rated Rodchenkovs claims that dirty samples of Russian athlet

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Twins acquired starting pitcher Hector Santiago a minor leaguer from the Los Angeles Angels for right-handers Ricky Nolasco and Alex Meyer and cash, completing the deal Monday just before the non-waiver trade deadline.Santiago, an All-Star last season, is 10-4 with a 4.25 ERA in 22 starts with 107 strikeouts and 57 walks in 120 2/3 innings. Hes eligible for free agency after the 2017 season. The Angels also sent Double-A reliever Alan Busenitz to the Twins.Were getting a starter who we can plug right in, and hes excited about the opportunity, Minnesota manager Paul Molitor said. He certainly knows how to pitch. This is a good chance for a change of scenery for him.The 33-year-old Nolasco went 15-22 with a 5.44 ERA for the Twins since signing before the 2014 season a $49 million, four-year contract that went fulfilled. Meyer, a once-promising prospect who has sputtered in four seasons with the organization, was acquired in 2012 from Washington for center fielder Denard Span.This wasnt the typical trade-deadline deal, given that both the Twins and the Angels are way out of contention.According to the Twins, the remainder of Nolascos $12 million salary this year will stay with the Twins and the rest of Santiagos $5 million salary this season will stay with the Angels. The Twins will then send $4 million to the Angels in 2017 toward Nolascos $12 million salary.As a result, the Twins pay the Angels $6,371,585: $2,371,585 this year and $4 million in 2017. If the Angels decline Nolascos option, the Twins must send the Angels an additional $1 million.Nolasco leads the Twins this year with 124 2/3 innings, 93 strikeouts and 21 starts, but hes 4-8 with a 5.13 ERA. If he logs 400 or more innings over the 2016 and 2017 seasons, his $13 million club option for 2018 will be guaranteed.Over an 11-year career in the majors, Nolasco is 104-97 with a 4.58 ERA. His 3.41 strikeout-to-walk ratio is 10th in the majors in that span among pitchers with a minimum of 1,500 innings.Telling Ricky he was traded was tough, Molitor said. He brought it all on the mound in every start for us, and Im grateful for that.For a rotation decimated by injuries this season to C.J. Wilson, Garrett Richards and Nick Tropeano, Nolasco is at least a slight downgrade from Santiago. But the Angels were willing to swap for the chance to harness the ability of Meyer.The 26-year-old has a 1.04 ERA in 17 1/3 innings with 19 strikeouts for Triple-A Rochester, but he has been hampered by shoulder trouble. This is his third straight season in Triple-A, having struggled with his control and his confidence since reaching the top level of the farm system. The 6-foot-9, 220-pound Meyer was a first-round draft pick by the Nationals in 2011.Meyer has allowed 10 runs in 6 1/3 innings in the majors, making four appearances for the Twins.Santiago, who made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox in 2011, went 7-0 with a 2.52 ERA in his last nine starts for the Angels.The Twins announced that Santiago would start Thursday at Cleveland, the finale of a four-game series. Left-hander Tommy Milone was moved to the bullpen, with rookie Jose Berrios recalled from Triple-A Rochester to take the mound Monday.Earlier in the day, the Twins traded left-handed reliever Fernando Abad to Boston for minor league pitcher Pat Light. Last week, they sent shortstop Eduardo Nunez to San Francisco for minor league pitcher Adalberto Mejia. Veterans such as starting pitcher Ervin Santana, closer Brandon Kintzler, catcher Kurt Suzuki and third baseman Trevor Plouffe stayed put, but any of them still could be dealt this month by first clearing waivers.The 25-year-old Busenitz, a 25th-round draft pick by the Angels in 2013, has a career 3.55 ERA in the minor leagues. The right-hander was hit hard with Triple-A Salt Lake in 10 appearances this season but posted a 1.93 ERA in 32 2/3 innings for Double-A Arkansas. The Twins will send him to Double-A Chattanooga. Stitched Custom NFL Jerseys . -- Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson asked his players a simple question during Fridays morning shootaround: How many of them had ever been on a team 14 games over . Discount Custom NFL Shirts Online . Perhaps Carroll was so prepared for a break because he believes there is very little the Seattle Seahawks need heading into the off-season. "I dont see anything that we need to add. We just have to get better," Carroll said. http://www.customcheapfootballjerseys.com/custom-los-angeles-chargers-72t.html . LOUIS -- Lance Lynn was one of the more enthusiastic participants as the St. Cheap Custom Football Shirts . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Custom Football Shirts Outlet . JOHNS, N. PHOENIX -- Paul George had some big numbers -- and shut down high-scoring Devin Booker.George had 25 points and 13 rebounds and the Indiana Pacers pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the struggling Phoenix Suns 109-94 on Wednesday night.George defended Booker and helped hold the second-year guard to 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting. Booker also committed four turnovers.Hes young and really good and has got a lot to learn playing with the physicality, George said about Booker. Tried to get him out of his spots, tried to get him uncomfortable. Thats what you have to do with guys that are so good with getting into a rhythm.Myles Turner added 20 points, and Jeff Teague had 19 points and a season-high 11 assists.Indiana had a 9-0 run midway through the fourth quarter to open a 97-87 lead.We were able to get stops. We were able to get out in transition, George said. We did a great job of just getting good looks. Not any shot we took was bad, I thought.Eric Bledsoe led Phoenix with 15 points, and Tyson Chandler had 10 points and 10 rebounds. The Suns shot 40 percent from the field and made only 9 of 33 3-pointers. They have lost five of six.Indiana has won four of six. The Pacers havent won or lost more than two games in a row this season.We have a young group, Suns coach Earl Watson said. We have to set the tone and identity on how we want to play. From now on, moving forward, defensively aggressive is how we have to play.Rodney Stuckeys 12-foot turnaround with 17 seconds left in the third quarter gave Indiana its largest lead of the game to that point, five, at 82-77. But Jared Dudley hit a 3 at the quarter buzzer on the next possession to make at 82-80 to start the fourth.The Pacers led 23-22 at the end of the first quarter, which saw four lead changes, five ties and neither team leading by more than four points.The Suns struggled with their shooting for all but the final few minutes of the seecond quarter.dddddddddddd They led 53-49 at halftime thanks to a pair of 3s from Marquese Chriss and one from Booker. Turner and George had 12 first-half points each.The Pacers made 45 percent of their shots and the two teams combined to commit 39 turnovGold Coasts two-point loss to Melbourne was heartbreaking but the effort against Greater Western Sydney shows Gold Coast could be an AFL force in 2017.The Suns pushed the high-flying Giants all the way at Metricon Stadium on Saturday before running out of legs as GWS snatched an eight-point win.Its mostly been a season to forget for the Suns, with an injury list including six of the clubs top midfielders, including inspirational captain Gary Ablett, ensuring they never had a realistic shot at the finals.But the performance against the Giants - particularly by youngsters such as Jarrod Garlett, Jack Martin and Jesse Joyce - suggests brighter days are ahead.Really, since the Sydney game, the last eight weeks has been fantastic, Eade said.Probably three of those games we should have won. Pushed Hawthorn, won three out of four, so I think the confidence has been building.Tonights performance ... six of our best midfielders out, the players have just risen to the occasion.It will give them confidence going forward that no matter whos there they can give effort, so it was great.Giants coach Leon Cameron, whos overseen his teams emergence as a genuine force this season, says theres no doubt an injury-free Suns will be an ominous proposition.Their performance tonight was really, really good, Cameron said.It took every bit of effort for us to get over the line.For what theyre doing at the moment with that amount of injuries, theyre going to be a force to be reckoned with probably in the last three weeks but also next year when they get those cattle back. Custom Flames Jersey China . The Nashville Predators were glad their captain was still on their side. Weber had a goal and two assists, and Roman Josi scored the shootout winner to lift the Predators to a 4-3 win over the Flyers on Thursday night. Cheap Flames Jerseys . Thats not a comment on the suspension that banished the Portland Winterhawks general manager and coach from his Western Hockey League teams bench for most of the 2012-13 season. http://www.customflamesjersey.com/ . Michell Burger, a woman who lives on an estate next to Pistorius gated community, said she and her husband were awoken by the screams in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14 last year, when Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp by shooting four times through a door in his bathroom. Custom Al MacInnis Jersey . After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. Flames Jerseys China . -- Team after team passed on Andre Ellington in the draft. RIO DE JANEIRO -- The split between Olympic leaders and global anti-doping officials over the Russian doping scandal continues to escalate.The World Anti-Doping Agency fired back on Monday, a day after International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach suggested the agency was to blame for the last-minute chaos over the participation of Russian athletes in the Rio de Janeiro Games.Bach said the agency should have acted sooner on evidence of state-sponsored doping rather than release the damning report by Canadian investigator Richard McLaren so close to the Games, which open on Friday.While it is destabilizing in the lead-up to the games, it is obvious, given the seriousness of the revelations that [McLaren] uncovered, that they had to be published and acted upon without delay, WADA president Craig