San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds hit his first home run in 13 games, blasting No. 747 of his career to move within nine of becoming baseball's home run king.
After homering only once since May 8, Bonds hit his 13th home run of the season off Toronto starter Josh Towers and Matt Morris pitched his 23rd career complete game as the Giants edged the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 on Monday.
The 42-year-old Bonds, who climbed within eight homers of tying Hank Aaron's all-time mark of 755, had not homered since May 27 against the Colorado Rockies.
The blast came off Towers, who became the 440th different pitcher to surrender a homer to the seven-time National League MVP.
Morris (7-3) was excellent, allowing three runs, seven hits and a walk in going the distance for the third time in 2007.
The veteran righthander is now 16-5 lifetime in interleague games.
With the Giants trailing 3-1 in the fourth, Ryan Klesko reached base on an infield single to second. Bonds followed with a two-run blast to right center.
Phillies 3, White Sox 0
Adam Eaton pitched four-hit ball for seven innings and Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell and Jimmy Rollins homered to power the Philadelphia Phillies over the Chicago White Sox 3-0 on Monday.
Eaton (7-4) pitched out of a pair of jams, made a nifty defensive play to help his cause and won for the fourth time in five starts.
Cubs 2, Astros 1
Carlos Zambrano mixed his pitches instead of his punches and hit his second homer of the season to lead Chicago past Houston.
In his first appearance at Wrigley Field since his June 1 fight with catcher Michael Barrett, Zambrano (7-5) allowed three hits and an unearned run in eight strong innings. He struck out eight and threw 128 pitches while outdueling hard-luck loser Woody Williams (2-9).
Mariners 8, Indians 7
Raul Ibanez hit a pair of homers and doubled home the go-ahead run in the ninth inning to lead visiting Seattle over Cleveland for its fourth straight victory.
Ibanez also tripled and finished a single shy of the cycle. Jose Lopez hit a two-run homer off Indians starter Paul Byrd. Brandon Morrow (3-0) got the win.
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