CLEVELAND — Guardians shortstop Gabriel Arias was taken off the field on a cart after sustaining a left ankle sprain in the third inning of Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

X-rays were negative, and there was no word on the severity of the sprain.

Arias went deep into the hole to field a grounder hit by Masyn Winn with one out, but caught his left spike on the grass and awkwardly rolled his ankle. The ball wound up in left field for a single.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pounder immediately grabbed his lower leg and remained prone on the field for several minutes. He was fitted with an immobilizer before being lifted onto the medical cart that drove him off the field.

Arias is batting .231 with six homers and 31 RBIs in 77 games. This is the 25-year-old Venezuelan’s first full season as a starter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

HOUSTON — Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña was held out of the lineup for a second straight game Sunday.

Peña continues to make progress after leaving the Astros’ win over the Chicago Cubs on Friday in the fifth inning because of rib soreness, manager Joe Espada said.

Peña was hit in the ribs by Cade Horton‘s pitch during the second inning Friday. Imaging did not reveal a fracture, and Peña has been able to swing a bat the past two days.

“It’s just still pretty sore, so no need to rush to get him in there,” Espada said.

The Astros are off Monday before starting a series in Colorado on Tuesday.

Peña played in the Astros’ first 82 games of the season and batted .322 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs.

The private equity firm at the centre of a string of bidding wars for British companies is leading the £1.7bn race to buy the owner of Argos’s store-card operations.

Sky News has learnt that KKR is the frontrunner to buy NewDay Group, which is owned by the buyout firms Cinven and CVC Capital Partners.

KKR is not in exclusive talks, and other parties – said to include Pimco, the asset management giant, KKR, and a Bain Capital-led consortium – remain in contention to acquire NewDay.

Some of the bidders, such as Pimco, have been interested in pursuing a deal to buy NewDay’s consumer loan book rather than the company as a whole; others including KKR are understood to be interested in acquiring the whole business, but potentially with its existing shareholders remaining invested for a period of time.

NewDay, which took ownership of Argos’s store card business last year in a £720m deal with J Sainsbury, the supermarket giant, has been exploring a sale or stock market listing for months.

Last November, Sky News reported that NewDay’s owners were lining up investment bankers at Barclays to advise on a process.

NewDay is one of Britain’s biggest privately held providers of consumer credit services, with about four million customers.

Last year, it reported £213m of underlying pre-tax profit, with new customer acquisitions up 36%.

It also launched a technology and lending partnership with Lloyds Banking Group, and launched the pilot of a technology partnership with Debenhams Group in the final quarter of last year.

KKR has become engaged in bidding wars in recent months for Assura, the GP surgeries landlord, and testing equipment provider Spectris – both of which are listed on the London stock market.

NewDay, KKR and CVC declined to comment.