MAJOR LEAGUES
San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner pitched seven scoreless innings as the Giants held the Atlanta Braves to just three hits and won 6-0 in Friday’s clash of National League contenders.
There was a similar dominant pitching display in the main American League game, as Baltimore blanked Boston 2-0 to close the gap between the East division’s top two teams to just 1-1/2 games.
Photo: Reuters
Elsewhere, Seattle hung on for a tight win over Oakland, and Eric Stults threw a complete game to steer San Diego past Arizona.
Pittsburgh were another team to starve their opponents as the Pirates shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jay Bruce hit the tenth-inning homer that lifted Cincinnati over Milwaukee and Philadelphia came from five runs down to edge Colorado.
San Francisco’s Bumgarner (6-4) did not allow a baserunner for 4 2-3 innings before losing his bid for a perfect game in the fifth and shot at a no-hitter in the sixth. He matched his season high with 10 strikeouts while walking one.
Baltimore’s Chris Tillman (7-2) took a two-hitter into the seventh inning, steering the Orioles over Boston.
Chris Davis hit his major league-leading 22nd home run of the season for Baltimore.
Seattle’s Mike Zunino hit his first career home run on a tiebreaking solo shot in the seventh inning and the Mariners held on for a 3-2 win over Oakland.
Stults threw a career-best one-run complete game to guide the Padres to a 2-1 win over Arizona.
Stults (6-5) retired 16 of the last 17 batters for his third career complete game.
Logan Forsythe hit a bases-loaded, two-run single with two outs in the sixth to give victory to the Padres.
Pittsburgh’s Jeff Locke pitched seven scoreless innings as the Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-0.
Locke (6-1) struck out five and walked one to win his sixth straight decision while shaving his ERA to 2.19.
Cincinnati’s Bruce homered with one out in the 10th inning, rallying the Reds to a 4-3 victory over Milwaukee.
Bruce connected on a 1-2 pitch from Burke Badenhop (0-3) for his fifth game-ending homer.
Philadelphia’s Freddy Galvis hit two 2-run triples and scored the go-ahead run on Humberto Quintero’s single as the Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies 8-7.
Trailing 7-2 going into the sixth, the Phillies pulled to within 7-5 on the first of Galvis’ triples and a run-scoring groundout by Quintero. They went ahead in a three-run seventh keyed by Galvis’ second triple and Quintero’s single.
Los Angeles’ C.J. Wilson pitched seven effective innings while Albert Pujols and Mark Trumbo each had three hits as the Angels beat New York 5-2 and sent the Yankees to their fourth-straight loss.
In other games it was:
‧ Toronto 8, Texas 0
‧ Kansas City 7, Tampa Bay 2
‧ Cleveland 2, Washington 1
‧ Detroit 4, Minnesota-0
‧ Miami 5, St Louis 4
‧ Houston 2, White Sox 1
‧ Chicago Cubs 6, NY Mets 3
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,
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