Second division FC Juarez will be play in Liga MX starting from the 2019 Apertura, after it bought first division club Lobos BUAP, Liga MX confirmed on Tuesday.

"The situation is like this: Juarez will participate in Liga MX next season in place of Lobos BUAP," Liga MX president Enrique Bonilla said at a press conference in Cancun on Tuesday. "It's done. It's been agreed by the assembly and from this moment we'll work on the schedule."

Lobos BUAP have a spot in the second division, but its future is as yet unknown, with their registration "frozen" until they present a new project to the league, according to Bonilla. Only 14 teams are set to compete in the second division next season, which had agreed a system of four points per away win in part due to the odd number of teams in the league.

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Atletico San Luis had won promotion to Liga MX last month via the Ascenso MX playoff, with Veracruz -- technically relegated from the top flight -- were able to pay a $6 million penalty to remain in the first division to keep it at 19 teams, despite the team finishing with zero points in the Liga MX Clausura season.

The deal to take Puebla-based Lobos BUAP to the northern border town of Juarez was widely rumored to take place last month.

Mexico's relegation system is worked out on an average points-per-game tally over the past six short seasons (three European seasons) with one team promoted and one relegated, but this isn't the first time there has been alternative means of pro/rel. In 2013, La Piedad won promotion and was uprooted to Veracruz, while San Luis was moved to Tuxtla Gutierrez and relabeled Chiapas Futbol Club. La Piedad was left without a team.

After the 2018 Clausura, Lobos BUAP was relegated, but was allowed to pay the penalty to stay in the first division because promoted side Cafetaleros de Tapachula didn't meet Liga MX requirements to take their place in the league.

Liga MX president Bonilla has previously said that the goal is for Liga MX to expand to 20 teams.

The 2019 Apertura tournament is due to start on July 19, giving Juarez just over a month to prepare.

Alex Morgan scored a record-tying five goals as the U.S. opened its Women's World Cup campaign with a tournament record 13-0 win over Thailand in Group F on Tuesday.

The pre-tournament favorites and defending champions took it right to Thailand in the opening minutes, with Morgan seeing a goal ruled out for offside inside of 10 minutes.

Minutes later, Morgan's second strike would stand up when she found space in between two Thai defenders and headed home a Kelley O'Hara cross to put the U.S. up 1-0.

Rose Lavelle doubled the lead for the Americans before the 20-minute mark, picking up the ball just inside the attacking third, dribbling to the top of the penalty area and smashing a swerving shot past Thailand keeper Sukanya Chor Charoenying.

A set piece led to the third goal for the U.S. just past 30 minutes as Lindsey Horan hit her close-range shot into the roof of the net and Thailand was lucky to not concede another before the break with Jill Ellis' team continuing to dominate the match and keep their opponents under constant pressure.

"We really just came into this game and really wanted to showcase ourselves and what we've been preparing for and what we've been working on," Morgan said after the match. "I think we did that. Every goal matters in this tournament and that's what we were working on this game."

The U.S. picked up right where it left off in the first half and then some after the break, scoring four goals in just over 10 minutes.

Sam Mewis, who started in midfield after Becky Sauerbrunn was held out for precautionary reasons with an injury, started things off in the 50th minute before Morgan and Lavelle added their second apiece and Julie Ertz scored soon after to make it 7-0.

Morgan completed her third and fourth as the match approached full-time and Megan Rapinoe added another on the counter-attack in between to put the U.S. up 10-0.

Substitute Mallory Pugh then scored to put the U.S. up 11-0 and Morgan added her fifth goal of the night to join countrywoman Michelle Akers as the only two women to score five in a single match at the World Cup.

Veteran Carli Lloyd then added a 13th goal of the night for the U.S. to reach the final scoreline and give the Americans a record for both margin of victory and goals scored, surpassing Germany in 2007 who beat Argentina 11-0.

The group-leading U.S., who had a 39-2 shot advantage to improve to 6-0-2 all-time in World Cup openers, next faces Chile before playing Sweden in its last match before the knockout rounds begin.

VISTA, Calif. -- A California jury that convicted former NFL player Kellen Winslow Jr. of raping a 58-year-old homeless woman was unable to break a deadlock on eight other counts Tuesday and a judge declared a mistrial on those charges.

The judge earlier denied a defense motion to dismiss the undecided charges involving the alleged rapes of a 54-year-old hitchhiker and an unconscious teen.

Prosecutors did not immediately say whether they would retry those charges. Winslow currently faces up to nine years in prison. Conviction on all charges could bring a life sentence.

The San Diego County Superior Court jury on Monday found Winslow guilty of an attack last year on the homeless woman in Encinitas, north of San Diego. The jury also found the 35-year-old former tight end guilty of indecent exposure and lewd conduct involving two other women, but jurors found him not guilty of one count of a lewd act.

