Red Sox rookie Ryan Kalish belted his first Major League home run to help lead Boston to a 6-3 victory over bitter rivals the New York Yankees in the opener of a four-game series on Friday.
Kalish’s two-run blast in the sixth inning completed the scoring for the visitors, who overcame a shaky start but were able to recover on starting pitcher Clay Buchholz’s steady seven-and-a-third innings of work.
“It’s wild,” Kalish told reporters. “It really was. When I hit it, I knew it had a chance and then when I knew it got out, I remember saying to myself: ‘Is this real?’”
PHOTO: REUTERS
Mark Teixeira drove in Derek Jeter with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning to give the Yankees their only lead of the game after David Ortiz slugged a solo home run.
Miscommunication between Yankees starter Javier Vazquez and catcher Francisco Cervelli led to a costly error in the second inning, when the Red Sox sent nine batters to the plate and scored three unearned runs for a 4-2 lead.
The error allowed Mike Lowell to reach first and Adrian Beltre, who singled earlier, to advance to third. Back-to-back walks by Vazquez brought in Beltre and Marco Scutaro’s double then scored Lowell and Jed Lowrie.
Jeter scored on a single by Alex Rodriguez to draw the Yankees to within one run after being hit by a Buchholz (12-5) pitch in the fifth inning.
However, the Yankees were unable to add to their tally and Kalish’s contribution gave the visitors some breathing room.
“It was exhausting,” Buchholz told reporters after his nine-hit effort. “It seems like every time we come in here, we can’t just have a game where we’re up by a lot and win by a lot. It’s just a tough lineup. It’s basically an All-Star team. Every time we come in here to play, we have to play our best ball to beat these guys.”
Boston’s Jonathan Papelbon pitched a scoreless ninth inning.
Angels 4, Tigers 2
In Detroit, Michigan, Jered Weaver allowed three hits over seven innings to best Justin Verlander, while Torii Hunter hit a two-run homer and tossed a bag of baseballs onto the field after being ejected in Los Angeles’ win over Detroit.
Brennan Boesch hit a home run for Detroit, who are 5-18 since the All-Star break.
Weaver (11-7) allowed one earned run and fanned nine.
Hunter and Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia were ejected in the eighth inning after Hunter was called out on strikes.
Friday’s other results:
• Rangers 5, Athletics 1
• Orioles 2, White Sox 1, 10 inns
• Blue Jays 2, Rays 1
• Indians 7, Twins 6
• Mariners 7, Royals 1
AP, MIAMI
Adam Wainwright pitched a two-hitter for his 16th victory and Albert Pujols homered as the St Louis Cardinals beat the reeling Florida Marlins 7-0 on Friday.
Wainwright (16-6) struck out seven and walked three in his fifth complete game and second shutout this season.
With the two-hitter, Wainwright matched his career best. The All-Star right-hander also threw one on June 4 to shut out Milwaukee.
Pujols hit a three-run shot in the first inning, his fifth homer in six games and his 28th this year. He doubled home a run in the fourth.
The Marlins have lost five straight games and have been outscored 25-7 in the first four games of their homestand.
Matt Holliday doubled home a run in the third and the Cardinals hit four doubles — by Skip Schumaker, Brendan Ryan, Jon Jay and Pujols — in their four-run fourth.
Nationals 6, Dodgers 3
In Los Angeles, Adam Dunn hit two three-run homers off Clayton Kershaw, tying his career-high for RBIs, as Washington downed Los Angeles.
John Lannan (3-5) allowed three runs and five hits over six innings in his second start since returning from a six-week stint with Double-A Harrisburg. It was the left-hander’s first victory with the big league club since May 28 in San Diego.
Drew Storen pitched a hitless ninth for his first major league save and the Nationals’ second since trading closer Matt Capps to Minnesota on July 30.
Kern hit his 29th and 30th homers in his 29th multi-homer game.
Friday’s other results:
• Giants 3, Braves 2, 11 innings
• Diamondbacks 2, Padres 1
• Phillies 7, Mets 5
• Rockies 6, Pirates 3
• Reds 3, Cubs 0
• Brewers 6, Astros 5
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