American LeagueTorii Hunter tied his career high with five RBIs as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Cleveland Indians 13-6 Monday night and took sole possession of the American League Central lead for the first time since June 30.
Hunter, Michael Ryan and Cristian Guzman each drove in two runs during an eight-run sixth inning. Hunter added a three-run homer in the ninth of Terry Mulholland, giving him a career-high 99 RBIs.
Minnesota (81-69) moved a half-game ahead of idle Chicago (80-69). The defending AL Central champions, 37-20 since the All-Star break, begin a three-game series today at home against the White Sox.
Johan Santana (11-3) improved to 7-0 in nine starts since July 29 as the Twins won for the 10th time in 13 games. Jason Davis (8-11) allowed seven runs and six hits in 5 2-3 innings.
Red Sox 8, Devil Rays 2
In Boston, Derek Lowe won his fifth straight decision, and Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz homered in another Boston slugging display as the Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The Red Sox increased their wild-card lead over Seattle to 1 1/2 games. Boston trails New York by 5 1/2 games in the AL East.
Ramirez and Ortiz also doubled for Boston, which has 605 extra-base hits, two short of the major league record Seattle set in 1996.
Lowe (16-6) started with 4 2-3 hitless innings against the team he no-hit on April 27 last year in Fenway Park. With the Devil Rays chasing his sinker, Lowe allowed four hits in eight innings.
National League
Robert Fick hit his first home run in six weeks as the Atlanta Braves reduced their magic number for clinching a record 12th straight division title to three with a 10-6 victory over the Montreal Expos on Monday night.
Horacio Ramirez (11-4) won his third straight decision for Atlanta, which got its major league-leading 94th win and moved 10 games ahead of idle Florida in the National League East. Ramirez allowed seven hits and two runs in seven innings.
Giants 8, Padres 7
In San Francisco, Barry Bonds hit his 655th career home run and reached a milestone in walks as San Francisco rallied to beat San Diego.
Bonds connected for a solo shot off Brian Lawrence in the first inning for his 42nd homer of the season. The slugger is five shy of tying his godfather, Willie Mays, for third on the career list at 660.
Hank Aaron leads that list with 755, followed by Babe Ruth at 714. Bonds is tied with St. Louis' Albert Pujols for most in the NL, one behind major league leader Alex Rodriguez of Texas.
Pinch-runner Pedro Feliz scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by Jay Witasick (3-5) with two outs in the eighth, capping a crazy comeback.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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