AMERICAN LEAGUE
Jim Thome homered in the 15th inning to pass Mickey Mantle on the career list and give the Chicago White Sox a 7-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday that boosted their American League Central division lead.
Thome’s 537th home run put him above former New York Yankees great Mantle and in sole possession of 14th place on the list of all-time home-run hitters.
The White Sox moved two-and-a-half games in front of second-place Minnesota with their third consecutive victory and second in a row over the Angels in this showdown of division leaders.
The White Sox won again without slugger Carlos Quentin, who is scheduled for surgery today on his broken right wrist and could miss the rest of the season.
The Angels failed to protect a 5-2 lead early and a 6-5 lead in the ninth inning.
BLUE JAYS 7, RAYS 4, 13 INNINGS
In Toronto, Gregg Zaun hit a game-ending grand slam in the 13th inning to give Toronto a win over Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay tied it with three runs in the ninth and went ahead 4-3 in the top of 13th, before Zaun’s game winner with one out in the bottom of the inning.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, LOS ANGELES
The Arizona Diamondbacks gave Manny Ramirez three chances to hurt them and he came through twice for the Los Angeles Dodgers to win 7-2 in the National League on Saturday.
Ramirez hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning to break a scoreless tie and added a two-run double in the sixth, helping the Dodgers replace the Diamondbacks in first place in the National League West for the first time since April 4.
Saturday’s other results:
American League
• Tigers 6, Twins 4
• Rangers 15, Red Sox 8
• Yankees 7, Mariners 4
• Royals 3, Indians 1
• Athletics 5, Orioles 1
National League
• Brewers 1, Padres 0
• Cubs 14, Reds 9
• Cardinals 5, Marlins 3
• Astros 2, Rockies 0
• Nationals 8, Braves 5,
10 innings
• Giants 7, Pirates 6
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with