed 4x400m Relay at Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

Marileidy Paulino and her teammates are celebrating a silver finish…

The 24-year-old Dominican athlete, 24-year-old Lidio Andrés Feliz, 24-year-old Anabel Medina and 21-year-old Alexander Ogando gave the Dominican Republic a silver medal in the first-ever Mixed 4x400m relay at the Tokyo Games.

Marileidy Paulino, Lidio Andrés Feliz, Anabel Medina, Alexander Ogando, Mixed 4x400m Relay, 2020 Tokyo Games, Tokyo Games, Olympics,

Paulino and her teammates finished the race with a time of 3:10.21, just behind Poland’s team, which set an Olympic record with a time of 3:09.87.

The United States team, the favorites heading into the Olympics, had to settle for the bronze, coming in just behind the Dominican Republic with a time of 3:10.22.

Marileidy Paulino & Dominican Team

The event, which features two men and two women per team and made its World Championships debut in 2019, contains a certain level of unpredictability as there are no gender rules governing the order in which athletes choose to race.

Poland had experimented with its lineup in the Doha title race, placing men in the first two legs, but they finished fifth. The team opted to place its two women competitors in the middle legs of Saturday’s race, as did the other eight teams.

Pablo Carreño Busta Upsets World No. 1 Novak Djokovic to Claim Bronze Medal at Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

Pablo Carreño Busta has proven his medal

The 30-year-old Spanish professional tennis player bounced back from a disappointing semifinal defeat by upsetting top-seed Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 to claim the bronze medal on Saturday at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Pablo Carreño Busta

Carreño Busta, the sixth seed, who defeated World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev on the way to the bronze medal match, played aggressively throughout against Djokovic, striking the ball with great power on his groundstrokes. After squandering a match point at 6/5 in the second set tie-break, he raised his level in the third set to record victory in two hours and 49 minutes.

“I won [the] Davis Cup, and I’ve gone far in other tournaments, but winning an Olympic medal is indescribable,” Carreño Busta told ITFtennis.com. “I’ve felt the support from Spain, my family and people around me, and have received fond messages from those who saw me lose yesterday. I want to share this medal with all of them.”

Pablo Carreño Busta

Carreno Busta was making his Olympics debut this week and came into the event full of confidence having captured his first ATP 500 trophy at the Hamburg European Open earlier this month. The Spaniard also lifted the Andalucia Open title in Marbella on home soil in April.

Laura Pigossi & Luisa Stefani Claim Brazil’s First-Ever Olympic Tennis Medal at Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani are celebrating more than an Olympic medal…

The 26-year-old Brazilian tennis player and the Brazilian tennis player defeated the Russian Olympic Committee‘s Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina for the bronze medal in women’s doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Laura Pigossi & Luisa Stefani

With their victory, the pair has given Brazil its first ever medal in Olympic tennis.

Pigossi and Stefani won 4-6, 6-4, 11-9 in two hours and 11 minutes at Ariake Tennis Park on Saturday, saving four straight match points and winning six straight points to close out the match.

The pair upset two seeded teams in the first rounds of the tournament before losing to Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic, who’ll play for the gold, in the semifinals.

Alberto Fernandez & Fatima Galvez Win Mixed Team Trap Competition, Giving Spain First Gold of the Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

It’s the golden hour for Alberto Fernandez and Fatima Galvez.

The 38-year-old Spanish trap shooter and his 34-year-old Spanish trap shooting teammate claimed the gold medal in the Mixed Team Trap competition at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Madelynn Bernau and Brian Burrows

Fernandez and Galvez beat out a team from San Marino by a score of 41-40 in the gold medal match, giving Spain it’s first taste of gold in the process.

The Spaniards had topped the qualifying rounds to storm into the gold medal match, but Galvez looked a bundle of nerves against San Marino’s Gian Marco Berti and Alessandra Perilli.

She missed five of her first eight targets, including the first three in a row, before taking a timeout.

Fernandez held steady at the other end, however, and missed only one of his 25 targets as Spain prevailed.

“Because of the light, I didn’t see the target nicely. But the rest of it was nice,” Galvez said of her nervous start.

Fernandez said their success was the culmination of five years of training together.

“It’s so easy to compete with Fatima and it was like a dream for me, so I didn’t feel the pressure of being in an Olympics game,” he said.

Americans Madelynn Bernau and Brian Burrows won the bronze in a shoot-off victory over women’s trap champion Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova and fellow Slovak Erik Varga.

