Shelley Duncan homered twice, including a three-run drive that capped a 10-run fourth inning in the surging New York Yankees' 21-4 rout of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Sunday.
Alex Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 34th homer and No. 498 of his career. Hideki Matsui, Bobby Abreu and Robinson Cano also homered as the Yankees hit six home runs in a game for the first time in two years.
New York had 25 hits, reaching 20 for the second straight game. Matsui tied his regular-season high with five hits and every Yankees starter had a hit, a run and an RBI. Rodriguez pushed his big league-leading RBIs total to 99 in 97 games.
The Yankees took three of four from the Devil Rays, hitting .408 in the series with 49 runs, 62 hits and 11 homers.
Andy Pettitte (6-6) won his 12th straight decision against the Devil Rays.
James Shields (8-6), lost for the sixth time in nine starts, allowing 10 runs, 10 hits and four walks in three innings.
Royals 5, Tigers 2
At Detroit, Brian Bannister allowed four hits in seven innings and Esteban German homered for Kansas City, which went 5-4 on a trip against playoff contenders Boston, Cleveland and Detroit.
The Royals are 6-3 during their last three series in Detroit, starting with the season-ending sweep that cost the Tigers' last year's AL Central title.
Bannister (6-6) gave up one run and four hits in seven innings, struck out three and walked one.
Blue Jays 8, Mariners 0
At Toronto, Roy Halladay threw a three-hitter, Troy Glaus hit a three-run homer and Toronto shut out Seattle for the second straight game.
Halladay (11-4) walked one and struck out three to win for the first time in three starts. It was his ninth career shutout and his first since May 29, 2005.
Aaron Hill and Gregg Zaun added solo blasts for Toronto.
Red Sox 8, White Sox 5
At Boston, Manny Ramirez homered and drove in four runs, Mike Lowell added a three-run shot and Boston outscored Chicago 29-10 in the final three games of the series.
Tim Wakefield (11-9) allowed four runs and six hits in six innings for Boston. He struck out two and walked two.
Angels 7, Twins 2
At Minneapolis, Joe Saunders allowed two runs in seven innings and Garret Anderson snapped a homerless drought for Los Angeles that spanned 14 consecutive games and 134 innings.
Called up to replace Ervin Santana, who was sent down to the minors on Wednesday, Saunders (4-0) allowed six hits and struck out five as the Angels opened a two-game lead on hard-charging Seattle in the AL West.
Orioles 2, Athletics 0
At Oakland, California, Jeremy Guthrie combined with two relievers on a two-hitter and Kevin Millar and Jay Payton hit a run-scoring singles for Baltimore.
Guthrie (6-3) allowed two hits in seven innings, struck out six and walked three. His ERA dropped to 2.88, third in the AL behind Oakland's Dan Haren (2.41) and Johan Santana (2.65).
Indians 8, Rangers 3
At Arlington, Texas, Victor Martinez, Josh Barfield and Jason Michaels drove in two runs apiece to lead Cleveland over Texas.
Barfield went 3-for-4 and scored two runs and Casey Blake also had three hits for Cleveland.
Martinez, an All-Star catcher, made just his 15th start of the season at first base. His RBI single in the fifth put Cleveland ahead 3-0 and ignited a three-run inning. He added a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Woody Williams threw eight shutout innings, a series of excellent Houston defensive plays repeatedly frustrated the Pirates and the Astros finally took a series against Pittsburgh by winning 1-0 on Sunday.
Luke Scott, who entered after star rookie center fielder Hunter Pence sprained his right wrist while batting in the fourth, drove in the only run with a two-out single in the sixth.
Shane Youman (2-2), moved up in the Pirates' rotation so the struggling John Van Benschoten could skip a start, limited the Astros to four hits over eight innings but still took the loss.
Marlins 9, Reds 3
At Miami, Dan Uggla broke a tie in the seventh inning with a two-run homer as Florida routed Cincinnati for the third game in succession, outscoring the Reds 30-6 over that span.
Mike Jacobs also hit a two-run homer for the Marlins, who lost shortstop Hanley Ramirez when he partially dislocated his left shoulder on a swing in the first inning.
With the score 2-all, Cody Ross walked to start the seventh against Bronson Arroyo (4-11) and Uggla hit his 19th homer. Florida added another run in the seventh before scoring four times in the eighth.
Nationals 3, Rockies 0
At Washington, Austin Kearns hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning and four Washington pitchers combined on a second consecutive shutout of Colorado.
The Nationals took the lead in the eighth after D'Angelo Jimenez singled to right off Jorge Julio (0-3) with two outs and went to second on a passed ball by Yorvit Torrealba.
Ryan Zimmerman was intentionally walked before Kearns hammered a 1-0 pitch into the left-field mezzanine for his sixth homer.
Brewers 7, Giants 5
At Milwaukee, Ryan Braun and Corey Hart hit first-inning home runs off Barry Zito, leading Milwaukee over San Francisco to avoid a three-game sweep.
Brewers pitchers got through the weekend series without giving up a home run to Barry Bonds, who sat out on Sunday and was expected to resume his pursuit of Hank Aaron's home run record at home in San Francisco yesterday.
Diamondbacks 3, Cubs 0
At Chicago, Yusmeiro Petit pitched six scoreless innings, Chris Snyder homered and Arizona won a road series for the first time in more than a month.
Derrek Lee served the final game of a five-game suspension for Chicago.
Phillies 9, Padres 0
At San Diego, Ryan Howard drove in two runs and J.D. Durbin pitched his first career shutout to help Philadelphia with its third straight.
Shane Victorino drove in three runs, Aaron Rowand added a pair of RBIs and Jimmy Rollins scored three times as the Phillies outscored San Diego 26-8 during the three-game series.
Mets 5, Dodgers 4
At Chavez Ravine, Chip Ambres singled home the go-ahead run in the 10th inning to help New York take three of four in a series between division leaders.
New York tied the score in the ninth when Matt Kemp allowed Shawn Green's fly to short right to fall for an error as pinch-runner Anderson Hernandez came home from third.
Cardinals 7, Braves 2
At Atlanta, Skip Schumaker hit a two-run home run and Scott Rolen added a three-run homer in the 10th inning to give St. Louis a win over Atlanta.
Schumaker, who entered the game in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter, drove an 0-1 pitch from Tyler Yates (2-2) over the right-field fence for his second homer.
Albert Pujols walked following Schumacker's homer and Juan Encarnacion followed with a single, knocking out Yates. Rolen hit his fifth homer off Oscar Villarreal, a drive over the left-field fence.
Jason Isringhausen (4-0) picked up the win with four strikeouts in two perfect innings.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
Playing soccer and competing for trophies is the best way that many transplanted Hong Kongers and Macanese have found to stay in touch, and to interact with Taiwanese society, said officials at the Taiwan-Hong Kong-Macau Football Friendship Cup, which was held on April 13. Twelve clubs, mostly of players and coaches originally from Hong Kong and Macau, took part in the tournament in New Taipei City. The event is sponsored by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council. Participating teams were from the wider Taipei area, Hsinchu, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other areas. They divided into two