NATIONAL LEAGUE
Florida beat San Francisco 1-0 on Thursday to complete a rare three-game sweep over the Giants and add insult to injury for the reigning World Series champions.
On the same day that Giants catcher Buster Posey was ruled out for the rest of the season with a broken leg, Marlins pitcher Anibal Sanchez edged Ryan Vogelsong to give Florida their first sweep over the Giants since 1995.
Photo: AFP
Sanchez worked his way out of trouble early when he induced a double-play to end the first inning and allowed just five hits while striking out eight and walking one thereafter.
“Anibal Sanchez is becoming one of the best pitchers in the Major Leagues,” Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez said. “He’s been showing that over and over. He’s in control of the game. He needs to keep going.”
Florida broke the deadlock in the sixth inning, capitalizing on a lead-off double by Chris Coghlan. Coghlan advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on an RBI single by Logan Morrison.
Photo: Reuters
Vogelsong pitched well, allowing eight hits in eight innings and striking out three, but lost for the first time this season.
“It’s frustrating. We got a well-pitched game — I mean, what a job Vogelsong did. You’d like to think you’re going to find a way to score a run and we didn’t do it,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “We were hoping to come out with a little fire here and get some runs. We’re going to have to pick that up, especially with Buster gone, and hopefully somebody’s going to fill that void.”
PHILLIES 10, REDS 4
In Philadelphia, Cliff Lee drove in three runs from the plate and pitched eight effective innings from the mound, leading the Philadelphia Phillies to victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
Raul Ibanez hit a three-run homer and Chase Utley also connected as the teams resumed hostilities with little sleep, with their previous game ending at 1:19am on Thursday.
Lee (4-4) threw 114 pitches in eight innings, but his biggest contributions came with the bat.
The Phillies loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth inning against Daryl Thompson (0-1), who was making his major league debut. Lee (4-4) followed a walk with a first-pitch double over the center fielder’s head. It bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double.
An inning later, Lee’s single up the middle scored John Mayberry Jr Lee became the first Phillies pitcher in seven years to drive in three runs.
In other NL action, it was:
‧ Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 3
‧ Cubs 9, Mets 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AP, DETROIT, MICHIGAN
Jacoby Ellsbury hit a three-run homer in a five-run second inning as the hot-hitting Boston Red Sox went on to rout the Detroit Tigers 14-1 in an eight-inning, rain-shortened game on Thursday.
The Red Sox scored at least 14 runs in back-to-back games for the first time since 1998. Boston has won 11 of 13.
Carl Crawford’s two-run triple gave the Red Sox a seven-run lead and chased Detroit starter Max Scherzer (6-2).
Alfredo Aceves (2-0) took the win in his second Boston start, allowing one run striking out six over six innings. He has won his past 12 decisions, dating to 2009 when he was a Yankees reliever, for baseball’s longest winning streak since Cliff Lee with Cleveland three years ago.
WHITE SOX 3, BLUE JAYS 1
In Toronto, Juan Pierre’s ninth-inning infield single drove in the tiebreaking run as Chicago downed Toronto.
Pierre went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and extended his hitting streak to 11 games.
Jesse Crain (2-1) pitched a third of an inning for the win and White Sox closer Sergio Santos finished the ninth for his eighth save in nine opportunities.
Marc Rzepczynski (2-1) allowed two runs in one inning to take the loss for the Blue Jays, who have lost three straight.
In other AL action, it was:
‧ Athletics 4, Angels 3
‧ Orioles 6, Royals 5, (12)
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