• A's win 1-0, close gap on AL West leaders
• Orioles stop six-game slide with 3-2 win over Yankees

The rookie Dan Straily got the better of Yu Darvish in a pitchers' duel, steering the Oakland Athletics to a 1-0 win over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, further trimming the gap to the American League West division leaders.

Among other games, Nate McLouth's homer in the 10th inning lifted Baltimore over the Yankees, Colorado also needed 10 innings to edge Arizona, and Detroit ended Cleveland's winning streak. St Louis' Daniel Descalso hit a grand slam in a win over San Diego, San Francisco left it late to beat Washington and Jose Quintana pitched the Chicago White Sox past Boston.

Oakland's Straily (2-2) gave up only two singles while facing 22 batters, just one over the minimum for his seven innings. He struck out five. Darvish (7-2) gave up five hits in six innings, including Yoenis Cespedes' game-deciding homer. Even with consecutive wins to start the three-game series, Oakland still trails the Rangers by four and a half games in the AL West.

McLouth hit his game-winning homer leading off the bottom of the 10th, with the walk-off shot giving the Baltimore Orioles a 3-2 win over the New York Yankees and snapping a six-game losing skid. Chris Dickerson hit a pair of solo shots for Baltimore before McLouth hit a pitch from Vidal Nuno (1-1) into the bleachers in right-center. The Yankees had won all 19 previous games this season when scoring first but struggled after Travis Hafner's two RBIs, with only one of the last 22 batters reaching base.

Wilin Rosario drove in Carlos Gonzalez with a one-out single in the 10th inning to lift the Colorado Rockies to a 5-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, after squandering a late four-run lead. Gonzalez hit a double and reliever Matt Reynolds (0-2) intentionally walked a batter to get to Rosario, who came through with a liner to right on the first pitch.

Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run homer to help the Detroit Tigers to a 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians. Cabrera's laser shot in the sixth inning set up a win that moved the defending AL champions within one and a half games of the first-place Indians. Detroit starter Max Scherzer (6-0) gave up a run in the first before shutting down baseball's hottest team for eight innings, retiring 22 straight. He walked just one and struck out seven, including the final four he faced.

Daniel Descalso hit his first career grand slam and had a career-high five RBIs to power the St Louis Cardinals to a 10-2 win at the San Diego Padres. Descalso lined a 1-2 pitch from Anthony Bass beyond right-center with one out in the eighth. St Louis starter Adam Wainwright (6-3) won for the first time at Petco Park, holding San Diego to one run in seven and a third innings, striking out six and walking one.

Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning after Gregor Blanco's tying triple in the ninth as the San Francisco Giants rallied past the Washington Nationals 4-2. Sandoval sent the ball off Yunesky Maya (0-1) over the right-center field wall for his eighth homer this season. Blanco had three hits, including his RBI triple off closer Rafael Soriano with two outs in the ninth.

Jose Quintana gave up no hits in the first six innings, setting up a 3-1 win for the Chicago White Sox over the Boston Red Sox. Jeff Keppinger hit a two-run homer in the fifth, while Alex Rios extended his career-high hitting streak to 16 with a single and RBI double.

Evan Gattis hit a two-out homer in the ninth to send the game to extra innings and Freddie Freeman won it in the 10th, lifting the Atlanta Braves to a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Twins and their fifth straight win. Mike Leake pitched seven scoreless innings as the Cincinnati Reds took advantage of an error by New York Mets third baseman David Wright and won 4-0.

Travis Snider hit a grand slam during a five-run sixth as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs 5-4 and spoiled Matt Garza's strong return to the mound. Kelly Johnson and Desmond Jennings homered while Alex Cobb won for the first time in three starts to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 4-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Mike Trout hit for the cycle and drove in five runs, Josh Hamilton celebrated his 32nd birthday with a homer and a triple, and Howie Kendrick also went deep in the Los Angeles Angels' 12-0 rout of the Seattle Mariners. Carlos Gomez hit a go-ahead two-run double, Jonathan Lucroy had three hits and an RBI and five Milwaukee Brewers relievers combined for five scoreless innings to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-2. Delmon Young homered and Ryan Howard added three hits and three RBIs to help carry the Philadelphia Phillies to a 7-3 win over the Miami Marlins.

