Sports briefs 9/24/04

Baseball

• Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shawn Green will sit out Saturday afternoon's game against the San Francisco Giants in observance of Yom Kippur.

The first baseman-outfielder said he will play tonight when the Dodgers and Giants, battling for the NL West lead, play the opener of a three-game series in San Francisco.

"Playing one of the two is the most consistent with my beliefs as a Jewish person," Green said before the Dodgers played the San Diego Padres on Thursday night.

• Greg Maddux reached 15 wins for a record 17th consecutive season and hit a two-run single in a four-run second inning, leading the Chicago Cubs over Pittsburgh 6-3 Thursday for their third series sweep of the Pirates this year.

Maddux (15-10) improved to 3-1 against Pittsburgh this season, allowing three runs and seven hits in six innings with no walks and six strikeouts. Maddux, 20th on the career wins list with 304, last year surpassed Cy Young's 15 consecutive 15-win seasons.

• Major league baseball's executive council met for three hours Thursday but made no formal recommendation on whether the Montreal Expos should move to Washington next season.

Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, a member of the eight-owner council, appears to be the chief obstacle to a move. Angelos has said having a team about 40 miles from Camden Yards would take away fans and revenue from his franchise.

Olympics

• Helped by a laboratory's big blunder, Tyler Hamilton will be allowed to keep his Olympic cycling gold medal.

The International Olympic Committee dropped its investigation Thursday into a blood test from the Summer Games that showed Hamilton used a transfusion to boost his endurance. The decision was made only because the Athens lab mistakenly put his backup sample in a deep freeze -- not because the IOC believes he was clean.