MLB-SCHEDULE
Royals pad lead
UNDATED (AP) β The Kansas City Royals have a little more room between themselves and the Detroit Tigers atop the American League Central. The Royals moved 1 1/2 games ahead by completing a three-game sweep of Texas while the Tigers failed to take their third straight from the Indians.
Alex Gordon hit a two-run homer and Jason Vargas pitched shutout ball in the Royals’ 4-1 triumph against the Rangers. Vargas gave up six hits in 6 2/3 innings for his 11th win. Greg Holland worked the ninth for his 42nd save.
In Cleveland, Danny Salazar tossed his first career complete game by striking out nine and allowing eight hits in the Indians 7-0 shutout of Detroit. Carlos Santana socked a two-run homer and Jose Ramirez went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.
Elsewhere in the majors:
β Adam LaRoche capped his five-RBI afternoon by delivering the tiebreaking grounder in the 14th inning before Asdrubal (as-DROO’-bul) Cabrera belted a two-run homer to cap Washington’s scoring in an 8-5 win over the Dodgers in Los Angeles. LaRoche tied the game with a two-run homer in the ninth and added a two-run single in the 12th before the Nationals scored three times in the 14th to maintain their seven-game lead over Atlanta in the NL East.
β The Giants remain two games behind the NL West-leading Dodgers. Nolan Arenado hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the sixth inning and Corey Dickerson followed with his second homer of the game to lead the Rockies past the Giants 9-2 in Colorado. Michael McKenry also went deep to support Christian Bergman, who gave up nine hits but just two runs in six innings.
β St. Louis made it five straight wins and stretched its NL Central lead to three games over Milwaukee as Peter Bourjos (BOHR’-juhs) singled home the lone run in the bottom of the ninth to give the Cardinals a 1-0 victory and a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh. Shelby Miller kept the game scoreless by holding the Pirates to three hits in seven innings before the Cards received two scoreless innings from their bullpen.
β The Brewers absorbed their eighth consecutive loss as Chris Valaika hit a two-run homer and Jorge Soler (soh-LEHR’) lined a two-run double in the Cubs’ 6-2 win over Milwaukee. Kyle Hendricks improved to 6-1 in 10 starts, giving up just two runs despite yielding nine hits in 5 2/3 innings.
β Miguel Gonzalez tossed a four-hitter and Baltimore belted three solo homers in a 6-0 shutout of Cincinnati. Jonathan Schoop (skohp) homered and had three RBIs, while David Lough (loh) and Chris Davis added round-trippers to help the AL East leaders stay 9 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Yankees.
β The Yanks were 5-1 winners against Boston as Brian McCann went 4-for-4 with a two-run homer and three RBIs. Hiroki Kuroda limited the Red Sox to a run and four hits with eight strikeouts in seven innings to help New York climb within four games of the Tigers for the second AL wild-card berth.
β Chris Carter homered twice and had three RBIs in Houston’s 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels, which keeps the Halos’ lead in the AL West at 4 1/2 games over Oakland. Collin McHugh was terrific over 7 2/3 innings, striking out eight and holding the Angels to a run and four hits.
β Kyle Seager and Corey Hart hit seventh-inning homers and Felix Hernandez picked up his 14th victory in Seattle’s 2-1 win over the Athletics in Oakland. Hernandez went eight innings and gave up only three hits, including Adam Dunn’s fourth-inning homer. The outcome puts the Mariners a half-game behind Detroit for the final AL wild-card berth.
β The Braves are within a half-game of Milwaukee for the final wild-card berth after Christian Bethancourt had three hits and B. J. Upton smacked a two-run homer in Atlanta’s 7-4 win over Philadelphia. Bethancourt delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the second to end the Braves’ 25-inning scoreless streak.
β Dioner Navarro and Edwin Encarnacion (ehn-kahr-nah-see-OHN’) each hit two-run homers and Danny Valencia had two RBIs in Toronto’s 7-4 win at Tampa Bay. Adam Lind had four hits and scored twice for the Blue Jays.
β Kirk Nieuwenhuis (NOO’-ehn-hys) hit a two-run homer and Matt den Dekker had three hits as the New York Mets beat the Marlins 4-3 in Miami. Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton homered for the third straight game, tying him with Baltimore’s Nelson Cruz for the major league lead with 36.
β Eduardo Nunez came within a homer of hitting for the cycle as he was 4-for-6 with two RBIs and two runs scored in Minnesota’s 10-4 thrashing of the Chicago White Sox. Kennys Vargas had three RBIs and Eduardo Escobar collected three hits, including a two-run triple.
β Arizona beat San Diego 6-1 behind Josh Collmenter, who held the Padres to a run and five hits in seven innings. Daniel Hudson returned from two reconstructive elbow operations to pitch in the big leagues for the first time in more than two years, tossing a perfect eighth inning for the Diamondbacks.
TENNIS-US OPEN
Williams, Makarova, Nishikori reach semis
NEW YORK (AP) β Serena Williams remains in line to become the first woman with three consecutive U.S. Open titles since Chris Evert won four straight from 1975-78.
The top-seeded Williams fell behind love-3 in the first set of her quarterfinal match before storming past No. 11 Flavia Pennetta, 6-3, 6-2.
Williams next plays No. 17 Ekaterina Makarova, who’s in a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time after downing 16th seed Victoria Azarenka (ah-zah-REN’-kuh) 6-4, 6-2. Makarova had dropped her previous four major quarterfinals, including a loss to Wimbledon runner-up Eugenie Bouchard (yoo-JEE’-nee boo-SHARHD’) this summer.
The tournament’s other No. 1 singles player is through to the semifinals. Novak Djokovic (JOH’-koh-vihch) needed about 3 1/2 hours to down eighth seed Andy Murray, 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. The match was tight until Djokovic broke the eighth-seeded Murray to go up 3-1 in the third set then fended off a pair of break points in the next game.
This is the eighth straight semifinal appearance for Djokovic at the Open, and he’ll face a player who just made a bit of tennis history.
Tenth-seed Kei Nishikori (kay nih-shih-KOHR’-ee) has become the first Japanese player in 81 years to reach the semis in a major by downing Australian Open champ and third seed Stan Wawrinka (vahv-RIHN’-kah) 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. The match lasted four hours and 15 minutes, less than 48 hours after Nishikori completed a four-hour, 19-minute fourth-round match that didn’t end until 2:26am Monday morning.
Nishikori became the first man from Japan to reach the U.S. Open semifinals in 96 years.
NFL-NEWS
Sam on Cowboys practice squad…Milliner still not practicing
UNDATED (AP) β Michael Sam has been signed to the Dallas Cowboys practice squad. The NFL’s first openly gay player landed in Dallas after being released in the Rams’ final cutdown to the 53-man roster on Saturday.
The Cowboys are seeking help with their pass rush because of injuries and the offseason release of franchise sacks leader DeMarcus Ware. Sam isn’t likely to be on the active roster for Sunday’s opener against San Francisco.
In other NFL news:
β The New York Jets could be without cornerback Dee Milliner for their season opener Sunday, leaving the team’s depleted secondary even thinner against Oakland. Milliner hasn’t practiced since suffering a high ankle sprain on Aug. 10. He worked with trainers on the side during Wednesday’s workout and did straight-ahead running, but hasn’t done any cutting.
β The family of Junior Seau (SAY’-ow) has opted out of a proposed NFL legal settlement with former players over concussion-related injuries. Instead, the family will continue its wrongful death lawsuit against the league. Seau committed suicide in 2012 after spending 20 seasons in the NFL.
β The NFL says concussions decreased by 13 percent overall during the 2013 season from the previous year, and the number of concussions coming from helmet-to-helmet contact was down 23 percent. Those are the findings of the NFL’s Health and Safety committee, which released its report to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
β A group campaigning for the Washington Redskins to change their name is sending a letter to broadcasters requesting that Redskins not be uttered on the public airwaves. The letter was released Wednesday and is signed by more than 100 Native American, religious and civil rights organizations.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL-UCLA/MANFRO
Manfro done for season
LOS ANGELES (AP) β UCLA says running back Steven Manfro will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.
Manfro was taken off the practice field on a cart after injuring his knee Tuesday. The junior caught 37 passes for 400 yards and two touchdowns over the last two seasons and was also featured on special teams.
Freshman Nate Starks is likely to take Manfro’s spot in the offense.
BASKETBALL-WORLD CUP
U.S. still perfect in Spain
BILBAO, Spain (AP) β Kenneth Faried (fah-REED’) scored 16 points and the U.S. clinched the No. 1 seed in their group at the Basketball World Cup by whipping the Dominican Republic 106-71. DeMarcus Cousins came off the bench and added 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting as the Americans improved to 4-0.
NASCAR-COMCAST
NASCAR has new series title sponsor
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) β Comcast Corp. has signed a 10-year agreement to replace Nationwide Insurance as the title sponsor of NASCAR’s second-tier racing series.
The series will be known as the NASCAR Xfinity Series through 2024. The deal matches the longest single agreement around title sponsorship of any NASCAR national series in its history.
Sports Business Daily has valued the package at close to $200 million.
NHL-PANTHERS-EKBLAD
Panthers, Ekblad come to terms
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) β The Florida Panthers and No. 1 overall draft pick Aaron Ekblad have agreed on a three-year entry-level contract.
Panthers general manager Dale Tallon (TAH’-luhn) announced the deal, eight days before Ekblad will begin competing at Florida’s annual camp for prospects. Ekblad was the Ontario Hockey League’s top defenseman last season, with 23 goals and 53 points.
