Baltimore’s Chris Davis notched his American League-leading 14th homer of the season among his four hits as the Orioles beat the New York Yankees 6-3 on Wednesday, further tightening the AL East division standings.
Elsewhere, Texas avoided a sweep by Oakland, Colorado drew level in the NL West standings with Arizona, and Detroit won a rain-interrupted contest against nearest division rival Cleveland.
St Louis’ Tyler Lyons pitched the Cardinals past San Diego in his major-league debut, Washington edged San Francisco in 10 innings and Boston dodged a sweep by the Chicago White Sox.
Photo: AFP
Baltimore got a three-run shot from Matt Wieters and a solo homer by Nick Markakis to move within three games of the first-placed Yankees in the AL East.
Curtis Granderson homered, doubled and singled for New York. Needing a triple to reach the cycle, he drew a walk in the seventh inning.
Texas’ David Murphy and Adrian Beltre homered in a three-run first inning that proved enough for the Rangers to beat Oakland 3-1.
Rangers pitcher Ross Wolf was strong in his first major league start — and his first appearance since 2010 with Oakland — retiring the first nine hitters and giving up one run in five innings.
Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez homered and drove in two runs as the Rockies beat Arizona 4-1.
Jorge De La Rosa (6-3) allowed just one run in 5 1-3 innings for Colorado, which forced a three-way tie atop the NL West standings, with San Francisco the other team.
Detroit’s Justin Verlander overcame a rocky start and rain delay to guide the Tigers to an 11-7 win over Cleveland.
Verlander (5-4) was two outs from qualifying for a victory, when the game was stopped with the Tigers leading 9-5 in the fifth. He came back after the break and finished the inning to get the win.
Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera connected for a two-run homer in the eighth, his fifth in three games and 13th this season. The shot was helped over the wall by center fielder Michael Bourn, who was in position to make the catch but had the ball bounce out of his glove and into the stands.
St Louis’ Tyler Lyons allowed one run in seven innings of his debut, pitching the Cardinals to a 5-3 win over San Diego.
Lyons was promoted from the minors to replace the injured Jaime Garcia, who will have season-ending shoulder surgery this week.
Yadier Molina had four hits and Carlos Beltran finished with three as the Cardinals took two of three from the Padres.
Washington’s Ian Desmond singled in Bryce Harper in the 10th inning to lift the Nationals to a 2-1 win over San Francisco.
Harper hit his 12th homer in the sixth and sparked the winning rally with a one-out double. After an intentional walk, Desmond came up with his game-winning hit against Jeremy Affeldt (1-1).
Boston’s Clay Buchholz improved his season record to 7-0 as he steered the Red Sox to a 6-2 win over Chicago.
Buchholz allowed just one run in seven innings while lowering his AL-leading earned run average to 1.73. He also matched the best start by a Boston pitcher since Josh Beckett in 2007 and joined Tampa Bay’s Matt Moore and Arizona’s Patrick Corbin as the only unbeaten pitchers in the majors with seven or more wins.
Atlanta’s Evan Gattis kept up his amazing rookie season with his first grand slam as the Braves beat Minnesota 8-3 to complete a sweep.
Cincinnati’s Brandon Phillips bounced a bizarre double over first base to snap a ninth-inning tie and lead the Reds to a 7-4 win over the New York Mets and a three-game sweep.
Pittsburgh’s Francisco Liriano continued his impressive start to his delayed season, pitching seven scoreless innings to guide the Pirates to a 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs.
Toronto’s Jose Bautista homered twice and drove in the winning run with a 10th-inning single, leading the Blue Jays to a 4-3 victory over Tampa Bay.
Los Angeles’ C.J. Wilson struck out 10 in eight innings while Josh Hamilton had a two-run single as the Angels won 7-1 to hand Seattle their season-worst sixth straight loss.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly got the response he wanted after criticizing his team and benching All-Star Andre Ethier, sparking a 9-2 win over Milwaukee.
Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee pitched his 12th career shutout and Delmon Young homered for the second straight game to give the Phillies a 3-0 win over Miami.
Houston’s J.D. Martinez hit a two-run homer and Jordan Lyles pitched six effective innings as the Astros beat Kansas City 3-1.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set