The jury told the court Monday that it was deadlocked on the other charges, but the judge had ordered them to resume deliberations on Tuesday.

All five women testified during the nine-day trial. Winslow, who played for Cleveland, Tampa Bay, New England and the New York Jets, did not take the stand.

Defense attorneys pointed out inconsistencies in the accusers' testimonies and argued the women invented the allegations to prey on the wealth of Winslow, who reportedly earned over $40 million during his 10 seasons in the NFL.

The five women testified that they didn't know Winslow was famous when they met him.

Prosecutors said Winslow -- the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow -- felt empowered by his fame to abuse the most vulnerable. Prosecutor Dan Owens told the jury of eight men and four women that Winslow is a "wolf in sheep's clothing.''

The homeless woman in Encinitas testified that Winslow befriended her and attacked her next to his vehicle after inviting her for a coffee in May 2018.

The 54-year-old hitchhiker said he drove her to an Encinitas shopping center parking lot and raped her in his Hummer in March 2018.

A 57-year-old woman said he exposed himself to her while she tended to her garden in May 2018. The jury found him guilty of that charge Monday.

After news of the attacks broke, a woman came forward and said Winslow had raped her when she was a 17-year-old high school student in 2003. He was 19 at the time and had come home from college for the summer.

A 77-year-old woman who went to the same gym as Winslow in the nearby beach community of Carlsbad said he committed lewd acts in front of her, including touching himself, while Winslow was free on $2 million bail in February. The jury found him guilty of touching himself in front of the woman while she exercised, but not guilty of committing a lewd act in front of her on a separate occasion in the gym's hot tub.

Defense attorney Marc Carlos questioned the credibility of the women's claims, saying they had lied, misconstrued things or were unable to initially identify Winslow correctly. Defense lawyers also said the sex was consensual and that Winslow had cheated on his wife repeatedly with no-strings-attached sex.

Prosecutors said the crux of the women's accusations didn't change and that evidence included traces of Winslow's DNA on one of the accuser's pants and GPS locations placing him where the women said the assaults occurred.

Jurors on Friday sent a note to the judge indicating they were struggling to reach agreement.

"The jurors could benefit from an explanation as to what being under oath means," the note said. "Additionally, how we should follow the law and not what we think the law means."

The judge told jurors that being under oath means telling the whole truth and that they should follow the law how it is written.

NEW YORK -- Hall of Famer Jim Thome and former pitcher Dennis Martinez will be the managers in a revamped All-Star Futures Game at Cleveland on July 7.

In its 21st year, the game is switching formats and will match American League prospects against National League prospects. Previously, a world team faced U.S. players.

In addition, the game is being shortened from nine innings to seven, which was the length in the initial Futures Game in 1999.

The commissioner's office said Wednesday that Thome will lead the AL team and Martinez the NL. Both are former Indians players.

The U.S. has won 13 of 20 Futures Games, including eight of the last nine.

MIAMI -- St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina has been activated from the 10-day injured list, and the team optioned rookie catcher Andrew Knizner to Triple-A Memphis.

The moves were made before Tuesday night's game at Miami.

Molina missed 11 games after being sidelined May 29 with a strained right thumb tendon. At the time of his injury, Molina led all major league catchers in games, innings caught, RBIs and hits.

He collected his 1,900th career hit May 25.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Strikeouts are up, again, for the 14th consecutive year, but there are potential signs of a subtle shift beginning to take place, evident at the sport's highest levels.

Monday's Freeway Series opener between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels wasn't merely a matchup of the game's two best performers this season. It was a reminder of how the best ones -- at the right age, with the right technology -- can continually improve, even when the momentum is so profound in the other direction.

Cody Bellinger and Mike Trout were tied for the major league lead with 4.5 FanGraphs wins above replacement when the week began, but it was their improved strikeout-to-walk ratios that stood out most.

Trout averaged 40 more strikeouts than walks in seven full seasons heading into 2019, but has walked 13 more times than he has struck out this year. Bellinger struck out a combined 144 more times than he walked from 2017 to 2018, but has compiled one more walk than he has strikeouts through the Dodgers' first 67 games of 2019.

The Angels and Dodgers are among the best at this collectively, ranking first and fourth respectively in strikeout percentage. They stand as the two most selective teams in baseball, elite at a simple concept that is exceedingly difficult against this era's pitchers -- ignoring balls and damaging strikes. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes the rest of the sport might be starting to catch up, that the pendulum might finally be moving in the other direction.

