AMERICAN LEAGUE
Stephen Drew singled in the winning run in the 15th inning to lift the Boston Red Sox to a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners and back into first place in the AL East on Wednesday night.
Dustin Pedroia drew a leadoff walk and took second on a groundout by David Ortiz. Mike Napoli was walked intentionally and Jarrod Saltalamacchia struck out. Jonny Gomes then walked, loading the bases, and Drew hit a liner just inside the right-field line as Pedroia scored the decisive run.
Photo: AFP
Boston moved a half-game ahead of Tampa Bay in the division.
Drew Britton (1-0) pitched two innings for his first major league win. Lucas Luetge (0-2) took the loss.
Seattle’s Kyle Seager had tied the game at four in the eighth with his 17th homer of the year, a solo shot off Junichi Tazawa.
Pedroia had given the Red Sox a 4-3 lead with a two-run homer in the seventh, his eighth.
ROYALS 4, TWINS 3
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Alex Gordon hit a two-out triple in the seventh inning and then scored the go-ahead run on an error as Kansas City won their eighth straight game by beating Minnesota.
The Royals were above .500 at the end of July for the first time since 2003. At 53-51, they are two games over the break-even mark for the first time since May 17. They remained seven games behind Detroit in the AL Central race and 4.5 games back of second-place Cleveland, the current holder of the second wild card spot.
Jeremy Guthrie (11-7) won his third start in a row with his seventh consecutive appearance of at least six innings. Greg Holland pitched the ninth for his 28th save in 30 tries.
Twins reliever Caleb Thielbar (1-1) took the loss.
The Royals, who have the league’s second-best team ERA, have relied on their rotation for this midsummer surge. The starters have allowed 11 earned runs in 72 innings during the streak.
Kansas City is 9-3 against the Twins this season and 26-19 against the division.
In other AL action, it was:
‧ Blue Jays 5, Athletics 2, 10 inns
‧ Rangers 2, Angels 1
‧ Indians 6, White Sox 5, 10 inns
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania
Russell Martin drove home Neal Walker with the go-ahead run in the eighth inning and the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied to beat the St Louis Cardinals 5-4 on Wednesday night.
Martin’s sharp grounder off Trevor Rosenthal (1-2) rolled into left field, giving Walker enough time to score from second. The Pirates’ fourth straight win over the Cardinals gave Pittsburgh a 2.5 game lead in the NL Central.
St Louis left 11 runners on base and dropped their seventh consecutive game. The Cardinals led 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2.
Tony Watson (3-1) worked two shutout innings in relief. Mark Melancon pitched a perfect ninth for his fifth save.
Matt Holliday had three hits and drove in two runs, and the Cardinals’ struggling offense put together 13 hits.
BRAVES 9, ROCKIES 0
In Atlanta, Georgia, Mike Minor allowed only two hits in seven scoreless innings, while Brian McCann hit a three-run homer in a seven-run third as Atlanta beat Colorado for their sixth straight win.
Freddie Freeman drove in two runs with four hits as the Braves continued their offensive surge with 15 hits. The Braves have scored 29 runs while winning the first three games of the four-game series.
The Braves lead second-place Washington by 11 games in the NL East, their biggest advantage in nine years.
Minor (11-5) did not walk a batter and did not allow a Colorado baserunner to reach second base.
Tyler Chatwood (7-4) allowed a career-high seven earned runs on 10 hits, one walk and one hit batter in only 2-1/3 innings.
Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez left the game in the fourth inning after aggravating his sprained right middle finger.
GIANTS 9, PHILLIES 2
In Philadelphia, Chad Gaudin threw seven sharp innings, while Brett Pill and Brandon Crawford hit homers as San Francisco snapped a five-game losing streak with a victory over Philadelphia.
The defending World Series champion Giants are last in the NL West. The Phillies entered 11.5 games out of first place and fell to nine back in the wild-card standings.
Gaudin (5-2) allowed one run and four hits, striking out five. He also got his first career RBI on a single that was just his second hit in 59 at-bats.
Roger Kieschnick had RBI singles in his first two major league at-bats for the Giants, who snapped a nine-game homerless drought when Pill went deep. Pill had three hits and four RBIs.
Kyle Kendrick (9-8) gave up eight hits and seven runs in two-plus innings.
In other NL action, it was:
‧ Reds 4, Padres 1
‧ Marlins 3, Mets 2
‧ Cubs 6, Brewers 1
In interleague play, it was:
‧ Yankees 3, Dodgers 0
‧ Tigers 11, Nationals 1
‧ Diamondbacks 7, Rays 0
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier