The New York Yankees opened Major League Baseball’s newest and priciest ballpark with an embarrassing 10-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Thursday.
After an 85-year-run in a stadium that produced 26 World Series titles, New York saw their hitters fizzle and the bullpen come apart on a sunny afternoon.
Jhonny Peralta broke a seventh-inning tie with a two-run double off Jose Veras and Grady Sizemore hit a grand slam into the right-field seats off Damaso Marte. By the time Victor Martinez’s solo homer capped the nine-run burst, angry fans who paid up to US$2,625 for a ticket were taunting the Yankees and owner George Steinbrenner went indoors.
PHOTO: AP
C.C. Sabathia, who signed a US$161 million, seven-year contract, left after 122 pitches and five-and-two-third innings with the score at 1-1 in his first start against his former team. Cleveland’s Cliff Lee allowed one run and seven hits in six innings in a match-up of the last two American League Cy Young Award winners.
Jorge Posada hit the first home run in the new ballpark, but the Yankees stranded 10 runners in the first five innings.
WHITE SOX 3, RAYS 2
PHOTO: REUTERS
In St Petersburgh, Florida, John Danks pitched six strong innings and Jermaine Dye hit a two-run homer to lead Chicago past Tampa Bay.
Danks (1-0) limited the American League champions to two hits and had a shutout until Carlos Pena homered with one out in the sixth. Dioner Navarro had the other hit off the left-hander, a two-out single in the second inning.
Dye homered off Jeff Niemann (0-2) in the second. The White Sox wasted several opportunities to break the game open against the right-hander, including the sixth, when they loaded the bases with one out and failed to score.
BLUE JAYS 9, TWINS 2
In Minneapolis, Roy Halladay reared back and stifled the Twins again for seven dominant innings as Toronto breezed past Minnesota.
Lead-off man Marco Scutaro hustled home for a first-inning run off Francisco Liriano (0-3) and broke the game open with a two-run shot in a seven-run seventh highlighted by Kevin Millar’s fourth career grand slam. Halladay improved to 8-0 with a 2.77 ERA in his career against the Twins.
Toronto won three of four in the series and have taken 12 of the past 13 from Minnesota. Halladay (3-0) allowed eight hits and struck out eight without a walk. The right-hander allowed one run in the second inning via a fielder’s choice grounder.
ANGELS 5, MARINERS 1
In Seattle, Joe Saunders stopped Seattle’s early season joyride by allowing three hits and a run in seven innings and Mike Napoli hit a go-ahead, two-run single in a five-run sixth for Los Angeles.
Saunders’ silencing of a lineup missing Ken Griffey Jr for the third time this season dampened Seattle’s celebration of Ichiro Suzuki breaking the record for hits by a Japanese player.
The eight-time All-Star and Golden Glove outfielder broke the record of Isao Harimoto with a characteristically sharp single in the fourth, a one-hop smash into right field off Saunders (2-1) for his 3,086th hit. Harimoto, who played 23 seasons in Japan, smiled and flashed a thumbs-up sign from the box seats. Ichiro tipped his batting helmet to the cheering home crowd.
Seattle (7-3) tied their best start after 10 games in franchise history.
Cody Ross hit a three-run homer to snap out of an early slump as the Florida Marlins finished off their first three-game sweep in Atlanta with a 6-2 victory over the Braves in the National League on Thursday.
Ross finished with three hits and four RBIs after beginning the day with a .115 average, helping Florida get off to their best start in 12 years at 8-1.
The Marlins outscored the Braves 21-7 in the series.
Anibal Sanchez (1-0) gave up eight hits and two runs in six innings to give Kenshin Kawakami (1-1) his first loss. Kawakami allowed five hits and five runs, four earned, in six innings.
CARDINALS 7, CUBS 4
In Chicago, Chris Duncan atoned for some shoddy defense with a homer and three RBIs and Yadier Molina drove in the go-ahead run in a St Louis victory.
Duncan’s two-run homer in the fourth gave the Cardinals a 3-1 lead — and made up for his infamously feeble fielding. Duncan dropped a routine fly to get pitcher Adam Wainwright in trouble in the sixth and failed to catch a pop-up that led to the Cubs’ first-inning run. Wainwright (2-0) labored through six innings, allowing four runs on six hits.
Milton Bradley, who had been on his best behavior since signing a US$30 million contract with Chicago, argued a called third strike as a pinch-hitter with the bases loaded in the sixth inning and was ejected by umpire Larry Vanover.
ASTROS 6, PIRATES 3
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Lance Berkman’s go-ahead, three-run homer in the sixth inning helped Houston overcome an early two-run deficit.
Hunter Pence added a solo home run as the Astros won the final two games of the three-game series. Before that, they had lost five straight during a 1-6 start, their worst in 25 seasons.
DODGERS 7, GIANTS 2
In Los Angeles, Rafael Furcal hit a lead-off home run as Los Angeles beat San Francisco for their fifth straight win.
Eric Stults (2-0) allowed two runs and five hits, Casey Blake and pitch-hitter Doug Mientkiewicz each had two RBIs and Matt Kemp hit a run-scoring triple, helping send San Francisco to their sixth straight loss.
Three-time All-Star Barry Zito (0-2) had another rough start, allowing six runs over five-plus innings on four hits and four walks. He also hit two batters and struck out four.
NATIONALS 8, PHILLIES 2
In Washington, Adam Dunn hit one of Washington’s four homers and Shairon Martis threw six-and-a-third solid innings as Washington beat Philadelphia to avoid setting a club record for most consecutive losses to start a season. Washington are 1-7.
Martis (1-0) gave up two runs and five hits.
PADRES 6, METS 5
In New York, Chase Headley tied a career high with four hits as San Diego beat New York to win their first regular-season series at Citi Field.
Jake Peavy settled down after allowing Carlos Delgado’s long three-run homer in the first and surprising San Diego held on for their sixth win in seven games. Former Mets reliever Heath Bell pitched a perfect ninth for his fifth save in five chances.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier