MAJOR LEAGUES
Baltimore’s Chris Davis singled home the tie-breaking run with two outs in the 13th inning, giving the Orioles an exhausting 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Thursday’s opener of a four-game series between American League East contenders.
Baltimore moved within 2.5 games of Boston and up into second spot in the division, above the New York Yankees who were swept by Oakland after a marathon 18-inning game.
Photo: AFP
Also on Thursday, San Francisco pitcher Matt Cain was in command as the Giants routed Pittsburgh, and Washington edged a depleted Colorado lineup.
Baltimore’s Danny Valencia homered for the hosts, who escaped with a victory despite leaving 16 on base and going 4 for 14 with runners in scoring position.
With two outs in the 13th, Nick Markakis drew a walk from Alex Wilson (1-1). Adam Jones singled and Davis followed with an opposite-field pop that landed in front of left fielder Daniel Nava.
Oakland’s Nate Freiman singled home the winning run in the 18th inning, lifting the Athletics to a 3-2 victory over the Yankees for a three-game sweep.
As a day game after a night game turned into a night game after a day game, John Jaso singled off Preston Claiborne (0-1) to start the decisive rally and went to third on Seth Smith’s soft single off Mariano Rivera.
Baseball’s career saves leader issued only the 39th intentional walk of his 19-year career, before Freiman ended the 5-hour, 35-minute game. The AL West-leading A’s won their 11th in a row at home.
San Francisco’s Matt Cain pitched 6-2/3 scoreless innings and the visitors’ bats lit up as the Giants trounced Pittsburgh 10-0.
A year to the day after throwing a perfect game, Cain (5-3) was nearly flawless again.
Hunter Pence hit his 11th homer, while Buster Posey, Gregor Blanco and Joaquin Arias had three hits apiece for the Giants, who avoided a sweep.
Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman homered, doubled and drove in three runs, while Ian Desmond got four hits as the Nationals beat Colorado 5-4.
The Rockies lost three players to injury during the course of the game and a player plus coach were ejected in the seventh.
Troy Tulowitzki’s rib injury in the eighth inning looked the most serious of the day’s casualties.
Zimmerman’s RBI double in the eighth broke a tie, and he later scored on Desmond’s infield single to make it 5-3.
Toronto’s Edwin Encarnacion hit a tie-breaking two-run double in the eighth inning as the Blue Jays won 3-1 to hand Texas their third straight loss.
St Louis’ Adam Wainwright became the first 10-game winner in the majors by throwing seven scoreless innings and sent Matt Harvey to his first loss of the season, leading the Cardinals over the New York Mets 2-1 in a classic pitching match-up.
Kansas City’s Elliot Johnson had a three three-run homer for his second hit of an eight-run sixth inning, leading the surging Royals to a 10-1 victory over Tampa Bay.
Chicago pinch-hitter Julio Borbon singled home the winning run with two outs in the 14th inning as the Cubs won 6-5 to end Cincinnati’s record 12-game winning streak at Wrigley Field.
Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee allowed two runs in seven strong innings, while Ben Revere had four hits and scored the go-ahead run, as the Phillies rallied to beat Minnesota 3-2 and snap a five-game losing streak.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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