"It's going to swing back," he said. "I've seen more guys trying to beat the shift with the swing, with the bunt, trying to put the ball in play. Guys are starting to make more of a two-strike adjustment. I think around baseball, managers, hitting coaches are talking more about it. I don't ever see it getting back to where it was before because guys still want to slug. But for me, that's what's going to make the really good players and the elite players remain elite."

Below is a look at how two of the best have made such a difficult enhancement.

Cody Bellinger

The most important numbers: Bellinger has clearly stepped into a different stratosphere this season, and one of the biggest reasons for that stems from his sudden ability to pulverize pitches traveling low and inside. Bellinger is a .438/.600/1.000 hitter on balls thrown in that location, a significant increase from the .220/.418/.380 slash line he posted on those pitches last year. His strikeout rate in that zone was 32.8 percent in 2018. This year, it's down to 20.

How he did it: Scouts have noted that Bellinger is standing closer to the plate, particularly with his back foot, which is giving him better coverage and has played a big part in helping him cut his strikeout rate from 23.9 to 14.1. Brant Brown, the Dodgers' assistant hitting coach, said there was never a conscious effort by Bellinger to move closer to the plate. "I think it was more comfort and where his direction goes with his stride," Brown said.

The question is: How is Bellinger able to do such damage on low-and-in pitches while standing so close to the plate? Bellinger smiled and shrugged. "I don't know, man."

Sustainability: Brown will point to Bellinger's improved two-strike approach as evidence that he can continue to keep the strikeouts down and the walks up. "I think that's the maturation process of the mental process of knowing what their put-away pitches are, where do we think they're going to throw you with two strikes, things of that nature. But also shortening up his swing, aiming to move the ball forward," Brown said. "And I think he's found out, too, even when he's in his two-strike approach and he's trying to either be shorter, or do less, when he still gets the ball on the barrel, there's plenty of power there."

Mike Trout

The most important numbers: With Trout, it's very simple: He's chasing less than ever (swinging at a career-low 16.7 percent of pitches outside of the strike zone) and swinging more efficiently than ever (making contact with a career-high 93.3 percent of pitches within the strike zone). He is famously simple-minded, and when analyzing opposing pitchers, the most important piece of information for Trout is merely which pitches they go to, and in which zones, when they're in trouble.

How he did it: Unlike Bellinger, who moved closer to the plate and reverted back to a swing that more closely resembled that of 2017, Trout hasn't made any noticeable mechanical changes. He credits his improved strikeout-to-walk ratio -- a clearly stated goal heading into 2019 -- to "experience over time, seeing guys more than once." Jeremy Reed, the Angels' new hitting coach, also alluded to a major point of emphasis from the new coaching staff.

"We stress passing the baton, I would say, and getting guys to understand that we can scare them out of the hitting zone and we can make them throw strikes," Reed said. "When guys scuffle in those areas, we remind them. And if there's areas that we need to work on behind the scenes, we do that too to try to get them back in the zone. We try to preach that being in the zone gives us a chance to do damage. Swinging out of the zone can only hurt us."

Sustainability: Angels manager Brad Ausmus offers a reminder that Trout is still only 27, which is an age when hitters can make dramatic improvements. "He's developing," Ausmus said. "You forget how young he is, really. He's been such a good offensive player for all of his years in the big leagues, and I think you forget that he's still learning as a hitter. He's learning what he can and can't hit well. I also think pitchers are a lot more cautious with him than they probably might be in the past."

Austrian world number four Dominic Thiem has offered to play doubles with Serena Williams at Wimbledon to put their French Open dispute behind them.

Thiem had accused Williams of showing "bad personality" after he was asked to relocate a media conference to make way for the 23-time Grand Slam champion.

"Probably it was not Serena's mistake. I find her achievements unbelievable, sensational." he said on Tuesday.

"I would like to make amends with her in Wimbledon or US Open mixed doubles."

Thiem, beaten in the men's French Open final by Rafael Nadal, now believes tournament organisers were to blame for the incident that saw him shunted out of the interview room where he had begun answering questions following his fourth-round win over Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas.

"In retrospect, it was funny that such an organisational mistake happened at a Grand Slam tournament," he added.

"What I do not understand is that it blew up so much."

Williams won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1998 as a 16-year-old playing alongside Belarus' Max Mirnyi, and teamed up with fellow American Francis Tiafoe in the Hopman Cup in January.

Thiem lost to Nadal in the French Open final for a second successive year last weekend and says he is confident on improving on previous displays at Wimbledon where he has only got beyond the second round once in five visits.

"Wimbledon is special, it is the most prestigious tournament in the world," he added.

"I want to show myself better than last year. At that time I was slightly injured and had to give up in the first round [retiring against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis]. Now I see good chances to get relatively far."

Thiem will begin his grass-court preparations at the Halle tournament in Germany before Wimbledon starts on 1 July.