NATIONAL LEAGUE
The Philadelphia Phillies held off a spirited rally to defeat the Chicago Cubs 7-5 at Citizens Bank Park on Friday.
Philadelphia built a 7-0 lead on the strength of seven strong innings from starter Roy Halladay and a Grand Slam by Placido Polanco in the seventh inning, but nearly let the game slip away in the eighth inning.
Photo: Reuters
“I tried to be aggressive,” Polanco said. “He [Zambrano] is a great pitcher and may only give you one pitch to hit in the at-bat.”
Halladay allowed six hits while striking out nine batters and did not give up a walk in seven scoreless innings to earn his league leading ninth win.
“I thought where we were at, we could get six outs,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “I thought we had the game in control.”
In stark contrast to Halladay’s brilliance, three Phillies relievers combined to allow five runs on three hits and three walks in the eighth inning alone, before Michael Stutes induced a fly ball out by Kosuke Fukudome with two men on to end the threat.
Stutes gave up a lead-off walk to Darwin Barney in the ninth inning, but struck out Starlin Castro and Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz threw out Barney attempting to steal second base for a double play. Antonio Bastardo closed out the game with a strikeout for his second save of the season.
Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano allowed seven runs on seven hits and seven walks while striking out five in over six innings, and left the game after serving up the Grand Slam to Polanco.
Shane Victorino scored Philadelphia’s first run in the first inning and Domonic Brown extended the lead to 3-0 with a two-run homer in the second inning.
BREWERS 8, CARDINALS 0
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ryan Braun and Corey Hart homered, while Chris Narveson threw eight innings as the Milwaukee Brewers kept winning at home despite a small fire in the ballpark as they blanked the St Louis Cardinals.
Narveson (3-4) began his career as a Cardinals draft pick, but he’s played an important role in Milwaukee’s rotation and stymied his former team after losing to St Louis on May 8.
Braun’s two-run homer made it 4-0 in the fifth and Hart started the sixth with another drive just as smoke started to billow in right field from a concession stand’s malfunctioning popcorn machine.
Tony La Russa managed his 5,000th game for the Cardinals, but there was little he could have liked from this one after St Louis managed just six hits.
In other NL action, it was:
‧ Marlins 6, Diamondbacks 4
‧ Rockies 6, Dodgers 5
‧ Braves 11, Astros 4
‧ Mets 8, Pirates 1
‧ Nationals 2, Padres 1
‧ Giants 3, Reds 2
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AP, TORONTO
Clay Buchholz allowed three hits over seven innings, while Jacoby Ellsbury went 3 for 5 with three runs scored as Boston beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 on Friday for the Red Sox’s seventh straight win to match their season high.
Buchholz (5-3) struck out six and walked two as he ended a career-long run of four straight no-decisions.
American League RBI leader Adrian Gonzalez drove in a run with a fifth-inning single that gave the Red Sox first baseman seven consecutive games with at least one run driven in. He drove in another run with a ground-rule double off reliever Shawn Camp in the ninth that made it 5-1.
Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia drove in a run each for Boston, who improved their league-best record to 37-26.
YANKEES 11, INDIANS 7
In New York, Alex Rodriguez hit a long home run and Curtis Granderson also connected for New York in a game that quickly grew testy.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Cleveland counterpart Manny Acta got into a face-to-face screaming match when both benches and bullpens emptied after Mark Teixeira was hit by a second-inning fastball from Indians starter Fausto Carmona.
No punches were thrown and there appeared to be little pushing and shoving — if any. Home-plate umpire Dale Scott issued warnings to both teams.
Ivan Nova (5-4) pitched seven innings for New York, while Derek Jeter had one hit to move within nine of 3,000. Jorge Posada, breaking out of a season-long slump, added three hits and an RBI.
Robinson Cano had three hits and an RBI, while Teixeira stroked a three-run double that made it 10-2 in the seventh. Rodriguez hit his 625th career homer into the second row of bleacher seats in left-center.
MARINERS 3, TIGERS 2
In Detroit, Michigan, Carlos Peguero homered and tripled in place of Ichiro Suzuki in right field as Seattle beat Detroit.
The struggling Suzuki, who had played in 255 consecutive games, was given the night off. Peguero, a rookie playing his 26th major league game, helped Seattle overcome a 2-1 deficit.
He tripled in the fifth and scored the tying run. Then in the seventh, he hit a towering flyball down the right-field line off Brad Penny (5-5) that stayed just fair as it went over the wall.
Victor Martinez hit a two-run homer, one of only five hits for Detroit. Detroit are 9-3 in their last 12 games.
In other AL action, it was:
‧ Orioles 7, Rays 0
‧ Athletics 7, White Sox 5
‧ Rangers 9, Twins 3
‧ Royals 4, Angels 2
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