Dodgers' Kent needs surgery on knee

Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent will undergo surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee tomorrow, but hopes to return by the end of the season, manager Joe Torre said. Kent, 40, is batting .275 with 11 homers and 57 RBIs . . . The Toronto Blue Jays traded David Eckstein to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The 2006 World Series MVP with St. Louis, Eckstein batted .277 with a homer and 23 RBIs for Toronto. A shortstop for nearly his entire big league career, Eckstein will play second base in Arizona, potentially sharing time with Augie Ojeda as the Diamondbacks try to replace injured second baseman Orlando Hudson. The Blue Jays got Single-A righthander Chad Beck from Arizona . . . Top New York Mets pitching prospect Jonathon Niese will be called up from Triple A New Orleans to make his major league debut tomorrow night against Milwaukee. Niese will take the rotation spot left vacant when righthander John Maine (shoulder) was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Niese was 5-1 with a 3.40 ERA in seven starts for New Orleans . . . Edgar Martinez pitched six shutout innings to lead Pawtucket to a 2-1 win over Lehigh Valley, helping the PawSox win their 84th game of the season, the most in franchise history. The PawSox (84-58) close out the regular season today . . . The Portland Sea Dogs lost, 7-5, to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats but still clinched a berth in the Double A Eastern League playoffs for the fourth consecutive season when the Binghamton Mets dropped a 9-6 decision in New Britain, Conn.

Showing no signs of the hamstring problems that bothered him at the US track and field trials and left him out of the 100-meter final at the Beijing Games, Tyson Gay won the 200 in 20.26 seconds at the British Grand Prix in Gateshead, England. Wallace Spearmon, who was disqualified in Beijing for going out of his lane, was second in 20.41. Asafa Powell rebounded from a disappointing Olympics by winning the 100 in 9.87 seconds. Powell, who finished fifth in Beijing, easily beat Nesta Powell (10.13), his teammate on Jamaica's winning 400-meter relay team at the Olympics. American Lauryn Williams won the women's 100 in 11.24, beating Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser of Jamaica by .05 seconds. Bernard Lagat, who failed to qualify for the 1,500 and finished ninth in the 5,000 in Beijing, won the 1,000 in a personal best time of 2:16.18.

Rookie Justin Wilson raced to his first IndyCar Series victory, edging Helio Castroneves in the Detroit Indy Grand Prix. Castroneves led for the majority of the road race on the Belle Isle course, but was penalized for blocking Wilson and was forced by rule to relinquish the lead with fewer than 20 laps to go. Series points leader Scott Dixon finished fifth. That result, coupled with Castroneves's strong showing, means the IndyCar championship will be decided at next weekend's final points race at the Chicagoland track. Dixon only needs to finish eighth or better next week to win his second title and first since his rookie year of 2003.

Jamie Carey, playing in place of injured point guard Lindsay Whalen, hit a jumper with two minutes left and a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to lift the Connecticut Sun to an 80-76 victory over the Seattle Storm in a battle of WNBA conference leaders in Uncasville, Conn. The Sun (19-10) got their sixth straight win to take a 1 1/2-game lead over Detroit in the Eastern Conference. They also tied San Antonio for the best record in the league. Asjha Jones led Connecticut with 20 points. Seattle (18-10) fell a half-game behind San Antonio for the lead in the Western Conference. Sue Bird led the Storm with 24 points . . . Candice Dupree had 24 points, leading the host Chicago Sky past the Detroit Shock, 82-81, in overtime. Detroit's Katie Smith scored 23 points to become the third player in WNBA history to reach 5,000 points. Smith (5,022 points) trails only Lisa Leslie (5,853) and Tina Thompson (5,281).

Jeff Sluman won the First Tee Open for his second Champions Tour victory, closing with a 5-under-par 67 at Pebble Beach for a five-stroke victory over Fuzzy Zoeller and Craig Stadler. Zoeller shot a 69 for his best Champions Tour finish since 2004 . . . Gregory Havret, who led after every round, sank a 10-foot par putt to complete a 3-under 70 and a one-stroke victory over Graeme Storm in the Johnnie Walker Championship in Gleneagles, Scotland . . . Dwayne De Rosario and Brian Mullan scored to lead the Dynamo to a 2-1 MLS win over the Chicago Fire in Houston . . . Beach volleyball stars Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh lost for the first time in more than a year, dropping a 21-19, 10-21, 25-23 decision to Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh in the AVP Crocs Cup Shootout in Mason, Ohio. The two-time Olympic gold medalists had won 112 straight matches and 19 titles . . . Suffolk Downs has altered its live racing schedule for the remainder of the meet, which runs through Nov. 8. Live racing will be conducted Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, with first post time at 12:45 p.m.