The NBA announced Friday that guard Tyreke Evans has been dismissed and disqualified from the league for violating the terms of the NBA/National Basketball Players Association anti-drug program.

Under the program, he is eligible to apply for reinstatement in two years.

Evans, 29, played for the Indiana Pacers this season, averaging 10.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 20.3 minutes per game. He was due to become a free agent this offseason.

The Pacers said they were informed Friday of Evans' discipline.

"We take these matters seriously and will reach out to Tyreke to offer our support," the team said in a statement.

Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard declined further comment at the NBA draft combine in Chicago.

According to the NBA's guidelines, a player can be dismissed and disqualified from the league for testing positive for a drug of abuse, or if he is convicted of or pleads guilty to the use, possession or distribution of a drug of abuse.

Among players who have been banned under the policy, the most recent are O.J. Mayo and Chris Andersen. Others include Roy Tarpley, Richard Dumas, Micheal Ray Richardson, Lewis Lloyd, Duane Washington and Stanley Roberts, many of whom were eventually reinstated.

A player can be reinstated only with the approval of both the NBA and the players' association.

Evans has played 10 seasons in the NBA and was Rookie of the Year in 2010. He was drafted by the Sacramento Kings out of Memphis with the fourth overall pick in 2009. He has also played for the New Orleans Pelicans and the Memphis Grizzlies.

Evans sat out one game early in the season for violating team rules and issued an apology then for being late to practice. He also missed three games late in the year due to personal reasons and a respiratory infection.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The San Francisco Giants reinstated catcher Buster Posey from the concussion list Friday.

Posey went on the list May 9, but he said the injury occurred against the Cincinnati Reds on May 5, when a foul ball hit his helmet.

"They are going to take extra time to find out how I am," Posey said when he went on the list. "When they examined me, they felt I should have felt more normal after three days. When you are dealing with the brain, you've got to be cautious."

The six-time All-Star and 2012 National League MVP is batting .245 with two home runs and 13 RBIs for the Giants.

It's Posey's second time on the concussion list. He missed seven games because of a concussion in 2017. Manager Bruce Bochy said the team is being more vigilant because Posey, 32, has suffered multiple concussions in his career.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The St. Louis Cardinals have activated Carlos Martinez from the injured list after the right-hander missed the first 44 games of the season because of a strained right shoulder cuff.

The club also designated veteran right-hander Luke Gregerson for assignment before Friday's interleague game at the Texas Rangers while recalling rookie reliever Ryan Helsley from Triple-A Memphis and sending down right-hander Dominic Leone.

Martinez was a two-time All-Star as a starter for St. Louis before making 18 of his 33 appearances out of the bullpen last season. The 27-year-old is expected to be used as a reliever.

It is the second time Helsley has been brought up from the minors this season. The 24-year-old right-hander gave up two runs in 6 1/3 innings over three appearances in his first stint.

Gregerson, a 35-year-old who hadn't pitched since last July when he was activated May 4 coming off right shoulder impingement, allowed five runs and 11 hits over 5 2/3 innings in six relief appearances. Leone has an 8.02 ERA in 20 games out of the bullpen.

The Minnesota Twins put designated hitter Nelson Cruz on the injured list with a left wrist strain Friday.

Cruz was pulled from Sunday's game against the Detroit Tigers after aggravating the wrist on a swinging strike. He has since missed four games.

Cruz, 38, is hitting .270 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs in 35 games for the AL Central-leading Twins.

He will be eligible to be activated when the Twins return home from a West Coast trip to host the Chicago White Sox on May 24. Infielder Luis Arraez was recalled from Triple-A Rochester to take Cruz's roster spot.

MIAMI -- Twelve years later, Carlos Gomez is back in the New York Mets' lineup.

New York selected Gomez's contract from Triple-A Syracuse and had him batting sixth and in right field Friday night at Miami.

The Mets placed outfielder Michael Conforto on the seven-day injured list due to a concussion, and designated outfielder Keon Broxton for assignment. They recalled right-hander Paul Sewald from Syracuse.

Gomez, an All-Star for Milwaukee in 2013-14, last played for the Mets when he was a rookie in 2007. They signed the 33-year-old outfielder to a minor league contract in March, and he batted .270 with 22 RBIs in 35 games for Syracuse.

"He obviously has been swinging the ball really well," Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. "The defense has been outstanding, the leadership, the baserunning. From top to bottom the reports have been excellent. That's why he's up here getting a chance to help us win some games."

Broxton is batting.143 in 34 games. The Mets hope to keep him in their system.

"It just wasn't happening for him," Callaway said. "We have confidence this kid can play. We are very hopeful he is going to be back in the organization and help us at some point this year."

Conforto was hurt Thursday in Washington when he collided with a teammate while chasing a popup. On Friday he saw a neurologist, who prescribed no baseball activities for the next couple of days, and a re-evaluation is expected Monday.

The flurry of roster moves came with the Mets third in the NL East at 20-22.

"We have high expectations that we were very vocal about when the season started," general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said. "We have not lowered our expectations. We want to hold ourselves accountable to win games. We anticipate getting on a roll here and trying to make a run at this thing."

NEW YORK -- Since April 1, one team has stood alone atop the American League East standings.

It might not after this weekend.

Many around baseball thought the switch might have happened last weekend, when the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays played host to the hobbled but surprisingly surging New York Yankees in a pivotal early-season series at Tropicana Field.

But the Rays managed to scratch out one win in those three games -- and still led the AL East on Monday.

Now, five days later, the teams meet again for another three-game set, this time at Yankee Stadium. The Rays enter this series with a half-game lead threatened by a Bronx Bombers club that has battled through a bevy of injuries and bludgeoned its way up the standings.

In looking ahead to the weekend, it's worthwhile to look back at the last time these teams faced off. Here are four things the Yankees have learned about the Rays.

1. Tampa Bay's pitching staff is tough, but ...

The Rays' rotation primarily hinges on two of the arms the Yankees will face this weekend: those of Charlie Morton and defending Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.

The Yankees have gotten to both of them in the past. In Sunday's 7-1 series finale win, the Bombers ultimately cruised to the lopsided victory thanks to timely post-power-outage pop against Tampa Bay's bullpen after the unexpected 43-minute delay. Although Snell was handed his fourth loss of the season, he allowed just two earned runs and four hits. With his breaking pitches working, he also struck out 12.

Still, his stuff against the Yankees hasn't always been so sharp: Snell is 3-5 with a 4.25 ERA and eight home runs allowed in 12 career starts versus the team he's faced more than any other.

Morton has squared off with the Yankees just four times in his 12-year career. While he has a 2-1 record against them, his ERA in those starts is 4.10. In his latest outing against the Yankees, late last May in the Bronx, Morton -- pitching for Houston at the time -- gave up eight hits and two home runs in an eventual Yankees win.

Before their collapse Sunday, the Rays' bullpen lost last Friday's series opener. Specifically, that game was decided in the sixth when reliever Emilio Pagan gave up a two-strike RBI single to Gio Urshela. The go-ahead drive effectively negated the nine-strikeout performance Tyler Glasnow had delivered before a forearm injury took him out of the game and ultimately landed him on the injured list.

As for Urshela, the third baseman who has replaced Miguel Andujar (lost for the year with a torn labrum), his month-plus tenure in the big leagues this season has been stellar. Key two-strike hits and run-producing drives are becoming as much a part of his game as the slick barehanded grabs he's had charging in from third.

As formidable as parts of this Rays staff might be, the Yankees learned last weekend they can navigate it.

2. The Rays aren't afraid to pitch aggressively -- just ask Luke Voit

Voit, the Yankees' hulking first baseman who has been a rather unexpected offensive godsend, has gotten a ton of pitches inside this season.

He's gotten so many that he's started taking exception to them. If you were hit five times in 42 games, you probably wouldn't be too happy either. "It's frustrating," Voit said after getting plunked last Saturday at Tampa Bay.

A preview to Sunday’s race walk action in Alytus, Lithuania

Tom Bosworth, the Olympic sixth placer, Commonwealth silver medallist and multiple world record-holder at shorter distances, will again spearhead the British challenge when the European Race Walking Cup takes place in Alytus, Lithuania, on Sunday, writes Ian Richards.

At the last edition of the event in 2017 the Great Britain & NI team came away with a pair of fourth places.

Bosworth was fourth in the men’s 20km and he led the team to a fourth place finish just missing out to Ireland on a team bronze. These results represented Britain’s highest ever finishes in the European Cup.

So far in 2019, Bosworth has won the British Indoor Championships over 5000m before taking victory in the England 10km Championships in Coventry in 41:26 and the USATF 20km Championships in California in 83:34 in March. He followed this up with an 11th place at the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Rio Maior at the beginning of April (83:34).

Bosworth will need to be close to his British record of 79:38, set on the Gold Coast, to challenge for the medals in Lithuania. He was seventh in last summer’s European Championships in 81:31 and has been consistently among Europe’s best for the last four years.

His major challengers will be Spain’s Diego García, who was the runner-up in Berlin and was second in both Rio Maior and the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Mexico last month.

The winner in Mexico was Sweden’s Perseus Karlstrom who was the bronze medallist in Podebrady in 2017.

On the same day as the IAAF Challenge in Rio Maior, Mizinov Vasiliy (ANA) took victory in the European Athletics Permit Meeting in Podebrady in 80:14 ahead of reigning European Cup champion Christian Linke of Germany, who was third in 80:23.

Also in contention for the medals will be Spain’s European champion Alvaro Martin, Italian Massimo Stano who was third in last year’s IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships and fourth in Berlin and 2015 world champion and former European Cup champion Miguel Angel Lopez, who was only sixth in Berlin but can never be discounted.

Former world junior champion Callum Wilkinson was a brilliant sixth in Podebrady last month in a PB of 81:34 which was a British under-23 record and moved him to second on the UK all-time list. He will be looking to improve on his 10th at the last European Cup.

Cameron Corbishley made a sensational 50km debut in Dudince in March, clocking the second fastest ever British time of 3:53:20 to secure his place on the plane to Doha. This form suggests that he will be able to seriously revise his 20km PB of 86:00 set back in 2016.

Dominic King clocked his second fastest ever 50km of 3:56:35 behind Corbishley in Dudince. This quartet finished fourth in 2017 and although Spain will start as favourites, Great Britain will be in the mix with France, Italy, Ukraine and Poland for the medals in the team event.

British No.1 in 2019, Heather Lewis, has twice improved her personal best over 20km already this season with a 95:04 clocking in Podebrady last month moving her to fifth on the UK all-time list.

Welsh compatriot and Commonwealth bronze medallist Bethan Davies has a PB of 91:53 set in Lugano in 2018, but has made a quiet start to 2019 clocking 99:43 at the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Rio Major in April and finishing runner-up to Lewis in the Molly Barnett 10km in Coventry in March in 46:59.

Both will be targeting the British qualifying time of 93:30 for the World Championships and looking to better Gemma Bridge’s highest ever British placing of 14th in the 2017 edition.

This trio finished sixth in the team competition in 2017. Joining the Welsh duo in the team is the Isle of Man’s Erika Kelly, making her Great Britain debut. She was just outside her PB (99:36) in clocking 99:45 in finishing behind Lewis in Lugano in March.

Italian Antonella Palmisano will be seeking to retain her title. Palmisano won by nearly two minutes at the 2017 edition, but Spain’s Maria Perez will be keen to add this title to her European title from Berlin.

The Lithuanian duo of Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene and Zivile Vaiciukeviciute will be looking to take a medal in front of the home crowd. Portugal’s Ana Cabecinha is a regular top eight finisher at major championships.

In the junior men’s 10km Chris Snook is ranked fourth on season’s bests and sixth on personal bests of those entered with his 43:37 when finishing on the podium in the EAA Permit meeting in Podebrady last month. He will be looking to target the British Athletics qualifying time of 43:00 for the European U20 Championships. Poland’s Lukas Niedzialek has Europe’s fastest time with 40:23 and will start as favourite.

World champion and world record-holder Yohann Diniz of France will start as the overwhelming favourite in the men’s 50km. The field features Ukraine’s Ivan Banzeruk but his compatriot, Berlin 2018 European champion Maryan Zakalnytskyy, is missing from the line-up.

Spain’s evergreen 49-year-old Jesus Garcia has competed in every edition of the European Cup since the first edition in 1996 at which he was the champion over 50km and he was the world champion 26 years ago in Stuttgart in 1993, before 15 of the 48 competitors were even born!

The first ever women’s 50km features reigning world and European champion and former world record-holder Ines Henriques from Portugal. Making her debut will be Italy’s Eleonora Giorgi who won over 20km in Podebrady where she set a European-leading time of 1:27:46.

Timetable (UK time in brackets)

08:00  (06:00)           50km men and women
09:00  (07:00)           10km U20 women
10:30   (08:30)           10km U20 men
14:30   (12:30)            20km men
16:30   (14:30)            20km women

Watch the action live via the below or on YouTube.

Follow @leedswalk for updates on British athletes.

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WAUSAU, Wis. – The ARCA Midwest Tour Cabin Fever 100, scheduled for Saturday at State Park Speedway, has been cancelled because of a poor weather forecast.

Multiple weather experts have stated that unseasonably cool temperatures will blanket the area coupled with rain showers throughout the day and into Sunday.  Track officials are working with ARCA Midwest Tour to find a suitable raindate which will be announced at a later date.

The ARCA Midwest Tour will return to action with a doubleheader over the Memorial Day Weekend. The series will visit Jefferson Speedway on May 25, followed by an event on May 27 at Wisconsin Int’l Raceway.

It remains to be determined if Robert Wickens will ever race again, but that remains his goal. What is important, however, is the tremendous progress the injured driver has made in order to take a step on his own.

Wickens suffered a serious spinal injury in a horrifying crash on Aug. 19, 2018, at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway.

Wickens’ car went over the nose of Ryan Hunter-Reay’s machine and flew into the catch fence. The car ripped  into the fencing and poles, sending it spinning wildly in the air. His injuries included a bruised spine and fractures to his legs, pelvis and arms.

Wickens doesn’t know if he will ever drive an Indy car again, but he knows he will return to the cockpit of a race car someday, even if it’s using hand controls.

“The goal is to get back into an Indy car,” Wickens said. “We won’t know until I try it to see if it’s a reality. Apart from that, there’s been so many remarkable drivers that have succeeded with hand controls in motorsports that it makes me believe that regardless of how my progression goes, I will be in a race car again. It’s just a matter of which car. The dream is an Indy car.

“I know the team has been very outspoken that they’ll always have a car for me when I can race. I think there are also rules and regulations that we have to abide to. I don’t know how many modifications we can make, etc. We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there.”

Wickens also doesn’t know if he is going to walk again, but he’s damned sure going to try.

The bruised spinal cord has left him fighting to regain use of his legs. He has been undergoing extensive rehabilitation at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo.

Wickens has made remarkable progress and is able to stand up on his own, but still requires assistance to get his legs to move.

Wickens was determined to attend the season-opening race for the NTT IndyCar Series March 8-10 in St. Petersburg, Fla. He spent months at the rehabilitation facility and a chance to visit with his fellow drivers in the NTT IndyCar Series was something he eagerly anticipated.

“It’s nice to be back in a world that I’m familiar with,” Wickens said. “I’m doing well. Really, I am. There’s obviously good days and bad days. Being back at a race track makes everything feel a whole lot better, although we just finished practice one, it’s a little bit strange to be on the far side of the pit wall.”

When Wickens watched the race from the Arrow Schmidt Peterson pit area, he found it to be a strange vantage point.

“When you’re driving, you know the engineers are talking and figuring out how to make the car better,” Wickens said. “When you actually listen on a race weekend to the communication that goes on, it’s intense.

“I thought, ‘I’ll put a headset on, chime in, give some insight every now and then.’ I struggled to find my space to make my blurb. It’s all a work in progress, work in progress.

“From my front, I’m getting some stuff back, getting better each day. A long road. You feel like you’re on that road trip. It’s the 100-mile road that’s a straight line the entire time without any scenery and you’re just working as hard as you can to get to the end.

“We’re getting there. One step at a time. It’s basically all I can say, we’re making progress. The thing with a spinal injury is you never know when that day comes where you won’t progress any more. I think right now we’re trying to utilize every day we can to get as healthy as I can.”