AL Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay picked up his first win of the season with a complete game eight-hitter as the Toronto Blue Jays routed the Tigers 11-0 in Detroit on Thursday.
Halladay (1-2) struck out five and walked one in posting his sixth career shutout, four of them coming at the expense of the Tigers.
After also starting last season 1-2, Halladay went on to post a 22-7 record and earn his first AL Cy Young Award.
The Tigers handed Halladay an opening day loss this season, but there was never any danger of the righthander losing this game as he posted his third shutout over the Tigers since Sept. 6 in a dominating performance.
Despite the loss, the Tigers are 6-3 to start the season one year after losing an AL record 119 games.
WHITE SOX 6, ROYALS 5
Magglio Ordonez homered with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Chicago White Sox a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals.
The win completed a three-game sweep of the Royals for the White Sox, the last two coming in the final at-bat.
RANGERS 7, ATHLETICS 2
In Arlington, Kenny Rogers pitched seven solid innings to lead the Texas Rangers past the Oakland Athletics 7-2.
Rogers (2-0) allowed one unearned run on five hits for his 38th win at The Ballpark at Arlington, the most by any pitcher.
TWINS 3, INDIANS 0
In Cleveland, Brad Radke tossed eight shutout innings to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 3-0 win over the Indians.
Radke (2-0) allowed four singles and had five strikeouts and one walk to get the win.
Joe Nathan pitched the ninth for his first major league save since 1999.
ORIOLES 12, RED SOX 7
Miguel Tejada homered to start a five-run rally in the 11th inning, giving the Baltimore Orioles a 12-7 win over the Boston Red Sox.
It was Tejada's first homer as an Oriole following his off-season move from Oakland and it made a winner of Buddy Groom (1-0).
MARINERS 6, ANGELS 2
Ryan Franklin tossed eight solid innings, leading the Seattle Mariners to a 6-2 win over the Anaheim Angels.
Franklin (1-0) allowed two runs on four hits with one walk and one strikeout.
Carl Pavano and two relievers combined on a three-hit shutout as the Florida Marlins blanked the Montreal Expos for the third straight game with a 3-0 victory in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Thursday.
The defending World Series champions improved to 8-1 with the win while stretching their scoreless innings streak to 30, a new team record.
Montreal's scoreless streak hit a team-record 33 innings as the Expos became the first team to be shutout in a three-game series since the Detroit Tigers were blanked all three games by the Baltimore Orioles in 1995.
Phillies 6, Reds 4
In other play, Mike Lieberthal hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning, powering the Philadelphia Phillies past the Cincinnati Reds 6-4.
Philadelphia snapped a five-game losing streak with the win.
Cubs 10, Pirates 5
In Chicago, Michael Barrett hit a pair of home runs for the first time in his career, leading the Cubs past the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-5.
Chicago had 12 hits, including home runs by Aramis Ramirez for the second straight day and Moises Alou.
Carlos Zambrano (1-0) allowed one run on six hits over six innings to pick up the win.
Diamondbacks 11, Rockies 10
Richie Sexson and Shea Hillenbrand both homered and drove in three runs as the Arizona Diamondbacks edged the Colorado Rockies 11-10.
Mike Koplove (1-1) survived a bases-loaded jam in relief in the fifth inning to get the win, as Arizona ended a five-game losing streak.
Matt Mantei got the last four outs for his second save.
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