The Texas Rangers raised ticket prices for next season, when they will slash the number of afternoon games during the summer's hottest months. Texas announced an across-the-board increase in ticket prices yesterday, the largest at nearly 14 percent. The Rangers also cut their home day games from 25 to 15.

Bucky Dent was hired as bench coach of the Cincinnati Reds, making him the top assistant to close friend Jerry Narron. Dent, 53, worked with Narron for seven years as a Texas coach before he returned to managing in the minors.

Hall of Famer Robin Yount is returning to Milwaukee as the bench coach for the Brewers, 12 years after he left the only team for which he played. Yount, 50, sets nearly every offense record in Brewers history in a 20-year career that ended in 1993.

The Mets declined their $2 million option on left-hander Dae-Sung Koo. Koo was 0-0 with a 3.91 ERA in 23 innings over 33 games last season, his first with the team. Koo, who remains property of the Mets, had a $400,000 base salary in the major leagues.

Ron Guidry rejoined the Yankees as Joe Torre's pitching coach yesterday, and former Boston manager Joe Kerrigan also joined the staff as bullpen coach. The 55-year-old left-hander was a three-time 20-game winner who played for the Yankees from 1975-88 and won the 1978 AL Cy Young Award.

Former Pirates third base coach John Russell was hired by Philadelphia yesterday to manage the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons next season.

Top recruit Angel Robinson won't play this season for the Georgia women's basketball team because of an injury to her left knee. Coach Andy Landers said Robinson, the 2005 Miss Georgia Basketball, tore an anterior cruciate ligament during the Lady Bulldogs' exhibition game against Augusta State on Tuesday.

Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal will miss two to four weeks with a sprained right ankle, adding to the team's early season injury woes. O'Neal was getting in position for an offensive rebound when he stepped on Ron Artest's foot and rolled the ankle midway through the fourth quarter of the Heat's loss to the Pacers on Thursday.

Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia claimed the last spots in the eight-man Masters Cup field. They will compete in the ATP's season-ending championship that starts Nov. 13 in Shanghai, China.

Top-seeded Andy Roddick saved two match points before beating David Ferrer of Spain, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8) yesterday to reach the semifinals of the Paris Masters. Roddick, who faced both match points in the third-set tiebreaker, will play sixth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia today. Ljubicic reached with a 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-1, win over Spaniard Robredo.

Elena Dementieva overcame a loss in the opening set to beat Kvete Peschke, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, and advance to the semifinals of the Advanta Championships yesterday.

Third-seeded Marion Bartoli of France moved closer to her first WTA Tour final yesterday, beating American Shenay Perry, 6-0, 6-4, and advancing to the semifinals at the Bell Challenge.

By the end of the second round at the Tour Championship, he settled for a 68 and was thankful to be tied for the lead with defending champion Retief Goosen.

Goosen sprayed his tee shots all over the course and still managed to continue his mastery at East Lake, hitting only four fairways but posting a 4-under 66 to erase a five-shot deficit.

Tiger Woods only hit three fairways -- one shot wound up in a tent full of ice for the concession stand -- but scratched out a 67 and was three shots back along with Ben Crane (65) and Scott Verplank (66).

In Madison, Miss., John Cook closed with four straight birdies for a 7-under 65 yesterday and shared the lead with five players -- Bob Tway, Kevin Na, Tag Ridings and Tom Pernice Jr. -- after two rounds of the Southern Farm Bureau Classic. Rocco Mediate is two shots back at 8-under-par 136.

In Otsu, Japan, Annika Sorenstam got off to a fast start in her bid for her fifth straight victory in the Mizuno Classic, shooting an 8-under 64 yesterday to finish the first round a stroke behind South Korea's Young Kim.

A jury acquitted two former La Salle basketball players of rape yesterday, discounting prosecutors' contention that the woman involved was too drunk to consent to sex. Attorneys for Gary Neal and Michael Cleaves maintained that the sex was consensual and that the woman, then 19, made up the allegation out of embarrassment after other female basketball players began to gossip.

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