Sports in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

Rays surge to 3-1 lead over Red Sox

BOSTON—They fluttered in and rocketed out: Three more homers sent sailing over the Green Monster to help the Tampa Bay Rays blow out Boston for the second straight game and move within one win of their first AL pennant.

Evan Longoria hit his rookie-record fifth home run of the playoffs, and Carlos Pena and Willy Aybar also homered off aging knuckleballer Tim Wakefield on Tuesday night to give the Rays a 13-4 victory over the Red Sox that put the defending World Series champions on the brink of elimination.

Carl Crawford tied an AL championship series record with five hits and Andy Sonnanstine pitched 7 1-3 innings of six-hit ball as Tampa Bay took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven playoff. Aybar had four hits and five RBIs.

After an off day, James Shields and Game 1 winner Daisuke Matsuzaka are scheduled to pitch Thursday night at Fenway Park in a potential clincher for the surprising Rays.

Tampa Bay had never even approached a .500 record during its first decade in the majors before edging wild-card Boston for the AL East title by two games. But the Rays were poised and powerful against a Red Sox team that has made the playoffs in five of the last six years, advancing to the ALCS four times and winning it all twice.

Facing the 42-year-old Wakefield, the oldest pitcher to start an ALCS game, the league’s newest team homered three times in the first three innings against to take a 5-0 lead. The Rays scored another in the fifth and blew it open with five more in the sixth when seven straight batters reached base to make it 11-1.

Dallas’ ‘Pacman’ Jones suspended again

FORT WORTH, Texas—Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones was suspended for at least four games by the NFL on Tuesday for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will then determine the full length of the suspension following the Cowboys’ game in Washington on Nov. 16.

Jones was in repeated legal trouble while with the Tennessee Titans and was involved in an alcohol-related scuffle Oct. 7 with one of his bodyguards at a private party in Dallas.

In a letter to Jones on Tuesday, Goodell cited a “disturbing pattern of behavior and clearly inconsistent with the conditions I set for your continued participation in the NFL.”

The disturbance at an upscale Dallas hotel came only six weeks after Goodell reinstated Jones from a 17-month suspension.

At an NFL meeting in St. Petersburg, Fla., Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he had spoken to the player, whom he described as “devastated” by the news. Jerry Jones last week said the team wouldn’t discipline the cornerback.

“We respect and support the decision of the commissioner,” he said in a statement released by the team. “I regret that this issue has brought negative attention to the Cowboys and the NFL.

Cowboys trade for WR Roy Williams

IRVING, Texas—Roy Williams headed home to Texas on Tuesday in the NFL’s biggest trade before the deadline, giving the struggling Dallas Cowboys another proven receiver opposite Terrell Owens.

The winless Detroit Lions traded their unhappy 2004 first-round pick and one-time Pro Bowler for three draft picks, from the first, third and sixth round in 2009. Detroit also gave the Cowboys a seventh-rounder next year.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he struck the deal two minutes before the NFL trade.

“I’m more happy to be a Dallas Cowboy then when I got my first bike,” said Williams, an Odessa native who went to the University of Texas.

Williams’ best season was 2006, when he went to the Pro Bowl after catching 82 passes for 1,310 yards and seven touchdowns. He has 17 catches for 232 yards and a score this season, and has 262 career passes for 3,884 yards and 29 TDs.

Soon after announcing the deal, the Cowboys said that they had given Williams a five-year extension on his contract that was set to expire after this season.

Investigator: Hockey player had heart problems

MOSCOW—Alexei Cherepanov had heart problems and probably should not have been allowed to play in a game in which he collapsed and died, a regional investigator suggested Tuesday.

Yulia Zhukova said Cherepanov, who died Monday playing for Avangard Omsk in a Continental Hockey League game outside of Moscow, apparently had chronic ischemia — a medical condition when not enough blood gets to the heart or other organs.

“Checks will be conducted to clarify, in particular, why the sportsman with such an illness went onto the ice,” Zhukova said.

Cherepanov’s agent, however, said NHL tests showed him to be healthy.

A lawmaker suggested that the 19-year-old first-round draft pick for the New York Rangers may have died due to negligence on the part of paramedics.

Pavel Krasheninnikov, who sits on the Russian Hockey Federation’s supervisory council and is a member of the State Duma, said there was no ambulance on duty at the Moscow region arena where Cherepanov was playing.

He also asserted emergency workers took too long to respond and didn’t have a defibrillator — a medical machine that shocks the heart. It was unclear how much time it took paramedics to respond.

Tony Gonzalez staying in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Tony Gonzalez is staying with the Chiefs.

Just minutes after the 4 p.m. EDT trade deadline Tuesday, Kansas City coach Herm Edwards said no deal had been struck for the nine-time Pro Bowler. His announcement ended 10 days of tension for the player and his fans in Kansas City, most of whom were hoping he would get what he wanted and be traded to a contender.

Gonzalez, 32, asked the Chiefs to explore trade possibilities after deciding the rebuilding Chiefs (1-4) would probably not reach championship caliber before time ran out on his career.

Neither Gonzalez nor Chiefs president Carl Peterson was available for comment. Edwards said he did not know how close Peterson came to reaching an agreement with anyone. Arizona, Buffalo and Philadelphia had all expressed interest. Peterson had indicated he would let Gonzalez, who has been the face of the struggling franchise, go cheaply.

“He’s going to be at practice tomorrow,” Edwards said. “He’s going to practice. That’s what he’s paid to do. He a professional football player.”

Giants QB Eli Manning bruised chest in loss

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—The New York Giants left Cleveland battered, and with a bruised quarterback.

Eli Manning bruised his chest in the Giants’ embarrassing 35-14 loss to the Browns, and coach Tom Coughlin was not certain about the extent of the injury although he gave indications that the Super Bowl MVP would practice for this weekend’s game against the San Francisco 49ers.

“I’m not going to know until I hear some things,” Coughlin said Tuesday. “From time to time, obviously for anybody who plays that position, you’re going to have some things that don’t allow you to perform at your best. Injuries do occur. I don’t know whether this is (a serious injury) or not.

“Eli has played very well with soreness and that type of thing,” Coughlin said. “I’m sure that will be something he’ll go ahead and practice and play with, but we’ll see. I don’t have a lot of information now.”

Coughlin said he thought Manning was hurt early in the third quarter, although the quarterback was driven into the ground by Browns defensive tackle Shaun Rogers early in the second quarter after throwing a pass to Plaxico Burress.

Manning, who threw three interceptions in the Giants first loss in eight games dating to last season, did not miss a play in the game. He complained of chest pain after the game ended, Coughlin said.