CLEVELAND -- Yasiel Puig was so eager to make his Indians debut, he forgot to check out his footwear before walking around the clubhouse.

The slugger was wearing Reds flip-flops with his Cleveland workout gear on Thursday, two days after being acquired from Cincinnati in a three-team trade that also included the San Diego Padres.

"My bad," Puig said, laughing. "I came straight to see you guys. You're not going to see that one again."

While his footwear didn't match, Puig's hair was dyed the color of the Indians' red jerseys.

We have the best hair in baseball, no debate. pic.twitter.com/BXHuRLKU66

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) August 1, 2019

Puig started in right field and hit cleanup for the series finale against the Houston Astros. He went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk in a 7-1 loss.

Fellow newcomer Franmil Reyes batted sixth as the designated hitter and went 1-for-4 with a single and a strikeout. The Indians are hoping the 6-foot-2, 240-pound Puig and the 6-foot-5, 275-pound Reyes can bring their much-needed power to a team that has closed the gap on the American League Central-leading Minnesota Twins.

Reyes came over from the Padres in the seven-player swap that featured Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer going to Cincinnati and Reds elite prospect Taylor Trammell being sent to San Diego.

"With God giving me another opportunity, bringing me to Cleveland, I can make my dream come true with this team," said Puig, who batted .252 with 22 home runs, 61 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in 100 games with the Reds. "Keep going, make the playoffs again, fight in the playoffs.

"With Houston, the Yankees, no matter who's coming, we're going to fight and do the best we can like a family and like a team together and win the championship. This team has potential and good players to go to the World Series."

In his final contest with Cincinnati, Puig was part of a wild brawl against the Pittsburgh Pirates that resulted in a three-game suspension. Puig learned of his trade shortly after being ejected; he is appealing his punishment, meaning he can play until there is a resolution.

The 28-year-old native of Cuba said it was difficult to conceal his happiness about joining a playoff contender while he was among his Reds teammates.

"I started laughing, but I didn't want to get too excited, because I needed to respect my [former] team because we lost and were coming back from an altercation," Puig said. "My friends said they needed to buy a new hat and a new jersey, but I said, OK, this is part of the job. We're going to be in a better place."

Free agent to-be Puig said he has been friends with Indians first baseman Carlos Santana and shortstop Francisco Lindor for several years. He was on an MLB-sponsored trip to Japan with Cleveland manager Terry Francona in 2014.

The Indians and Reds share a spring training facility in Goodyear, Arizona, so he also is familiar with many other people within the Cleveland organization.

"Everybody is talking about Tito being an amazing manager and an amazing person, so I'm excited to be next to him and to start talking to him," Puig said. "I'm feeling he can help me a lot in these next three months to be a better baseball player and a better person off the field."

Reyes, who hit .255 with 27 homers and 46 RBIs in 99 games with San Diego, has a unique tie to the area. He met his wife, Marian, while playing in a Class A game for Fort Wayne at Lake County, whose ballpark is located in the Cleveland suburb of Eastlake.

The 24-year-old Reyes quickly became a fan favorite with the Padres, and he believes the same will be true in his new home.

"When I got the news, the first thing I told my wife was, 'It's crazy, we're getting back to where we started,'" he said. "So Cleveland is really special for me. I know I'm going to have a lot of love from the city."

LOS ANGELES -- The Joc Pederson Experiment is essentially over.

The Los Angeles Dodgers will no longer deploy Pederson as a regular option at first base, a move initially intended to get him into the same lineup with Max Muncy and Alex Verdugo. Instead, Cody Bellinger, who has played Gold Glove-caliber defense in right field, will man first base on the days when Muncy is needed at second, manager Dave Roberts said Thursday.

The Dodgers were apprehensive about using Bellinger at first base after he injured his shoulder while playing the position in early May, but Roberts said Bellinger has "done a great job of keeping the shoulder healthy."

With Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez and the recently acquired Jedd Gyorko all on the injured list, Muncy likely will spend a lot of time at second base moving forward, which means Bellinger will often play first base against righties, with Verdugo and Pederson occupying the corner outfield spots.

Pederson committed six errors and contributed a minus-1.5 ultimate zone rating in only 149 innings at first base.

"He's worked his tail off to get better over there at first base," Roberts said. "I really applaud him."

ST. LOUIS -- Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon isn't fooling around. And neither are the trade-deadline additions to his club. While the fifth-year skipper integrates four new players into his clubhouse, he doesn't sound too worried about the playing-time ramifications for those already here.

"We just have to put out there what we consider to be the right thing to do," Maddon said before his team's 8-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night. "I can't be as aware, in a sense, as I was last year, in giving guys plate appearances and at-bats, developmentally speaking. We have two months to put our best foot forward. I will move guys in and out, but I don't feel as compelled to do it as I felt last year.

"It's big boy time."

That kind of rhetoric is a departure for Maddon, who always has used his entire roster and even has gone out of his way to talk up the flexibility of it. But the Cubs are in a dogfight -- entering Thursday's game, they were tied with St. Louis for first place in the National League Central -- and their struggles to separate within the division have increased the urgency. The Cubs are attempting to make the postseason for the fifth consecutive year.

"Guys that don't start can still conclude games defensively," Maddon said.

Without saying his name, that statement could be directed at Albert Almora Jr., who is a defensive whiz in center field but has struggled at the plate, posting a career-low .671 OPS this season entering Thursday. Almora was Theo Epstein's first draft pick when he took over the team in 2012, but draft status means nothing in a pennant race.

Newcomers Nicholas Castellanos and Tony Kemp figure to take playing time from Almora and others.

"To be quite blunt and honest with you, I don't care," Kemp said regarding his role. "I'm just here to help in any way possible, whether that be off the bench or if they want me to serve water to the guys. I'll do whatever they need."

That's the kind of attitude the Cubs envisioned they were getting when they acquired Kemp from Houston on Wednesday. He has been involved in big games throughout his career with the Astros, and that experience can serve him well when he steps foot into Wrigley Field for the first time.

"You take those moments, slow the game down and pretend like you're playing backyard baseball," Kemp said.

Maddon had Kemp in the lineup Thursday night, just as he did Castellanos -- the Cubs' prized acquisition at Wednesday's trade deadline. The longtime Detroit Tigers outfielder, Castellanos expressed appreciation and emotion in leaving the only MLB team he has ever known. His highest praise came for former teammate Miguel Cabrera.

"To be teammates with Miggy for six years was awesome," Castellanos said. "I was an 11-year-old kid going to Marlins Park when he debuted. Watched him bat fourth as a 20-year-old in the World Series. For me, to create a relationship with him, smile with him, compete with him, win games together and also go through extremely difficult times together, we have a good relationship."

Castellanos was told he was traded just before taking an at-bat for the Tigers as the trade deadline was about to pass. He was thrilled with the news, as was his son, who turned 6 on Thursday. It's the reason he is wearing No. 6 with his new team.

"He was excited, but he didn't know why he was excited," Castellanos said of his son, Liam. "[But] he was a little bummed, because if I didn't get traded, we had an off day in Arlington [Texas], so we were going to spend it at Six Flags. Daddy got traded. I think because everyone else was excited, he was excited."

Castellanos can make it up to his son, as there's a Six Flags amusement park just north of Chicago, but he wasn't sure when he could make it there, as his new team is in the middle of a playoff race. After years of losing baseball in Detroit, Castellanos is all-in with the Cubs.

"The two months of baseball coming up, [I'm] doing absolutely anything I can to help this squad win," he said. "I couldn't be happier where I'm at right now."

The Cubs are expecting a lot from him, as Maddon inserted Castellanos into the 2-hole in his first game, playing right field. He went 1 for 3 with a walk.

The Cubs have been searching for a leadoff hitter, so it's possible that Castellanos, who bats right, could even end up hitting first against left-handed pitching.

