Los Angeles Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu, who has been struggling lately, will miss a start in the rotation to get some rest, manager Dave Roberts said Friday. Ryu will miss a scheduled start in Baltimore, and should get 9-10 days off in a row.

Ryu boasted a major-league leading ERA of 1.45 on Aug. 11. Since then, the 32-year-old left-hander has a 9.95 ERA.

He has given up five home runs in the four starts since Aug. 11. He had given up only 10 in 22 starts before then.

Fatigue might be a factor. Ryu has pitched 161⅔ innings this season, the most he has pitched since 2013. In the four seasons preceding this year, Ryu had pitched only 213⅔ innings combined.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have had initial conversations about randomly testing players for opioids following an autopsy report that showed oxycodone and fentanyl in the blood of late Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs.

While the discussions are in preliminary stages, both sides expect them to ramp up in the coming weeks and progress in the offseason, sources told ESPN. Though contention on economic issues has sullied the MLB-MLBPA relationship in recent years, they have found common ground on drug-related issues, particularly with performance enhancers.

The national opioid crisis hit baseball with the July 1 death of Skaggs, a 27-year-old left-hander. The autopsy done by the Tarrant County (Texas) medical examiner's office said Skaggs died after choking on his own vomit in his sleep. Skaggs' family has retained lawyer Rusty Hardin and, in a statement, said his death "may involve an employee of the Los Angeles Angels." MLB has launched an investigation into Skaggs' death.

MLB does not currently test major league players for opioids, though they are on the league's banned-substance list. Minor league players, whose drug program is far more stringent, are tested and subject to suspension for positive results. A league spokesman said in the past half-decade, 10 suspensions for opioids have been levied from around 75,000 tests. Minor league players are placed into a drug-treatment program after the first positive test and suspended following the second.

The league nevertheless is pushing for testing at the major league level, aware that major league players with more money and trying to survive the difficulty of a 162-game schedule could be more subject to opioid abuse. Officials have discussed a number of options in exchange for adding opioids to random testing, including the possibility of removing all testing for marijuana, sources tell ESPN. Currently, only players who are in the joint drug-treatment program from a prior offense are tested for marijuana, and while those who run afoul of the program are subject to discipline, MLB never has suspended a major league player for marijuana use.

In the minor leagues, marijuana is treated as a so-called "drug of abuse" -- on the same level as opioids and cocaine -- and players are subject to three levels of suspension: 50 games for the first offense, 100 games for the second offense and a lifetime ban for the third. Club officials have admitted to adding a player to their team's 40-man roster earlier than planned to ensure he falls under the major league drug plan and is no longer subject to suspension for marijuana use.

The union's openness to testing for opioids reflects the pain that resonated with players following the death of Skaggs, a popular teammate and well-liked figure around the game.

"For several reasons, including the tragic loss of a member of our fraternity and other developments happening in the country as a whole, it is appropriate and important to reexamine all of our drug protocols relating to education, treatment and prevention," Tony Clark, the MLBPA executive director, said in a statement first given to The Los Angeles Times.

In its annual PED-testing report last year, the doctor who runs the league's drug program said 11,526 tests were administered, with 9,282 urine samples that tested for PEDs, amphetamines and masking agents, and 2,244 blood tests used to detect human growth hormone. MLB does not release information on testing for banned drugs of abuse, which also include LSD, MDMA, GHB and PCP.

Colombian top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah have won the US Open men's doubles title, their second consecutive Grand Slam.

The Wimbledon champions defeated Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 6-4 7-5 under the roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The pair had been 5-3 down in the second set, but won the last four games to secure the title.

Spaniard Granollers and Argentine Zeballos were playing only their second event together.

In the women's doubles, fourth seeds Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka beat Americans Vania King and Caroline Dolehide 4-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the final where they will play Ashleigh Barty and Victoria Azarenka.

In his latest BBC Sport column, Jamie Murray discusses his upcoming US Open mixed doubles final, the difficulties of juggling two competitions and how playing Premier League fantasy football helps pass the time at tournaments.

The US Open has been a successful tournament for me in recent years and I'm hoping I can win another trophy when I play with Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the mixed doubles final on Saturday.

Bethanie and I won the competition here last year, which meant I defended the title after winning it with Martina Hingis two years ago.

I also won the men's doubles with Bruno Soares in 2016 after we reached the final in 2015 as well.

