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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Melky Cabrera’s 50-game suspension comes just as reliever Guillermo Mota is nearing his return to the Giants from a 100-game performance-enhancing drug penalty of his own.
Yes, San Francisco now accounts for two of the four suspensions this season under the major league drug program — and suddenly the Giants are back in the spotlight for performance-enhancing drugs several years after the club had finally moved forward from the Mitchell Report and BALCO mess.
“Unfortunately, these things happen in baseball,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “There’s not a lot you can do about it. I guess the best thing we can do is keep educating players so these things don’t happen. I can’t dwell on these things.”
Cabrera, the 28-year-old MVP of last month’s All-Star game, was suspended 50 games Wednesday following a positive test for testosterone. That puts an abrupt end to what had been a remarkable regular season and throws the Giants’ playoff hopes into doubt.
“Ultimately, it was just a bad decision,” catcher Buster Posey said. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Right down to his red shirt, Rory McIlroy looked every bit the part of golf's next star in another command performance at the PGA Championship.

McIlroy validated his record-setting U.S. Open win last year by blowing away the field Sunday at Kiawah Island. One last birdie from 25 feet on the 18th hole gave him a 6-under 66 for an eight-shot victory, breaking the PGA Championship record for margin of victory that Jack Nicklaus set in 1980.

The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland returned to No. 1 in the world, and he became the youngest player since Seve Ballesteros to win two majors. Tiger Woods was about four months older than McIlroy when he won his second major.

Just like the U.S. Open, this one was never seriously in doubt.

LONDON (AP) — First-time Olympian Alex Morgan already has her defining moment: A game-winning goal in overtime that put the U.S. women’s soccer team into the gold medal match.
And it came on a header, the very skill that was supposed to be a weakness in her game.
The lightning-fast striker brings beautiful goals to game at the formative age of 23. Long after Abby Wambach, Christie Rampone and the other vets have retired, it’s a reasonable bet that Morgan will be the face of the U.S. national team.
“She’s still a genetic freak, in my opinion,” Wambach said. “She makes plays that you don’t expect anybody to make.”

LONDON (AP) — A Chinese badminton star is apparently quitting the sport after she was one of eight players disqualified from the doubles tournament at the London Olympics for trying to lose.
A comment on a verified account for Yu Yang on the Tencent microblogging service late Wednesday read: “This is my last game. Farewell Badminton World Federation. Farewell my dear badminton.”
Yu’s retirement could not be immediately confirmed with Chinese badminton officials. In China, the lives of top athletes are closely controlled by sports officials.
Yu and Wang Xiaoli were one of four doubles teams which appeared to play poorly on purpose to secure a more favorable position in the next phase of the event.