Kansas City trades Zack Greinke to Milwaukee

The much-anticipated blockbuster trade involving 2009 Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke became official Sunday when the Kansas City Royals worked out a six-player swap with the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Royals packaged Greinke with shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and $2 million in a build-for-the-future return that netted shortstop Alcides Escobar and three prospects: outfielder Lorenzo Cain and right-handed pitchers Jake Odorizzi and Jeremy Jeffress.

Odorizzi and Jeffress were tentatively ranked by Baseball America as the No. 1 and No. 3 prospects in the Brewers’ system before the trade. Escobar ranked No. 1 before 2009 and 2010. Cain ranked No. 8 before last season.

The likelihood of a deal surfaced in August when Greinke expressed doubt that the Royals’ rebuilding program — centered on a farm system roundly viewed as the best and deepest in baseball — would bear fruit before his contract expired after the 2012 season.

ETC.

Hollywood Park cancels seven races

Two consecutive days of heavy rain forced Hollywood Park to cancel the last seven races on the final day of the autumn meet.

Track President Jack Liebau said that concern for the jockeys’ safety and the transition area from the chute to the main track led to the cancellation.

Joel Rosario won the riding title, with 12 more winners than runner-up Rafael Bejarano. Doug O’Neill won the training title with 16 victories.

Horse racing in Southern California resumes Sunday, the opening day of Santa Anita’s winter meet.

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Ryan Lochte won three more events in the short-course world championships at Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and headed home with an impressive haul of six gold medals and one silver.

On the final night of competition, Lochte started off with personal victories in the 200 backstroke and 100 individual medley, and then pushed the United States ahead of Russia in the third leg of the 400 medley relay and celebrated as teammate Garrett Weber-Gale held on for the win.

Lochte won all five of his individual events, and six of his eight events overall.

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Ernie Els won the South African Open at Durban for the fifth time, shooting a six-under-par 66 to beat Retief Goosen by one shot in a tournament shortened to 17 holes for each of the final two rounds.

The third and fourth rounds were played Sunday without the par-three fourth, where the green was water-logged and all players were given a par score.

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Lindsey Vonn moved back to the top of the World Cup standings with another dominant performance in Val d’Isere, France, winning a super-combined race the day after a masterful downhill.

Vonn had the fastest time in the super-G in the morning and followed it up with an assured slalom run in the afternoon.

The victory gave Vonn 581 points in the overall standings, three more than rival Maria Riesch of Germany. Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl is far behind in third with 366.

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Ted Ligety extended his domination in World Cup giant slaloms, winning his third straight race to take the lead in the overall standings at Alta Badia, Italy.

The American was second after the opening run behind Cyprien Richard, but the Frenchman lost time on the lower part of his afternoon run down the steep and icy Gran Risa course.

Ligety finished in a combined time of 2 minutes 31.99 seconds. Richard was 0.14 of a second back and countryman Thomas Fanara was 0.55 behind in third.