"I'm not a very high-maintenance kind of guy," Castellanos said. "If I have a glove and a bat, I'm ready."

Castellanos, 27, hated losing in Detroit so much, he couldn't bear to watch the playoffs. He has been to one postseason, when he was 22, and he sounds desperate for a return engagement -- which fits with Maddon's desires, as well.

"I was a bit too young to appreciate it," Castellanos said of October baseball. "I was a bit too young to appreciate the talent and the people and knowledge in that clubhouse. You don't really know what you have until it's gone.

"That baseball is unlike any other baseball."

British number one Kyle Edmund reached the quarter-finals of the Washington Open for the first time with a three-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Edmund, 24, came from behind to beat the Frenchman 4-6 6-3 6-4 in two hours 23 minutes.

The 13th seed will play Canada's eighth seed Milos Raonic or Germany's Peter Gojowczyk in the last eight.

Edmund is aiming to become the first Briton to reach a singles final in Washington since Andy Murray in 2006.

On that occasion, now three-time Grand Slam champion Murray lost to France's Arnaud Clement, while Tim Henman was the last British winner of the tournament in 2003.

Tsonga, 34, went a break up early in the opening set and managed to hold on to the advantage despite scuppering four further break points.

The second set stayed on serve but while world number 34 Edmund twice held break point in the fourth game, it wasn't until the eighth that he finally broke Tsonga's serve before taking the set.

Edmund broke Tsonga again early in the decider before the remainder of the set stayed with the serve, Edmund wrapping up the victory on his first match point.

ROSSBURG, Ohio – Of all the dirt ringers taking to Eldora Speedway for Thursday night’s seventh annual Eldora Dirt Derby, there’s few who understand the mystique of the half-mile oval like Kyle Strickler.

Strickler, a two-time winner of the World Short Track Championship at The Dirt Track at Charlotte and an accomplished UMP dirt modified veteran, is driving the No. 54 Toyota Tundra for DGR-Crosley and longtime friend David Gilliland this week at the legendary venue.

It’s a place that holds many special memories for Strickler, who has won at Eldora multiple times in UMP modified competition and knows just how big the facility is to the dirt-track racing community.

In fact, he circled one of his biggest career moments as leading the Dirt Late Model Dream field to green at Eldora earlier this season, driving for Wells & Sons Motorsports.

Now, Strickler has a shot at another memorable experience.

“Eldora is the greatest place on Earth, for me,” Strickler said. “I love this race track, and I love what Tony’s done with it. Coming here earlier this year for the first time in a super late model, starting on the pole at the (Dirt Late Model) Dream and leading some laps there … that was special. When you add that to all the races that I’ve won here in a modified, there’s just nothing like it. There really isn’t.

“It is awesome to be able to come here in really, really good equipment and with a team that’s super excited to have me here as their driver,” Strickler added. “I feel like we have a good shot at winning.”

The connection between Strickler and Gilliland goes back more than a decade, to the beginning of the Pennsylvania native’s time in the Southeast, when he was just trying to scrape by and Gilliland’s then-Busch Series team loaned the young gun a helping hand.

“When I moved down south in 2006, David had a startup deal going with Hype Motorsports (and team owner Clay Andrews), and I actually worked in the fab shop there. It was my first job in NASCAR,” Strickler recalled. “David and I stayed close through the years after that, and last year … when I got my first opportunity to come run this race with Mike Mittler, I talked to David and told him that I’d really like to drive one of his trucks if we could ever put something together.

“He pays attention to my dirt racing some, and Frankie Kerr – the crew chief for this deal – was one of the first guys to help me out when I first got my dirt modified,” Strickler added. “There have been a lot of people pulling for me behind the scenes, but I’m just glad we were able to make all the pieces fit.”

Aside from his Truck Series opportunity this week, Strickler has been busy for most of the season. He landed late model and modified rides with the Wells team early this spring, and has spent the middle part of the year learning as much as he can about the full-fendered discipline as he makes the transition.

