East Palestine catfish tourney

EAST PALESTINE — The East Palestine Sportsmen’s Club is holding a catfish tournament Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight.

Columbiana golf meeting

COLUMBIANA — Columbiana High School is holding a parent/player meeting for high school boys interested in being on the golf team at Valley Golf Club on Tuesday. If you cannot attend or for more information, call Coach Hall at (330) 482-3275.

Cavs: 50 years and counting

CLEVELAND — The 2019-20 NBA season marks the Cleveland Cavaliers 50th season and fans can get ready to take a trip down memory lane.

The 50th season celebration will pay homage to the history and journey of the Cavaliers franchise over the past 50 seasons. The Cavaliers released a retrospective video Wednesday and introduced a commemorative logo in tribute to the 50th season.

The centerpiece of the season-long celebration will be theme nights dedicated to remembering five eras of Cavaliers history that began in 1970 when the team first joined the league as an NBA expansion team. Each theme night will feature unique content and activities, in-game moments with special reunions being planned and commemorative giveaways.

Kipnis homers twice

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jason Kipnis hit two home runs, going back-to-back with Roberto Perez during a five-run first inning, and the Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers 10-4 on Wednesday night.

The Indians have won 10 of their last 14 games. They have hit nine home runs in winning two of the first three games of a four-game series.

Kipnis pulled a three-run homer that cleared the Texas bullpen in right-center and gave Cleveland a 4-0 lead in the top of the first. PÈrez followed by slicing an opposite-field homer that landed just inside the right-field foul pole.

Kipnis also homered down the right-field line in the fifth with two outs for his second two-homer game of the season and sixth of his career. He has three homers in his last four games after a 24-game drought.

Indians starter Adam Plutko, staked to a 7-1 lead in the third inning, lasted only 4 1/3 innings and gave up three runs, two earned, on seven hits. Oliver Perez (2-1) pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for the win.

Scherzer bruised, not beaten

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a broken nose, pronounced black eye and seven shutout innings, Max Scherzer provided a striking capper to the Washington Nationals’ day-night doubleheader sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Scherzer himself? He shrugged off his work in the Nationals’ 2-0 victory Wednesday night as business as usual.

“Trust me, this thing looks a lot worse than it actually is,” Scherzer said. “I felt zero pain. There’s been plenty of other injuries where I felt a lot of pain and I’ve had to pitch through. I’ll hang my hat on those starts, but tonight I felt zero pain. This is part of what you have to do. You take the ball every fifth time.

“That’s my responsibility to the team, to make sure I always post, and I knew I could post tonight.”

Brian Dozier and Victor Robles hit solo homers to support Scherzer (6-5) as Washington won for the 16th time in 23 games. Philadelphia has dropped seven of its last nine and 12 of 18.

In the first game, Patrick Corbin struck out eight while allowing one run over seven innings as the Nationals earned a 6-2 victory in the delayed series opener after the teams were rained out Monday and Tuesday.

Scherzer bunted a ball off his face during batting practice Tuesday, but it didn’t stop him from making his scheduled start. His injury may have provided an extra layer of intimidation in the form of a black eye more worthy of a boxing ring than a baseball diamond.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner sported a pronounced bruise arcing beneath his right eye, adding another hue to a glare that already featured one blue eye and one brown eye.

“Going out there and throwing, the only thing I had to deal with was the swelling underneath the eye,” Scherzer said. “It was kind of jiggling around, and so in warmups I just had to get used to knowing what it was feeling like to throw the ball and just have that swelling.”

While he wasn’t at his most efficient on a humid night, piling up 117 pitches, Scherzer was rarely threatened. He struck out 10, yielded only four hits and permitted just two runners to reach scoring position. And he finished strong, striking out three in a row after Cesar Hernandez led off the seventh with a double.