NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, LOS ANGELES
Hiroki Kuroda took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and Rod Barajas homered in his home debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 on Monday night.
PHOTO: AFP
Kuroda walked Jayson Werth in the eighth before Raul Ibanez reached on a fielder’s choice groundout. Shane Victorino, hitless in seven career at-bats against Kuroda, hit a clean line-drive single to right field on Kuroda’s 97th pitch of the game to break up the no-hitter.
Kuroda hit Werth with a pitch in the second and walked Carlos Ruiz in the sixth.
The 35-year-old right-hander from Japan beat Roy Halladay, who tossed a perfect game against Florida on May 29, winning 1-0.
Kuroda (10-11) struck out seven in seven-and-two-thirds innings for his second straight win.
Halladay (16-10) allowed three runs and 10 hits in seven innings, struck out four and walked one. It was the fourth time he gave up 10 or more hits this season, and the most since he allowed 13 at Cincinnati on June 30.
REDS 5, BREWERS 4
In Cincinnati, Ohio, Jay Bruce singled off Trevor Hoffman with two outs in the 10th inning as the Reds rallied for a narrow victory over the Milwaukee Brewers and extended their National League Central lead to a season-high six games.
The Reds are pulling away from second-place St Louis, which lost at Houston 3-0. The six-game lead is Cincinnati biggest since 1995, the last time the Reds reached the playoffs.
Hoffman (2-7) walked Ryan Hanigan to open the 10th. Pinch-runner Brandon Phillips stopped at second on Chris Heisey’s two-out single.
In other NL action, it was:
• Astros 3, Cardinals 0
• Braves 9, Mets 3
• Cubs 14, Pirates 2
• Rockies 2, Giants 1
• Nationals 9, Marlins 3
• D’backs 7, Padres 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AP, CLEVELAND
Brent Lillibridge atoned for a costly error in the ninth inning by hitting a two-out homer in the 11th as the Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 10-6 on Monday.
The win came just hours after Chicago officially claimed Manny Ramirez off waivers.
Lillibridge entered in the seventh, when second baseman Gordon Beckham left after being hit on the right hand with a pitch. In the ninth, Lillibridge bare-handed a high hopper, but threw past first, helping the Indians tie it at 6.
He came up in the 10th with one homer in 58 at-bats and in a 2-for-27 rut before connecting off Rafael Perez (4-1).
Alex Rios homered, drove in four runs and had five of Chicago’s 21 hits as the White Sox won for just the sixth time in 15 games.
Scott Linebrink (2-1) pitched two scoreless innings for the White Sox, who added Ramirez to help get them back to the playoffs.
RAYS 6, BLUE JAYS 2
In St Petersburg, Florida, Carlos Pena homered and drove in four runs and Wade Davis won his sixth straight decision as Tampa Bay beat Toronto.
Pena made it 5-1 with a three-run homer off Brett Cecil (11-7) in the third.
In other AL action, it was:
• Yankees 11, Athletics 5
• Rangers 3, Royals 0
• Angels 5, Mariners 3
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB