AMERICAN LEAGUE
Orioles rookie Miguel Gonzalez struck out a career-high nine over seven shutout innings in a masterful pitching performance and Mark Reynolds homered twice as Baltimore tightened the AL East race on Friday night with a 6-1 victory over the skidding New York Yankees.
J.J. Hardy added a solo shot for the surprising Orioles, who moved within two games of first-placed New York by winning the opener of their big three-game series.
Photo: AFP
Reynolds made two spectacular plays at first base and Chris Davis had a sacrifice fly in Baltimore’s three-run second inning against Hiroki Kuroda (12-10).
Gonzalez (6-3) yielded only four harmless singles to win for the fourth time in five decisions.
In other AL play, it was:
‧ Athletics 20, Red Sox 2
‧ Rangers 5, Indians 3
‧ Tigers 7, White Sox 4
‧ Blue Jays 2, Rays 1
‧ Angels 9, Mariners 1
‧ Minnesota at Kansas City: postponed
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, MIAMI
R.A. Dickey pitched a five-hit shutout for his 17th win, Ike Davis backed him with a home run and the New York Mets beat the Miami Marlins 3-0 on Friday night.
Dickey (17-4) struck out seven and walked three in his NL-leading fifth complete game. The knuckleballer has three shutouts this year and six in his career.
Davis hit his 25th homer, a two-run shot off Nathan Eovaldi (4-10) in the seventh inning. Davis also had a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
CUBS 6, GIANTS 4
In Chicago, Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run homer that landed on Waveland Avenue and Anthony Rizzo added a solo shot, helping Chris Volstad and the Cubs beat the weary Giants.
Soriano also had a two-out RBI single in the first as Chicago earned its first win of the season against the NL West leaders in five tries.
Volstad (2-9) allowed two runs and five hits in 5-2/3 innings for his second consecutive victory after a 24-start winless streak.
Buster Posey went 3 for 3 with two RBIs for San Francisco, which had won a season-high six consecutive road games.
The Giants only arrived in Chicago at about 3am from Houston.
In other NL play, it was:
‧ Nationals 10, Cardinals 0
‧ Phillies 8, Braves 5, 10 inns
‧ Reds 9, Astros 3
‧ Padres 5, Rockies 4
‧ Brewers 9, Pirates 3
‧ Diamondbacks 4, Dodgers 3, 11 innings
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