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Skenes is youngest opening day starter since 2014

PITTSBURGH (AP) —Pittsburgh right-hander Paul Skenes, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year award winner, will be the youngest pitcher in 11 years to start a season opener when he takes the mound for the Pirates next week. Skenes will be 22 years and 302 days old on March 27 when Pittsburgh plays at Miami. Jose Fernandez of the Marlins was 21 years and 243 days old when he opened the 2014 season. In its annual announcement of the opening day starters, most of which had been already informally confirmed by their clubs during spring training, Major League Baseball also ...

Penguins to play in Sweden

MANALAPAN, Fla. (AP) — The Country Music Association Awards ceremony kicks the Nashville Predators out of their arena for a long stretch every November. This year, they’ll use that absence to travel to Sweden. The NHL announced Tuesday the Predators are facing the Pittsburgh Penguins in regular-season games in Stockholm on Nov. 14 and 16 as part of the league’s Global Series. “I think it’ll be a good event for us,” Predators general manager Barry Trotz told The Associated Press. “We’re either going on a long trip out West or we can go to Europe.” The games at ...

Dodgers beat Cubs 4-1 in season opener played in Japan

TOKYO (AP) — Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw five strong innings, Shohei Ohtani had two hits and scored twice, and the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 4-1 on Tuesday in Major League Baseball’s season opener at the Tokyo Dome. Playing in front of their home country, Yamamoto and Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga both pitched well in the first all-Japanese starting pitching matchup on opening day in MLB history. Imanaga threw four scoreless innings, allowing no hits but walking four. The Dodgers jumped on Cubs reliever Ben Brown (0-1) in the fifth, scoring ...

U.S. births rose last year, but experts don’t see it as a trend

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. births rose slightly last year, but experts don’t see it as evidence of reversing a long-term decline. A little over 3.6 million births were reported for 2024, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention preliminary data. That’s 22,250 more than the final tally of 2023 U.S. births, which was released Tuesday. The 2024 total is likely to grow at least a little when the numbers are finalized, but another set of preliminary data shows overall birth rates rose only for one group of people: Hispanic women. The rise — less than 1% — may just be ...

French bulldog still top breed, but others gaining momentum

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. still has a major case of French bulldog fever, but a very different breed is staunchly chasing dog lovers’ hearts, according to American Kennel Club statistics released Wednesday. For the third year in a row, the comical, controversial Frenchie tops the club’s annual rundown of the nation’s most prevalent purebred dogs. Frenchies are followed by Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers, German shepherds, poodles and some other longtime faves. (Rounding out the top 10: dachshunds, beagles, Rottweilers, bulldogs and German shorthaired pointers.) Yet ...

U.S., Russia in agreement, but Ukraine not in the talks

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a lengthy call Tuesday to an immediate pause in strikes against energy infrastructure in the Ukraine war, but the Russian leader stopped short of backing a broader 30-day pause in fighting that the U.S. administration is pressing for. The White House described it as the first step in a “movement to peace” that it hopes will include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and eventually a full and lasting end to the fighting. But there was no indication that Putin has backed away from his ...