Fast Break

Baseball

Soriano on way to Chicago

Alfonso Soriano and the Chicago Cubs have reached a preliminary agreement on an eight-year contract worth about $136 million, a major league official told The Associated Press on Sunday.

If completed, it would be the fifth-largest package given to a major league player, behind Alex Rodriguez ($252 million for 10 years), Derek Jeter ($189 million for 10 years), Manny Ramirez ($160 for eight years) and Todd Helton ($141.5 million for 11 years).

Soriano batted .277 and hit 46 homers last season with the Washington Nationals.

College Football

OSU, Michigan still first, second

The game of the year didn’t change the top of The Associated Press poll.

Ohio State was No. 1 and Michigan was No. 2 in the Top 25 on Sunday.

The last 1 vs. 2 regular-season game that didn’t change the top of the poll was the 1966 classic between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Michigan State, which ended in a 10-10 tie.

Southern California moved up a spot to No. 3 with a 23-9 victory over California.

Florida (10-1) slipped a spot to No. 4 and Arkansas (10-1) remained No. 5. The Gators and Razorbacks meet in the Southeastern Conference championship game on Dec. 2.

Ohio State became the first team to have a perfect score (1.000) under the BCS formula. Michigan’s BCS average was .926. The Trojans, who have two games left, were at .919. Florida was in fourth place in the BCS standings with an average of .884, followed by Notre Dame (.820).

Gambling

Lottery numbers match OSU score

Ohio State’s 42-39 victory over Michigan also was lucky for players of the Ohio Lottery.

Shortly after Saturday’s game ended, the numbers 4-2-3-9 were drawn for the Pick 4 game.

Lottery spokeswoman Mardele Cohen said 401 $1 bets were made that picked 4-2-3-9 in order and each bet won $5,000. The odds of the numbers turning up in that combination were 10,000 to 1.

Kilbane said it’s likely that most of the bets with the winning numbers were placed after the game ended.

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