MAJOR LEAGUES
Oakland seized a share of the lead in the American League West division with a 7-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, while divisional rivals Texas lost to the New York Yankees.
Oakland’s Josh Donaldson hit a two-run homer and freshly promoted Stephen Vogt hit a sacrifice fly for his first major league RBI, as the Athletics returned from the road to the Coliseum for eight-straight home games.
Photo: EPA
New York’s Ichiro Suzuki was the hero for the Yankees, hitting a winning homer with two outs in the ninth inning to sink Texas.
Oakland’s Josh Reddick had an RBI double, Yoenis Cespedes added an RBI single and Brandon Moss also hit a sacrifice fly as the A’s knocked Cincinnati pitcher Bronson Arroyo out of the game after only four innings — his shortest start this season.
New York had a night of big hits against the Rangers, hitting four homers in all — three off Yu Darvish — with Suzuki’s shot producing a 4-3 victory.
Travis Hafner, Brett Gardner and Jayson Nix each homered off Darvish, who has not won in seven starts.
Boston had a season-high 20 hits in a big 11-4 win over Colorado to stay 2.5 games ahead of New York in the AL East standings.
Dustin Pedroia drove in four runs and had three of his team’s 20 hits, while Ryan Dempster took advantage of an early cushion that kept getting bigger for the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox batters gave starter Dempster an abundance of support after scoring just two runs in his previous two starts combined. Dempster (5-8) allowed two runs over six innings.
Boston had at least three hits and a run in each of the first four innings.
In Baltimore, Maryland, Chris Davis and Alexi Casilla homered in a five-run seventh inning as the Orioles downed Cleveland 6-3 to end a four-game losing streak.
Davis tied the game 3-3 with his major league-leading 28th home run of the season — a two-run shot — and Casilla added a three-run drive.
Pittsburgh’s Starling Marte hit two of his team’s five home runs, which powered the Pirates to a 9-4 win at Seattle. It was Pittsburgh’s first five-homer game since 2009.
Marte opened the game with a triple and hit solo shots in the second and eighth for the first multihomer game of his career.
Pirates’ starter Jeff Locke (7-1) limited Seattle to four hits in seven innings and is tied for second in the National League with a 2.06 ERA.
Atlanta’s Kris Medlen outpitched the Royals’ Ervin Santana over seven innings and the bullpen held on as the Braves pipped Kansas City 4-3.
Medlen (5-7) struck out five before turning the game over to Jordan Walden, who survived a lead-off walk in the eighth inning to get the game into the hands of Craig Kimbrel, who earned his 22nd save of the season.
Atlanta’s Jason Heyward drove in a pair of runs with a double in the fifth and then broke open a tied game with his solo shot with one out in the seventh inning.
Washington matched their season high for runs in an inning by piling on five in the third — including Adam LaRoche’s three-run homer — to set up a 7-5 win over Arizona.
Nationals’ starter Gio Gonzalez (4-3) won for the first time since May 5. He gave up two runs and one hit in 6-1/3 innings.
Tampa Bay’s Matt Moore overcame control problems to allow just one run in six innings, steering the Rays to a 5-1 win over Toronto in St Petersburg, Florida.
In Houston, Texas, St Louis’ Allen Craig homered and had a season-high four hits with three RBIs, while Carlos Beltran and David Freese both added a homer as the Cardinals rolled past the Astros 13-5.
Los Angeles’ Albert Pujols doubled, singled, scored a run and drove one in — all in an eight-run fifth inning — as the Angels routed the Tigers 14-8 in Detroit, Michigan.
Philadelphia’s Domonic Brown hit his 20th home run of the season and tied a career high with four RBIs as the Phillies won 6-2 over San Diego, while at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles’ Matt Kemp made a marvelous catch for the final out to preserve the Dodgers’ 6-5 win over the slumping San Francisco Giants.
In Tuesday’s other games, Milwaukee’s Rickie Weeks homered twice and drove in four runs to power the Brewers past the Cubs 9-3, Chicago’s Alexei Ramirez singled in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth to deliver the White Sox a 5-4 win over the New York Mets and Miami’s Marcell Ozuna drove in two runs as Derek Dietrich homered to help Miami beat Minnesota 4-2.
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