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FORT WORTH, Texas — John Hunter Nemechek moved into the round of eight of the Xfinity Series playoffs with a win at Texas, where he took the final lead after front-running Justin Allgaier got moved up the track on the 195th of 200 laps on Saturday.

It was the seventh win of the season for Nemechek, the fifth in the past 12 races in his Toyota.

Nemechek was running behind Allgaier and Parker Klingerman, who appeared to get loose on the inside and sent the leader up the track. Nemechek, who led 38 laps, then tucked in behind Klingerman going on the frontstretch before racing by him.

“Well, I messed up that final restart. It bounced out of third gear. That one was on me. I knew that I had to push hard and try to recover right there,” Nemechek said. “Hats off to the 20 team, Joe Gibbs Racing. It is absolutely amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish so far this year and I don’t think we are done yet.”

The top eight finishers were all playoff contenders, with only a race at the Roval in Charlotte in two weeks remaining before the series moves into its second playoff round. There will be nine drivers competing for five remaining spots.

“My goal coming into today was to lock ourselves in to the next round,” Nemechek said. “Going into the Roval and not having to worry about that is definitely a relief.”

Allgaier was already in the round of eight after winning the playoff opener at Bristol, and the JR Motorsports driver won both stages for the 10th time this season before finishing fifth. Cole Custer also clinched a spot in the round of eight on points by finishing sixth.

Klingerman was the runner-up ahead of Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith. Austin Hill was seventh, and Sheldon Creed eighth.

The late slip wasn’t the first time that Allgaier, who led four times for 134 laps, slid out of the lead at the 1 1/2-mile oval. He was in front after a restart with 86 laps remaining when he got loose and drifted up the track as other cars drove by him. He fell all the way to 15th.

With a temperature of 99 degrees, five degrees warmer than last September, it again was the hottest Xfinity race at Texas. Temperatures inside some cars exceeded 130 degrees.

Sammy Smith had issues with the cool shirt, while Josh Williams was replaced by another driver in the No. 92 midway through the race after he started feeling bad.

“My cool shirt broke at the end of stage one, and it was just miserable,” Smith said.

There were 12 cautions, a season high for the Xfinity Series. That was one below the track record.

Playoff contenders Josh Berry and Hill got caught up in an incident on lap 98, after the restart following the second stage when Trevor Bayne got loose in Turn 4.

After clipping the right rear of Berry’s car, Bayne slid down the track and was hit by Hill, who was behind that mess after losing seven spots — from third to 10th — in the pits on the yellow flag at the end of the second stage.

Playoff driver Sam Mayer crashed out from his third consecutive race, and this time the No. 1 JR Motorsports car didn’t even complete the first lap. Mayer got loose out of Turn 2 and slammed hard into the wall. He finished last in the 38-car field.

In the playoff opener at Bristol last week, Mayer and teammate Berry were involved in a crash with each other. Mayer finished 35th, still two spots better than the regular-season finale at Kansas when he crashed out after finishing only 20 of 200 laps.

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Springer’s 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

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Springer's 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.

The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.

Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.

Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.

Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.

New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

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Astros’ Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

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Astros' Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

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Ohtani’s 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

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Ohtani's 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.

Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).

As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).

During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.

Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.

Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.

Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (3-6) got two quick outs in the first before walking Will Smith and Max Muncy back-to-back. Teoscar Hernández followed with an RBI single, Andy Pages hit a run-scoring double and Michael Conforto had a two-run single.

Chicago’s lone run came on Lenyn Sosa‘s RBI single in the third.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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