NATIONAL LEAGUE
David Freese homered, drove in three runs and had a go-ahead single in the ninth inning on Saturday as the St Louis Cardinals ended a four-game skid with a wild, 10-9 win over the Washington Nationals.
Matt Holliday also homered and Matt Carpenter smacked a three-run double for the Cardinals, who had scored only one run during their four losses, while allowing 32. Freese, John Jay and Allen Craig each had three of the Cardinals’ 14 hits.
Photo: AFP
The NL East-leading Nationals led 6-2 in the second inning and, after falling behind by two runs in the fourth, rallied for three in the sixth to take a 9-8 lead. Adam LaRoche and Danny Espinosa each homered for Washington.
St Louis tied it in the eighth on Carlos Beltran’s pinch-hit single off Nationals reliever Sean Burnett. Craig led off the ninth with a single against Drew Storen (1-1). One out later he stole second base and later raced home on Freese’s looping hit over the Nationals infield.
In other NL play, it was:
‧ Giants 5, Cubs 2
‧ Phillies 5, Braves 1
‧ Brewers 3, Pirates 2
‧ Mets 5, Marlins 3
‧ Astros 2, Reds 1
‧ Rockies 9, Padres 1
‧ Dodgers 2, Diamondbacks 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AP, NEW YORK
Shortstop J.J. Hardy’s bases-loaded error let New York complete a seventh-inning comeback and the Yankees stung the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 on Saturday to restore their AL East lead to three games.
Shut down all afternoon, the struggling Yankees rallied for three runs in the seventh against a suddenly shaky Baltimore bullpen. The streaking Orioles had won 13 straight one-run decisions before falling apart as the calendar turned to this month.
Newly promoted Eduardo Nunez hit an RBI single with two outs that chased Chen Wei-yin (12-8) and made it 3-2. Pedro Strop walked Ichiro Suzuki and then threw two quick strikes to Derek Jeter before walking him, forcing home the tying run.
Nick Swisher followed with a hard, one-hop grounder that ate up Hardy, who leads major league shortstops in fielding percentage.
Boone Logan (6-2) pitched two scoreless innings and Rafael Soriano worked the ninth for his 35th save in 38 chances.
In other AL play, it was:
‧ Angels 5, Mariners 2
‧ Rays 5, Blue Jays 4
‧ Twins 3, Royals 1, game 1
‧ Twins 8, Royals 7, game 2
‧ Tigers 5, White Sox 1
‧ Indians 4, Rangers 3
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