Quick Hitters
McCollum agrees to 3-year extension with Trail Blazers
PORTLAND, Ore. — CJ McCollum has agreed to a three-year contract extension with the Portland Trail Blazers.
The 27-year-old McCollum averaged 21.0 points last season, helping Portland make it to the Western Conference finals. The 6-foot-3 shooting guard, who was selected by the Trail Blazers with the 10th overall pick in the 2013 draft, has averaged at least 20.8 points over the last four years.
The agreement keeps McCollum under contract through the 2023-24 season. McCollum’s agent told ESPN the extension is worth $100 million.
President of basketball operations Neil Olshey says McCollum “is a franchise cornerstone and a critical part of our future.”
McCollum has career averages of 17.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 411 games with Portland over six seasons. He also is a 40.1% shooter from 3-point range and makes 83.9% of his foul shots.
The deal was announced on Tuesday.
Braves acquire reliever Chris Martin from Rangers
ARLINGTON, Texas — The NL East-leading Atlanta Braves have acquired reliever Chris Martin from the Texas Rangers for minor league pitcher Kolby Allard.
Texas announced the deal during its game Tuesday night, just moments after Martin was seen high-fiving teammates in the bullpen before leaving down the tunnel.
Martin was 0-2 with four saves and a 3.08 ERA in 38 appearances. The 33-year-old right-hander has allowed only three earned runs over his last 19 games since May 24. The 6-foot-8 Martin has 24 strikeouts and only one walk in 18 2/3 innings over that span for his hometown Rangers.
Atlanta assumes the remaining $737,903 of Martin’s $2.25 million salary. He has earned $100,000 in bonuses for 15 games finished, would get another $50,000 for 20, and $100,000 each for 25 and each addition five through 40.
Allard, a 21-year-old lefty, was the 14th overall pick by the Braves in the 2015 amateur draft. He was 7-5 with a 4.17 ERA in 20 starts this season for Triple-A Gwinnett. The Rangers assigned him to Triple-A Nashville.
Green has ankle surgery, expected to miss Bengals’ opener
CINCINNATI — A.J. Green had ankle surgery Tuesday and is expected to miss the start of the season, another significant setback for the Cincinnati Bengals’ offense.
Green hurt his left ankle during the opening practice of camp Saturday in Dayton, landing awkwardly after cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick bumped into the star receiver while breaking up a pass.
Coach Zac Taylor said Green had surgery Tuesday morning and likely won’t be ready for the start of the season. Cincinnati opens at Seattle on Sept. 8 and then hosts San Francisco. The Bengals visit Buffalo the third week followed by a Monday night game at Pittsburgh on Sept. 30.
“He’s going to miss some regular-season games,” Taylor said. “How many, I don’t know. Very hopefully he’s back at the beginning of the regular season and it’s not more than a couple of games.”
It’s the second straight season that Green has suffered a significant injury. He missed half of last season with an injured right toe that required surgery. The Bengals went easy with him during offseason workouts, and he felt fully recovered for the start of training camp.
NEW YORK — This momentous month just keeps getting better for Taylor Clarke.
Five days after the birth of his daughter, the rookie pitcher was an impressive winner in his Yankee Stadium debut and the Arizona Diamondbacks got home runs from Christian Walker and Carson Kelly to beat New York 4-2 on Tuesday night.
Nick Ahmed hit an RBI single and Adam Jones had an early sacrifice fly for the Diamondbacks (54-54), who have won all three meetings with the Yankees this year.
ARI: 54-54 overall NYY: 67-39 overall
Arizona, now 14-5 in interleague games after taking nine of its past 10, will go for a season sweep of the AL East leaders Wednesday afternoon in another rematch of the thrilling 2001 World Series won by the Diamondbacks in seven games.
“You don’t see a lot of 4-2 games in this stadium. At least I don’t remember them that way,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “We did a lot of things right.”
Edwin Encarnación had an RBI double and Tyler Wade hit his second major league homer for New York after replacing injured first baseman Luke Voit.
J.A. Happ (8-6) allowed three runs in six innings for a struggling New York staff that gave up 79 runs over the previous eight games. General manager Brian Cashman is shopping for pitching help ahead of Wednesday’s trade deadline — but time is running out.
“You can’t help but think about it,” said slugger Aaron Judge, in a 1-for-23 rut. “I think we’re all going to be happy once this trade deadline’s passed.”
Back from a rugged 3-4 trip against fellow American League contenders, the Yankees dropped consecutive home games for the first time since losing three straight from April 2-12. They’ve lost six of nine overall following a fivegame winning streak.
They did, at least, prevent their opponent from scoring six runs for the first time in