San Diego manager Mike Shildt and the Padres agreed to a two-year contract extension through the 2027 season, the team announced Wednesday.

Shildt was hired in November 2023 and given a two-year deal.

San Diego went 93-69 this season, finishing second in the NL West, five games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Padres swept Atlanta 2-0 in the Wild Card Series, then lost a five-game Division Series to the Dodgers after taking a 2-1 lead.

“Obviously a tremendous year for the big league team, a very good year for the organization, just a really strong year for Mike as a manager,” general manager A.J. Preller said in a video call with reporters. “It was clear that he’s somebody that I want to partner with for a long time. And that’s what this extension is a sign of, just a job really well done.”

Shildt said he was “just extremely blessed, grateful, appreciative of the confidence that ownership and A.J. have shown, and not only me being in the organization now going on four years, but getting the opportunity last year to manage the club and now of course this year to now get the extension.”

Shildt managed St. Louis from 2019-21 and led the Cardinals into the playoffs in all three seasons.

Popular catcher Austin Hedges signed a $4 million, one-year contract and will return to the Cleveland Guardians next season.

The team credited Hedges’ leadership as a major factor on this year’s team that went 92-69 and won the AL Central title under rookie manager Stephen Vogt. Cleveland beat Detroit in a tight division series before losing in five games to the New York Yankees in the ALCS.

Third baseman Alex Bregman had surgery to remove a bone chip from his right elbow.

Agent Scott Boras revealed the operation during a news conference Wednesday at the general managers meetings.

The Houston Astros, Bregman’s former team, said any details had to come from Boras.

Bregman became a free agent last Thursday, after the expiration of a $100 million, five-year deal agreed to in March 2019 that covered 2020-24.

TENNIS

Zheng Qinwen cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Jasmine Paolini to reach the semifinals of the WTA Finals on Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Zheng needed just over an hour to defeat Paolini in the match that decided the final qualifier from the Purple Group at the season-ending tournament for the top eight women’s players.

Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, who had won her first two matches to clinch a semifinal spot, lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to No. 5 Elena Rybakina. It was Rybakina’s first win of the round-robin phase.

It was Zheng’s fourth win in as many matches against Paolini. The 22-year-old Chinese player had 12 aces and broke the Italian’s serve five times.

“It’s one of the best performances I had during this year,” Zheng said. “I’m really proud. I played in a really difficult group.”

GOLF

Former U.S. Women’s Open champion A Lim Kim opened with an eagle and piled up birdies on her way to a 6-under 66 on Wednesday to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the Lotte Championship in Honolulu.

It was a good start on a couple of levels for Kim, whose lone LPGA title remains that 2020 Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club played in December due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She is No. 65 in the Race to CME Globe, and only has two tournaments left to crack the top 60 and earn a spot in the season finale that pays $4 million to the winner.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Big East preseason player of the year Ryan Kalkbrenner scored a career-high 49 points and 15th-ranked Creighton needed just about every one of them in a 99-86 season-opening win over visiting UT-Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday.

Creighton couldn’t shake off the Vaqueros of the Southland Conference until the final two minutes.

The 7-foot-1 Kalkbrenner’s point total was the second-highest in program history behind Bob Portman’s 51 against UW-Milwaukee in 1967. The fifth-year center was an astonishing 20 of 22 from the field.

Hasan Abdul-Hakim had 24 points and Cliff Davis and DK Thorn added 17 apiece for the Vaqueros (0-2).