UNDATED (AP) — Baseball could have its first 11-game winner of the season tonight and the man standing at the threshold was the biggest free agent catch of the off season. The Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka enters tonight’s home game with Toronto with a record of 10-1 with a league-leading earned run average of 2.02. The Blue Jays give Tanaka a real test as they lead the Majors with 92 home runs and are third in baseball with 334 runs scored. In the American League East, the Jays lead with a record of 41-30 while the Yankees are in second with 35 wins and 33 defeats. They are 4 1/2 games back in the standings.
Kansas City remains the hottest team in baseball with an eight-game winning streak. The Royals are back in Detroit tonight and with a win would move past the Tigers in the American league Central and take over first-place. The Royals start the night a half-game back of the struggling Tigers, who are an American League-worst 9-18 since May 18.
The longest current losing streak is four and two teams share the futility. Washington has dropped four in a row to fall a half-game back of first-place Atlanta in the National League East, while Chicago’s White Sox are tied for last in the A.L. Central, five games back of the Tigers. Tonight the Nationals are home to Houston while the Sox are hosting San Francisco.
The rest of the schedule tonight has San Diego at Seattle, Cleveland home to the Angels, Baltimore at Tampa Bay, the Red Sox hosting the Twins, Texas at Oakland, the Reds at Pittsburgh, Miami at home to the Cubs, the Phillies in Atlanta, the New York Mets entertain St. Louis, Arizona hosting Milwaukee and Colorado is in L.A. to play the Dodgers.
NEW YORK (AP) — Rockies pitcher Nick Masset has been suspended three games and fined for throwing a pitch at Braves catcher Evan Gattis on Thursday. Braves reliever David Carpenter was also fined for throwing at Rockies outfielder Corey Dickerson in the same game, which featured several ejections, including Colorado manager Walt Weiss.
The amount of the fines was not disclosed.
In other baseball news:
— The Boston Red Sox have designated outfielder Grady Sizemore for assignment. The move comes as Sizemore struggles after injuries sidelined him between September 2011 and this season. He made the All-Star team three times with the Cleveland Indians then had seven operations since 2009, including surgery on both knees, his back and elbow.
The Texas Rangers have signed Carlos Pena to a minor league contract in an effort to find help with their top four first basemen on the disabled list. The 36-year-old Pena will be available at Triple-A Round Rock either Tuesday or Wednesday.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Today’s games at the College World Series feature Texas Tech against Mississippi in the first game this afternoon with TCU playing Virginia in the nightcap.
Ole Miss edged Texas Tech 2-1 to eliminate the Red Raiders from the double-elimination event. Ole Miss will play the loser of tonight’s second game.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — David Joyner, the Penn State athletic director who steered the department following the Jerry Sandusky scandal and Joe Paterno’s death, will resign Aug. 1. Joyner was appointed acting athletic director in November 2011 after Tim Curley was placed on administrative leave.
Joyner hired Bill O’Brien to replace Paterno following sanctions levied against the university because of the scandal. O’Brien coached the Nittany Lions for two years before leaving for the NFL’s Houston Texans.
Joyner also hired former Vanderbilt coach James Franklin as O’Brien’s successor. Joyner, a former offensive tackle, played for Paterno from 1969 to 1971.
UNDATED (AP) — The U.S. World Cup team doesn’t play again until this Sunday when it meets Portugal, which was soundly beaten by Germany 4-0 on Monday. The U.S. will square off with the heavily favored Germans a week from this Thursday.
U.S. fans are still celebrating Monday’s big 2-1 win over Ghana, the nation that eliminated the U.S. from the last two World Cups. The winning goal by John Brooks, a header, came in the 86th minute. The Americans got off to a quick start with a goal by Clint Dempsey just 29 seconds into the game. It was the fifth-fastest goal in World Cup history and the fastest by a U.S. player.
The win may have been costly though as forward Jozy Altidore(JOH’-zee AL’-tah-dohr) was carried off on a stretcher after his left hamstring gave out in the 21st minute. He awaits tests that will determine whether he can return for this World Cup.
Among today’s matches, host Brazil and Mexico played to a scoreless draw. Each team won its opening contest last week. The Mexicans beat Brazil for the 2012 Olympic gold medal.
Earlier, Belgium beat Algeria 2-1 in a World Cup Group H opener. South Korea and Russia are meeting in the day’s final match.
CLEVELAND (AP) — The Browns have agreed to terms with quarterback Johnny Manziel (man-ZEHL’) on his rookie contract. Financial terms of the deal were not immediately available.
The Browns moved up in May’s NFL draft to select the former Heisman Trophy winner out of Texas A& M with the 22nd overall pick.
Manziel went 20-6 in two seasons at A&M, where he earned the nickname “Johnny Football.”
MONTREAL (AP) — The Montreal Canadiens have agreed to a two-year contract extension with forward Dale Weise (wees). He was set to become a restricted free agent July 1 and will reportedly earn a total of $2 million over the next two seasons. The 25-year-old dressed for 16 of Montreal’s 17 playoff games and finished with three goals and four assists in a fourth-line role.
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