Humongous Web Sports Blog

Anibal Sanchez won his first start in 15 months, Hanley Ramirez and Jorge Cantu hit home runs and the Florida Marlins beat the Colorado Rockies 12-2 on Thursday night. Sanchez allowed two runs and six hits in 5 2-3 innings to win in his first start since May 2007. A shoulder injury that required surgery [...]

The hometown guy helped the Atlanta Braves snap a five-game losing streak. No, it wasn’t Brian McCann or Jeff Francoeur. Rookie catcher Clint Sammons homered and drove in three runs to lead Atlanta past the St. Louis Cardinals 9-4 on Thursday night, a much-needed boost for a team that was having a terrible week.

Jimmy Rollins and Jayson Werth homered, and the Philadelphia Phillies stretched their winning streak to five with an 8-4 victory over the Washington Nationals on Thursday night. The first-place Phillies completed a three-game sweep of the injury-riddled Nationals and took a one-game lead over the idle New York Mets in the NL East.

Manchester City reached the second qualifying round of this season's UEFA Cup with a 2-0 win over part-timers EB/Streymur from the Faroe Islands that gave the Premier League side a 4-0 aggregate victory.

World soccer’s governing body
FIFA has offered an interim deal to the Turkish Cypriot Football
Association that could allow the disputed northern territory to
stage friendly international matches.

Poland’s Legia Warsaw recovered
from a poor first-leg display to reach the UEFA Cup second
qualifying round on a night with bags of goals and no real
shocks on Thursday.

Javi Garcia said Thursday that he is returning to Spanish champions Real Madrid after one season at Osasuna as a much improved player.

The U.S. Soccer Federation has suspended Chicago Fire midfielder Cuauhtemoc Blanco from U.S. Open Cup play for at least two years. The organization’s disciplinary panel banned Blanco after he punched United midfielder Clyde Simms in the stomach and poked him in the eye July 8 during an Open Cup quarterfinal game against D.C.

Mayor Richard Daley is heading to the Olympics, and said he’s especially interested in checking out Beijing’s public transportation to look for any tips Chicago might use to refine its bid for the 2016 Summer Games. Daley said he’ll leave next week for in China as part of a Chicago contingent that will be there [...]

In many ways, Becky Hammon feels
playing basketball for Russia and not the United States is the
most “American” thing she has ever done.