So I've had some decent success here and means I'm looking to win a trophy for the fourth successive year when Bethanie and I play Chan Hao-ching and Michael Venus, who are the top seeds, in the mixed final.

I like the conditions at Flushing Meadows, it suits my game and I've had some great partners along the way.

Generally I like playing in North America - I like the tournaments, I like the conditions, I like the crowds - so I feel like I'm always in good shape when I come to New York for the final Slam of the season.

I struggled a bit in the first three tournaments of the North American hard-court swing - in Washington, Montreal and then Cincinnati - mainly because we played with different balls.

They were a lot heavier than what we normally play with, that caught me off guard and I was struggling a little bit and not feeling good in my game.

But then I went to Winston Salem where they play with the same balls as here and started to feel better.

Neal Skupski and I had a really good tournament in the men's doubles there, although we lost a very tight semi-final against Colombian top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.

We played five good matches to get there and beat some good teams along the way.

It was frustrating to lose in such a big match with fine margins and miss out playing in our first tour-level final together, especially because there were no breaks of serve and not many break points, but there are a lot of positives to take in our partnership from the tournament as a whole.

There has been a lot of good tennis over the past 10 days or so, with both Neal and Bethanie, so now it would be nice to finish the Grand Slam season with another trophy.

Bethanie is good fun to play with and we have a great chemistry on court. She's a smart player, has a lot of skills and is very creative, plus she's feisty, gets stuck in and doesn't hold back.

We also have the benefit in New York of her being a home player, so we've had fantastic support in all the matches we've played here in the past couple of years.

She's a very popular player, which you can see with the number of people wanting to talk to her and have selfies when she's walking around the site, and she has got a good following.

It creates a good atmosphere on the court, which it should be again when we play on another big court in the final.

'Fantasy football kills the dead time on tour'

When you're doing well in both the men's and the mixed, it can be hard to juggle them - although it is a great problem to have!

The schedule can make it frustrating because there have been a couple of days where I've played men's and then I'm waiting four or five hours to play mixed. It is just dead time.

You're hanging around waiting to play, wanting to get on court and you end up expending energy.

It is not easy, because you know you've got to go and compete, and know you've got to come back and play the next day. It plays on your mind a bit.

You just have to wait, you're trying to kill time. There's nothing to do really, that's kind of normal.

One thing which usually keeps me entertained is fantasy football and because there is so much dead time there is no excuse for missing transfer and team selection deadlines.

But this week is the international break so I've had nothing to do. It's always disappointing when there are no Premier League fixtures at the weekend.

There are 20 of us across two groups in our game, I'm in the bottom division and my brother Andy is in the top division.

It's mainly friends and tennis people close to us in our circle, our dad is in the league too, Colin Fleming, a few guys that work with Andy. It's great fun.

I'm a Manchester United fan so I signed Daniel James last weekend - he's been scoring a few - and I also have Marcus Rashford.

We do a draft auction at the start of the season so I was ninth out of 10 picks, so I couldn't get a Mohamed Salah or a Harry Kane or one of the other top guys at the start.

I put a lot of emphasis on trying to find clean sheets each week with random teams, but I wouldn't say I'm great.

United haven't been doing as well in recent years so I haven't been loyal to picking their players - there is too much at stake.

We don't have a prize at the end of the season, it is just bragging rights - that is priceless.

Jamie Murray was speaking to BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko at Flushing Meadows.

Italy coach Conor O'Shea believes "the team that beats England will win the World Cup" after his side lost 37-0 to Eddie Jones' men in their final warm-up match before the tournament.

England scored four second-half tries at St James' Park to end their warm-up schedule with three wins in four games.

The 2003 winners face Tonga in their first Pool C game and O'Shea predicts England to win "comfortably".

"They can build into it before playing France and Argentina," he said.

"Obviously they have to get their best players on the pitch, but you look at the power and the confidence they have with Manu [Tuilagi] back to where he is, and they have so much game control at 10 or 12.

"It will take a good team to stop them but it is very open and five or six teams can do it."

Italy will play South Africa and defending champions New Zealand in Pool B after they begin their World Cup campaign against Namibia on 22 September.

"We play Namibia and Canada and then everybody will write us off," added O'Shea.

"But if we play with our best team, and with the sort of intensity we played with tonight, strange things may happen.

"You need a bit of luck but we have saved up a fair bit of that in the matches we have played in the last year or so.

"We will go there to win our first two and then hopefully shock somebody."