Umpire Ron Kulpa diagnosed with concussion after being hit on mask with foul ball

NEW YORK (AP) — Umpire Ron Kulpa has been diagnosed with a concussion and will be sidelined for at least a week.

Kulpa left the Miami Marlins' game at the New York Yankees on Saturday in the fourth after a foul ball hit his mask earlier in the inning.

MLB said Sunday that Kulpa was diagnosed with a concussion and will receive follow-up exams and care over at least the next week under concussion protocols.

Kulpa was hit in the mask by a foul ball on the first pitch from Paul Blackburn to Jakob Marsee with two outs and one on. Kulpa spoke briefly with catcher Austin Wells and remained in the game.

Marsee singled three pitches later and Agustín Ramírez scored on left fielder Cody Bellinger's throwing error for a 4-0 lead. As Otto Lopez stepped in the batter's box, Kulpa stepped away from the plate, motioned to the Yankees' dugout and was checked by two athletic trainers.

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Kulpa exited under his own power. Scott Barry, who had been umpiring at first base, went to the umpire's room, putting on gear to move behind the plate and called balls and strikes when play resumed after an 11-minute delay.

Kulpa was replaced by Derek Thomas in the crew for Sunday's series finale.

Kulpa, 57, made his big league debut on July 23, 1998, and was promoted to the major league staff in 1999. He worked the World Series in 2011 and 2021.

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

byAlex Forten

in

April 05, 2026

Umpire Ron Kulpa diagnosed with concussion after being hit on mask with foul ball

NEW YORK (AP) — Umpire Ron Kulpa has been diagnosed with a concussion and will be sidelined for at least a week. ...

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CJ Kayfus, Gabriel Arias drive in 2 runs apiece as Guardians down Cubs 6-5 to split doubleheader

CLEVELAND (AP) — CJ Kayfus homered and Gabriel Arias hit an RBI single in the eighth inning as the Cleveland Guardians rallied to beat the Chicago Cubs 6-5 and split a doubleheader Sunday.

Cubs Guardians Baseball

Shut out 1-0 in the opener, the Guardians were six outs from being swept when Kayfus, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the sixth, homered off Jacob Webb (0-1) to tie it 4.

Rookie Chase DeLauter followed with a single and Rhys Hoskins walked before Arias delivered his second run-scoring single of Game 2. Austin Hedges singles in a run to put Cleveland up 6-4.

Scott Armstrong (1-0) allowed a tiebreaking homer but picked up the win. Cade Smith gave up an RBI single to Ian Happ in the ninth but stranded two for his third save.

Dansby Swanson hit a two-run homer and Matt Shaw and Happ added solo shots for Chicago in Game 2.

Despite getting just two hits,the Cubs won the opener 1-0as starter Edward Cabrera and three relievers combined on a one-hitter.

Cleveland's lone hit in Game 1 came sixth when Kayfus led off the sixth with a drive to right that carried over outfielder Michael Conforto's head. The three combined hits between the teams are the fewest in a game at Progressive Field, which opened in 1994.

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In the second game, Happ put the Cubs up 4-3 with his fourth homer. He had gone 0 for 11 with nine strikeouts in the series before connecting off Armstrong.

Blanked over the previous 14 innings, the Guardians finally strung some hits together in the sixth and tied it 3 on RBIs from Kayfus, DeLauter and Arias.

Guardians star third baseman José Ramírez played in his 1,619th game, tying him with Terry Turner for the most in club history.

Up next

Cubs: RHP Jameson Taillon (0-0) starts the opener of a three-game series at Tampa Bay against Shane McClanahan (0-1, 3.86 ERA).

Guardians: Tanner Bibee (0-1, 4.00) takes on Kansas City's Michael Wacha (0-0) on Monday in the first of three.

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

byAlex Forten

in

April 05, 2026

CJ Kayfus, Gabriel Arias drive in 2 runs apiece as Guardians down Cubs 6-5 to split doubleheader

CLEVELAND (AP) — CJ Kayfus homered and Gabriel Arias hit an RBI single in the eighth inning as the Cleveland Guardians ra...

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Yankees-Marlins game takes 3 hours, 49 minutes for 9 innings, longest in pitch clock era

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball's pitch clock was no match for the New York Yankees and Miami Marlins.

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New York's 9-7 win Saturday nightlasted 3 hours, 49 minutes, the longest nine-inning game since thepitch clock was instituted for the 2023 season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

MLB had not had a nine-inning game that long sinceBoston's 13-9 with over Baltimore went 3:57 on Sept. 27, 2022, according to Elias.

The previous high for a nine-inning game since the pitch clock started in 2023 was 3:45 for theOakland Athletics' 7-6 win at the New York Metson Aug. 15, 2024.

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New York and Miami combined for 379 pitches by 13 pitchers, and Marlins pitchers walked 10, increasing their total to 21 in the first two games of the series. There were 21 runners left on base, including 12 by Miami.

