AMERICAN LEAGUE
Japan’s Daisuke Matsuzaka carried a no-hitter into the seventh and matched a season-high nine strikeouts as Boston beat Tampa 2-0 in the opening game of their Major League Baseball semi-final series.
Kevin Youkilis had three hits for Boston who won in Tampa for the first time in nine tries this season. Tampa won the regular season series against Boston 10-8.
“My strike zone wasn’t that great today, so I had to rely more on those secondary pitches, like the slider, the cutter and the change-up,” Matsuzaka said.
Matsuzaka (1-0) allowed four hits in seven-plus innings, while walking four.
The right-hander walked the bases loaded in the first, but allowed only one base-runner over the next five frames, before Carl Crawford led off the seventh with a single, ending the no-hit bid.
“You have to keep going with [Matsuzaka],” Jason Varitek said. “Each inning can be different.”
Matsuzaka had made it past the sixth inning only once in his previous six starts, including allowing three runs in five frames against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League Division Series.
“With my fastball not where I wanted it to be, I did my best to use those secondary pitches to the corners and I think I was able to do that somewhat effectively,” Matsuzaka said.
The Red Sox got to James Shields (0-1) in the fifth, when Jason Bay drew a lead-off walk and moved to third on Mark Kotsay’s check-swing double down the left field line.
Jed Lowrie followed and got down in the count 0-2, before driving a sacrifice fly to right field.
The Rays threatened in the seventh as Cliff Floyd followed Crawford’s single with one of his own, putting runners at the corners. But Matsuzaka got Dioner Navarro to fly-out to left, struck out Gabe Gross swinging and induced a ground-out to shortstop by Jason Bartlett to escape unscathed.
“We had some opportunities, we didn’t take advantage of them,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “It was really a well-pitched game on both sides. It was a clean game. A good game. There was not a lot of hitting, but they just got the couple of runs and we had some opportunities and were not able to take advantage of them.”
Tampa Bay chased Matsuzaka with back-to-back singles leading off the eighth.
Jonathan Papelbon tossed a perfect ninth for the save. He has yet to allow a run in 20-and-two-third career post-season innings, surpassing Joe Niekro’s record of 20 scoreless frames.
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
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
When 42-1 underdog James ‘Buster’ Douglas shocked ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson 34 years ago at the Tokyo Dome, the result reverberated worldwide. Spectators at the 45,000-plus seater venue witnessed one of boxing’s biggest upsets as unbeaten heavyweight champion Tyson was knocked out in the 10th round by the unheralded Douglas in February 1990. Boxing returns to the famous venue on Monday for the first time since that unforgettable encounter when Japan’s undisputed super-bantamweight world champion Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue puts his belts on the line against Mexican Luis Nery. The 31-year-old Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs) is a huge star in Japan and is just
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