Mark DeRosa hit a grand slam, Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee added solo homers and the Chicago Cubs closed out a tumultuous weekend by beating the Atlanta Braves 10-1 on Sunday to snap a six-game losing streak.
The win came after manager Lou Piniella was suspended indefinitely for his dirt-kicking tirade against an umpire on Saturday.
Sean Marshall (1-2) allowed one run and six hits in 6 2-3 innings in his third start since being recalled from Triple-A Iowa.
PHOTO: AP
Phillies 9, Giants 8
In Philadelphia, Shane Victorino hit a walkoff homer in the ninth inning and Ryan Howard's three-run shot in the seventh helped the Phillies outslug San Francisco.
With the score tied, Victorino drove a 1-0 pitch from Kevin Correia (1-2) for the first game-winning homer of his career.
Cardinals 8, Astros 6
In Houston, So Taguchi and Albert Pujols hit 10th-inning homers off Dan Wheeler, lifting St. Louis to its fourth win in five games.
Pujols also homered in the eighth off Chad Qualls.
Diamondbacks 4, Mets 1
In New York, Doug Davis allowed a run and six hits in seven innings and the Arizona Diamondbacks won for the ninth time in 10 games.
Rockies 10, Reds 9
In Denver, Garrett Atkins hit a homer and game-winning single in the 10th to help Colorado rally past Cincinnati.
Kaz Matsui opened the 10th with a single off Victor Santos (1-1) and went to second on Santos' wild pickoff attempt.
Dodgers 5, Pirates 4
In Pittsburgh, Andre Ethier's two-run homer in the eighth off former Pirates closer Salomon Torres finished Los Angeles' five-run comeback in the late innings.
Brewers 3, Marlins 0
In Milwaukee, Ben Sheets pitched six shutout innings and the Milwaukee Brewers won their first series in nearly a month.
Sheets (6-3) struck out seven and walked one to move to 5-1 in his past seven starts.
Padres 7, Nationals 3
In Washington, Josh Bard homered and drove in four runs and David Wells threw five solid innings as San Diego beat Washington.
Bard hit a three-run homer in the first inning, and Hiram Bocachica's solo homer snapped a fifth-inning tie.
Alex Rodriguez ended a tumultuous weekend with a tiebreaking homer in the ninth inning off star closer Jonathan Papelbon to give New York a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night.
Angels 3, Orioles 3
At Anaheim, California, Vladimir Guerrero hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off Chris Ray and Los Angeles beat Baltimore.
Chone Figgins greeted Ray (3-4) with a leadoff single in the ninth before Guerrero drove a hanging slider to left-center for a homer.
Tigers 9, Indians 2
In Cleveland, Jeremy Bonderman stayed unbeaten and Detroit defeated Cleveland to split a four-game series.
Gary Sheffield hit a two-run homer off Jeremy Sowers (1-6) for the Tigers, who pulled within 2.5 games of first-place Cleveland.
Athletics 4, Twins 2
In Oakland, California, Chad Gaudin outpitched Johan Santana and Oakland took two of three games from Minnesota.
Santana allowed four runs, three earned, and five hits in six innings.
Blue Jays 4, White Sox 3
In Toronto, Adam Lind hit a go-ahead, three-run double in the sixth inning that helped Toronto beat Chicago.
One inning after he was called out for leaving second base early, Lind erased a 3-1 deficit with a bases-loaded double.
Devil Rays 5, Royals 1
St. Petersburg, Florida, J.P. Howell pitched eight impressive innings and Tampa Bay got solo homers from Delmon Young and Carlos Pena in a victory over Kansas City.
Howell (1-0), recalled from the minors on Friday, gave up five hits and struck out seven.
Mariners 11, Rangers 6
In Seattle, Jose Lopez had four hits, including a three-run double to highlight a five-run fourth inning and Ryan Feierabend earned his first MLB career win in Seattle's victory over bumbling Texas.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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