Brian Giles' tiebreaking single with two outs in the top of the 10th inning gave San Diego a 5-4 victory over San Francisco on Wednesday and snapped the Padres' four-game losing streak.
The first-place Padres rallied to avoid a three-game sweep and extended their lead over San Francisco to six games in the National League West.
Rudy Seanez (7-1) pitched a scoreless ninth for the victory. Trevor Hoffman got his 35th straight save and 38th overall as the Padres won despite stranding 15 runners.
Pedro Feliz hit a go-ahead, two-run double with two outs in the eighth for the Giants, but pinch-hitter Sean Burroughs tied it in the ninth with a two-out, two-run double off Armando Benitez.
Giles singled against LaTroy Hawkins (2-7) for his third hit of the game.
Barry Bonds entered as a pinch-hitter against Akinori Otsuka with two runners on in the eighth and struck out looking.
Pirates 5, Cardinals 3
At St. Louis, Brad Eldred hit two solo shots for his first multihomer game and Pittsburgh's bullpen worked 7 1-3 innings after Oliver Perez was ejected, keeping St. Louis' magic number for clinching the NL Central at two.
The Pirates won for only the fourth time in 19 games and denied the Cardinals a chance to clinch a tie for the division title at home. St. Louis completed a 6-4 homestand and begans a 10-game road trip yesterday.
Jason Bay homered, doubled and drove in two runs off Jason Marquis (12-14) for the Pirates, who finished 4-12 against the Cardinals this season.
Eldred homered leading off the second and hit his ninth in the sixth for a 4-1 lead.
Perez was ejected with two outs in the second inning after hitting Hector Luna in the left leg with a pitch.
Ryan Vogelsong (2-1) allowed a run in 2 1-3 innings for the win. Mike Gonzalez, the Pirates' seventh pitcher, got two outs for his second save.
Other games
At Philadelphia, the Phillies beat the Braves 12-4, while the Nationals defeated the Mets 6-3 at New York. The Reds defeated the Cubs 7-4 over 11 innings at Chicago, the Rockies beat the Dodgers 8-7 at Los Angeles, while the Diamondbacks beat the Brewers 2-1 at Phoenix.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set