Zacarias Bonnat Michel Wins the Dominican Republic’s First Olympic Medal of the Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

Zacarias Bonnat Michel has earned a special place in Dominican sports history…

Not only has the 23-year-old Dominican weightlifter earned the first Olympic medal for his country at the 2020 Tokyo Games, he’s also won the Dominican’s first-ever weightlifting Olympic medal

Zacarias Bonnat Michel

Bonnat claimed a silver in the Men’s 81kg category, losing to China’s Lü Xiaojun.

Bonnat tied the Olympic record in the clean and jerk mode by lifting 204 kilograms. In total he lifted 367 kilos, 7 kilograms less than Xiaojun.

The bronze went to the Italy’s Antonino Pizzolato who loaded 365 kg

In addition to earning his place in the history books of the Dominican Republic, the native of Bayaguana will receive a bonus of RD $8 million pesos. Bonnat was the 19th Dominican athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics last April, in the qualifying held in Parque del Este.

Zacarias Bonnat Michel

Bonnat started weightlifting 8 years ago, in 2012, when he was participating in the 69 kilogram category. In 2017 he had health complications in a Pan American tournament in Miami where he suffered an intestinal perforation. He needed 10 months to fully recover.

Bonnat has broken three Pan-American Games records and has achieved different medals throughout his career, in which he has received support from the Creating Olympic

Colombia’s Mariana Pajón Claims Silver Medal in Women’s BMX Racing at Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games
Mariana Pajón has fallen just short of a third consecutive Olympic gold…

The 29-year-old Colombian cyclist, two-time Olympic gold medalist and BMX World Champion, had to settle for the silver in the women’s BMX racing competition at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Mariana Pajón

Bethany Shriever of Britain ended Pajon’s bid for a third straight Olympic gold medal, pulling away from the Colombian in the women’s final, in what turned out to be a gripping final on an accident-marred day.

Shriever, an underdog in the competition, said she knew Pajon was gaining down the final straight but managed to keep a cool head.

“When I saw her coming next to me I knew I had to stay smooth, so that’s what I did and managed to hold it to the line. Mariana is an absolute inspiration to me and she’s the only rider I’ve ever really looked up to.”

Pajon took defeat gracefully.

“She was really fast, she did an amazing job,” she said.

Mariana Pajón

Despite having to settle for silver, Pajon has earned her place in Colombian sports history, becoming the first Colombian athlete to win three Olympic medals in their lifetime.

Known as the “The Queen of BMX,” Pajón won her first national title at age of 5 and her first world title at 9. She had won BMX golds at the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio Games.

Carlos Ramírez Repeats as a Bronze Medalist in Men’s BMX Racing at the Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

It’s a repeat performance for Carlos Ramírez.

The 27-year-old Colombian BMX rider claimed another bronze medal in the men’s BMX racing final at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Carlos Ramírez

It’s the same medal position Ramirez had at the 2016 Rio Games.

In the final in Tokyo, Ramirez came out and was in last place. At the first corner, he managed to climb to third place, but his great opponent was Joris Daudet. The heads-up game ended on the straight before the last corner when Daudet went to the ground. Ramírez dodged his rival, continued without problems and finished the test in third place.

Carlos Ramírez

Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands won the gold, edging Great Britain’s Kye Whyte at the finish line.

Idalys Ortiz Claims Fourth Career Olympics Medal at the Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

It’s a rare honor for Idalys Ortiz

The 31-year-old Cuban judoka may have lost her gold medal match against Japan’s Akira Sone in the women’s judo +78 kg category at the 2020 Tokyo Games, but she’s still managed to make some history.

Idalys Ortiz

In claiming the silver at this Summer Olympics, Ortiz became the fourth women to earn at least four medals in judo, having also won bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games, gold at the 2012 London Games and silver at 2016 Rio Games.

Ryoko Tani owns the record for the most with five.

Sone won the match via ippon in the Golden Score period after Oritz was charged with her third penalty of the encounter at the 8:52 mark of the match.

Idalys Ortiz

“Akira Sone is a great athlete,” Ortiz said. “She is very young, she is very talented, and we knew beforehand if she ended up being my opponent she would be very difficult to beat.”

The bronze medals went to France’s Romane Dicko and Iryna Kindzerska, of Azerbaijan, who is the first woman from her country to earn an Olympic medal in judo.