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Scotland: Belgian Sebastien Pocognoli frontrunner to be new head coach

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Former Monaco head coach Sebastien Pocognoli has been identified by the Scottish FA as their prime candidate to replace Steve Clarke.

The 39-year-old Belgian, who left Monaco at the end of last season, previously led Union Saint-Gilloise to a first league title in 90 years in 2024/25.

Pocognoli is one of several candidates to have been spoken to by Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell and Craig Mulholland, who was appointed as the association’s chief football officer in May.

And it is thought an appointment could be imminent, with Scotland returning to action in the Nations League with a four-game block of fixtures, starting in Slovenia on 26 September.

Pocognoli spent time in England during his playing career, turning out for West Bromwich Albion and Brighton, and earned 13 caps for Belgium.

Clarke – who had signed a new four-year deal in May – resigned following the group-stage exit at the World Cup, ending his seven-year tenure.

Steven Naismith, who served as one of his assistant, said last month he expects to continue in the national team set-up under a new boss.

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Yankees make Toronto look like house of horrors again in ugly loss to Blue Jays

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TORONTO — For the New York Yankees, the ugliness piled high like a plate of poutine Friday night.

A brief rundown of the Yankees’ 3-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays?

They threw around the baseball. Star rookie George Lombard Jr. made a mistake in a crucial moment. They couldn’t hit — again. They wasted good starting pitching — again. Manager Aaron Boone got ejected.

It was like a flashback to the 2025 Yankees, who played terribly at the Rogers Centre, going 1-6 in the regular season and 0-2 in the playoffs en route to an American League Division Series exit at the hands of the Blue Jays.

“We had some chances tonight,” Boone said. “Obviously, just couldn’t break it open.”

Blame Canada?

Not quite.

“We’ve just got to stay positive, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to be able to turn things around and positive and better things will come,” first baseman Luis García Jr. said via the team’s Spanish interpreter.

How can the Dodgers solve their sudden closer issue?

Ken Rosenthal and Johnny Sweet

It would have helped if the Yankees’ offense had shown up. And if that wasn’t going to happen, a spotless showing on defense would have helped.

Neither occurred. Fortunately for the Yankees, the first-place Tampa Bay Rays also lost, keeping their deficit in the AL East standings at 6 1/2 games.

Here were the biggest stains on a terrible night for the Yankees:

Wasting Gerrit Cole

Gerrit Cole has lowered his season ERA from above 4.00 at the beginning of July to 3.22 after Friday night. (Vaughn Ridley / Getty Images)

Cole gave up just one earned run in six innings to drop his season ERA to 3.22 in 15 starts. It should have been more than enough to help the Yankees beat Toronto starter Shane Bieber, who entered Friday with a 5.48 ERA.

But, once again, the Yankees’ offense was a disappointment — and nobody had a good explanation as to how it might turn around anytime soon.

Trent Grisham’s home run to lead off the sixth inning was the Yankees’ only run. They stranded Spencer Jones on third base after he led off the fourth inning with a hustle double to center field. They went hitless in three at-bats with runners in scoring position after entering the night hitting an MLB-worst .220 with RISP since Aaron Judge (stress fracture right first rib) last played May 31.

“At the end of the day,” Boone said, “we’ve got to push runners across when we have the opportunity because that’s where we struggled. We’ve got to make it happen.”

Still, it was better than Thursday, when the Yankees were blanked 1-0 by the Seattle Mariners. That afternoon, they wasted five innings and one run allowed from co-ace Max Fried.

Cole said all the right things postgame, including how the lack of run support isn’t getting to the Yankees pitchers, even as they feature the best ERA in the majors at 3.27.

“As a pitching staff,” Cole said, “maybe we actually take a little bit of pride in that. It’s a challenge.”

Major mistakes

Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., with his batting helmet in the air, gathers himself near third base.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., left, collided with George Lombard Jr. and ended up scoring from first base when the Yankees made two errors on an infield groundball. (Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images via Reuters Connect)

In the third inning, the Blue Jays took advantage of Lombard’s lack of familiarity with the Rogers Centre turf, throwing him out as he strayed too far past second base on Grisham’s single. Lombard rounded the bag, and right fielder Nathan Lukes threw the ball straight to shortstop Andrés Giménez, who got Lombard into a rundown.

Lombard yelled as he ran down the dugout steps into the clubhouse, clearly upset with himself. Boone said Lombard was “late” in picking up the hold signal from third-base coach Luis Rojas.

“That’s a play,” Boone said, “where the ball’s hit firm like that, especially on the turf, you know it’s probably going to be a base-to-base situation. So you can’t aggressively round the bag in that situation. The read on that is, ‘OK, hard-hit ball, I know this is probably a station-to-station. But I pick up Luis before I get to the bag, so if something happens where I get sent …’ So just overly aggressive on the turn. Obviously a mistake there.”

The Yankees went Bad News Bears in the sixth. With one out and runners on first and second, third baseman Ryan McMahon fielded George Springer’s grounder and tagged third base for an out. But in his attempt at a double play, McMahon’s throw to first base was short and García couldn’t scoop it.

The ball skipped into the air and García somehow dropped his mitt. Then, with his bare hands, García grabbed the ball and fired toward third base in an attempt to throw out Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

The problem? García didn’t stop to see if anyone was actually at third base. His throw rolled past the bag, and Lombard — trying desperately to stop it — collided with Guerrero, his hip driving right into Guerrero’s face. Still, Guerrero scored as the ball trickled away.

That tied the score at 1-1.

McMahon said his low throw to first base put García “in a tough spot.” But Boone said García should have read the situation better.

“Should have obviously held it,” Boone said.

In the next at-bat, Alejandro Kirk ripped an RBI double off Cole to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead.

‘Tired’ ejection

Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected for the fourth time this season and 50th time in his managerial career. (Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images)

Boone notched the 50th ejection of his managerial career in the sixth inning arguing a low strike call.

Plate umpire Vic Carapazza wasn’t having it. After Boone yelled from the dugout, television cameras picked up Carapazza asking Boone what he said. Then the umpire threw him out.

Boone immediately bounded from the dugout, getting into Carapazza’s face before yelling some more at first-base umpire Nic Lentz.

“Don’t take your horses— night out on me,” Boone could be seen telling Carapazza.

Before that at-bat, the Automated Ball-Strike system had been used to reverse four calls against Carapazza.

“It’s just a tired toss with (an umpire) who was struggling early on in this game,” Boone said.

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GB's women and men through to 4x100m relay finals

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Amy Hunt and Zharnel Hughes run as Great Britain’s women and men make the 4x100m relay finals later on Saturday with convincing qualifying heats.

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How to watch Cardinals vs. Cubs: TV channel and streaming options for August 15

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The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals play on Saturday at 2:20 p.m. ET, at Wrigley Field. Matthew Boyd (8-1, 3.50 ERA) will start for the Cubs, who are 72-51 this season and second in the NL Central. Michael McGreevy (4-9, 3.64 ERA) is expected to start for the Cardinals, who are 61-61 and third in the NL Central.

How to watch St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs

Cardinals vs. Cubs odds

  • Favorite Moneyline: Cubs -182
  • Underdog Moneyline: Cardinals +150
  • Total: 9.5
  • Total Over Odds: +100
  • Total Under Odds: -120

Injury reports

Cubs

Matt Shaw: 10 Day IL (Hand), Daniel Palencia: 15 Day IL (Elbow), Hoby Milner: 15 Day IL (Appendicitis), Gavin Hollowell: 15 Day IL (Shoulder), Phil Maton: 15 Day IL (Knee), Edward Cabrera: 15 Day IL (Hamstring), Riley Martin: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Porter Hodge: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Justin Steele: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Shelby Miller: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Hunter Harvey: 60 Day IL (Tricep), Cade Horton: 60 Day IL (Forearm), Christopher Austin: 60 Day IL (Knee), Ben Brown: 60 Day IL (Neck)

Cardinals

Ramón Urías: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Max Rajcic: 60 Day IL (Elbow)

Stats to know

  • Chicago’s Pete Crow-Armstrong is slashing .279/.378/.534 this season with 27 home runs (9th in MLB), 73 RBIs (17th in MLB) and an OPS of .912 (7th in MLB). He has a 27.1% strikeout rate and an 11.9% walk rate in 546 plate appearances, and he has scored 86 total runs. Crow-Armstrong has recorded 30 steals on 37 attempts.
  • In 549 plate appearances, Alex Bregman has hit 16 long balls, tallied 61 RBIs and scored 69 runs. He is batting .253/.344/.406 and has posted a 15.8% strikeout rate and an 11.1% walk rate.
  • Alec Burleson is hitting for a .285 BA, .352 OBP and .478 SLG with a 16.4% strikeout rate and an 8.6% walk rate. His OPS is .830 and he has scored 65 runs. In 512 plate appearances, he has hit 19 home runs and driven in 84 runs (4th in MLB).
  • In 503 plate appearances, Jordan Walker has slashed .282/.342/.486 this season. He has hit 23 long balls and driven in 84 runs (4th in MLB) with a strikeout rate of 24.5% and a walk rate of 8%. He has stolen 16 bases on 21 attempts and has scored 72 runs.

This watch guide was created using technology provided by Data Skrive.

Betting/odds, ticketing and streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

Photo: Jamie Squire, Ishika Samant, Scott Taetsch, Alika Jenner / Getty Images

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