Basketball:

Former NBA point guard Jason Williams will miss six to eight months after sustaining a knee injury in the opening game of the Big3.

Horse racing:

Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win Australia’s Melbourne Cup, was barred from racing and track work pending an inquiry into a positive doping test.

Cowboys defensive end David Irving was suspended the first four games of the season for violating the NFL’s policy against performance-enhancing drugs. Irving, who can return Oct. 8 against Green Bay, is eligible for training camp and preseason practices and games.

Blues center Patrik Berglund is expected to be out until December after having surgery to repair a dislocated left shoulder. Berglund, who scored a career-high 23 goals in 2016-17, was injured during an offseason conditioning program in Sweden.

■ The Senators signed goaltender Mike Condon to a three-year extension worth an average $2.4 million per season. Condon, 27, backed up starter Craig Anderson.

Claudio Bravo made three penalty saves as Chile defeated Portugal 3-0 in a penalty shootout to reach the Confederations Cup final in Kazan, Russia.

NFL: NHL: Soccer:

The Chicago Cubs cut ties with Miguel Montero on Wednesday after the veteran catcher blamed pitcher Jake Arrieta for allowing seven stolen bases in Tuesday’s loss to the Washington Nationals.

Montero, who turns 34 on July 9, was designated for assignment, and the World Series champions recalled catcher Victor Caratini from Triple-A Iowa. Montero is batting .286 with four homers and eight RBIs in 44 games.

President of baseball operations Theo Epstein, general manager Jed Hoyer and manager Joe Maddon spoke Tuesday after hearing of Montero’s comments.

“It was pretty straightforward,” Maddon said of the decision to cut Montero. “I talked to Theo last night. We both were in agreement it was the right thing to do.”

Montero posted a series

Lilly King INDIANAPOLIS — toned down the trash talk for one night.

She’s still got three more weeks to come up with some new lines to throw at her Russian rival.

The brash Olympic gold medalist set up a potential world championship rematch with Yulia Efimova by winning the 200-meter breaststroke of tweets Wednesday saying goodbye to fans and the city of Chicago. “It was an honor to play for the Chicago Cubs organization,” he posted. “Chicago will always be in my heart.”

Montero also apologized to Arrieta, who won the NL Cy Young Award in 2015.

“I love Miggy,” Arrieta said Wednesday.

Still, the meltdown Tuesday night was unusually strong: Montero unloaded on Arrieta, saying the Nationals ran on the right-hander because they knew he was slow to the plate with his delivery.

Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said on WMVP-AM radio that Montero’s comments were unprofessional.

“We win as a team, we lose as a team,” Rizzo said. “If you start pointing fingers, I think that just labels you as a selfish player.”

Closer Mark Melancon was placed on the 10-day disabled list for a second time this season with a sore forearm. Melancon, who signed a $62 million, fouryear

Giants:

Wednesday night at the U.S. National Championships.

King’s winning time of 2 minutes, 21.83 seconds, was a personal best and the second-fastest race in the world this year — behind Efimova, who finished in 2:19.83 two weeks ago.

“I love racing, I’m just focused on me right now,” King said when asked about facing Efimova again. “I love racing fast people. I love racing.”

During last summer’s Olympics, King turned heads in the usually genteel swimming contract in the offseason, is 1-2 with a 4.35 ERA and 11 saves in 15 chances.

Right-hander Robert Gsellman was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a strained left hamstring. Gsellman is the sixth Mets starting pitcher to go on the DL this season. Infielder Matt Reynolds also was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Designated hitter Matt Holliday joined Starlin Castro, Aaron Hicks and Greg Bird on the disabled list with a viral infection. Manager Joe Girardi said doctors ruled out mononucleosis.

Starting pitcher Chase Anderson struck out in the top of the second inning Wednesday night, grabbed his left side and left the game with an injured oblique. Anderson is second on the staff with six wins. He was replaced by Paolo Espino.

Terry Francona was cleared to manage Wednesday’s game against Texas. Francona, 58, was fitted with a heart monitor, but he said doctors have ruled out any serious health issues.

Left-hander Julio

Mets: Yankees: Brewers: Indians: Dodgers:

world by calling Efimova a drug cheat.

Efimova had been banned twice previously for doping.

But Indiana University’s star swimmer backed up her bold talk by claiming gold in the 100 breast and forcing Efimova to settle for silver. The anticipated rematch in the 200 breast never materialized because King didn’t qualify for the finals.

The two haven’t squared off in a pool since then, though, but King refused to back down from her previous comments while being repeatedly questioned about Urias had left shoulder surgery and is expected to miss 12 to 14 months.

Left-hander Drew Smyly needs Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Smyly had been out since spring training with a flexor strain in his pitching arm, but Seattle was hopeful of getting him back after the All-Star break. Recovery time is 12 to 15 months.

Mariners: Blue Jays:

Outfielder Michael Saunders signed a minor league contract and reported to Triple-A Buffalo. Saunders, a former Blue Jay, signed a one-year, $8 million deal with Philadelphia in January but was let go this month after batting .205 with six homers and 20 RBIs in 61 games.

Brendan McKay agreed to a minor league contract that includes a signing bonus of $7,005,000, the highest since constraints on draft spending began in 2012. The University of Louisville pitcher/first baseman was the fourth overall selection in the amateur draft this month.

Rays:

it over the past 11 months.

It’s also clear King isn’t content with just getting one more shot to beat up on Efimova in Budapest, Hungary, next month.

She also wants to avenge her 12th-place Olympic finish in the 200, too.

Stanford’s Katie Ledecky won for the second time in two nights, this time with a 1:54.84 in the 200 freestyle.

Olympic teammate Leah Smith finished second, again, almost two seconds behind her old nemesis.

Winners of each event qualify for the world team.

A water PEABODY, MASS. — polo player-turned-swimsuit model who didn’t pick up a golf club for decades, Kurt Van Hees told himself during a near-death experience, “If I get out of this alive, all I’m going to do is play golf.”

Today, he will tee off in the U.S. Senior Open.

The 51-year-old Californian was added to the field as an alternate Sunday and hopped on a red eye to Boston, fighting off the migraines and stiffness he still feels from a 2010 attack that left him unable to play more than four holes at a time.

“I just always felt like if I tried hard enough, I might be able to get to somewhere like this tournament,” Van Hees said Wednesday before his practice round at Donald Ross-designed Salem Country Club. “It’s amazing, the guys that I’m seeing that I’m playing with and stuff just blows my mind. So it’s been a pretty cool thing.”

After taking up golf when he was 6, playing only when the weather was warm enough in Oregon, Van Hees won a few junior tournaments and was approaching a scratch handicap by high school. But he was also a nationally ranked swimmer as a child, and by the time he was 20 he put down his clubs entirely.

Swimming never took him any further than his junior college water polo team, but the time he spent getting in shape paid off with a modeling gig for Speedo that landed him on the cover of Men’s Fitness magazine and on posters for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

After not playing golf at all for 15 years, he “got the bug again” when he was 35. But he didn’t really dedicate himself to the sport again until the steel-pipe attack that “egg-shelled” his face.

It took 6½ hours of reconstructive surgery, four steel plates and 12 screws to put his skull back together. His jaw was broken. His nose was reduced to splinters. His eye was knocked into his sinus cavity. And then his heart rate dropped to 19 beats per minute.

“When the thing went to 19, I just got this clear as day thought in my head that, if I get out of this alive, all I’m going to do is play golf. It was bizarre,” he said. “So that’s been a bit of a drag, but it was really what got me back into golf . ... I always kind of wanted to see if I could get good in the game.”