AMERICAN LEAGUE
The Boston Red Sox went top of the American League East division on Wednesday in fitting style, beating their archrivals the New York Yankees 11-6.
David Ortiz hit one of three Boston homers as the Red Sox extended their dominance of New York this season, making it seven wins from eight over the pinstripes this year, including all five at Yankee Stadium.
Photo: Reuters
Carl Crawford and J.D. Drew also connected, both in the ninth inning, to break the game open for a second time. Jacoby Ellsbury had three hits and Adrian Gonzalez added two RBIs.
Tireless knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (3-1) took the win for the Red Sox.
RANGERS 7, TIGERS 3
Photo: AFP
In Arlington, Texas, Alexi Ogando pitched an impressive 7-2/3 innings to remain unbeaten this season, guiding Texas to victory over Detroit.
Detroit scored 21 runs while winning the first two games of the series and had taken four straight overall, but could find no answer to Ogando (7-0), who struck out seven to match a career-high. Ogando became the first major league pitcher to win his first seven decisions as a starter since Jered Weaver went 9-0 for the Los Angeles Angels in 2006.
Adrian Beltre homered and Elvis Andrus had three hits for the AL West-leading Rangers.
Phil Coke (1-6) gave up six runs in five innings in his return to Detroit’s rotation.
In other AL play, it was:
‧ Rays 4, Angels 3, 10 innings
‧ Mariners 7, White Sox 4
‧ Blue Jays 9, Royals 8
‧ Twins 3, Indians 2, 10 innings
‧ Orioles 3, Athletics 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, PHILADELPHIA
Cole Hamels struck out nine in eight scoreless innings to direct the Philadelphia Phillies to a 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League on Wednesday.
Hamels (8-2) walked none, while lowering his ERA to 2.58. He improved to 3-0 with a 1.18 ERA in five career regular-season starts against Los Angeles.
Ryan Howard’s sixth-inning homer came off Hiroki Kuroda (5-7) and gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead. It broke a season-worst drought for the Phillies, who had gone 65-1/3 innings without a home run. Howard had been 0-for-13 with six strikeouts previously against Kuroda.
BRAVES 3, MARLINS 2, 10 INNINGS
In Miami, Freddie Freeman singled home the go-ahead run in the 10th inning as Atlanta extended Florida’s losing streak to seven games.
Braves veteran Chipper Jones walked with one out in the 10th against Mike Dunn (4-4), took second on a single by Brian McCann and scored on the hit by Freeman, who had been 0-for-7 in the series.
The Marlins went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and are 8-for-54 (.148) in those situations during the first six games of their dismal homestand.
Six of the Marlins’ seven losses during their slump have been by a single run.
In other NL play, it was:
‧ Brewers 7, Mets 6
‧ Pirates 3, D’backs 2, 12 innings
‧ Giants 3, Nationals 1
‧ Astros 4, Cardinals 1
‧ Rockies 5, Padres 3
‧ Cubs 4, Reds 1
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