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NEW YORK -- The Cleveland Indians have held sole possession of first place in the American League Central for nearly two months.Suddenly, their lead does not seem as secure.The Indians look to maintain their advantage and possibly add to it Friday night when they open a three-game series with the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.Cleveland has held a share of first place for the past 54 days and 63 days overall. The Indians took sole possession of the lead June 17 and won 21 of 29 games to take a 7 1/2-game lead on three occasions.The most recent instance was July 20, but since an 11-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals, the Indians have dropped six of 11 at the same time the Detroit Tigers went on their biggest run of the season.Cleveland is up by three games over Detroit after favorable results Thursday. The Indians averted a four-game sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Twins by scoring a 9-2 victory as Jason Kipnis, Carlos Santana, Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez homered.That helps, because we got beat around the ballpark for the last three days, Indians manager Terry Francona said.At the same time as Cleveland getting its first lead in 27 innings, the Tigers had an eight-game winning streak snapped with a 6-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox.Even so, the Tigers are in striking distance with one-third of the season remaining.Theres no point in rushing, Lindor said. There are a lot of games left.The Yankees (54-54) have lost six of eight games since starting the second half with eight wins in their first 12 games. New York was 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position Thursday during a 4-1 loss to the New York Mets, marking the 43rd time the Yankees scored two runs or fewer.The Yankees are at .500 for the 11th time in the past two months.I know with the trades and everything that has happened, the outlook is a little different, Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner said. But were going to play hard and grind every day. Were not giving up.Alex Rodriguez has not started in 10 of New Yorks past 11 games, and the Yankees are unsure when his next start will be.I cant really tell you when Im going to play him, manager Joe Girardi said.Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira sat out Thursday after getting hit in the left shin Wednesday by a pitch from Mets left-hander Steven Matz. He is day-to-day.Gary Sanchez has occupied the designated hitter spot the past two games, and the Yankees plan on playing him close to every day for the rest of the season as a DH or the catcher.Cleveland will start Josh Tomlin and, he will go for his team-leading 12th win, which would equal the career high he set during the 2011 season. Tomlin (11-3, 3.43 ERA) has split his last four starts, and he allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings Saturday during a 6-3 win over the Oakland As.Tomlin did not pitch when the Indians lost three of four to the Yankees three weeks ago. He is 3-2 with a 4.82 ERA in seven career appearances against the Yankees, including Aug. 20, 2015, when he allowed a run and two hits over seven innings in a 3-2 win at New York.That victory was Tomlins first after having shoulder surgery. Over 29 starts the past two years, he is 18-5 with a 3.28 ERA.Michael Pineda will start for the Yankees, looking to improve upon a 5-10 record and a 5.13 ERA. Pineda is 2-2 with a 4.13 ERA in four starts since the All-Star break, and they have been typical of his inconsistency.In his two wins, Pineda has allowed one run and 10 hits with 16 strikeouts in 13 innings. In his two losses, Pineda has allowed 10 runs and 11 hits in 11 innings.Pineda has never faced the Indians.While the Yankees took three of four July 7-10 in Cleveland, the Indians have won five of their past seven games at Yankee Stadium.In the early-July series, Lindor was 7-for-19 (.368) with two home runs. Soldes Nike Homme/Femme Air Max 270 Flyknit Blanche/Noir/Bleu . A lawyer for MLB, Matthew Menchel, confirmed Wednesday the league dropped its case against Biogenesis of America, its owner Anthony Bosch and several other individuals. The lawsuit had accused Biogenesis and Bosch of conspiring with players to violate their contracts by providing them with banned performance-enhancing substances. Air Max 270 White Volt . 