Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt hit three doubles and Eric Chavez drove in three runs to give the Diamondbacks a 5-3 win over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday, taking the final two games of the series after a heavy defeat in the opener.
Diamondbacks starter Ian Kennedy (2-3) yielded five hits in five innings, striking out seven.
In interleague action, Cleveland hit three homers to beat Philadelphia, San Diego matched their season-high with 17 hits in the victory over Baltimore and Toronto won a fourth straight game with victory over San Francisco.
Elsewhere, Nelson Cruz hit a three-run homer to power Texas past Oakland 6-2. Cruz’s three-run shot backed up Texas starter Alexi Ogando (4-2), who did not allow a hit until the sixth inning, as the Rangers moved seven games clear of the A’s atop the American League West division.
Raul Ibanez punished his old team with a grand slam and a two-run homer to send Seattle past the New York Yankees 12-2. Ibanez was on fire in the Mariner’s win over the Yankees, evoking memories of his star turn in last year’s AL championship series when he hit some key homers. His grand slam came during a seven-run first inning as the Mariners chased Phil Hughes (2-3) after he got only two outs.
Trying to preserve his bullpen, Yankees manager Joe Girardi had Brett Marshall throw 108 pitches in his big league debut, then brought in backup shortstop Alberto Gonzalez in the ninth inning in his first professional pitching appearance.
Boston’s Stephen Drew hit his second career grand slam and Jon Lester improved his record to 6-0 as the Red Sox roughed up Tampa Bay ace David Price to win 9-2.
Price (1-4) departed from the marquee pitching matchup against Lester because of left triceps tightness during Boston’s eight-run third inning, which Drew finished with his towering homer.
Lester (6-0), coming off a one-hit, complete game shutout of Toronto, allowed two runs in seven innings to help end the Rays’ six-game winning streak.
Cleveland’s Jason Kipnis hit a three-run homer, while Nick Swisher and Mike Aviles also went deep as the Indians beat Philadelphia 10-4. Cleveland starter Corey Kluber (3-2) gave up six hits in six innings.
San Diego’s Alexi Amarista homered and doubled twice as the Padres beat Baltimore 8-4. Everth Cabrera had four hits and a walk and Jedd Gyorko had three singles for the Padres.
Toronto’s J.P. Arencibia and Adam Lind each hit two-run home runs in the Blue Jays’ 11-3 win over San Francisco. Ramon Ortiz won for the first time since 2011 and the Toronto Blue Jays won their season-high fourth straight game, beating the San Francisco Giants.
Toronto starter Ramon Ortiz (1-1) allowed one run in seven innings for his first win since 2011 and his first win as a starter in six years.
St Louis rookie pitcher Shelby Miller followed up his nearly perfect one-hitter in his previous start with 5-2/3 scoreless innings to steer the Cardinals to a 4-2 win over the New York Mets.
Pittsburgh’s Wandy Rodriguez allowed one run over seven strong innings and Neil Walker hit a two-run single as the Pirates beat Milwaukee 3-1.
Chicago’s Jeff Samardzija hit a two-run home run and pitched eight strong innings as the Cubs beat Colorado 6-3.
Los Angeles’ Zack Greinke pitched 5-1/3 strong innings in his first start for a month as the Dodgers defeated Washington 3-1.
Cincinnati’s Choo Shin-soo hit two homers as the Reds downed Miami 4-0, while Chicago’s Adam Dunn homered twice, doubled and drove in five runs, powering the White Sox past Minnesota 9-4.
Kansas City’s Lorenzo Cain hit a three-run double to help the Royals to a 9-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
Houston’s Brandon Barnes caught Miguel Cabrera’s bases-loaded drive against the wall in right-center field for the final out, preserving the Astros’ 7-5 win over Detroit.
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