CHICAGO -- Nearly a year after throwing a no-hitter at Wrigley Field, Cole Hamels was masterful again in his return to the famed ballpark.Hamels pitched eight dominant innings, and the Texas Rangers stopped a four-game slide by topping the Chicago Cubs 4-1 Sunday in a matchup of division leaders.I got 10 days of rest. You get a whole week of rest, I guess that helps, Hamels said. I know its the second half, want to start off right. This is now the go time.Hamels (10-2) struck out his first six batters. He fanned seven overall and gave up just an unearned run on four hits.The fastball, the cutter allowed him to get to the changeup today, and he was really exceptional, Rangers manager Jeff Banister said.Last summer, the lefty threw a no-hitter and struck out 13 at Wrigley in his final start for Philadelphia. He was then traded to the Rangers.Ive always enjoyed coming to Wrigley Field, Hamels said. Growing up as a kid watching it on WGN, its just a great ballpark to come play at. The fans are great here. Im just going out enjoying the moment.Sam Dyson struck out three in the ninth for his 19th save in 21 chances.Ian Desmond homered and Robinson Chirinos drove in two runs as Texas avoided a three-game sweep. The Cubs had won three in a row.John Lackey (7-6) allowed four runs and six hits in eight innings as his winless streak reached seven starts on a warm afternoon with the wind blowing out. He is 14-16 in 41 starts against Texas, the team hes faced most often in his career.The story really today was Cole. He pitched really well, Lackey said. We werent able to do anything against him. I was honestly pretty happy about the way I threw the ball. Threw eight innings and definitely not a good day to pitch.Hamels fanned the side in the first two innings.I was able to execute pretty well, Hamels said. Sometimes things just work enough to miss the barrels. If you can go out and really establish the strike zone early, they cant get as comfortable.The streak ended when Matt Szczur popped out and Albert Almora Jr. reached on third baseman Adrian Beltres error in the third. Javier Baez doubled home a run.Elvis Andrus RBI single and Chirinos sacrifice fly put the Rangers ahead in the second. Almora made a leaping catch in center field to rob Chirinos of extra bases.Chirinos hit an RBI double after Lackey walked the first two batters in the fourth.Desmond led off the eighth with his 16th home run.The Cubs got back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the seventh before a double play and groundout ended the rally.Cole did exactly what we needed today, and we got hits when they counted and we were able to get the win, first baseman Prince Fielder said. Good defense, great win all around.We needed it really bad. Weve been struggling as a team.TRAINERS ROOMRangers: OF Shin-Soo Choo (back) was out of the lineup for a third straight game, but Banister said the team isnt considering putting him on the disabled list just yet. It still seems to bother him when hes throwing, Banister said. . RHP Kyle Lohse (strained oblique) threw a pain-free bullpen session Saturday. Banister expects him to start Tuesday at the Angels.DRAMALackey argued with home plate umpire Cory Blaser after the top of the sixth before right fielder Jason Heyward got between them. Cubs manager Joe Maddon then addressed Blaser. Lackey declined to go into details of the chat.Theyre talking about Christmas cards for next year, Maddon joked. Just let John vent a little bit. Hes fine.UP NEXTRangers: RHP A.J. Griffin (3-1, 3.81 ERA) is scheduled to start Mondays opener of a three-game series at the Angels, who are expected to start RHP Nick Tropeano (3-2, 3.12).Cubs: LHP Jon Lester (9-4, 3.01) is to start Mondays opener of a three-game set against the visiting Mets and LHP Steven Matz (7-5, 3.38). Lester allowed a season-high eight runs in a career-low 1 1/3 innings in his other start against New York this season. Cheap Ultra Boost . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Wholesale Ultra Boost . From filmmaker Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes), The Price of Gold revisits the saga that rocked the figure skating world ahead of the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games: the assault on Nancy Kerrigan, and the plot that led its way back to her rival Tonya Harding. http://www.cheapultrabooststore.com/ . The phone hearing is scheduled for 4:30pm et/1:30pm pt. Winchester, who was not penalized for the hit, appeared to make contact with Kellys head early in the first period of Thursdays game in Boston. Black Ultra Boost . -- Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Rings in December. Womens Ultra Boost . Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, announced Wednesday that the team would assign Swedish forward Elias Lindholm to his nations team for the upcoming tournament. Miami President Pat Riley is a big fan of the symbolic 12:01 a.m. phone call to his teams top targets. San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich says he would rather be sleeping at that moment. And more than $1 billion in deals will likely be hammered out in the next couple of days alone.Free agency has returned to the NBA, and this July 1 is unlike any other.Sure, theres the annual list of superstars who could take their talents elsewhere -- Kevin Durant will hear sales pitches designed to talk him into leaving Oklahoma City, Dwyane Wade is prepared to leave Miami if he doesnt get a deal to his liking, and it seems LeBron James will make the Cleveland Cavaliers dig even more deeply into their pockets to reward him for the citys first NBA title.All this comes with a backdrop of an enormous jump in the salary cap, going from $70 million this past season to likely somewhere close to $95 million when the league announces the actual number early next week.So the spending will be out of control. Thats for certain.Just about everything else is uncertain, starting with Durants status.My message to him is just try to get through this, dont make a decision based off anybody else, make your own decision, New York Knicks forward and Durants Olympic teammate Carmelo Anthony said. Because at the end of the day, youre the one that has to live with that.Durant, true to his nature, is tight-lipped about how his decision-making process will actually work.Ill factor in everything thats important to me, which is playing basketball at the end of the day, and well see what happens, Durant said.Durant plans on going to New York -- not to play, but to deliberate. Some teams have been granted invites to meet with Durant in the New York area this weekend, and Miami center Hassan Whiteside is planning to meet with teams there as well on Friday. Theres been no indication how quickly Durant will reveal if hes staying with the Thunder or moving on, but in Whitesides case the answer could come on Day 1.Im not calm. Look at me. Woooo! Whiteside shrieked earlier this week in Miami, when he talked about the looming decision that will take him from someone who made just under $1 million this past season -- pocket change by NBA standards -- to quite probably more than $20 million in each of the next four seasons.dddddddddddd Im excited, man. Cmon, man. Free agency time.Whiteside will strike it rich without going to a single All-Star Game first. Bismack Biyombo (who made $2.8 million this season and is expected to at least quintuple that going forward) will probably do the same, and that comes with him not even having been a full-time starter in Toronto.This is the new NBA.And its not changing.The cap will take another giant leap next season, too. Basketball Hall of Famer Gary Payton stopped playing less than a decade ago; he made about as much in his entire career as Whiteside will likely make in the contract he can sign starting July 7.Payton equates free agency today to a lottery, with a lot of sweepstakes winners.Some of these players, they make decisions because of all of the money, he said. Youre going to get the money. I think you go to a place where youre going to be successful and have a chance to win ... always be in the competition to win a championship.Payton could have made so much more money now, but hes far from upset about it. He even says a player like James should be making about $50 million now, given what hes done and what he means to the league.I got on my mom about that the other day and asked her why she had me so early, Payton said. It is what it is. Its a different era. I was in the best era. I liked my era. We started all this.Because theres never been a market like this, given all the new cap room, it seems like no one really knows what to expect.That includes the Commissioner of the NBA.As Ive said, there will be unintended consequences from all this additional cap room this summer, Adam Silver said at the All-Star Game back in February. I just dont know what those consequences will be.Starting at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Friday, when the shopping window officially opens, the league will begin finding out.Its not so much about the things you want, Thunder general manager Sam Presti said. Its about the things that are made available to you.---AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in New York contributed to this report. 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