Russell’s leave extended
Chicago Cubs shortstop Addison Russell will miss the rest of the regular season while Major League Baseball investigates domestic violence allegations from his ex-wife.
MLB and the players’ association have agreed to extend his administrative leave by four days through Sunday. Russell was first placed on administrative leave Sept. 21.
Melisa Reidy has alleged years of physical and emotional abuse, which he has denied.
Russell can chal- lenge the leave before an arbitrator. He continues to be paid his $3.2 million salary.
Chicago has clinched its fourth straight postseason appearance. The 24-year-old infielder is batting .250 with five homers and 38 RBI. He was an all-star two years ago and helped the Cubs win their first World Series title since 1908.
Costly decision: CC Sabathia protected his teammates, not his wallet.
The 38-year-old left-hander got his 246th win and moved the New York Yankees closer to hosting next week’s AL wild-card game but may have cost himself a $500,000 bonus.
Sabathia was ejected from Thursday’s 12-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in the sixth inning for hitting Jesus Sucre on a leg in retaliation for Tampa Bay reliever Andrew Kittredge throwing a pitch behind Austin Romine.
Making his final regular-season start, Sabathia had thrown 55 pitches over five innings to raise his season innings total to 153 – two shy of a $500,000 performance bonus in his contract.
“I don’t really make decisions based on money, I guess,” Sabathia said. “I just felt like it was the right thing to do.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone didn’t rule out Sabathia getting into a game this weekend in Boston.
“That’s definitely above my pay grade,” Boone said when asked whether New York should still pay the bonus.
Stiff breeze: Major League Baseball has set a strikeouts record for the 11th consecutive year – and with four days to spare.
There were 40,196 strikeouts through Wednesday, topping last year’s 40,104 – the first season strikeouts reach 40,000.