Bronson Arroyo hit his first career homer on Wednesday during his first start for the Cincinnati Reds, setting up an 8-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.
Ken Griffey Jr moved ahead of two Yankees with his first home run of the season. His solo shot was his 537th, breaking a tie with Mickey Mantle for 12th place. It also provided his 1,538th RBI, moving him ahead of Joe DiMaggio for 31st on that list.
Arroyo (1-0) allowed five runs -- three earned -- and six hits in 6 2-3 innings. He had been 4-for-55 (.073) with 33 strikeouts before his home run.
David Weathers pitched the ninth for his first save. Glendon Rusch (0-1) gave up four runs and six hits in four innings.
Cardinals 4, Phillies 3
At Philadelphia, Yadier Molina's two-out RBI single off Tom Gordon in the ninth inning lifted the St. Louis Cardinals to the win.
Jimmy Rollins extended his hitting streak to 38 games with a double in the first inning for the Phillies. He finished 2-for-4 with two doubles.
Nationals 9, Mets 5
At New York, Ryan Zimmerman hit a tying homer in the ninth off new Mets closer Billy Wagner, and Jose Guillen hit a go-ahead, two-run shot off loser Jorge Julio in the 10th.
Nick Johnson's three-run drive in the sixth started Washington's comeback from a 4-0 deficit against Brian Bannister, who made his major league debut.
The son of former big league pitcher Floyd Bannister began his big league career with 5 1-3 hitless innings.
Astros 6, Marlins 5
At Houston, Lance Berkman and Preston Wilson hit two-run homers as Houston built a 6-1 lead. Craig Biggio had two hits and scored two runs for the defending National League champions, who took two of three in their opening series against the Marlins, the team with the major leagues' lowest payroll.
Brewers 3, Pirates 2
At Milwaukee, Prince Fielder hit a looping single off loser Damaso Marte that scored Geoff Jenkins with the go-ahead run in the eighth. The son of former major leaguer Cecil Fielder was 0-for-9 with seven strikeouts this year when he walked in the second to reach base for the first time this season.
Diamondbacks 4, Rockies 2
At Denver, Orlando Hernandez won in his Diamondbacks' debut, striking out eight in five innings.
Acquired from the World Series champion Chicago White Sox during the offseason, Hernandez allowed two runs, six hits and two walks. He struck out Matt Holliday three times.
Giants 3, Padres 1
At San Diego, Barry Bonds reached base three times without getting a hit and scored once as San Francisco downed San Diego.
Although Bonds was booed every time he came to bat, he took less grief from the fans than he did on Monday, when he was booed mercilessly and had a syringe thrown at him.
Braves 9, Dodgers 8
At Los Angeles, Ryan Langerhans hit a two-out ground-rule double in the eighth to drive in the go-ahead run for Atlanta.
Marcus Giles and Edgar Renteria drew two-out walks off Franquelis Osoria (0-1) before Langerhans, who entered the game in the seventh, hit a liner into the right-field corner that bounced into the stands.
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
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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