Carlos Delgado hit a three-run homer, and Josh Beckett allowed four hits over seven innings as the Florida Marlins beat the New York Mets 6-3 on Sunday.
The Marlins scored five runs in the seventh inning, highlighted by Delgado's ninth homer, to salvage the final game of the four-game series and snap a four-game losing streak.
Heath Bell (0-2) replaced Tom Glavine to start the seventh with the Mets leading 2-1, but he was pulled after giving up consecutive singles to Luis Castillo and Miguel Cabrera. Delgado hit a 3-0 pitch from Koo Dae-sung over the right field wall for a 4-2 lead.
Nationals 3, Cardinals 2
In St. Louis, Livan Hernandez wrapped up the first five-victory month of his career to become the National League's second eight-game winner, and Brad Wilkerson had three doubles for Washington.
Jamey Carroll's RBI single capped a three-run fifth for the Nationals (25-25), who avoided getting swept for the second straight series and ended a five-game losing streak.
Cubs 11, Rockies 6
In Chicago, Aramis Ramirez had three hits, including a homer, and four RBIs, and Derrek Lee went 3-for-4 to lead Chicago over Colorado.
Jeromy Burnitz added a three-run homer in a five-run, sixth-inning rally that put the Cubs ahead for good. He also drove in a run with a groundout.
Todd Walker had his first career pinch-hit homer for the Cubs, who at 24-24 climbed back to .500 for the first time since May 1.
Dodgers 6, Diamondbacks 3
In Phoenix, Jeff Weaver earned his first win in four starts and Los Angeles Dodgers won a series for the first time in three weeks.
The Dodgers scored five times in the first three innings. Los Angeles had lost five straight series since winning two of three at Cincinnati from May 6-8.
Cesar Izturis was 3-for-5 with a triple, and Jayson Werth doubled twice, scored and drove in a run.
Roy Halladay pitched a two-hitter for his second shutout of the season, leading the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday.
Halladay (8-2) allowed only a bunt single to Nick Punto in the first and an infield single to Shannon Stewart in the fifth. He had a season-high 10 strikeouts and walked none for the eighth shutout of his Major League Baseball career.
Rangers 12, White Sox 4
In Arlington, Texas, Kevin Mench hit a three-run homer as part of a six-run sixth inning, and Texas stretched MLB's longest active winning streak to eight games.
Jon Garland (8-2) was denied becoming the first nine-game winner in the majors, allowing a season-high seven runs and nine hits in six innings. It was his second straight loss after winning 10 starts in a row, including the final two of 2004.
Park Chan-ho (5-1) earned his fourth straight win over seven starts -- all Rangers victories.
Red Sox 7, Yankees 2
In New York, David Wells pitched into the ninth inning and David Ortiz hit two long home runs to lead Boston.
Edgar Renteria also homered and got four more hits for the Red Sox, who took two of three at Yankee Stadium to leapfrog New York into second place in the AL East behind Baltimore.
The Red Sox got 14 hits against Mike Mussina (5-3) and three relievers.
Ortiz drove in four runs and matched a career high with four hits. Renteria went 10-for-12 in the series with two homers, six RBIs and five runs scored. Manny Ramirez added three hits, giving him seven in two days.
Wells (3-4) allowed six hits, walked none and struck out two in 8 1-3 innings.
Yomiuri Giants outfielder Tuffy Rhodes was fined by Japan's Pacific League yesterday for protesting a called third strike in the 12th inning of Sunday's 3-3 tie with the Orix Buffaloes.
Rhodes addressed the home plate umpire with language deemed offensive by the Pacific League office and was slapped with a US$1,000 fine.
It's the second time this season that Rhodes has been fined.
In late April, Rhodes was critical of his teammates after a 7-5 loss to the Yakult Swallows and was later fined by his team.
The Giants sit in last place in the Central League standings with a disappointing 20-28-2 record.
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