Youngstown settles on mascot

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown City School District announced its new mascot and nickname for the new Youngstown middle and high schools on Monday.

The athletic teams will be known as the Defenders and the logo will be an owl with the city skyline in view. The colors will be red, yellow, blue, white and black.

The school district also dropped unified from the proposed new school names. It will now be Youngstown High School and Youngstown Middle School.

Pirates struggle in KC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez hit two of Kansas City’s four home runs to back a strong start by rookie Noah Cameron, and the Royals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-3 on Monday night.

Cameron (3-4) struck out seven in a season-high seven innings. The left-hander allowed three hits, a walk, and two runs — on Tommy Pham’s two-run shot in the third.

Witt went 2 for 3 and scored twice to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. Witt hit his 13th homer, a two-run shot the opposite way to right-center field off reliever Chase Shugart to give the Royals a 6-2 lead in the fourth. He added a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Witt finished off a seven-game trip Sunday by extending his club-record hitting streak on the road to 25 games.

Perez hit his 11th homer, a solo shot to left in the fifth for a five-run advantage. He hit his 24th double off the top of the wall in left to drive in a run for a 3-2 lead in the third.

Vinnie Pasquantino hit a two-out pitch from Andrew Heaney in the first for his 15th homer and a 1-0 lead. Nick Loftin hit his second, a one-out solo shot off Génesis Cabrera in the eighth. Heaney (4-8) threw 76 pitches and allowed four runs in three innings.

Pham’s homer was his third. It snapped Pittsburgh’s 30-inning scoreless streak and gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead.

Steven Cruz pitched a scoreless eighth and Jonathan Bowlan allowed Alexander Canario’s RBI single in the ninth to finish for Kansas City.

Key moment

Cameron didn’t surrender a hit after Bryan Reynolds’ leadoff single in the third.

Key stat

The Royals hit more home runs in their first home game of July than they did in the month of June.

Up next

Pirates RHP Mitch Keller (3-10, 3.64) starts Tuesday opposite Royals RHP Seth Lugo (6-5, 2.65).

Guardians snap 10-game losing streak

HOUSTON (AP) — José Ramírez and David Fry homered and Brayan Rocchio added a two-run double as the Cleveland Guardians beat the Houston Astros 7-5 on Monday night to snap a 10-game skid.

The victory is Cleveland’s first since June 25th and comes a day after losing to Detroit in 10 innings Sunday.

The score was tied with two outs in the sixth and the Guardians had two on when Rocchio doubled to left field off Steven Okert to put them on top 6-4.

With two outs in the bottom of the inning, Victor Caratini connected off Matt Festa (2-2) on a shot to right field to get Houston within 1.

However, Fry connected with two outs in the ninth to give Cleveland an insurance run.

Emmanuel Clase pitched a perfect ninth for his 19th save.

Taylor Trammell added a three-run home run for his first hit this season and Isaac Paredes had a solo shot for the AL West-leading Astros, who lost for just the second time in eight games.

Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee allowed four hits and four runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Colton Gordon (3-2) yielded seven hits and five runs in 5 2/3 innings for the Astros.

There were runners on second and third with no outs in the fifth when Steven Kwan lined an RBI single that hit Gordon in the head. The pitcher fell to the ground as his cap flew off but quickly got to his feet. He was checked on by a trainer and threw some warmup pitches before remaining in the game.

Ramírez homered to left field with two outs in the inning to make it 4-0.

Trammell’s shot to the seats in left field cut the lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the inning.

There were two outs in the inning when Paredes smacked his home run off the foul pole in left field to tie it and chase Bibee.

Key moment

Rocchio’s double that gave Cleveland the lead for good.

Key stat

The Guardians won despite going 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

Up next

Astros RHP Hunter Brown (9-3, 1.82 ERA) opposes Guardians LHP Joey Cantillo (1-0, 3.41) when the series continues Tuesday night.

U.S. World Cup roster is wide open

Now comes the U.S. national team’s version of “Survivor.”

Having expanded his player pool during a CONCACAF Gold Cup that ended with a 2-1 loss to Mexico in Sunday’s final, coach Mauricio Pochettino has eight friendlies left from September through March to evaluate players to pick for the World Cup.

“All the American players have the possibility,” Pochettino said. “We need analyze every single player, see the circumstances, the situations, performance, fitness level.”

Following a CONCACAF Nations League flop with his A team in March, Pochettino had largely a B squad for the Gold Cup. Star Christian Pulisic wanted vacation time; Yunus Musah opted out for an undisclosed personal reason; Weston McKennie, Tim Weah and Gio Reyna were forced to be with their teams at the Club World Cup; Antonee Robinson and Folarin Balogun were hurt; and Sergiño Dest was regaining fitness.

Defender Tim Ream and Tyler Adams were the only holdovers in the lineup against Mexico from the starters in the 2022 World Cup second-round loss to the Netherlands.

Players who boosted themselves during the Gold Cup included goalkeeper Matt Freese, right back Alex Freeman, midfielders Malik Tillman and Sebastian Berhalter, and forward Patrick Agyemang.

“Guys have stepped up who were maybe taking a back seat previously, not that they’re quiet mice and they just sit there and listen to everything,” said Ream, the 37-year-old who captained the U.S. against Mexico.

Pochettino has 10 wins and six losses since replacing Gregg Berhalter last fall. A segment of the team’s fan base was discouraged by last year’s first-round elimination at the Copa America, this year’s Nations League and a four-game losing streak entering the Gold Cup, the team’s longest skid since 2007.

Crowds that rooted overwhelming for Guatemala in the semifinals and Mexico in the final caused Pochettino to implore the American fan base to support its national team.

“I think it would have been different if we would have played in two stadiums, the other way around, both against Guatemala in St. Louis — 90 (%) to 10 for USA, and today, instead of 70,000 — I’m not saying 70, but 60 or 50,000 of our people supporting us,” he said Sunday. “But, well, this is what we have to deal with.”

Even following Freese’s emergence, the American goalkeeper pool is its weakest since the 1980s. Matt Turner has failed to establish himself with a top-tier European team, just like Zack Steffen. And given a chance to regain the starting spot after returning to Major League Soccer, Steffen got hurt ahead of the Gold Cup.

Richards and Ream are the strongest of the central defenders, and Dest and Robinson the top choice at outside back with no clear No. 2s. Midfield has the most depth and no one has seized the striker position.

Ex-players, including Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard, have criticized the current player pool’s dedication. Speaking late Sunday, Adams noted “so much noise outside of what we were doing on the field” heading into the tournament.

“I told every single player after the game how proud I was just of the growth of every single individual,” Adams said.

He said the positive culture Pochettino established over five weeks together has to be maintained for friendlies against South Korea on Sept. 6 and Japan three days later.

“I think it has to translate right away or I think Mauricio just probably won’t call people in,” Adams said. “The culture that we have, it doesn’t matter who you are. If it’s guys here that played well, if it’s guys coming back into the group, if you’re coming back from injury, just whatever it is, the culture and the emotion is the first thing that he wants to see.”

There also will be a pair of friendlies in each of October, November and March, a possible January training camp mostly for MLS-based players and then two pre-World Cup send-off games in early June.