BASEBALL

Johan Mieses hit his league-leading seventh home run of the season, and Sea Dogs reliever Matthew Kent retired 12 straight batters before allowing his only hit in Portland’s 3-2 win Wednesday night against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Portland took the lead with two runs in the seventh. Jeisson Rosario drew a bases-loaded walk after singles by Roldani Baldwin and Ryan Fitzgerald and a walk to Jeremy Rivera, and Pedro Castellanos drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly.

Mieses made it 3-1 with his home run in the eighth.

Sea Dogs starter Emmanuel De Jesus struck out seven in 32/3 innings but left after an RBI single by Kevin Vicuna. He was replaced by Kent, who didn’t allow a base runner until giving up a two-out double in the eighth.

Jose Adames gave up a run in the ninth but stranded the potential tying run at the third with the help of a pop-up on a squeeze bunt attempt.

OLYMPICS

TOKYO GAMES: Confronted in Japan with some of the strongest medical-community opposition yet to the Tokyo Olympics, IOC President Thomas Bach offered to have added medical personnel available to help out when the games open in just over nine weeks.

Bach gave few details, speaking remotely at the opening of three days of meetings between the International Olympic Committee and local organizers. He said the help would come from various national Olympic committees and be available in the Olympic village and sports venues. In his 12-minute address, Bach attempted to assure the Japanese public and athletes coming to Tokyo that the IOC will hold “safe and secure” Olympics in the midst of the pandemic.

“For obvious reasons we cannot give them (athletes) every detail yet, but the most important principle is very clear: the Olympic Village is a safe place and the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be organized in a safe way,” Bach said.

Bach said he anticipated more than 80% of those staying in the Olympic Village would be vaccinated. Reports locally say that Japan’s Olympic delegation will begin getting vaccinated in June. Between 1-2% of Japanese are fully vaccinated, and its unlikely that even the elderly population will be fully vaccinated before the Olympics end on Aug. 8.

Bach appeared to be responding to one of the strongest demands so far to call off the postponed Olympics.

The 6,000-member Tokyo Medical Practitioners’ Association called for the Olympics to be canceled in a letter sent last week to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa, and Seiko Hashimoto, the head of the organizing committee.

The letter was made public this week on the group’s website.

“We believe the correct choice is to the cancel an event that has the possibility of increasing the numbers of infected people and deaths,” the letter said.

• Rebecca Lowe will be the daytime host for NBC’s coverage of the Tokyo Olympics.

Lowe was previously a host for NBCSN’s Olympics coverage from Sochi in 2014 before anchoring the 2016 Rio and 2018 PyeongChang games.

Lowe has been with NBC since 2013 and has been the host of the network’s coverage of England’s Premier League.

NBC is expected to announce its schedule in the next couple of weeks leading up to the opening ceremony on July 23. Mike Tirico will anchor primetime coverage for the second time.

NBC announced earlier this year that it would air the opening ceremony live.

FOOTBALL

NFL: The Patriots signed running back and fourth-round draft pick Rhamondre Stevenson.

Stevenson, out of Oklahoma, is the fifth member of the Patriots’ 2021 draft class to sign. He joins linebacker Cameron McGrone (fifth round), safety Joshuah Bledsoe (sixth round) offensive lineman Will Sherman (sixth round) and receiver Tre’ Nixon (seventh round).

The 23-year-old Stevenson played in 19 games over two seasons for the Sooners, rushing for 1,180 yards and 13 touchdowns.

He joins a group of running backs that includes Damien Harris, Sony Michel and James White.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: Natisha Hiedeman scored a career-high 19 points, Jonquel Jones had 17 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, and the host Connecticut Sun eased by the Indiana Fever 88-67.

SOCCER

EXECUTIVE TARGETED IN ATTACK: The chief executive of Scottish soccer club Celtic was the target of an apparent firebomb attack at his home on Wednesday. Celtic said Peter Lawwell and his family were able to leave the house safely after a fire was started at around 1 a.m. local time. The club said “an explosion and fire” had caused significant damage to the home at Thorntonhall near Glasgow.

