American LeagueBruce Chen pitched his first complete game for his first victory in over two years, and Rafael Palmeiro homered during a five-run opening inning, leading the Baltimore Orioles past the Toronto Blue Jays 9-1 on Monday night.
Chen (1-0) allowed just five hits and a run in his first win since April 21, 2002, for Montreal versus the New York Mets. He struck out five and didn't walk a batter.
PHOTO: AP
Toronto starter Justin Miller (3-4), pitching a day after his grandfather died, got two outs in the first before allowing seven straight batters to reach. Sean Douglass replaced Miller to start the second.
Miguel Tejada hit an RBI single, Palmeiro hit a two-run homer and Jay Gibbons and Larry Bigbie hit consecutive run-scoring singles in the first.
The Orioles added four runs in the eighth off Kevin Frederick on Jay Gibbons' RBI single, Brian Roberts' two-run triple and Dave Newhan's sacrifice fly.
Vernon Wells drove in the lone run for the last-place Blue Jays, who have lost four straight.
Twins 5, Tigers 3
In Detroit, Lew Ford homered and drove in two runs to back a strong outing by Brad Radke, helping Minnesota complete a four-game sweep of Detroit.
Augie Ojeda also homered for the Twins, who have won six straight, and 11 of 13.
Radke (11-7) allowed a run and seven hits in seven innings to improve to 17-6 lifetime against the Tigers.
Juan Rincon threw a scoreless eighth, but Joe Roa gave up two runs in the ninth before Joe Nathan got the final out for his 43rd save in 46 chances.
Jason Johnson (8-14) allowed four runs -- three earned -- and 10 hits in seven innings. He walked three and struck out two.
Jason Smith hit a two-run double in the bottom of the ninth for the Tigers, who also received a run-scoring single from Dmitri Young in the sixth.
Royals 17, Yankees 8
In Kansas City, Missouri, John Buck hit a three-run homer and Angel Berroa had two hits and scored twice in a 10-run fifth inning that carried Kansas City to a rout of New York.
The Royals sent 15 men to the plate against four pitchers in the biggest inning against the Yankees since Boston scored 11 in a 13-7 victory on May 31, 1998. It was Kansas City's second big inning in a week. The Royals scored 11 runs in the third inning of a 26-5 victory Thursday over the Detroit Tigers.
On Monday, Kansas City scored on a walk, a balk, two wild pitches, a home run and three singles.
Berroa wound up with five hits and scored five runs and Buck also had a single and two doubles and a career-best five RBIs for the Royals, who had lost six in a row to the Yankees and beaten them only twice in their last 10 meetings at home.
Brian Anderson (4-11) went six innings and gave up nine hits and three runs.
The Yankees' lead in the AL East dropped to three games over idle Boston.
Brad Halsey (1-3), making his second start since being recalled from minor league Columbus on Sept. 5, took the loss.
Angels 5, Mariners 1
In Seattle, Kelvim Escobar pitched seven strong innings and Garret Anderson hit a three-run homer, leading Anaheim past Seattle and moving the Angels within 4 1/2 games of idle Boston in the AL wild-card race.
Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki went hitless -- 0-for-4 with a walk -- for the third time in four games.
Escobar (10-10) became a doub-le-digit winner for the fourth time in his career, but lost his shutout bid when Jose Lopez homered with two outs in the seventh. Escobar allowed one run and six hits, walked one, threw a wild pitch and struck out seven.
Scot Shields got two outs in the eighth, and Francisco Rodriguez got four outs for his 12th save in 19 chances.
Rookie Cha Seung Baek (1-3) was the loser.
Athletics 7, Rangers 6, 10 innings
In Oakland, California, Eric Chavez singled in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, leading Oakland to a wild win over the Rangers in a game that was delayed in the ninth after Texas reliever Frank Francisco hurled a chair and hit two fans.
Mark McLemore drew a bases-loaded walk to score the tying run, then Chavez broke an 0-for-13 stretch with a hit to shallow center off Francisco Cordero (3-2), who blew his fourth save in 48 chances.
Justin Duchscherer (6-6) pit-ched the 10th to earn the victory for the A's, who maintained their two-game division lead over the Anaheim Angels.
Alfonso Soriano tied it at 5 with two outs in the ninth on his second homer of the night -- his first multihomer game this year and seventh of his career. Moments later, with Hank Blalock at the plate, the Rangers' bench and bullpen cleared.
Texas reliever Doug Brocail was seen screaming at a male fan, and the pitcher had to be restrained by his teammates and bullpen coach Mark Connor. Francisco then tos-sed a chair at a fan in a lower box to the left of the Rangers' bullpen along the right-field line. The chair hit one man in the head, then bounced and struck a woman in the side of the head. The incident caused a 19-minute delay.
In the 10th, Mark Teixeira, who earlier hit his 35th homer, scored the go-ahead run on Brian Jordan's infield grounder, but Cordero couldn't hold it as the Rangers had their three-game winning streak snapped.
National League
Chased out of Florida by Hurricane Ivan, the Marlins were forced to play a home game on the road and still cut their gap in the NL wild-card race.
Florida rallied with six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, taking advantage of four Montreal errors to beat the Expos 6-3 on Monday at US Cellular Field.
A small but spirited crowd announced at 4,003 transformed the home park of the Chicago White Sox into a foul-ball chaser's paradise. With the upper deck closed, most of the fans who spent US$15 for a ticket -- US$5 going to hurricane relief -- sat behind the dugouts and close to the field. There was a loud pro-Expos contingent, some dressed in Chicago Cubs attire.
The last NL game in an AL ballpark was in 1946, when the Boston Braves played several games at Fenway Park because a paint job on the seats at Braves Field had not dried, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Matt Perisho (5-2) was the winner in relief as Florida rallied in the eighth with help from errors by reliever Gary Majewski (0-1), Tony Batista at third, Juan Rivera in right and Endy Chavez in center.
Florida, two games behind wild-card leading San Francisco, will play the Expos at US Cellular again Tuesday.
Mets 9, Braves 7, 1st game; Braves 7, Mets 1, 2nd game
In New York, J.D. Drew had four hits and three RBIs, and Paul Byrd pitched eight strong innings in the nightcap, helping Atlanta earn a doubleheader split with New York.
In the first game, Mike Piazza and Richard Hidalgo homered, pinch-hitter Craig Brazell came through with a go-ahead double and the Mets rallied for the win.
After the Mets spent all afternoon answering questions about the future of manager Art Howe, they came back from a three-run deficit to win for only the third time in 22 games.
Drew and Adam LaRoche each hit a two-out, two-run double during Atlanta's four-run third inning in the nightcap. Jae Seo (4-10) allowed five runs and seven hits in four innings, dropping to 0-5 in nine outings since beating Cincinnati 7-5 on June 29.
Rafael Furcal hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth, Drew had an RBI single in the seventh off Heath Bell and Eli Marrero added a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
That was plenty for Byrd (7-5), who shrugged off Mike Cameron's leadoff homer in the first. He allowed seven hits, struck out four and walked none to win for the third time in four starts. The right-hander also improved to 8-1 in 13 lifetime appearances against his former team, including 11 starts.
Drew went 6-for-9 with four RBIs in the doubleheader, and LaRoche was 4-for-7.
The NL East-leading Braves sent the free-falling Mets to their 20th loss in 23 games.
In the opener, Andruw Jones hit a two-run homer, but Jaret Wright (14-7) couldn't hold the lead, as New York scored five times in the sixth.
Aaron Heilman (1-1) earned his first major league win in more than a year, and Wilson Delgado also homered.
Reds 4, Phillies 3
In Cincinnati, Jason LaRue drove in the go-ahead run on a fielder's choice grounder in the eighth inning and Cincinnati snapped Philadelphia's six-game winning streak.
Wily Mo Pena led off the eighth against reliever Felix Rodriguez (5-8) with a double into the right-center field gap and moved to third on a sacrifice.
Other results: Cubs 7, Pirates 2; Rockies 9, Diamondbacks 2; Padres 9, Dodgers 7.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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