Jul 27, 2019 3 min read

Ortiz out of hospital after shooting

Former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is out of the hospital following three surgeries after being shot in the back at a bar in the Dominican Republic.

The Red Sox said Saturday that they’ve been told Ortiz has been released from Massachusetts General Hospital. The team said there will be an update on his condition next week.

ESPN reported the 43-year-old Ortiz has been home since Friday and will continue his recovery there.

Ortiz had been at the Boston hospital since June 10, a day after he was shot. Dominican police have said he was mistaken for another man who was sitting near him at the club.

A 10-time All-Star, Big Papi led the Red Sox to three World Series championships before retiring after the 2016 season.

Giants’ Tate suspended 4 games

New York Giants wide receiver Golden Tate has been suspended for four games for using a drug prescribed for fertility planning.

The 10-year veteran, who signed with the Giants in March as a free agent, announced the suspension in a Twitter post Saturday. He said he plans to appeal the violation of the NFL’s policy on performance enhancers and that he would have no further comment.

The NFL has not announced the suspension and it had no comment, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an email Saturday to The Associated Press.

Giants coach Pat Shurmur declined comment, saying the team will see what happens.

Tate practiced Saturday and he can practice throughout training camp. He will not be able to play in the first four regular-season games unless his suspension is overturned. That rarely happens.

Bernal nears

Tour de France win

One last but big obstacle stands between Colombian Egan Bernal and his first Tour de France victory, a landslide-shortened Stage 20 ridden in damp and unseasonably chilly weather to the ski station of Val Thorens on Saturday.

Torrential rains that turned the long climb to Val Thorens into a river prompted a late decision from organizers to close the route to the Tour’s caravan of publicity floats that usually rolls along distributing gifts each day a couple of hours ahead of the riders.

Instead, the caravan was staying in Albertville with the stage shortened to 59 kilometers (37 miles) and shorn of two of its three planned climbs.

Spectators who lined the Val Thorens ascent and its hairpin climbs shivered under umbrellas and coats as bolts of lightning lit up the mountains. But the storm, at least at Val Thorens, appeared to be abating as the start of the stage approached.

Bernal took the race lead when Stage 19 was dramatically cut short on Friday by a landslide across the route to Tignes and by a violent hailstorm that made road conditions too icy for riders racing on two wheels barely wider than their thumbs.