INTERLEAGUE
The Chicago White Sox took the decider of their three-game series with cross-town rivals the Cubs as John Danks and Scott Linebrink combined on a four-hitter in the 6-0 win on Sunday.
Danks struck out five and walked four over seven innings, while Linebrink struck out four in two perfect relief innings to give the Sox their second straight win over the Cubs after losing the series opener.
PHOTO: AFP
Danks also beat the Cubs 4-1 on June 17 and has allowed just one earned run in his 14 innings against them this season.
“I didn’t throw as many strikes this time around, but I feel like I was still able to make the big pitch when I had to and guys were making plays all over the field for me,” Danks told reporters.
Alexei Ramirez hit a two-run homer in the third inning and that was all the runs the Sox would need, but Jermaine Dye also hit a solo homer for the winners. Chris Getz stole home for another run in the sixth inning.
The White Sox took two of three games during the week against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the best record in the majors, and then won two of three in this series.
Manager Ozzie Guillen was not ready to talk up the team’s prospects despite their run of good form, however.
“I’m going to take it one day at a time and try to move on real sneaky and quiet and see where we are in September,” Guillen said.
Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano (4-3) struggled, allowing five runs, four of them earned, on nine hits over 5 1/3 innings.
“You have to give credit to the other pitcher, Danks,” Zambrano said. “Sometimes the other pitcher comes with his best stuff and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Cubs manager Lou Piniella was frank about Zambrano’s performance.
“He was so-so,” Piniella said.
The White Sox lead the all-time series 36-35, with the teams yet to play a make-up game later this season from their first series at Wrigley Field.
BRAVES 2, RED SOX 1
At Atlanta, homers by Chipper Jones and Garret Anderson carried the Atlanta Braves past Boston 2-1 on Sunday, preventing a Red Sox sweep.
Pitching dominated the weekend series, with the teams combining for only nine runs in three games.
Rookie Tommy Hanson threw six scoreless innings, limiting Boston to two hits on another sweltering day at Turner Field and extending his scoreless streak to 20 innings.
ROYALS 3, PIRATES 2
At Pittsburgh, Kansas City Royals kept the Pirates from sweeping an interleague series for the first time since 2001.
David DeJesus hit a solo homer off Charlie Morton (0-1) and drove in two runs to support Zack Greinke (10-3), who gave up seven hits in six-and-a-third innings ahead of the 59-minute rain delay.
TIGERS 4, ASTROS 3
At Houston, Brandon Inge hit a two-run homer off Jose Valverde with two outs in the ninth inning as the Tigers averted a sweep against the Astros.
Kaz Matsui’s RBI double off Edwin Jackson in the seventh gave Houston a 3-2 lead.
Tim Byrdak retired two batters in relief of Russ Ortiz in the eighth and Valverde (0-2) started the ninth, looking for his seventh save. Placido Polanco and Miguel Cabrera each flied out before Valverde walked Marcus Thames.
Inge then drove a 1-0 pitch over the left-field wall for his 18th home run.
RAYS 5, MARLINS 2
At St Petersburg, Florida, David Price allowed one run over six-and-a-third innings as the Rays beat the Marlins to complete a three-game sweep.
Price gave up two hits, five walks and had four strikeouts. The first overall pick in the 2007 amateur draft was coming off a pair of losses in which the left-hander was touched for 15 runs and 17 hits in 11-and-a-third innings.
B.J. Upton homered for the Rays, who have won five in a row.
REDS 8, INDIANS 1
At Cleveland, Ohio, Brandon Phillips celebrated his 28th birthday by leading the Reds over his former team.
Phillips broke out of a 1-for-16 slump with three hits, three runs and three RBIs as the Reds took two of three from their Ohio rivals to move back to .500 overall. Ramon Hernandez also had three hits and three RBIs for Cincinnati.
PHILLIES 5, BLUE JAYS 4
At Toronto, Chase Utley hit a two-run triple as the Phillies held on to edge the Blue Jays.
In other interleague play:
• Nationals 5, Orioles 3
• Twins 6, Cardinals 2
• Mariners 4, Dodgers 2
• Rockies 3, Athletics 1
• Angels 12, Diamondbacks 8
• Padres 2, Rangers 0
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
At Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ryan Sadowski scattered four hits over six scoreless innings in his major league debut as the Giants beat the Brewers 7-0.
Matt Downs hit his first major league homer and Nate Schierholtz had four hits, including a homer for the Giants, who snapped a six-game skid in Milwaukee after watching a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the ninth crumble on Saturday night.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier