Alex Rodriguez drove in three runs without hitting his 600th homer as the New York Yankees used a seven-run seventh inning to beat the Cleveland Indians 11-4 on Thursday.
Dustin Moseley (1-0) won his first start, allowing a run and four hits over six innings as New York took three of four in a lopsided series that saw A-Rod extend his homerless streak to seven games.
Robinson Cano connected for his 20th homer just after Rodriguez grounded out in the seventh. That started a string of nine straight Yankees reaching safely with two outs. Curtis Granderson and Rodriguez each had two-run singles — both off Joe Smith — in the rally.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Rodriguez batted with the bases loaded three times. He hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the third to tie the score 1-all.
Derek Jeter’s single in the sixth off rookie reliever Frank Herrmann (0-1) broke the final tie.
Rays 4, Tigers 2
At St Petersburg, Florida, David Price became the American League’s first 14-game winner, and Carlos Pena had four RBIs as Tampa Bay completed a four-game sweep of Detroit.
Price (14-5) allowed two runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings, tying the team record for wins in a season. He struck out nine and walked two.
Pena hit a second-inning solo homer and added a two-run single during the third that put the Rays up 3-1. Pena made it 4-2 with an eighth-inning infield single.
Tampa Bay has won six straight and is 19-6 since June 30.
Rangers 7, Athletics 4
At Arlington, Texas, Michael Young scored his first three times up and light-hitting Taylor Teagarden hit a two-run homer as Texas beat Oakland.
The Rangers won the series against the A’s and closed out a homestand against division rivals by going 5-2. They added 3.5 games to their lead in the AL West and head back on the road 8 1/2 games clear of the A’s.
The Rangers led 4-1 after squandering a bases-loaded, one-out chance to break things open against A’s starter Vin Mazzaro (6-3) in the fifth. Texas starter C.J. Wilson (10-5) got into trouble in the sixth and Oakland were back within 4-3 when the bottom of the Rangers’ lineup came through.
David Murphy led off with a 431-foot homer. Joaquin Arias beat out a grounder to short for a single, then scored on Teagarden’s homer.
White Sox 9, Mariners 5
At Chicago, Ramon Castro homered twice and Paul Konerko went deep for the fourth straight game as Chicago beat Seattle for their 11th straight win at home.
Carlos Quentin also homered for the White Sox, whose previous home winning streak this long came in 1989 — two years before they left old Comiskey Park for US Cellular Field.
Ichiro Suzuki equaled a team record with three doubles for Seattle, who are 6-20 this month.
Orioles 6, Royals 5, 11 innings
At Kansas City, Missouri, Ty Wigginton’s sacrifice fly in the 11th inning broke the game’s final tie as Baltimore beat Kansas City to snap a five-game losing streak.
Corey Patterson homered with two outs in the eighth off Baltimore’s Robinson Tejeda to tie it at 5-5. Nick Markakis led off the third for the Orioles with his ninth home run.
Wigginton’s second sacrifice fly of the game scored Brian Roberts in the 11th and was off Blake Wood (0-2), the fifth Kansas City pitcher.
AP, SAN DIEGO, California
Oscar Salazar’s single in the bottom of the ninth gave the National League West-leading San Diego Padres a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday.
The Padres took two of three games in the series, opening a seven-game gap between them. The California rivals will meet again in a four-game series at Dodger Stadium starting on Monday.
Scott Hairston started the winning rally with a single down the left-field line off George Sherrill (1-2). He was sacrificed to second and, with one out, Salazar hit a full-count pitch up the middle past the diving second baseman for the winner.
San Diego’s Heath Bell (5-0) pitched a perfect ninth for the win.
Also on Thursday, it was:
• Nationals 5, Braves 3
• Marlins 5, Giants 0
• Mets 4, Cardinals 0
• Phillies 3, Diamondbacks 2, 11 innings
• Rockies 9, Pirates 3
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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