Awaiting the imminent birth of his first child, Dontrelle Willis went about his business, pitching six innings and hitting a standup triple to help the Florida Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves 8-7 on Monday.
Willis (4-1) became the National League's first four-game winner.
Sitting at his locker three-and-a-half hours before the game, Willis said his wife, Natalee, was expected to deliver a daughter on Monday night. The expectant father with the big windup wasn't at his best, giving up eight hits and five runs. But he won his fourth consecutive start against Atlanta and improved to a career 13-2 in April.
Catcher Miguel Olivo hit a three-run homer and Dan Uggla homered and drove in three runs.
Kyle Davies (0-1) threw 90 pitches in four-plus innings, walked six and gave up five runs.
Mets 6, Rockies 1
At New York, Carlos Delgado hit his first home run of the season and John Maine pitched into the eighth inning, leading New York over punchless Colorado.
Jose Valentin had a three-run homer and four RBIs, while Moises Alou went 3-for-3 with a walk and two runs to help the Mets rebound after losing two of three to division rival Atlanta at home last weekend.
Matt Holliday had his third consecutive three-hit game for Colorado, which has lost 14 of 15 at Shea Stadium from 2003 on. The Rockies have not homered in six straight games, matching a franchise record.
Phillies 11, Astros 4
At Philadelphia, Jimmy Rollins hit a leadoff homer and fell a double shy of the cycle and Philadelphia had a season-high 20 hits.
Rollins homered, tripled, singled and drove in two runs in his first three at-bats and led the Phillies to their first three-game winning streak.
Brewers 5, Cubs 4, 12 innings
At Chicago, Prince Fielder homered twice, including a 12th-inning drive that capped a comeback from a four-run deficit to lead Milwaukee over Chicago.
Fielder's fourth homer of the season came with one out off Rocky Cherry (0-1), who entered to start the inning in his major league debut. Fielder has four multihomer games, including three against the Cubs, all at Wrigley Field.
Alex Rodriguez homered twice to tie Albert Pujols' major league record of 14 April homers, but the Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat New York 10-8 and sent the Yankees to their fourth straight loss on Monday.
Rocco Baldelli hit a three-run homer off Kei Igawa (1-1) in the second inning. B.J. Upton lined a solo shot off the left-field foul pole in the fourth for a 5-3 lead, then added a three-run double against Luis Vizcaino in the seventh to finish with a career-high four RBIs.
White Sox 7, Royals 4
At Kansas City, Missouri, in his first start since last week's no-hitter against Texas, Mark Buehrle (2-0) allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings.
Paul Konerko, who had not homered since opening day, hit a pair of two-run homers and drove in five runs for Chicago.
Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 3
At Boston, Frank Thomas hit his 490th homer, a go-ahead, two-run drive off Tim Wakefield (2-20) in the sixth.
Aaron Hill rapped out four hits, including a two-run homer in the ninth, as Toronto ended a five-game losing streak and stopped Boston's five-game winning streak. Hill has four homers in 19 games after getting six in 155 last year.
Tomo Ohka (1-2) allowed three runs -- two earned -- and six hits in five-plus innings for his first win in eight starts since Aug. 24. Jason Frasor, filling in for injured closer B.J. Ryan, got his second save.
Athletics 6, Orioles 5
At Baltimore, Nick Swisher hit two home runs, including a drive that sparked a five-run fourth against Erik Bedard (3-2) as Oakland ended Baltimore's four-game winning streak.
Swisher hit a two-run homer in the fourth and added a solo shot against Danys Baez in the ninth.
Dan Haren (2-2) allowed one run and five hits in seven innings to lower his ERA to an American League-best 1.41.
Mariners 5, Rangers 4
At Arlington, Texas, Ichiro Suzuki went 3-for-5 with a three-run triple as Seattle stopped a six-game losing streak.
Brandon Morrow (1-0) pitched three innings of one-hit shutout relief for his first major league victory and J.J. Putz got four outs for his first save of the season.
Indians 7, Twins 3, 12 innings
At Minneapolis, Ryan Garko drove in the go-ahead run for the second straight game, blooping a soft single in the 12th inning for Cleveland's victory.
Travis Hafner, who matched his career high with four hits, started the 12th with a walk against Minnesota's Jesse Crain (0-1). Jason Michaels followed Garko's hit with an RBI double and Choo Shin-soo added a two-run single off Joe Nathan with the bases loaded.
Tigers 9, Angels 5
At Anaheim, California, Curtis Granderson led off with a home run and Ivan Rodriguez hit a pair of two-out RBI singles for Detroit.
Jason Grilli (2-1) pitched two innings of hitless relief for the victory, allowing a run on Orlando Cabrera's sacrifice fly in the sixth. Detroit starter Mike Maroth was pulled by manager Jim Leyland one out shy of the required five innings for a victory, despite leading 8-3.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite