Larry Walker pinch-hit a sacrifice fly for the go-ahead run in the eighth inning to help the St. Louis Cardinals rally past the New York Mets 7-6 on Saturday.
Kaz Matsui chased Mark Mulder with a tying three-run triple in a four-run sixth inning, but the Mets failed to hold a 6-5 lead in the eighth.
Jim Edmonds doubled home the tying run against Roberto Hernandez (2-1). Then, with Walker batting for So Taguchi and the bases loaded, he lofted a fly to left that drove in Albert Pujols. Mark Grudzielanek tied a career high with four RBIs.
Julian Tavarez (1-1) pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings, and Jason Isringhausen, activated from the disabled list on Friday, got three outs for his eighth save in eight chances.
Mulder, who had won five straight starts, allowed six runs and 10 hits in five-plus innings, his ERA rising from 2.70 to 3.44.
Mets starter Pedro Martinez gave up five runs -- four earned -- and five hits in six innings.
Nationals 4, Cubs 3
In Washington, Livan Hernandez won his fifth consecutive start, Vinny Castilla had a two-run single, and Washington defeated Chicago.
Hernandez (6-2) pitched 6 1-3 innings before leaving with an injured right knee. He allowed two runs and five hits, walked none and struck out six _ all after enduring a lengthy rain delay at the start of the game.
Chicago had a three-game winning streak snapped and the Nationals halted a three-game skid.
Gary Majewski pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings in relief of Hernandez, and Chad Cordero allowed Corey Patterson's RBI single in the ninth before getting his eighth save in 10 chances.
The start of the game was delayed for 2 hours, 40 minutes by severe thunderstorms, lightning and heavy rain. Carlos Zambrano (3-2) retired his first nine batters before running into trouble in the fourth and eventually leaving the game with tightness in his right forearm.
Braves 5, Dodgers 1
In Los Angeles, Eric Gagne gave up homers to Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones, his first two batters since coming off the disabled list, and Atlanta beat Los Angeles.
Andruw Jones homered twice and drove in three runs, Raul Mondesi also homered and Adam Bernero (3-0) allowed a run and four hits in three innings for the victory after Braves starter Mike Hampton left the game with tightness in his left forearm.
Mondesi, who began his career with the Dodgers and was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1994, hit a two-out homer to left field in the fifth against Odalis Perez (4-4). The left-hander lost his third straight start, allowing three runs, five hits and no walks in six innings while striking out six.
Jhonny Peralta homered to snap a seventh-inning tie, and the Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 for their first three-game winning streak of the season on Saturday.
Peralta hit a 2-2 pitch from Jason Frasor (1-3) over the wall in right-center for his fifth home run, helping Cleveland win for the fourth time in five games.
Arthur Rhodes (2-1), the fourth of six pitchers used by Indians manager Eric Wedge in a game delayed twice by rain, retired all three batters he faced for the win.
Bob Howry worked a perfect eighth and Bob Wickman pitched the ninth for his 11th save in 13 tries, retiring Orlando Hudson on a grounder with a runner on third to end it.
Orioles 9, White Sox 6
In Chicago, Brian Roberts had three doubles, and Miguel Tejada doubled in the go-ahead run in a four-run seventh inning as Baltimore beat Chicago.
The Orioles erased an early three-run deficit to win after losing the first two games of the four-game series between division leaders.
Freddy Garcia (3-3) allowed 10 hits and seven runs in six-plus innings, becoming the first White Sox pitcher to lose consecutive starts this season.
Daniel Cabrera (3-2) allowed five runs and six hits with four walks in six innings, but he retired the final nine batters he faced. It helped that Chicago had three runners thrown out at the plate -- Paul Konerko in the first, Jermaine Dye in the third and Scott Podsednik in the fourth.
B.J. Ryan pitched the ninth for his 10th save in 11 chances.
Yankees 15, Athletics 6
In Oakland, California, Derek Jeter and Tino Martinez hit three-run homers, Alex Rodriguez added his major league-leading 12th shot and New York thrashed Oakland for its seventh straight win. The A's have lost a season-high seven straight.
Jorge Posada also homered, while Martinez had three hits and drove in five runs for the Yankees, who have scored 59 runs during their longest winning streak in more than a year. Hideki Matsui matched his career high with four of New York's 18 hits.
Kevin Brown (2-4) won his second straight start for the Yankees (18-19), who are back within a game of third-place Toronto in the American League East after their April struggles.
New York demolished Joe Blanton (0-4) and the A's early on: Every batter except Gary Sheffield had a hit by the fourth.
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