MLB's average time of a nine-inning game dropped from 3:04 in 2022 to2:40 the following year when the clock was institutedand decreased to2:36 in 2024, its lowest since 1984's 2:35. Itrose to 2:38 last year.

The average game time passed 3 hours for the first time in 2016. It reached arecord 3:10 in 2021before the introduction of thePitchCom electronic pitch-calling devicehelped bring itdown to 3:04 in 2022.

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/MLB

byAlex Forten

in

April 05, 2026

Yankees-Marlins game takes 3 hours, 49 minutes for 9 innings, longest in pitch clock era

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball's pitch clock was no match for the New York Yankees and Miami Marlins. ...

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Savannah Guthrie says 'I still believe' in heartfelt Easter message

"TODAY" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie said "I still believe" as she delivered a heartfelt Easter video message at a New York church service Sunday.

In a vulnerable speech, Guthrie spoke candidly about her struggle with her faith as she wrestles with the unknown surrounding her mother's disappearance.

It has been two months since Nancy Guthrie, 84,vanished from her Tucson, Arizona, area home, sparking a massive search and national concern.

"I see a bright vision of the day when heaven and Earth pass away because they are one, on Earth as it is in heaven," Guthrie said in the closing of her Easter message forGood Shepherd New Yorkchurch. "When we celebrate today, this is what we celebrate, and I celebrate, too. I still believe. And so I say with conviction, 'Happy Easter.'"

Guthrie spoke about Christians' belief in Jesus' resurrection and how humans still have moments of "deep disappointment with God" and "the feeling of utter abandonment."

"Recently, though, in my own season of trial, I have wondered, I have questioned whether Jesus really ever experienced this particular wound that I feel," she said. "This grievous and uniquely cruel injury of not knowing, of uncertainty and confusion and answers withheld."

"In those darkest moments," she continued, "I have thought bitterly, and perhaps irreverently, that I have stumbled upon a feeling that Jesus did not know."

Guthrie said it's not wrong to "challenge our God with questions," and through it comes "a portal of revelation, the imparting of truth and wisdom."

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A comfort for believers, she said, is "that our God has felt those feelings from a perspective of humanity."

"Perhaps this is too dark a message to share on Easter morning, but I have long believed that we miss out on fully celebrating resurrection if we do not acknowledge the feelings of loss, pain and, yes, death," she said. "It is the darkness that makes this morning's light so magnificent, so blindingly beautiful."

"So I close my eyes this morning and I feel the sunshine," she said.

Guthrie spoke one day before she's set to return to the "TODAY" show.

In an interview with Hoda Kotb late last month, she said she believes returning to the show is "part of my purpose right now."

"I can't come back and try to be something that I'm not. But I can't not come back because it's my family," Guthrie said about returning to work. "I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I'll belong anymore, but I would like to try. I would like to try."

Meanwhile, the investigation to find her mother continues.

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing Feb. 1 after she didn't show up at a friend's house for virtual church services, authorities said. She was last seen the previous night around 9:45 p.m. after having had dinner at her daughter Annie Guthrie's home.

Authorities have described the case as a possible kidnapping or abduction. The Pima County Sheriff's Office hasn't publicly specified a motive.

byAlex Forten

in

April 05, 2026

Savannah Guthrie says 'I still believe' in heartfelt Easter message

"TODAY" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie said "I still believe" as she delivered a heartfelt Easter video m...

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Step aside, children: A Chilean zoo stages an Easter egg hunt with treats for the animals

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Step aside, children — thisEasteregg hunt is for zoo animals only.

Chile Zoo Easter

At the largest private zoo inChile, several of its animal residents — meerkats, monkeys, lemurs and others — searched on Sunday for their food packaged as Easter egg-themed treats.

The "egg hunt" is an annual event at Bioparque Buinzoo in the country's capital, Santiago, meant to both entertain visitors and stimulate natural food-hunting behavior in various species.

Zookeepers placed small bags decorated like Easter eggs but packed with meat in the enclosures of small felines, such as caracals, who leapt up tree branches to get their snacks.

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A meerkat had a basket with eggs placed in between some rocks in its enclosure. Monkeys and lemurs were treated to fruits hidden in brown paper bags decorated with bunny years.

Ignacio Idalsoaga, the zoo's director, said that "in nature, these animals spend much of their life looking for food" so the zoo wanted to recreate that behavior.

The treats and snacks were "not chocolate eggs," he added reassuringly but foods the animals would eat in their natural habitat.

The annual even has been held for the past 16 years, Idalsoaga said. This year, sheep also had to forage for their food pellets inside a colorful sphere with holes in it.

"Our creative team has been very imaginative this year" Idalsoaga said.

byAlex Forten

in

April 05, 2026

Step aside, children: A Chilean zoo stages an Easter egg hunt with treats for the animals

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Step aside, children — thisEasteregg hunt is for zoo animals only. Chile Zoo Easter ...

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A gray whale that swam 20 miles up a Washington state river is found dead

A juvenile gray whale that amazed Washington state residents after it swam 20 miles up a small river was found dead, and an official with a marine mammal research group suspects hunger may have driven the whale to new hunting grounds as the species' population declines.

Gray Whale River

The whale was discovered Saturday near Raymond, Washington, in the Willapa River, which feeds into the ocean at Willapa Bay. A number of gray whales are currently in the bay on their 5,000 mile (8,000 kilometer) spring migration from birthing rounds in Baja California, Mexico, north to feeding grounds in Alaska.

The larger issue that the population of gray whales in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean has been facing since 2019 is reduced food availability in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska's coast, John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective, told The Associated Press on Sunday.

"Gray whales are facing a major crisis and the heart of it does seem to be feeding on their prey in the Arctic," he said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries agency declared an unusual mortality event foreastern gray whales— meaning those in the eastern Pacific — from late 2018 to late 2023. It involved 690gray whale strandingsduring that time, stretching fromAlaskato Mexico.

NOAA Fisheries investigators concluded the preliminary cause was "localized ecosystem changes in the whales' sub-Arctic and Arctic feeding areas that led to changes in food, malnutrition, decreased birth rates and increases mortality."

Officials believed thepopulation was rebounding, but the most recent count from 2025 instead showed a continuing decline. The federal agency estimated about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest count since the 1970s.

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"A lot of these gray whales are looking very emaciated, very thin," Calambokidis said.

Their migration north is typically the most challenging period for gray whales, the longest they've gone without eating, forcing the animals to use up their nutritional reserves.

"When that happens, you often see gray whales in a more desperate search for new areas to feed," Calambokidis said. "That's the most likely context for this whale."

Researchers will attempt to examine whale, possibly as soon as Monday.

It entered the north fork of the Willapa River on Wednesday, via a bay about 185 miles (298 kilometers) southwest of Seattle. Residents gathered on bridges along the river just to catch glimpses of the massive mammal and flooded social media with photos and video of it expelling air through its blowhole.

While the gray whale appeared thin, it was behaving normally and didn't appear to have any injuries, the non-profit Cascadia Research Collective said in a Facebook post.

The organization was giving the whale time and space to leave the river on its own, but when researchers attempted to find it Friday, the animal had travelled further upriver into waters that were unnavigable by boat, Calambokidis said.

byAlex Forten

in

April 05, 2026

A gray whale that swam 20 miles up a Washington state river is found dead

A juvenile gray whale that amazed Washington state residents after it swam 20 miles up a small river was found dead, and ...

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Another lopsided title game loss stings South Carolina, but Gamecocks should be good again next year

PHOENIX (AP) — South Carolina's quest to win a fourth national title ended in ugly fashion for a second straight season when theGamecocks lost to UCLA 79-51in the NCAA women's basketball title game on Sunday.

NCAA South Carolina UCLA Basketball

Even so, the monster program that Dawn Staley has built over the past 15 years doesn't look like it's going anywhere.

South Carolina should be one of the top contenders to make a seventh straight Final Four in 2027 and will have plenty of motivation after Sunday's miserable performance. The Gamecocks shot just 29% from the field and the 28-point margin was among the biggest in championship game history.

It's the second straight year South Carolina has fallen flat in the title game. The Gamecockslost 82-59 to UConnin the 2025 final.

Staley will undoubtedly stew over this loss for a while, but once she focuses on next season, there are lots of reasons for optimism. Leading scorer Joyce Edwards and Tessa Johnson are expected to return, while Madina Okot is seeking a fifth year of eligibility from the NCAA.

Veteran forward Chloe Kitts has said she'll be backafter missing this year with a torn ACL. There's also the possibility that forward Ashlyn Watkins could return after recovering from a knee injury and taking a year away from the program to focus on personal growth.

On top of that, there's a group of promising young players who were reserves on this year's team and a highly-rated recruiting class that includes guard Jerzy Robinson.

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Staley will still have to work to do. The Gamecocks have to identify a new leader to replace Raven Johnson, who has excelled as a floor general during his five-year career.

Johnson had a dream career with the Gamecocks — even if it ended with a loss — never missing a Final Four and winning a pair of national championships.

She was sidelined most of the 2022 title run after tearing her ACL early in the season but was an important part of South Carolina's undefeated title in 2024, when the Gamecockstopped Caitlin Clark and Iowain the championship game.

Johnson became more of an offensive threat this season, averaging 10 points, but it's her leadership and defense that made her an indispensable part of this Gamecocks title run. In the semifinals, the 5-foot-8 guard matched up with UConn's 6-foot-2 Sarah Strong, stifling theAP Player of the Yearfor most of the night.

Now, the Gamecocks have to move on without her.

If recent history is any indication, South Carolina is well equipped for the challenge.

AP March Madness bracket:https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracketand coverage:https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

byAlex Forten

in

April 05, 2026

Another lopsided title game loss stings South Carolina, but Gamecocks should be good again next year

PHOENIX (AP) — South Carolina's quest to win a fourth national title ended in ugly fashion for a second straight seas...

Read More