Mike Moustakas tied it with an RBI single before George Kottaras scored the go-ahead run on a bases-loaded walk in a four-run eighth inning which lifted the Kansas City Royals to a 7-3 win over the Houston Astros.

• MLB
• Oakland Athletics
• Texas Rangers
• Baseball
• US sports
• Baltimore Orioles
• New York Yankees
• Colorado Rockies
• Arizona Diamondbacks

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Eddie Hearn says Carl Froch may face Andre Ward after a "brutal" world title fight with Mikkel Kessler on Saturday.

Bath and former England centre Dan Hipkiss calls time on his playing career because of a shoulder injury, aged 30.

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) president Lyndel Wright, announced during an emotional speech today, that he will not seek re-election at the Board’s annual general meeting (AGM) which is due by October this year.

• Only three teams in NHL history have come back from 3-0
• Colin Horgan on the overtime playoffs

It took 40 years for Boston and New York to face off again in the playoffs, and now it looks like being over in a hurry, as the Boston Bruins beat the New York Rangers 2-1 on Tuesday to take a 3-0 series lead.

Daniel Paille scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:31 left in the third period to take what has historically been a nearly unbeatable series lead. Only three NHL teams have come back from 3-0 down and the Rangers will try to start that comeback at home on Thursday. The Bruins need no reminding of the threat, as they led Philadelphia 3-0 in the 2010 playoffs and lost 4-3.

"We can talk about it all we want, but that's in the past," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We had to live with that and we still have to live with that." Boston nearly blew a 3-1 series edge in the opening round this year against Toronto, before rallying from a three-goal deficit in the third period and capturing Game 7 in overtime.

"The Toronto series, I didn't think our team was in the zone the way it is right now," Julien said. "I anticipate knowing my team that we're going to come out the same next game and certainly not be the Jekyll and Hyde team that we were in the first round."

The Bruins trailed 1-0 heading into the third, but Johnny Boychuk tied it with his fourth goal of the playoffs after he netted just one in 44 regular-season games. It was the first time in three years that the Rangers had lost in regulation when leading after two periods.

"We played a pretty strong game," New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist said, "but we came up short again and it definitely hurts."

Taylor Pyatt had made it 1-0 in the second period for the Rangers, who had won their previous nine home games.

San Jose Sharks 2-1 Los Angeles Kings
(Series tied at 2-2)

San Jose's Brent Burns helped the Sharks jump off to a fast start with his second goal of the postseason, setting up the series-squaring 2-1 win. Logan Couture followed up his overtime game-winner in Game 3 with his fifth power-play goal of the playoffs to add to the lead and Antti Niemi made 22 saves as the Sharks matched the Kings' two home wins to open the series with two of their own. Mike Richards scored a power-play goal for the Kings, who have lost 10 of 11 road games dating to the end of the regular season.

Game 5 is Thursday in Los Angeles, when the Sharks will look to end a streak of four straight wins by the home team in this series.

San Jose jumped on top early when Joe Thornton stole the puck and fed Burns, who shot was blocked. Thornton came up with the loose puck and slid a perfect cross-ice pass to Burns, who was not denied on his second chance, beating Jonathon Quick with a one-timer. Couture gave the Sharks a 2-0 lead early in the second period, deflecting a point shot by Dan Boyle past Quick while Colin Fraser was in the penalty box for roughing Andrew Desjardins.

The Kings outshot the Sharks 14-2 in the third period, holding San Jose without a shot for nearly 13 minutes but couldn't get the equalizer against Niemi.

• NHL
• Boston Bruins
• New York Rangers
• San Jose Sharks
• Los Angeles Kings
• US sports

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Juan Martin del Potro follows in the footsteps of Britain's Andy Murray by withdrawing from the French Open.

Will Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement and Tony Pulis's sacking force a shift towards a continental model for management?

There's something odd going on with football managers at the moment, isn't there? No sooner does Tony Pulis become the second-longest serving Premier League manager after Arsène Wenger, than the rug is pulled from under him too, leaving Alan Pardew as the next best example of managerial stability outside the Emirates.