Reedie, who is also an IOC vice president, said in a statement Monday.On Sunday, Bach defended the IOCs decision not to ban the entire Russian delegation from the Olympics, and said the IOC was not responsible for the timing of the latest WADA report, which came out on July 18.On July 24, the IOC placed the burden on international sports federations to determine if Russian athletes should be allowed to compete in Rio. More than 100 Russian athletes -- including the track and field team -- have been excluded, with more than 250 declared eligible by the federations so far.The IOC is not responsible for the timing of the McLaren report, Bach said. The IOC is not responsible for the fact that different information which was offered to WADA already a couple of years ago was not followed up. The IOC is not responsible for the accreditation or supervision of anti-doping laboratories.WADA -- which was created by the IOC in 1999 to lead the anti-doping fight, and receives half of its funding from the IOC -- issued a long statement defending its handling of the allegations against Russia.WADA understands that the timing of the McLaren Investigation Report has been destabilizing for a number of organizations as they prepare for the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games, the statement said. However, WADA wishes to factually clarify that the agency acted immediately on allegations concerning Russia when it had corroborated evidence and the poower to do so under the World Anti-Doping Code.ddddddddddddWADA said it set up a commission headed by Dick Pound to investigate allegations of systematic doping made in a documentary by German broadcaster ARD in December 2014. The agency said it acquired new powers to investigate in January 2015.Pounds report, which was released in November 2015, detailed widespread cheating in track and field and led the IAAF to ban Russias entire team. Pound said he also found that doping in Russia was likely not restricted to track and field, and that Russian secret service officers were present in the Sochi and Moscow laboratories. But Pound said he did not uncover concrete evidence that the Russian government was manipulating doping controls.WADA said it acquired strong evidence of Russian state involvement in early May, when CBS 60 Minutes and The New York Times published allegations by Moscows former lab director, Grigory Rodchenkov. That led to McLarens investigation, which corroborated Rodchenkovs claims that dirty samples of Russian athletes were replaced with clean ones during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.Since then, WADA director general Olivier Niggli said, the agency facilitated the transfer of relevant information that is available to date about individual Russian athletes to the various international federations.It should be noted however that Professor McLarens focus thus far was on establishing involvement of the Russian State and not regarding individual athletes that may have benefited, Niggli said. WADA will continue supporting anti-doping organizations by providing information as and when it becomes available via McLarens ongoing Investigation.Responding to Bachs swipe about supervision of the Russian doping labs, WADA said its focus is on the technical abilities of the labs. It noted that it suspended the Moscow lab in 2015 after violations were cited in Pounds report.Addressing corruption within the anti-doping system -- including state or secret service interference in laboratory operations -- will be one of the topics discussed during a WADA conference in September, the agency said. ' ' 'ers.We made shots, we made plays when we needed to, Pacers coach Nate McMillan said. It was a grind game for us.TIP-INSPacers: McMillan, on his teams 36-point loss to Golden State on Monday night in which Klay Thompson scored 60 points: It wasnt a good film to watch. We talked about that, but we do have to move on. ... George missed a free throw in the second quarter, ending his streak at 31.Suns: Suns F P.J. Tucker spoke to the crowd, thanking military members and veterans moments before ceremonies commemorating the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Officers took the court with Suns players during starting lineup introductions. ... F T.J. Warren missed his ninth straight game due to a minor head injury.A COOL GRANDChandler played in his 1,000th game, the 122nd NBA player ever to reach that milestone. Twenty-seven players played one of their 1,000 games as a Sun, but only three hit No. 1,000 in a Phoenix uniform -- Chandler, Danny Ainge and Steve Nash.FREE THROW DIFFERENCEThe Pacers made 32 of 41 free throws, the Suns 17 of 18. That wasnt lost on Watson. I dont know how you compete in a game when free throws, the difference is that big of a gap, he said. Of course I am biased but I dont think every one of those fouls are fouls.LOB CONNECTIONChandler and Booker connected for a pair of crowd-pleasing alley-oop dunks, one in the first quarter and another in the second.UP NEXTPacers: At Dallas on Friday night in the finale of a five-game trip.Suns: At the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, then home for the next three. ' ' '