CYCLING | Tour de France heads to Pyrenees in Stage 16

Vincenzo Nibali is in the yellow jersey as the Tour de France peloton set off on the longest stage, into the Pyrenees. The Italian holds a lead of more than 4½ minutes over second-place Alejandro Valverde of Spain. The 237.5-kilometer Stage 16 from Carcassonne to Bagneres-de-Luchon features an ascent up the super-tough Port de Bales.

BASEBALL

Ortiz homers twice, Red Sox rout Blue Jays 14-1

David Ortiz hit the 452nd and 453rd home runs of his career to move past Boston great Carl Yastrzemski into 36th place on the all-time list as the Red Sox won their fifth straight game yesterday with a resounding 14-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Ortiz matched Yastrzemski with a two-run blast to center off left-hander Brad Mills in the fourth, then broke the short-lived tie with another two-run shot off Mills in the fifth, his 21st and 22nd homers of the season. It was the third multihomer game of the season for Ortiz and the 44th of his career.

Basketball

Nets director talks up Russian exhibitions

Brooklyn Nets director Sergei Kushchenko is talking up the chances of the NBA club playing pre-season exhibitions against teams from the Russia-based VTB United League. Kushchenko, who is also the VTB league president, suggests he could use his dual role to set up games. NBA exhibitions against VTB teams are “possible,” especially if “those Brooklyn Nets” are involved, he told Russia’s Itar-TASS news agency. The last NBA team to play a Russian team was the San Antonio Spurs, which beat CSKA Moscow 95-93 last year.