Pistons assistant Porter gets Suns job

Terry Porter will be the Phoenix Suns' next coach, ending the club's monthlong search for a successor to Mike D'Antoni. Phoenix general manager Steve Kerr said yesterday he had agreed to terms with Porter, who was an assistant with the Detroit Pistons. The 45-year-old Porter played in the NBA for 17 seasons and teamed with Kerr in San Antonio. Porter is expected to sign a three-year deal worth about $7 million, and he likely will be introduced at a news conference, perhaps as early as tomorrow. Porter will become the Suns' seventh coach since 1993, when they made their last NBA Finals appearance.

Two teams struggling to stay in the hunt in the AL Central lost starting pitchers, possibly for the rest of the season. Tigers righthander Jeremy Bonderman likely will miss the rest of the season after he underwent medical procedures related to a blood clot and the Indians' Jake Westbrook will have surgery on his right elbow, ending his season. Bonderman underwent a procedure to break up the clot Friday before having an angioplasty yesterday morning. The blood clot was caused by thoracic outlet compression syndrome, the same ailment that sidelined fellow Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers for much of the 2007 season. If surgery is required, Bonderman (3-4, 4.29 ERA) will be lost for the season. Westbrook (1-2, 3.12) will have surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in the next week or two . . . Padres pitcher Jake Peavy (strained right elbow) threw 61 pitches in a simulated game and is likely to return to the rotation Thursday . . . Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Jonny Gomes dropped his appeal and began serving his five-game suspension for his role in a bench-clearing melee with the Red Sox Thursday night . . . Chris Carter and Jonathan Van Every hit two-run homers, powering the Pawtucket Red Sox to a 9-1 rout of visiting Buffalo in an International League game.

Jason Castro drove in four runs, including three on a sixth-inning double, to put Stanford into the College World Series with an 8-5 victory over host Cal State Fullerton in a super regional series. In other games, Sean Madigan and Brock Bardeen each hit home runs, leading UC Irvine to an 11-5 victory over LSU in Baton Rouge, ending the Tigers' 23-game winning streak. Florida State scored five times in the third inning and Matt Fairel pitched eight solid innings to lead the Seminoles to a 14-4 victory over Wichita State in Tallahassee, Fla., and force a deciding third game. Rice held off Texas A&M, 9-7, to win the opener of their series in Houston. The Owls' Bryan Price, selected by the Red Sox with the 45th pick in this week's amateur draft, was ineffective in relief, pitching to two batters and allowing a walk and a double with a wild pitch. In Coral Gables, Fla., Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal hit three-run homers and Miami beat Arizona, 14-10, to force a decisive third game. In Tempe, Ariz., Ryan Sontag homered twice and drove in four runs to lead Arizona State past Fresno State, 12-4, in their series opener. North Carolina State scored four runs in the seventh inning and rolled to a 10-6 win to force a deciding third game in its series against host Georgia, and North Carolina rolled past Coastal Carolina, 9-4, in their series opener in Cary, N.C.

Cedric Benson's rocky relationship with the Chicago Bears got murkier after the running back's arrest on a drunken driving charge in Austin, Texas, his second arrest in little more than a month. Bears officials said they would treat the matter seriously. Benson's attorney said the former Texas star had a few drinks with dinner but didn't think he was intoxicated. The arrest comes a month after Benson was charged with boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest . . . Former Bengals linebacker Odell Thurman has been suspended indefinitely by the NFL for violating its substance abuse policy and will miss the 2008 season. It's the third consecutive season he will miss because of substance abuse suspensions.

Scott Dixon regained the lead a lap before a crash between his closest competitors and crossed the finish line under caution to win the IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. On the 222d lap, Dixon drove under Marco Andretti coming out of the third turn to get in front. Near the same spot a lap later, Ryan Hunter-Reay darted up into Andretti, sending both of them into the wall . . . Lewis Hamilton took the pole at the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, edging BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica . . . Jimmy Croll, the Hall of Famer who trained 1994 Horse of the Year Holy Bull and won the 1987 Belmont Stakes with Bet Twice, died Friday in Oceanport, N.J. He was 88 . . . Erik Vendt (North Easton, BC High) has been considering not swimming in the 400-meter individual medley at the US Olympic Trials in three weeks, but said he may rethink his plans after winning the event in 4 minutes 14.99 seconds at the Mutual of Omaha Swimvitational in Omaha.