“The late model deal has been absolutely awesome,” said Strickler. “Everyone at Wells Motorsports has been awesome to work with and they have a great thing going on. They have great equipment, and that’s so important in all forms of racing. The distance from me to them is the only thing that’s a little tough now, because I still live in North Carolina and I’m traveling four and a half hours each week to go to the shop and work on the late models. We have two wins already though, so we’re making progress.”

Strickler raced in the 2018 Eldora Dirt Derby for the late Mike Mittler, who passed away earlier this year. However, he was swept up in a crash and finished 31st, unable to truly show what he was capable of.

This time, Strickler knows he doesn’t just have a truck that can survive the race, he has a truck capable of thriving – and perhaps winning – at one of the most legendary dirt tracks in the United States.

“I’m a kid in a candy store with this,” Strickler noted. “This type of a deal gives us short-track dirt racers some hope that if you work hard and win races, you’re going to get your shot.

“I feel like this is my shot; I don’t think you could wipe the smile off my face right now if you tried.”

The Vancouver Whitecaps signed goalkeeper Chituru Odunze to a Development Squad deal and then transferred the 16-year-old to Leicester City.

Odunze joins Leicester City's academy squad after he practiced with them in a two-month trial in January.

- When does the transfer window close?
- All major completed transfer deals

"It's a dream come true to take the next step in my career at a big club like Leicester City FC," Odunze said in a statement. "I'm really grateful for everything that Vancouver Whitecaps FC have done for me.

"I would like to thank the coaches, staff, and my teammates for how they have helped me grow as a player, and especially Raegyn Hall and Jordan Santiago for coaching me as a goalkeeper."

We're proud of you, C.

Whitecaps FC transfer 16-year-old goalkeeper Chituru Odunze to English @PremierLeague club @LCFC. #LCFC | #VWFC https://t.co/uq2SofkqvT

— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) August 1, 2019

Odunze holds Canadian, United Kingdom and United States citizenship. He has three caps with the U.S. Under-17 national team.

Odunze joined Vancouver when he was 14. He had previously lived in London and was an academy member of Chelsea, Cardiff City and West Ham.

The agreement includes performance bonuses, and the Whitecaps will receive a percentage of all future transfer fees for Odunze.

Hampshire 134 for 3 (Vince 87*) beat Essex 133 (Westley 44, Crane 3-24, Dawson 2-31) by seven wickets

Mason Crane and Liam Dawson spun Hampshire towards victory before James Vince took them over the winning line with a thunderous 87 not out to give the visitors their first victory at the Cloudfm County Ground in Chelmsford for five years.

Spin twins Crane and Dawson ripped through Essex Eagles' batting in the middle overs as they snatched figures of 5 for 55 from their combined eight overs to set up a seven-wicket thrashing.

The Eagles, having been 81 for 1 at one point, lost nine wickets for 52 runs in 47 balls, to fall well below par.

Hampshire knocked off the 134 required inside 14 overs, with captain Vince raising his bat for his second fifty of the competition, to condemn Essex to a single win from their opening five fixtures.

Hampshire, who have now won two Vitality Blast matches on the bounce after ending their Somerset hoodoo last week, hadn't previously won on this ground in any competition since a T20 victory here in 2014 - with this being only their 10th success at Chelmsford this century.

Vince won the toss, stuck Essex in, and was immediately high-fiving Chris Wood and Dawson after Cameron Delport edged the first ball of the match to first slip.

Adam Wheater and Tom Westley, who had been promoted to the top of the order then enjoyed a boundary-hitting contest. Westley won the battle with three huge sixes and a trio of boundaries to Wheater's four inventive fours and sole maximum in the pair's 81-run stand in 53 balls.

But Dawson and Crane entered the attack and dismissed Westley and Wheater in successive overs before ripping through the rest of the Eagles' batting.

Crane then suckered Ryan ten Doeschate into a hoof down the ground, Chris Morris snaffling at long-off, before Dan Lawrence was bowled next ball.

Shane Snater was run out by Wood attempting a foolhardy second run and then Simon Harmer chipped to Sam Northeast at short cover, Dawson and Crane ending with middle-order figures of 2 for 32 and 3 for 24 respectively.

Overseas duo Adam Zampa and Mohammad Amir quickly followed as Essex lost eight wickets for 32 runs in an epic 40 ball collapse.

Paul Walter then thumped 26 off 13 balls to give the hosts some respectability but Matt Quinn was castled to leave him stranded - the Eagles all out for 133.

Aneurin Donald scored four and out in two balls before Vince and Rilee Rossouw comfortably ticked through the runs in a 78-run stand. Vince, who opened his campaign with 50 against Kent, tonked one over long-on to accompany a series of gorgeous fours to reach his milestone in 34 balls. Rossouw slapped to the straight boundary to depart for 25 but Vince continued to take his tally to three sixes and 12 fours.

He ended unbeaten on 87 as he and Northeast eased Hampshire towards the line with a 50 stand. The latter was bowled but Vince scored the winning runs two balls later.

Kent 204 for 4 (Blake 66*, Kuhn 54*) beat Middlesex 176 for 7 (Viljoen 3 for 32) by 28 runs

On his return to Lord's for a first appearance since the World Cup final, Eoin Morgan was upstaged by a trademark late-innings assault by Alex Blake, whose 29-ball 66 not out maintained Kent's 100 percent record in the T20 Blast.

Put in by a Middlesex side who had started the competition strongly - they registered more wins in their first four games than they managed in the whole of last season - Kent were 90 for 4 after 12 overs when Mohammad Nabi was dismissed, and in danger of throwing away a good start.

But their fifth-wicket pair added 114 in the remaining eight overs, as Heino Kuhn's wristy reverses and Blake's brutish power took them to a score that proved well beyond Middlesex's reach.

Kent's schedule this week is cruel, with three away games in four days followed by a return home two days later: they must have feared that consecutive fixtures at The Oval, Lord's, and Hove as the sort of run that could derail them after a strong start to the season.

And yet they find themselves sitting pretty at the top of the South Group, thanks to the canny recruitment of a cunning, cosmopolitan bowling attack, and two remarkable innings: the first, a 12-ball 43* from Nabi on Tuesday night, and the second by Blake here.

When Blake bats, he resembles a middleweight boxer, spending a couple of rounds sparring and letting his opponent land punches, while he calculates the perfect moment to unleash hell with a counterattack of his own.

The statistics back that up. Since 2017, his strike-rate after ten balls of an innings is 121.97, and he scores at 118.97 in the middle overs (7-15). But at the death he is a different beast: he faces 25 per cent fewer dots, hits a boundary every 4.96 balls, and strikes at 166.88.

It was no surprise then, to see him reach 19 off 14 before slamming 47 off his next 15. The switch was no so much flicked as rammed in with a sledgehammer, as Blake exploded into gear.

Steven Finn, so parsimonious in his first spell, was taken for four sixes in the 18th over, each one nailed with more conviction than the last; Tom Helm was slugged over midwicket for another, and a pair of boundaries off Toby Roland-Jones' final over meant 57 had come from the final three.

"They welcomed back three pretty high-profile names tonight in Morgan, AB and Stirling so we knew they were going to be a tough outfit to beat," Blake said. "But credit to our bowlers, they've been brilliant in these first five games. We seem to have found a bit of momentum, and long may it continue."

Blake's career record hardly does him justice. He spends most of his time languishing down the order at No. 6 or No. 7 in T20, tasked either with slamming boundaries from the word go or needing to produce run-chase magic.

But he is now a seasoned pro at 30, and knows that his strengths are best suited to situations like this. Twice now this Blast campaign he has hauled Kent into winning positions that had looked improbable, and he is a player deserving of greater recognition than has ever come his way.

For all Blake's brilliance, it was hard not to feel for Finn, on a night that he had looked set to make his own, but one he ended with slumped shoulders and ugly figures.

Four years ago to the day, he was enjoying a richly-deserved day off after his 8 for 117 had won England the Edgbaston Ashes Test; on the day another of those started, Finn was to be found steaming in and hitting hard lengths in the middle overs some 120 miles away, to be rewarded with the wickets of Ollie Robinson and Daniel Bell-Drummond.

And then came his return. After a slightly overpitched yorker was carved over backward point for six by Blake, the inevitable over-adjustment came: three short balls outside off, three sixes crunched through midwicket. Goodnight, Steve, and thanks for coming - here's a 25-run over to take home with you.

Middlesex's chase had started with a stutter, as Hardus Viljoen struck twice in the innings' third over, and from there it seemed much would rest on the shoulders of AB de Villiers - returning from a hand injury, with plenty of strapping in the field - and Morgan.

It looked like it might be another de Villiers special when he timed his first ball exquisitely through point, but he plinked to mid-on before the bars had fully emptied out after the interval.

Enter Morgan, whose partnership of 61 with John Simpson had briefly looked ominous - including a couple of sweetly-timed fours off Bell-Drummond - before both fell in the space of an over.

From that point, the game was up. Kent's march on the South Group continues, and with Blake firing like this, they may prove hard to stop.

CLEVELAND -- Indians manager Terry Francona has undergone eye surgery and his availability for the game against Houston was uncertain.

A team spokesman said the surgery was unexpected. The 60-year-old Francona had his daily pregame news conference canceled by the team shortly before it was scheduled to begin Thursday night.

If Francona needed to miss the game, Cleveland bench coach Brad Mills would fill in. Mills did that two years ago when the former Red Sox and Phillies manager underwent a midseason heart procedure.

Francona is in his seventh season with the Indians. He has a 1,637-1,384 career record and is the second-winningest active manager behind San Francisco's Bruce Bochy. He won the 2004 and 2007 World Series with Boston.

Editor’s Note: This is the editorial column authored by William Kay in the first issue of National Auto Racing News – now known as SPEED SPORT – on Aug. 16, 1934.

With this issue of The Bergen Herald National Auto Racing News, complying with the insistent demands of our readers and advertisers, we are changing the size of the Auto Racing Edition to tabloid form. The home edition will remain as is.

Although, The Bergen Herald is in its 13th year, it was only a year ago last May that we started the National Auto Racing News edition.

Our agents and representatives have worked hard with us, sending in results, notices of racing and special articles and biographies, and other news of interest; the drivers have assisted us by subscribing for the paper and having their friends subscribe; promoters have helped us by giving us publicity at tracks all over the country through the loud speakers and space in their programs; advertisers have helped us by inserting their advertising in our paper, which is our principal source of revenue; and last but not least, our thousands of readers have helped us by innumerable letters containing words of encouragement and praise for our publication.

We will in the future, as we have in the past, endeavor to give our racing fans all of the news from all of the tracks all of the time.

Our constant endeavor since the inception of the Auto Racing Section has been to increase our service to our readers. That will continue to be our policy.

We will welcome constructive criticism and helpful suggestions. We want this to be YOUR paper. Our only aim and desire is to GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT IN THE WAY YOU WANT IT.

Henceforth we will endeavor to have an illustrated front and back page, and throughout the paper there will be illustrations, pictures of your favorite drivers, scenes at the different tracks and action pictures.

Let us hear from you.

Give us your reaction on this latest improvement in our service to you. We are constantly appointing new representatives and correspondents at new tracks.

We believe that today we are giving results from more speedways than any other publication in the United States.

We want to do still more.

Therefore each week as you note new writers and new tracks represented, you will know that we are working constantly to increase our prestige in this field.

But, dear readers, remember one thing, it costs money to run a newspaper. Therefore every new subscriber you can get for us, every line of advertising you can be instrumental in throwing our way, will help us just that much to give you more and better service.