The Cowley CourierTraveler, Friday, August 16, 2019 Page 7A

By JEFFREY FLANAGANKansas City Royals

KANSAS CITY — Despite a runaway seventh inning, Kansas City Royals right-hander Brad Keller contin-ued his strong second-half surge and con-tinued to show evidence he can be the ace of the team’s rebuild.

Keller threw six no-hit innings Wednesday night before three straight singles forced his exit in the Royals 6-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Kauffman Stadium.

Using mostly a domi-nant four-seam fastball that topped out at 96 mph, Keller maneuvered through six innings with five strikeouts and three walks.Photo courtesy KANSAS CITY ROYALS

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Brad Keller was magnificent with six no-hit innings Wednesday night, but tired in the seventh and the offense provided little offense for the second straight night in a 6-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the I-70 Series at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

Six no-hit innings for naught as offense gets shut out again

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See ROYALS Page 8A

Keller loses no-no, gameDiBenedetto will be out at Leavineafter season

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Matt DiBenedetto has been told by Leavine Family Racing he will not be brought back for a second season with the NASCAR team in 2020.

DiBenedetto called it “devastating news” in Thursday social media posts. He’s enjoying the best season of his career while driving the No. 95 Toyota and is ranked a career-best 23rd in points. He has four top top-10 finishes in the past eight races.

DiBenedetto’s post said the team told him Tuesday he was out. In a state-ment, the organiza-tion called

DiBenedetto “a talented young driver.”

Leavine Family Racing has an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, and that team does not have enough seats to give its many young drivers. DiBenedetto will likely be replaced by either Christopher Bell in a pro-motion from the Xfinity Series, or Erik Jones if Gibbs moves Jones to Leavine to make room for a Cup seat at JGR for Bell.

DiBenedetto is likely to be a candidate for Front Row Motorsports’ No. 38 Ford. David Ragan said Wednesday he won’t drive full-time after this season.

DiBenedetto

Sporting KC shut out at OrlandoORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Tesho

Akindele scored his team-leading ninth goal in the 21st minute Wednesday night and Orlando City beat Sporting Kansas City 1-0.

Orlando City (9-11-6) jumped

into a three-way tie for sev-enth place with Montreal and Toronto in the Eastern Conference.

Akindele scored on one-tim-er from just off the penalty spot off a centering pass from Carlos

Ascues. That climaxed a patient buildup in the offen-sive end with Oriol Rosell slot-ting the ball forward to Ascues in the box.

Brian Rowe recorded three saves for his seventh shutout. He benefit-

ed from Benny Feilhaber missing a point-blank shot in the 83rd min-ute.

Tim Melia, in goal for Sporting KC (7-11-7), had no chance on the Akindele goal, which was Orlando’s only shot on target.

Soaring with the Bluejays

Courtesy photoPierce Klaassen, a 2019 Arkansas City High School grad, signed a National Letter of Intent to play tennis at Tabor University in Hillsboro. Klaassen poses with his sister, Hannah, left, mother, Lisa, and Tabor head coach Luke Rencher, a standout player at the University of Oregon in his first year as head coach of the Bluejays.

Photo courtesy KANSAS CITY CHIEFSKansas City Chiefs defensive players swarm Cincinnati Bengals receiver Cody Core during Saturday’s 38-17 preseason victory at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

New defensive staff comes from varied backgroundsST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The first step in

what became a top-to-bottom overhaul of the Kansas City Chiefs defense began when coach Andy Reid replaced coordinator Bob Sutton with Steve Spagnuolo, the former St. Louis Rams coach and longtime NFL defen-sive coordinator.

It was an obvious, unsurprising move in many ways: The two had worked together for nearly a decade in Philadelphia, and Spagnuolo was looking to get back into coaching after taking a year off.

The rest of the steps in building a defen-sive staff were a little more surprising.

For one thing, the choices came from every corner of the coaching landscape.

Linebackers coach Matt House was plucked away from the college ranks, where he had been serving as the suc-

cessful defensive coordinator at Kentucky. Defensive line coach Brendan Daly had just helped the New England Patriots win another Super Bowl. Cornerbacks coach Sam Madison had been working in television, his on-field work limited mostly to preparing

prospects for the NFL combine.Throw in new defensive backs

coach Dave Merritt, who spent last season with the Arizona Cardinals,

and holdover Britt Reid — the head coach’s son — and it’s quite a collection of back-grounds and skill sets.

Just what Spagnuolo had in mind.“All of these coaches are familiar with

Steve, love the game, and are good teachers that have had success in their careers,” said Reid, who worked closely with Spagnuolo in assembling the staff.

See CHIEFS Page 8ADaly

Kyrgios fined forconduct in Cincy

MASON, Ohio (AP) — Nick Kyrgios has been fined $113,000 by the ATP after his second-round match at the Western & Southern Open.

The tour announced the penalties Thursday, a day after Kyrgios insulted chair umpire Fergus Murphy and left the court to smash two rackets during a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-2 loss to Karen Khachanov.

The ATP listed a breakdown of eight fines ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 each for violations such as unsportsmanlike con-duct, verbal abuse and audible obscenity.

The tour also said it is “looking further into what happened during and immediately after the match” to determine whether addi-tional fines or a suspension is warranted.

Kyrgios is a 24-year-old Australian who is ranked 27th this week. He has repeat-

edly been in trouble for on-court actions, including getting kicked out of the Italian Open in May after throwing a chair and being suspended by the ATP in 2016 for not trying to win and insulting fans during the Shanghai Masters.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder waived for-ward Patrick Patterson on Thursday.

Patterson spent two sea-sons with Oklahoma City. He appeared in 145 games and averaged 3.8 points and 2.3 rebounds in 14.7 minutes per game.

Patterson originally was expected to be Oklahoma City’s starting power forward heading into the 2017-18 season, but the Thunder traded for Carmelo Anthony,

moving Patterson to a reserve role. The younger, more athletic Jerami Grant emerged that season and eventually took over the starting job early in the 2018-19 season. Patterson got regular minutes the first half of the season, but the Thunder added Markieff Morris in February, tak-ing Patterson out of the rotation.

In his final season with the Thunder, Patterson averaged 3.6 points and 1.7 rebounds in 63 games while shooting 37 percent from the field and 34 percent from 3-point range.

Patterson waived

Patterson

Kyrgios