“We understand that Police Scotland are currently undertaking a criminal investigation,” Celtic said.

Lawwell is retiring next month after 18 years in charge of the storied club, whose run of nine straight league titles was ended by Rangers this season. As a board member of the European Club Association, Lawwell has been closely involved in talks over the past decade on changes to the Champions League.

ITALIAN CUP: Juventus put some shine on a disappointing season by beating Atalanta 2-1 at Reggio Emilia, Italy, to win a record-extending 14th Italian Cup title.

Dejan Kulusevski and Federico Chiesa scored for Juventus, either side of Ruslan Malinovskyi’s equalizer for Atalanta shortly before halftime.

COLLEGES

DUKE: Duke is promoting Nina King to become the school’s next athletic director.

King will become only the third Black woman working as an athletic director in the Power Five conferences, joining Carla Williams at fellow Atlantic Coast Conference school Virginia and Candice Lee at Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference.

She will also be the first woman to serve as Duke’s athletic director, officially taking over Sept. 1 after the retirement of Kevin White, who was AD at UMaine from 1987-91.

White announced in January he would retire this summer after nearly 13 years leading the Blue Devils’ 27-sport program.

CYCLING

TOUR d’ITALIA: Swiss cyclist Mauro Schmid won the 11th stage in Montalcino, Italy, for the first victory of his professional career, and Egan Bernal extended his overall lead on the tricky gravel roads.

There were four unpaved sections that made up half of the final 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) of the Wine Stage of this year’s race and Remco Evenepoel – one of the Giro favorites – struggled. Evenepoel had been second overall, 14 seconds behind Bernal. But he was dropped on the third gravel section and Bernal took the opportunity to up the pace in the peloton. Evenepoel crossed the line more than two minutes behind Bernal.

Bernal, a former Tour de France champion, now holds a 45-second lead over Aleksandr Vlasov. Nobody else is within a minute of him, with third-place Damiano Caruso 1:12 behind.

Schmid, who rides for Qhubeka Assos, was part of an early breakaway on the 162-kilometer (101-mile) route from Perugia to Montalcino. He and Alessandro Covi attacked from the break with 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) remaining and the 21-year-old Schmid won a sprint finish, edging the UAE Team Emirates rider by one second.

Harm Vanhoucke was third, 26 seconds behind Schmid. Bernal led the peloton over the line, more than three minutes later.

AUTO RACING

FORMULA ONE: Lando Norris signed a multiyear contract extension with McLaren that will keep the 21-year-old driver with the Formula One team for the immediate future. The British driver earned the second podium finish of his career at this season’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and is fourth in the drivers’ standings ahead of this weekend’s Monaco GP.

McLaren’s announcement finalizes its driver lineup with Norris and 31-year-old Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who joined at the start of the 2021 season on a multiyear deal. The British team’s statement didn’t specify the length of the extension, noting only that it includes “2022 and beyond.”

“My commitment to McLaren is clear: my goal is to win races and become Formula 1 world champion and I want to do that with this team,” Norris said. “Since joining in 2017 our progression has been consistent and we have clear ambitions together for the future.”

Norris was promoted to a full-time race seat for the 2019 season.

TENNIS

ATP: The Dallas Open will bring professional men’s tennis to the city next year as the first ATP Tour event there since the circuit started in 1990.

The indoor hard-court tournament will be played at SMU from Feb. 6-13, the tour announced.

GENEVA OPEN: Swiss teenager Dominic Stricker now has a 2-0 career record after beating Marton Fucsovics 7-5, 6-4 in the second round.

Stricker, the French Open junior champion, beat a top-50 opponent for the second straight day in his ATP tournament debut. The 419th-ranked left-hander got a wild-card entry to his home event.

After beating former U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic and Fucsovics, Stricker will play 75th-ranked Pablo Andujar in the quarterfinals. Andujar beat Roger Federer on Tuesday in Federer’s first match on clay in almost two years.