Another stat has just been produced to the effect that 56 managers left their jobs during or at the end of the 2012-13 season. There are only 92 teams in the league, for goodness sake, though when you consider that Blackburn Rovers were responsible for three of those departures and Chelsea two the overall picture is not quite as hectic as it might first appear. Having said that, the overall picture is not yet fixed and printed. It seems certain there will be other managerial moves in the near future, with Roberto Martínez and Gus Poyet likely to call time on their present positions, and with vacancies at three of the top six Premier League clubs at present, plus Stoke City, it is possible apparently settled managers such as Michael Laudrup, Malky Mackay or Steve Clarke will be invited to move upwards.

This is not normal, and it appears Sir Alex Ferguson finally stepping down at Manchester United is having the same effect on teams below him as the moon does on the tides. If United are making a change, it must be time for everyone else to consider their options too. Except that you only have to look at the top of the Premier League to know that is not really the case.

Rafa Benítez was announced as interim manager at Chelsea the day he walked in, meaning the club knew from the start it would be making another change at the end of the season, while Roberto Mancini's days were probably numbered at Manchester City from the moment the club decided to appoint Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano as technical director and chief executive. Mancini would doubtless have survived had his players reproduced the football of the 2011-12 season and won another title or cut a dash in the Champions League, but they didn't, and despite the Italian's popularity with fans the club's hierarchy clearly intend to be more hard-nosed about pursuing success than the City of old.

That in itself is revealing, because while the English way would normally have been to put up with a reasonably successful manager for as long as the fans were willing to put up with him, City deliberately looked to a foreign model, specifically Spain, to sharpen up their football operation. Broadly speaking, the norm on the continent is not to have managers who stay in their job for decades and control every aspect of their club, but to have presidents or politicians in charge of hiring coaches every two or three seasons, depending upon the level of success.

Whether this is a good or a bad thing is a matter of debate, and it is possible to see advantages in both approaches. Howard Wilkinson said back in his days with the FA that there was nothing wrong with the continental system and this country should learn to embrace it. Changing coaches on a regular basis prevents players and fans getting bored with the same formula every week – see Stoke – and there is not the same sense of failure when a coach comes to the end of his contract and moves on to another club. Good coaches will tend to move upwards, lesser ones will stand still or drop out, but with a high proportion of clubs making changes each close season there are plenty of employment opportunities and a healthy circulation of fresh ideas.

Against that, Manchester United have spent the last quarter of a century advertising the advantages of an English system that aims for continuity, and appear to have made an appointment for the next decade or more in David Moyes. If you can crack longevity and keep winning things, you can simplify a lot of the day-to-day strife at a football club, though there are plenty of Arsenal fans who will tell you that longevity without winning things is not nearly so much fun. Everton were in the same boat under Moyes, though having never got used to silverware most years or going through an entire campaign unbeaten, their fans never felt quite as dissatisfied or restless as Arsenal's with a long succession of fallow seasons.

At its best, the English system works, though at a cost lower down the scale. If your models of managerial success are based on what Ferguson or Wenger achieved over many years, or, going further back, what Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Brian Clough or Sir Matt Busby did for their respective clubs, almost everyone else is doomed to failure. The bar is set too high. Most managers will not stay in their jobs for more than three or four years, in fact many will be shown the door long before that – see Blackburn – but whereas that is considered normal on the continent, in this country a manager will do well to make a career for himself once he starts to have more clubs on his CV than medals.

It is entirely logical for English football to follow the European pattern rather than sticking to its own style, because its top two divisions recruit most of their playing and managerial talent from abroad anyway.

United and Arsenal are sticking to what they know best, but we will see how that goes in the next couple of seasons. There are no guarantees. In the future it may be unfashionable to stay at a club as long as Moyes did at Everton or Pulis at Stoke, but at least they improved their clubs, as did Benítez at Chelsea and Mancini at City. That is success of a sort, as is Martínez guiding Wigan to the most unlikely of FA Cup upsets. Did Martínez improve Wigan in his four-year stay? The league table says no. The trophy cabinet – once Wigan get one installed – says he didn't do too badly.

• Premier League
• Manchester United
• Stoke City
• Everton
• Chelsea
• Manchester City

Paul Wilson
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Serengeti Park in Germany is home to Nelly, an elephant whose owners claim has the ability to predict the results of football matches

    

Motherwell's Stuart McCall to open talks with Sheffield United about their managerial vacancy in the next 24 hours.

• Setback as ankle injury flares up in training session
• Dortmund still hope team-mate Hummels will be fit

Borussia Dortmund playmaker Mario Götze has been ruled out of this weekend's Champions League final against his future club Bayern Munich.

Götze injured his hamstring in the second leg of Dortmund's semi-final against Real Madrid and has been striving to be fit for Saturday's final at Wembley.

But the 20-year-old, who caused consternation at Dortmund after agreeing a €37m move to their rivals Bayern, had to curtail a training session after experiencing a reoccurrence to the injury.

"Mario has felt something again in his hamstring," Dortmund general manager Michael Zorc told Bild. "That is why he stopped. We don't know how bad it is and whether he is still suffering from it."

Gotze told Dortmund's website: "The final was my big goal and in the past weeks I have battled hard for it. I am unbelievably sorry that I will not be able to help the team in this important match.

"I have huge belief in our team and will naturally travel with them to London to endeavour to support the lads off the pitch."

Götze, who scored 19 goals for Dortmund this season, is not the only injury concern for Dortmund, with the defender Mats Hummels, a 2008 signing from Bayern, carrying an ankle injury.

Hummels , however, told Bild magazine he was confident of making the final. "Nothing is torn so it is not as bad as first feared," Hummels said. "I'm confident I'll be ready for the final."

Götze's absence is a huge blow to Jurgen Klopp's side's mission to upset the odds against the Bundesliga champions in London.

The Germany international was, along with Marco Reus and Robert Lewandowski, part of perhaps the most feared attacking triumvirate in European football currently and integral to Dortmund's attacking style.

Kevin Grosskreutz was the man who replaced Götze at the Bernabéu and would appear to be the most likely candidate to stand in for him at Wembley.

• Borussia Dortmund
• Bayern Munich
• Champions League
• Wembley stadium

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New Zealand wicketkeeper BJ Watling is ruled out of the second Test against England at Headingley, with Martin Guptill coming in.

• Bale won Tottenham player of the year award
• 'To miss out on our objective is very disappointing'

Gareth Bale has admitted he found Tottenham's latest failure to qualify for the Champions League hard to stomach. Bale rounded off a remarkable season on Sunday by scoring his 26th goal of the campaign, but his winner against Sunderland was not enough to earn the club Champions League qualification.

The 23-year-old lit up the competition three seasons ago, starring in the club's run to the quarter-finals, which saw them beat both Milan sides before losing to Real Madrid. And having enjoyed such a successful season personally, the Welshman concedes that he was disappointed to miss out on another shot at European glory.

"It was great to sign off with a great goal in the last minute, but circumstances made it hard to celebrate," Bale said after picking up the Tottenham player of the year award. "To play the way we have also but to miss out on our objective [Champions League qualification] is very disappointing."

Bale will play his last match of the season on Thursday when Tottenham play the Jamaica national team in a friendly in the Bahamas. Bale, who scored 31 goals for club and country this season, will discuss his future with Spurs over the coming weeks.

The club are understandably keen to hold on to their best player and the manager André Villas-Boas recently called on the forward to end speculation about his future by signing a new deal at White Hart Lane. For now, the signs look promising for Tottenham fans. From his comments after the victory over Sunderland, he seemed in no mood to abandon ship and head to Real Madrid.

"We fought hard this season, the team and the manager have been great," Bale said. "We have got the record points for the club in the Premier League. That would normally be enough to qualify for the Champions League, but it's not meant to be again. It's disappointing, but we will pick ourselves up again. We will just have to regroup this season and give it another go."

Villas-Boas is keen to build his team around Bale next season, and stressed that significant investment was required to bridge the small gap between themselves and Arsenal.