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NEW YORK -- Quarterback Tom Bradys last best chance to avoid serving a four-game Deflategate suspension to start the new season was flatly rejected Wednesday by an appeals court.The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued a one-sentence rejection of requests by the National Football League Players Association and Tom Brady to reconsider an April decision that reinstated the suspension.We are disappointed, the players association said in a statement. The track record of this league office when it comes to matters of player discipline is bad for our business and bad for our game. We have a broken system that must be fixed.It added that it will review its options carefully.The NFL declined comment.The courts action left intact a 2-to-1 ruling by a three-judge panel that found NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell acted within his powers by upholding the suspension of the star quarterback for his role in a scheme to doctor footballs used in a January 2015 playoff game.The decision affirmed wide-ranging powers given to the commissioner by the NFLs collective bargaining agreement. It was a setback for organized labor groups arguing for due process in employee discipline.The players association and Brady had requested that the panel reconsider or that all the 2nd Circuit judges hear arguments and decide anew.Bradys remaining hope is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.That is an extremely long shot, said Nellie Drew, a sports law professor at the University at Buffalo. She said the 2nd Circuit acted correctly and that any changes to how the NFL handles arbitrations over player issues will have to be handled at the negotiating table.She predicted Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will be getting a whole lot of repetitions as the Patriots prepare for their season opener Sept. 11 at Arizona.Its time to put this thing to bed, Drew said. If it was my kid, Id say: `Let it go.Lawyers and other representatives for the Patriots and Brady did not immediately return messages seeking comment.If he misses four games, Brady will lose just under $250,000 in salary after renegotiating his contract in the offseason to earn only $1 million this season.Anthony Barkow, a lawyer who submitted an amicus brief on behalf of Kenneth R. Feinberg, the special master of the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund and a longtime arbitrator, said: We wish the result were otherwise, but respect and understand the decision and know that it is extremely rare for the 2nd Circuit to grant en banc review.What began as an accusation of cheating in the 2015 AFC championship game has grown into a multimillion-dollar legal battle over three NFL seasons, involving not just an MVP quarterback but also some of the nations elite lawyers and scientists.And as it developed, it evolved from a silly little dispute about the air pressure in footballs into a referendum on the powers of a sports commissioner and thhe right of all unionized employees to due process in a disciplinary hearing.ddddddddddddJoining the case along the way were longtime league adversary Jeffrey Kessler and former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, who was involved in the Bush v. Gore lawsuit that settled the 2000 presidential election and the case that overturned Californias ban on same-sex marriages.At stake for the Patriots was not only the availability of their quarterback for a quarter of the season, but their legacy as an NFL dynasty. Already punished by Goodell for an illegal videotaping scheme in 2007 that predictably came to be known as SpyGate, the Patriots saw the suspension as an attack on their legitimacy after Brady and coach Bill Belichick led them to four Super Bowl championships.Suspicions that the Patriots were cheating arose again on Jan. 18, 2015 when the league tested -- somewhat unscientifically it would belatedly learn -- the footballs provided by the home team for the AFC title game against the Indianapolis Colts and found them to be underinflated.After three months, league investigator Ted Wells concluded the Patriots intentionally used underinflated footballs in the game and that Brady was at least generally aware of the scheme. The NFL suspended the four-time Super Bowl champion quarterback four games and docked the team $1 million and two draft picks.Brady appealed -- first within the league, and Goodell affirmed the decision. After both sides went to federal court, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman overturned the suspension. The league appealed to the 2nd Circuit, and the court reinstated the original penalty.That left Brady hoping for a new hearing in front of the complete circuit -- called en banc -- or an even more unlikely hearing at the Supreme Court.Thats always an option to litigants, Olson said after joining the case. It is not something we have resolved ourselves to doing.New England fans rallied behind their quarterback, putting Free Brady on T-shirts, reciting the Ideal Gas Law from memory and giving a heros welcome not only to the quarterback when he took the field for the 2015 regular season opener but also to Kessler and Berman.In other NFL cities, fans were just as convinced that the Patriots and Belichick were up to no good. Added to the videotaping penalty -- along with Belichicks tendency to stretch the rules to their limits, or occasionally beyond -- it was seen as confirmation that the team cant win without cheating.The courts decision is unlikely to change minds on either side.---AP sports writer Jimmy Golen in Boston reported from Boston. AP football writer Barry Wilner in New York and AP sports writer Kyle Hightower in Boston also contributed to this report.---AP NFL websites: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '