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KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Tyler Reddick will start from the pole in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Kansas Speedway.

Reddick leaned on his extensive background driving dirt late models to ride the rim around the mile-and-a-half track on Saturday. He stopped the clock in 29.899 seconds, denying Joey Logano a second straight pole.

“It took off fast. I was really happy with the car,” Reddick said. “It definitely likes the top two or three grooves of this race track, but just really happy with the entire performance of our team today.”

It’s the first time that Reddick, who is fifth in the playoff standings, has earned the pole on an oval.

“I’m really excited about that,” he said, “and it’s crazy — I think my first Xfinity pole came here, too.”

The drivers who made the final round had to contend with changing conditions – the first few qualifying laps were made under cloud cover, while the sun began peeking out for Austin Cindric and remained out the rest of the session.

They also had to decide whether to ride the far outside groove or a line that was slightly lower on the track.

Christopher Bell, who opted for the rim, was the fastest in the first group of five with a lap of 30.057 seconds. And he was pleased with the time for Joe Gibbs Racing, telling his team over the radio, “That’s all I got, buddy.”

It was enough to start alongside Alex Bowman on the outside of the second row.

Bowman took a slightly lower line around the track and posted a time of 29.964 seconds before Logano overtook him down the back stretch and carried enough speed through Turn 3 and Turn 4 to set a new best time of 29.936.

“I thought we had a pretty good lap,” Logano said. “Our car was tighter than it was the first run. It was so good the first run that we didn’t want to adjust too much. We picked up a lot from practice and laid down a pretty good lap.”

Just not quite as good as Reddick, who landed the No. 8 of Richard Childress Racing up front.

“This place continues to change. It’s the kind of track you can move around a lot,” he said. “Just the amount of on-throttle time you have is a big adjustment and, thankfully, we got it pretty good and got to the last round.”

The top five starting spots belong to playoff drivers with Ross Chastain rounding it out. Bubba Wallace qualified sixth, ahead of three more playoff drivers in Kyle Larson, Cindric and William Byron. Chris Buescher will start 10th.

The rest of the playoff field has some ground to make up.

Austin Dillon will start 11th with Chase Briscoe in 13th, Kevin Harvick behind him, and Daniel Suárez in 15th. Ryan Blaney qualified 17th with Kyle Busch in 20th, Chase Elliott in 22nd and Denny Hamlin 25th.

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Bellinger has rib fracture; Cubs add top prospect

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Bellinger has rib fracture; Cubs add top prospect

Chicago Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger has a fractured right rib and has been placed on the 10-day injured list, manager Craig Counsell told 670 The Score on Wednesday.

Bellinger, a two-time All-Star selection, collided with the center-field wall during Tuesday’s game while tracking a fly ball hit by Houston‘s Yainer Diaz that went for a double and scored Kyle Tucker. He left the game an inning later.

In a corresponding move, the Cubs called up Pete Crow-Armstrong, their top prospect.

Bellinger, in the midst of a seven-game hitting streak, is batting .226 with five home runs and 17 RBIs this season.

Crow-Armstrong, 22, made his MLB debut last September and went 0-for-14 with three walks. He’s batting .203 with two home runs, five doubles and seven RBIs at Triple-A Iowa this season.

Field Level Media contributed to this report.

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Struggling Cards OF Walker demoted to minors

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Struggling Cards OF Walker demoted to minors

St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker has been demoted to the minor leagues after a slow start to the season.

The Cardinals announced before Wednesday afternoon’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks that Walker and left-handed pitcher Zack Thompson were optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Infielder Jose Fermin and left-hander John King were recalled from Memphis in corresponding moves.

Walker, 21, is batting .155 with no home runs, 4 RBIs and a .497 OPS in 20 games this season, his second with the Cardinals. The former top prospect had been mired in a 3-for-27 slump over his past 11 games.

The 6-foot-6 Walker is one of several players struggling offensively for the Cardinals (10-14), who entered Wednesday with just 16 homers as a team — second worst in the majors behind only the Chicago White Sox — and rank in the bottom five in MLB in most major categories, including batting average (.218), runs (82), slugging percentage (.336) and OPS (.637).

Walker entered 2023 as a consensus top-five overall prospect and delivered a solid rookie season, batting .276 with 16 homers, 51 RBIs and a .787 OPS.

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Giants’ Snell scratched from start, placed on IL

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Giants' Snell scratched from start, placed on IL

The San Francisco Giants scratched left-hander Blake Snell from his scheduled start Wednesday and placed the two-time Cy Young Award winner on the 15-day injured list with a left adductor strain.

Right-hander Landen Roupp was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento by the Giants, who tabbed right-hander Ryan Walker (2-2, 3.46 ERA) to make his first start of the season Wednesday against the visiting New York Mets.

Walker, 28, worked a scoreless inning of relief in San Francisco’s 5-2 win over New York on Monday.

Snell, 31, is 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA in three starts. He has yet to recapture the form that allowed him to secure his second Cy Young Award while pitching for the San Diego Padres in 2023.

Snell owns a 71-58 record with a 3.30 ERA in 194 career games (all starts) with the Tampa Bay Rays, Padres and Giants.

Roupp, 25, has registered a 4.35 ERA without recording a decision in eight relief appearances this season with San Francisco.

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