Leandro Damião, Christian Eriksen, Christian Benteke and Heung-Min Son have been mentioned as possible targets for the north London club. Bale thinks the foundations are there for Spurs to have a successful 2013-14 season.

He added: "It was great to get the win but the clouds just came over and made it a little bit duller, but it's something we have to learn from, we are a young squad, and we will take it in to the future."

• Gareth Bale
• Tottenham Hotspur

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• Spaniard escapes punishment for fried-chicken jibe
• 'I hope we can settle things down and move on,' says García

Sergio García has escaped punishment for what could be construed as a racist remark about Tiger Woods after offering an unreserved apology for his "stupid and out of place" comment at the European Tour's annual awards ceremony.

García, who has been involved in a public row with Woods since the Players Championships at Sawgrass this month, was on stage with the rest of the victorious Ryder Cup team on Tuesday evening.

During a question and answer session hosted by the Golf Channel's Steve Sands, the 33-year-old was asked if he would have the world No1 around for dinner one night during the upcoming US Open. "We will have him round every night," García said. "We will serve fried chicken."

García initially issued a statement via the European Tour on Tuesday night apologising for the "silly remark" and held a press conference at Wentworth on Wednesday afternoon, just moments after Woods wrote on Twitter: "The comment that was made wasn't silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate … I'm confident that there is real regret that the remark was made. The Players ended nearly two weeks ago and it's long past time to move on and talk about golf."

García said: "I want to send out an unreserved apology, I did not mean to offend anyone. I was caught off guard by the question but don't get me wrong, I understand my answer was totally stupid and out of place.

"I can't say sorry enough. I would also like to say sorry to the European Tour and my Ryder Cup team-mates for taking the shine away from a wonderful dinner that we all enjoyed to that point.

"Finally and most importantly I want to apologise to Tiger and anyone that I could have offended. I feel sick about it and truly, truly sorry. Hopefully we can settle things down and move on."

Such apologies have been enough to satisfy the European Tour chief executive, George O'Grady, and the PGA Tour commissioner, Tim Finchem, while García said he wanted to speak to Woods directly. He does not have his phone number but has left a message with Woods's agent, Mark Steinberg.

Asked if he accepted his comment was racist, García said: "It was not meant that way. I was caught off guard by what seemed to be a fun question and tried to give a funny answer that came out totally wrong."

• Sergio García
• Tiger Woods
• European Tour
• Golf

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KINGSTON, Jamaica - The Charles Gordon Market in Montego Bay and the Spanish Town Market will both receive a Labour Day facelift by the respective parish councils in collaboration with Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited.  

ST CATHERINE, Jamaica - The Portmore police in St Catherine are seeking public assistance in locating Correen Robinson, a witness in a matter currently before the court.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei made his first foray into the musical world today with the release of the top single from his debut album, a song called...

View full article at stabroeknews.com

Former wrestler Mick McManus, a fixture on British television during the 1960s and 70sm dies at the age of 93.

Jockey Eddie Ahern faces long ban after being found guilty of corruption by the British Horseracing Authority.

• Jockey convicted of preventing horse from winning
• Former footballer Neil Clement will also be banned

Group One-winning jockey Eddie Ahern has been found guilty of three breaches of British Horseracing Authority rules following a disciplinary inquiry into alleged corruption.

Ahern, 35, was charged with conspiring to commit a corrupt or fraudulent practice in relation to the laying of five horses between September 2010 and February 2011.

He was also accused of intentionally failing to ensure Judgethemoment was ridden on its merits at Lingfield in January 2011, and of passing information for reward.

Ahern has been found guilty of all charges.

Former West Brom footballer Neil Clement faced charges relating to the five races Ahern rode in and also the laying of Hindu Kush, which he then owned, when that horse finished last of six at Kempton in February 2011.

Clement has been found guilty of conspiring to commit a corrupt or fraudulent practice, of placing a lay bet on a horse which he then owned and of a failure to provide phone records.

A hearing to determine the penalties for both Clement and Ahern will be held on Wednesday afternoon.

• Horse racing
• British Horseracing Authority

Greg Wood
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