Filed under: Braves , MLB Injuries The Braves can breathe a little sigh of relief after Derek Lowe ‘s bullpen session Monday went smoothly, setting him up to start Wednesday.

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Derek Lowe Plans to Start Wednesday

Filed under: Raptors, USA Basketball, FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL — If there’s a guy who knows about inflated expectations, it’s Mike Krzyzewski.

“I’m accustomed to that,” said Krzyzewski, who has led Duke to four national titles in the past 20 years, including one last April. “No matter who you put out for Duke, it should be win every game and lot let anybody score. Other than, you’ll be all right.”

So the Team USA coach just shrugs when a foreign journalist asks after the team scored 100-plus points in a lopsided win why it didn’t score more.

This is new for some of American players at the World Championship. With Team USA undefeated but still hearing plenty of nitpicking, they’re learning the expectations that come with wearing red, white and blue in international competition.

“You’ve got to win every game by 60,” said forward Kevin Durant, whose Americans face outmanned Angola in a round-of-16 game Monday at the Sinan Erdem Dome. “Fifty is not good enough.”

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Team USA Notebook: Players Getting Used to High Expectations

Filed under: Cardinals , Reds ST. LOUIS – Jaime Garcia must be the front-runner in a crowded field for NL Rookie of the Year, but it’s understandable if his name isn’t the first that comes to mind. Garcia, it seems, stopped being a rookie a while ago.

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Jaime Garcia One of Few Bright Spots for Struggling Cardinals

Filed under: UFC

On The Ultimate Fighter 10, heavyweight Matt Mitrione tells the audience that the reason he fights MMA is to silence the voices in his head.

For his own well-being and others, it’s nice to know Mitrione wasn’t serious.

During an appearance on this past Monday’s The MMA Hour (full video below), host Ariel Helwani asked the former NFL player if his villainy was all an act.

“Yeah, brother,” Mitrione responded. “I don’t really hear voices, man.”

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Matt Mitrione’s Voices in His Head Came From Boredom

Filed under: MLS, US Soccer, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Major League Soccer will welcome the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps into the fold next season, increasing membership to 18 clubs and creating a scheduling quandary — with 30 regular season games on the docket, it would be impossible for each team to play every other team home and away.

The solution? Add four games to the schedule. A 34-game season would maintain the balanced, home-and-away format that leagues around the world employ and would ensure that fans in each city get the chance to see every other club. FanHouse understands that the expanded schedule is not a definite, but that there is a very good chance that it’ll happen.

Do fans want more regular season games? Wouldn’t it make more sense to use that time for a fun friendly or two? Perhaps more leeway in scheduling CONCACAF Champions League matches or a more sensible U.S. Open Cup structure?

Yes to that also, according to commissioner Don Garber.

Speaking to Examiner.com at this week’s SuperLiga final in Foxborough, Garber said MLS is looking into tweaking its calendar in order to help those involved in other competitions.

His full quote:

“We’ve got to reassess the calendar quite a bit and we’ve been spending a lot of time doing that. I’m up here today actually, with our competitive guys doing some planning, just talking about how could we do a couple things — capitalize on the excitement that took place during the World Cup, that clearly proved that Americans loved this game, and how do we build on that? Do we need to look at different formats? Do we need to look at our schedule again? How do we ensure that our teams are at full strength while we’re playing in very, very crowded schedules? We’re spending a lot of time planning and I want to be sure that we do well in all these tournaments. The first priority is our league tournament (MLS Cup playoffs), but certainly, so is the (CONCACAF) Champions League and again, I’d like to see the U.S. Open Cup be a bit more important to all of us.

“We’ve got to be sure that we can continue to do well in all these other competitions and not be disadvantaged. The schedule disadvantages us a little bit. In Champions League we’re playing at the key time in our preseason, but at the same time we just have so many games and right now probably need to take a look at how we can be competitive in all those different tournaments.”

All of that, plus four additional regular season games? It’s just not going to happen. Something has to give. It can’t be the Champions League, it better not be the Open Cup, and while many wouldn’t mind seeing SuperLiga bite the dust, there really should be a place for a secondary international competition (like in Europe and South America) that gives more teams, players and fans the opportunity to enjoy some cross-border rivalries. It’s good for the development of the game in the U.S.

(For those who argue that SuperLiga is just a “money grab,” so what? Don’t the people who’ve invested millions in MLS and in growing the game in this country deserve a little return on their investment? It’s not like they’re robbing people.)

The truth is, there’s nowhere really for those four extra MLS regular season games to go, especially in the cold-weather cities, and the 34-game schedule will be moot anyway once Montreal enters the league in 2012 and the 20th team (perhaps New York?) comes aboard soon thereafter.

Garber cannot have it both ways. There is no room for the expanded schedule, relief for Champions League clubs and the Open Cup without adding a 13th month to the calendar.

Our hope is that Garber’s comment about the MLS Cup playoffs being the “first priority” was genuine. The abbreviated four-game tournament, which uses a two-game first round that offers no home-field advantage for the higher seed, is the worst thing about MLS. It’s too short, far too random and often fails to produce a deserving and worthy champion. It’s like telling marathoners that only the last 100 yards of the race count.

If Garber can find some give in the schedule, he should do something about the playoffs. Expand them, and make them a true test for the teams involved. We don’t need four additional regular season games.

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MLS Burdened With Conflicting Priorities: Expanded Schedule vs. Cup Focus

Filed under: WNBA, FIBA, USA Basketball, Thunder, FIBA World Championship

In The Works today: a report from the WNBA‘s super-heavyweight Storm-Mercury bout; the World Championship in maps; and readers teach us more about Ramadan.

But first, who is the real Kevin Durant, and why do we care so much?

The Man Who Wasn’t There: Dateline, this week on the Internet. Tommy Craggs, writing for that hotbed of skepticism Slate, asked whether we’ve gone too far with the whole Kevin Durant, Goodness and Light, thing. Nate Jones, social media expert for the Goodwins — Durant’s representation — weighed in the next day, via Twitter, with his thoughts on the article.

The first leg of disclosure: I am a big fan of Craggs, especially his writing for Slate; I think Jones is one of the best at what he does, and frequently consult him when social media issues invade the NBA news cycle.

The rest of it: I consider both of them friends, or at least web-pals. Tommy and I get together when I’m in New York, and Nate and I have been on-and-off colleagues for years. I finally met him in person the other night. Then I accidentally knocked over a table on press row at Key Arena. It was the table’s fault.

So yeah, it goes without saying that I have to give my two cents about this one.

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The Works: Who Is Kevin Durant?

Filed under: Rangers , MLB Injuries Rangers ace Cliff Lee was sent back to Texas Wednesday after complaining of lower back stiffness following his start on Tuesday.

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Rangers’ Cliff Lee Receives Injection for Lower Back Stiffness

Filed under: Yankees , Advanced Scouting Great players get older.

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Aging Derek Jeter Adjusts Familiar Swing

Filed under: US Soccer, U.S. Men’s National Team

The U.S. national team’s Oct. 12 friendly against Colombia will be at PPL Park, the Philadelphia Union’s brand new 18,500-seat stadium just south of the city in Chester. The facility opened in late June.

The U.S. played its last World Cup tuneup (a 2-1 win over Turkey) at Lincoln Financial Field, the NFL Stadium a few miles north on I-95. It’ll return to the area for its final match of an eventful 2010 three days after facing Poland in Chicago.

The Americans are 3-9-3 all-time against Colombia. They last met at the 2007 Copa America in Venezuela, where the South Americans won, 1-0. The U.S. defeated Colombia, 2-1, at the 1994 World Cup.

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U.S. to Host Colombia at New Philadelphia Union Stadium

Filed under: Dodgers , MLB Biz , Sports Business and Media In a year of landmark sports litigation, the divorce trial between Frank and Jamie McCourt , which begins Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, may end up being the most-discussed case of all.

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Here’s What to Watch for as McCourt Divorce Trial Kicks Off