David Wright drove in three runs, Moises Alou had three hits and the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals 8-4 on Wednesday, ending a five-game losing streak that cut their lead in the National League East to 1.5 games.
Pelfrey (3-7) allowed three runs in five-plus innings to win his third consecutive decision. After he left, Jorge Sosa and Aaron Heilman combined for three shutout innings, a stretch that began with Sosa getting a strikeout and a double play to escape a first-and-third, no-outs jam in the sixth. Billy Wagner gave up an unearned run in the ninth.
The game was tied 2-2 heading to the fifth, when Jose Reyes singled with one out, Luis Castillo tripled him home and Wright added an RBI single to make it 4-2. The Mets wouldn't trail again, knocking out Matt Chico (5-9) after scoring five runs in five innings.
C.C. Sabathia allowed only five hits over seven innings and Cleveland beat Detroit Tigers 4-2 on Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep and reduce the Indians' magic number for clinching Major League Baseball's American League Central Division title to three.
Casey Blake homered off Nate Robertson (8-12) as the Indians improved to 20-5 since Aug. 25 and moved into a temporary tie with the Boston Red Sox for US MLB's best record.
In winning three straight over the Tigers, Cleveland opened a seven-game lead over the defending AL champs.
Yankees 2, Red Sox 1
At New York, Andy Pettitte earned his 200th win, Mariano Rivera escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth and New York edged Baltimore to complete a three-game sweep to pull within 1.5 games of first-place Boston.
* See scoreboard for full results
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB