AROUND THE HORN
MLB: Major League Baseball is getting rid of club uniforms and caps for the All-Star Game in favor of specially-designed league outfits. MLB released the looks Thursday that will be used for the July 13 game at Denver’s Coors Field. The host National League has white jerseys and the American League blue. Each two-button jersey features three red letters for a player’s club arranged vertically on the left side with the club logo superimposed over the first and second letter, in black or white for NL teams and khaki for AL. Stars on the back will mark each player’s All-Star selection total, and the right sleeves have the MLB All-Star logo patch. Caps have team logos mostly in red, with some white and blue, superimposed over a star in the Rockies’ purple with white points. Clubs uniforms traditionally had been used for the All-Star Game since its inception in 1933.
Athletics: Chris Bassitt pitched seven innings to win his eighth consecutive decision, Jed Lowrie drove in runs with a single and a no-doubt home run and the Athletics beat the Rangers 5-1 on Thursday for a series split. Bassitt (8-2) started the opener and lost his first two games. He’s gone 8-0 with a 2.95 ERA in 14 starts since for the longest winning streak among American League pitchers this season. The right-hander allowed only five singles and one run while striking out four with three walks. The A’s (46-31) bounced back from their first road series loss of this season at the Yankees last weekend. But the four-game split dropped then behind the Astros in the AL West; the A’s arrived in Texas having led the division for all but one day since April 19 . ... Athletics right-hander
Mike Fiers likely won’t throw for at least another four weeks after an injection for his sprained right elbow. Manager Bob Melvin said Thursday that Fiers, who last pitched May 6, won’t need surgery after he felt discomfort when trying to resume throwing this week. Fiers, who has made only two starts this season and hasn’t pitched since May 6, visited with Dr. James Andrews on Wednesday. “Nothing structural as far as needing surgery at this point, but he will get a PRP injection and then probably no-throw for up to four weeks,” Melvin said before the A’s finished a four-game series in Texas. “So it’s going to be a while before he even starts playing catch again.”
Yankees: Yankees hitters have clawed out of an early season slump with a string of clutch, late-game hits. The Bronx Bombers needed no such fireworks in this one — a start-to-finish shellacking that’s inspiring confidence ahead of a series in Boston. “It’s good to see these guys starting to get a little bit of that swagger,” manager Aaron Boone said. Aaron Judge homered for the first of his three hits, Gary Sánchez connected for the second straight game and the Yankees got their first blowout victory in a month, beating the Royals 8-1 Thursday. Judge got the Yankees started with a solo shot in the first, Luke Voit had another in the third and Sánchez blew the game open with a three-run drive in the sixth. The Yankees had not won by more than four since a 7-0 rout of the White Sox on May 22. The Yankees haven’t played in front of fans in Boston since 2019. The Red Sox swept three games at Yankee Stadium and entered Friday 4 games ahead of the Yankees for the AL East lead.