MAJOR LEAGUES
The Oakland Athletics opened a three-game lead atop the American League West division by beating nearest rivals Texas 6-2 in a bloody encounter on Tuesday, with Brandon Moss and John Jaso hitting homers off star Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish.
In other important results, Pittsburgh inflicted the first loss of the season upon Cincinnati pitcher Mat Latos to close the gap between the teams to half a game, while Boston won both games of a double-header over Tampa Bay to extend their lead in the AL East.
Photo: Reuters
Baltimore stayed on Boston’s tail by getting the better of ace Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander, while the Chicago Cubs beat majors-leading St Louis.
San Francisco snuck home to end San Diego’s seven-game winning streak and Toronto beat Colorado to notch their seventh straight victory.
Oakland’s Jarrod Parker (6-6) limited the Rangers to three hits over seven innings to improve to 4-0 in his past five starts.
Darvish (7-3) struck out 10, increasing his majors-best total to 137, but still has not won in more than a month.
Moss put the Athletics ahead to stay with a homer leading off the second, while Jaso led off the next inning with his own long shot to make it 3-0.
The Rangers got within 3-2 in the third when Ian Kinsler scored on a vicious collision at the plate, his face slamming into the mask of catcher Jaso while sliding feet-first. Kinsler needed three stitches near his left jaw and had blood on his jersey when he returned to the field to play second base.
Pittsburgh’s Pedro Alvarez singled home a pair of runs in the first inning and that proved more than enough for the Pirates to beat Cincinnati 4-0.
No run support meant a loss for Reds starter Mat Latos (6-1), who had gone 21 regular-season starts — dating back to August — without suffering a loss.
Latos had nine of Cincinnati’s 17 strikeouts, which matched the club’s nine-inning record. The Reds also had 17 strikeouts on opening day, but that game went 13 innings.
Boston beat Tampa Bay 5-1, then 3-1 to take both games of a double-header.
David Ortiz drove in three runs in the opener and Alfredo Aceves (4-1) pitched five solid innings for his third straight win.
In the night game, Jonny Gomes hit a walk-off two-run homer in the ninth inning.
Daniel Nava was aboard on a leadoff walk when Gomes followed with a towering shot off Joel Peralta (1-3) that cleared the Green Monster.
Nava also homered in the second and Felix Doubront pitched eight shutout innings for Boston.
Baltimore’s J.J. Hardy and Adam Jones homered off Justin Verlander to help the Orioles to a 5-2 win over Detroit.
Hardy hit his third homer off Verlander (8-5) this month, connecting for a two-run shot in the fourth inning, while Jones added a three-run drive in the fifth.
Verlander gave up five runs in five innings.
Manny Machado hit a double and made two sparkling plays in the field for Baltimore.
Chicago’s Ryan Sweeney and Cody Ransom hit back-to-back homers in a four-run first inning that set up the Cubs for a 4-2 win over St Louis.
The four runs were plenty for Jeff Samardzija (4-7), who gave up two runs in 8-1/3 innings to steer the Cubs to their first win at St Louis in six attempts.
The Cardinals have lost three of five games, but still lead the majors with a 45-26 record.
San Francisco’s Juan Perez hit a tiebreaking single with two outs in the eighth inning to lift the Giants to a 5-4 win over San Diego.
Perez’s clutch swing came after pinch hitter Jesus Guzman had given San Diego a 4-3 lead with a two-run homer in the top half of the inning.
Toronto won their seventh straight game by downing Colorado 7-3, with Edwin Encarnacion hitting a two-run homer, while J.P. Arencibia and Maicer Izturis added back-to-back shots for the Blue Jays.
It is the longest winning streak for Toronto in five years.
The Rockies have a 0-8 record in interleague games at Toronto.
Cleveland’s Michael Brantley hit a sacrifice fly which capped Cleveland’s three-run eighth inning, rallying the Indians to a 4-3 win over Kansas City.
The New York Mets beat Atlanta 4-3, then 6-1 in a double-header, with young pitcher Matt Harvey and debutant Zack Wheeler both putting in dominant performances from the mound.
Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee struck out nine in eight impressive innings, while Michael Young tied a career high with three doubles as the Phillies downed Washington 4-2.
Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt hit a leadoff home run in the ninth inning to give the Diamondbacks a 3-2 victory over Miami, ending a four-game skid.
Seattle’s Kendrys Morales hit an RBI single in the 10th inning against his former team, leading the Mariners to a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
Minnesota’s Ryan Doumit hit a go-ahead double in the eighth inning, lifting the Twins to a 7-5 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Houston’s Matt Dominguez hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high five runs to back another solid performance by Jordan Lyles as the Astros routed Milwaukee 10-1.
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