American League
Tadahito Iguchi hit a go-ahead, three-run homer off David Wells after a costly error by Red Sox second baseman Tony Graffanino, and the Chicago White Sox rallied for a 5-4 victory over Boston on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead against the defending World Series champions in their AL playoff series.
The Red Sox, 14-2 losers in Tuesday's opener, took a 4-0 lead in the third, then were shut out on three hits for the final six innings by Mark Buehrle and Bobby Jenks.
PHOTO: EPA
Graffanino hit a one-out double in the ninth, but Jenks got the save by retiring Johnny Damon on a foulout to the catcher and Edgar Renteria on a groundout.
Games 3 and possibly 4 in the best-of-five series are at Fenway Park today and tomorrow. A fifth game, if necessary, would be at Chicago on Sunday.
After a 19-8 loss to the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the AL championship series a year ago, the Red Sox won eight straight games to capture their first World Series title since 1918. Boston has won eight of its last nine games when facing postseason elimination.
Wells dropped to 10-4 in postseason play.
Angels 5, Yankees 3
At Anaheim, California, Orlando Cabrera, Bengie Molina and the Angels' slick gloves got Los Angeles even against the New York Yankees.
Cabrera scored the tying run after a costly error by Alex Rodriguez and hit a go-ahead single, Molina got two big hits and the Angels beat the Yankees to tie their AL division series at one game each.
New York went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position -- 0-for-8 after Robinson Cano doubled in the first run -- and made three errors that led to three unearned runs.
The Angels saved two runs with sparkling defense.
Now the series shifts to Yankee Stadium, where Randy Johnson starts for New York tonight against Paul Byrd.
The Yankees won Tuesday night's opener 4-2 by beating 21-game winner Bartolo Colon, but the Angels bounced back -- just as they did after losing the opener of each series on the way to the franchise's first championship three years ago.
National League
AP, Atlanta, Georgia
Morgan Ensberg Ensberg had five RBIs and Andy Pettitte overcame a couple of homers for a record-tying 14th win in the Major League playoffs on Wednesday, leading the Houston Astros over the Atlanta Braves 10-5 in Game 1 of their National League divisional series.
The victory tied Pettitte with John Smoltz for most postseason wins, improving to 14-8. The Houston left-hander pitched four-hit ball over seven innings.
Smoltz was to start for Atlanta against Roger Clemens in Game 2 last night.
Concerned about Smoltz's ailing shoulder, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox chose Tim Hudson for the opener, but the right-hander allowed five runs -- the most since a June 13 loss at Texas -- over 6 2/3 innings and Houston completed the win with five runs in the eighth against the Braves bullpen.
Houston's 39-year-old leadoff hitter Craig Biggio was critical, scoring three runs and driving in another with two hits, a sacrifice fly, a sac bunt and a walk in six trips to the plate.
Ensberg tied a Houston postseason record with his five RBIs. He had a run-scoring single in the first, a two-run single in the third, another RBI single in the seventh and walked with the bases loaded in the eighth, when the Astros sent 11 batters to the plate against Chris Reitsma, John Foster and Jim Brower.
Houston scored only 13 runs in six regular-season games against the Braves, losing five of those meetings -- two by shutout. But those games came early in a season that began miserably for the Astros, who bounced back to capture the wild card.
Atlanta got homers from Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones.
Atlanta has won 14 straight division titles but won only one World Series championship during that time. Last year, they were eliminated in the divisional series by Houston.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB