National Sports

VANCOUVER — After flirting with a Major League Soccer playoff spot, the Vancouver Whitecaps are hoping for a more permanent relationship when they try to win a franchise record fifth consecutive game against the Portland Timbers on Friday night.

FORT ERIE, Ont. — H C Holiday was installed as the 5-2 early favourite for the $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes on Thursday. The 1 3/16-mile race on Fort Erie Racetrack's dirt course is slated for Tuesday night.

Nick Arbuckle and the Toronto Argonauts don't have time to dwell upon their Labour Day loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Toronto (2-2) hosts Hamilton (2-2) on Friday night at BMO Field.

Toronto FC expects to have all of its players who've been away on international duty back in time for Saturday's return to MLS action at FC Cincinnati.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A young giraffe named for a Louisiana football star has died at the Baton Rouge Zoo, zoo officials said Thursday.

Coach Kingsley Jones has named an unchanged starting 15 for the second leg of Canada's Rugby World Cup qualifying series against the U.S. Eagles. The Canadian men won the first leg 34-21 on Sept. 4 in St. John's, N.L.

Alphonso Davies, who missed Canada's World Cup qualifying win over El Salvador in Toronto on Wednesday, returned to training with Bayern Munich on Thursday. "He took a knock on his knee. He's in good shape, feels well and trained today.

NEW YORK (AP) — Never fazed, rarely flummoxed, Novak Djokovic is so collected in best-of-five-set matches even when falling behind, as he has done repeatedly at the U.S. Open.

Wednesday's Games MLB American League Toronto 6 N.Y. Yankees 3 Seattle 8 Houston 5 Minnesota 3 Cleveland 0 Boston 2 Tampa Bay 1 Baltimore 9 Kansas City 8 Oakland 5 Chicago White Sox 1 National League San Francisco 7 Colorado 4 Miami 2 N.Y.

NEW YORK (AP) — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 41st home run and the streaking Toronto Blue Jays knocked the slumping Yankees out of the AL’s top wild-card spot, beating New York 6-3 Wednesday night.