Fast Break

Baseball

Youkilis drive sits on wall

Kevin Youkilis’ drive squirted out of the webbing of Johnny Damon’s glove and bounced up off the top of the left-field wall in the third inning of Friday’s game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees at New York.

And bounced. And bounced.

The ball came to rest on top of the fence, which was shaking from the impact of the Yankees’ left fielder crashing into it as he tried to make a leaping catch. There the ball sat for several tantalizing seconds. The sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium wondered: Would it fall behind for a home run, roll back onto the field or just sit there?

Finally, the ball dropped back in and landed near Damon, who was sprawled on the warning track. A fan behind the fence frantically pointed to where the ball was.

Youkilis cruised into third base with a two-run triple that tied it at 3.

After Damon threw the ball back to the infield, Yankees manager Joe Girardi and a trainer attended to Damon, who was holding his ribs and shaking his arm.

Damon left the game and was replaced by Brett Gardner. He was diagnosed with a bruised and sprained left shoulder following an X-ray and MRI. Damon will be re-evaluated today.

Hockey

Avangard-Omsk signs Jagr

Less than 24 hours after Jaromir Jagr was told that the New York Rangers couldn’t wait any longer to try to negotiate a new deal, the 36-year-old Czech right winger signed a lucrative two-year contract with an option to play for Avangard-Omsk, a Russian team that is part of the new Continental Hockey League.

No terms were disclosed, but the offer is believed to be the equivalent of $7 million U.S., tax-free, per season to play in Omsk, where Jagr had skated in the former Russian Super League during the NHL lockout in 2004-05. The team’s general manager, Anatoly Bardin, had been publicly wooing Jagr since March.

Swimming

Phelps sets world record in 200 IM

Michael Phelps has set another world record, beating Ryan Lochte in the 200-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic trials at Omaha, Neb.

Phelps claimed his fourth individual victory of the trials with a time of 1 minute, 54.80 seconds, beating the mark of 1:54.98 he set while winning seven events at last year’s world championships.

Lochte had a pair of runner-up finishes, also losing to Aaron Peirsol by two-hundredths of a second in the 200 back.