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TBS moves into new era

David Ortiz and the Red Sox will face Toronto on TBS' game of the week Sunday.Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review
David Ortiz and the Red Sox will face Toronto on TBS' game of the week Sunday.Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

For years TBS billed the Atlanta Braves as America’s Team. No more.

Now TBS wants to be America’s Network.

After several years of cutting back its ties to the Braves, TBS begins a seven-year contract of national weekly telecasts with Boston’s game at Toronto on Sunday.

Chip Caray and Buck Martinez will be paired as announcers for the game. Caray also will work with Ron Darling during the network’s 26 weeks of Sunday afternoon games.

TBS had exclusive coverage of the four division series and the NLCS last season. TBS will televise the division series and the ALCS this season.

The playoffs are the most attractive prize, but the full season of weekly national games is important as TBS tries to shed its image as a one-team network, a label earned through three decades with the Braves.

“It’s always an uphill fight when you’re doing something new and you want to establish yourself, but we think we’ve put together a team of people who have been around the game who can elevate the game to one of national significance,” Martinez said.

“I’m confident as people begin to tune in they will accept us of that.”

Sheffield tears tendon

Gary Sheffield tore a tendon in his ring finger while trying unsuccessfully to stretch a single into a double in the eighth inning of Detroit’s 4-1 loss to Kansas City on Thursday.

Sheffield said he would try to play through the injury.

•Chicago Cubs pitcher Robert Hernandez was suspended for 50 games by the baseball commissioner’s office after testing positive for the steroid stanozolol under the sport’s minor league drug program.

•Pittsburgh shortstop Jack Wilson strained his left calf while running out a single and had to leave the game against the Atlanta Braves.

•At Pawtucket, R.I., former A.L. Cy Young winner Bartolo Colon, who signed a minor league deal with Boston during the off-season, struck out five and allowed one hit in five scoreless innings for Triple-A Pawtucket.

•At Port St. Lucie, Fla., New York Mets pitcher Orlando Hernandez threw five innings in a rehab start for the Class A St. Lucie Mets, allowing two runs and striking out six.