AMERICAN LEAGUE
John Lackey threw eight superb innings, Carl Crawford hit his first home run in a Boston uniform and the Red Sox completed a four-game sweep by beating the Los Angeles Angels 7-0 on Sunday.
Lackey (2-2) scattered six hits, struck out six and stranded eight baserunners, becoming the third straight Boston starter to hold the Angels scoreless. The right-hander, is 4-0 with a 2.45 ERA in four starts against the Angels.
Adrian Gonzalez had three hits and two RBIs for the Red Sox.
Matt Palmer (1-1) allowed four runs and six hits in five-plus innings.
RAYS 2 BLUE JAYS 0
At Toronto, James Shields pitched a four-hitter for his second consecutive complete game and Ben Zobrist hit a two-run homer to help Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays.
Shields (2-1) struck out seven, walked two and lowered his ERA to 2.35.
Ricky Romero (1-3) lost despite striking out 10 in seven innings.
YANKEES 6, ORIOLES 3, 11 INNINGS
At Baltimore, Russell Martin singled home the tiebreaking run in the 11th inning as the New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles for a two-game sweep.
Baltimore rallied from a three-run deficit against Joba Chamberlain and Rivera and both teams had a go-ahead run thrown out at the plate in the late innings.
The Yankees ultimately won on the strength of three infield hits and a couple of Baltimore errors in a wild 11th.
Boone Logan (1-1) got four outs, and Buddy Carlyle retired the final two batters. Jason Berken (0-1) took the loss.
TIGERS 3, WHITE SOX 0
At Detroit, Max Scherzer allowed four hits in eight innings to help Detroit complete a three-game sweep of the struggling White Sox.
Scherzer (4-0) struck out seven and walked three.
RANGERS 8, ROYALS 7
At Arlington, Texas, C.J. Wilson struck out 10 in seven innings, Adrian Beltre hit one of Texas’ three home runs and the Rangers completed a three-game weekend sweep over the Kansas City Royals.
Mike Aviles homered twice for the Royals.
Arthur Rhodes then got the final out for his first save since 2008. The 41-year-old became the oldest player to get a save for Texas, only a day after 40-year-old Darren Oliver set that mark.
Mike Napoli and Andres Blanco also homered for the Rangers.
In other games it was:
‧ Twins 4, Indians 3
‧ Athletics 5, Mariners 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
Roy Halladay tied his career high with 14 strikeouts as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Padres 3-1 in San Diego.
Halladay (3-1) took a two-hitter into the ninth before allowing three singles, including Will Venable’s RBI base hit with two outs. Antonio Bastardo came on with runners on first and third and got pinch-hitter Nick Hundley to fly out to left on his first pitch, for his first save.
Shane Victorino hit an inside-the-park home run leading off the seventh inning when his drive into the gap in right-center came off Venable’s glove as his arm hit the ground while trying to make a diving catch. The ball rolled into center as Victorino rounded the bases and came in with a headfirst slide.
BRAVES 9, GIANTS 6
At San Francisco, Nate McLouth hit a two-run single off Brian Wilson with two outs in the 10th inning as the Atlanta Braves gained a 9-6 victory over San Francisco on Sunday.
Jason Heyward hit a three-run homer and double, then singled in the 10th as the Braves posted their first sweep of any kind in San Francisco since 1998.
Heyward and Chipper Jones started the inning with singles against Wilson (0-1) before Dan Uggla walked to load the bases. Wilson got two quick outs and nearly escaped the jam before McLouth’s grounder up the middle provided the go-ahead runs.
Brian McCann added an RBI single off Dan Runzler.
Eric O’Flaherty (1-1) pitched two innings for the win, and Johnny Venters earned his first save of the season.
DODGERS 7, CUBS 3
At Chicago, Andre Ethier extended his hitting streak to 21 games with an RBI single in a five-run first inning in Los Angeles’ win.
Hiroki Kuroda (3-2) gave up three hits and two runs in the first, then scattered six hits over the rest of his 6 2/3 innings. Overall he allowed three runs struck out seven and walked none.
Carlos Zambrano (2-1) worked five innings, giving up six runs and eight hits. He struck out four without walking a batter.
In other games it was:
Brewers 4, Astros 1
Nationals 6, Pirates 3
Marlins 6, Rockies 3
Mets 8, Diamondbacks 4
Cardinals 3, Reds 0
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