MAJOR LEAGUES
St Louis averted a five-game sweep at Pittsburgh and ended a season-worst seven-game losing streak by routing the Pirates 13-0 on Thursday, closing the gap between the National League’s top two teams.
The key game rapidly turned into a mismatch as the Cardinals closed within 1.5 games of their Central Division rivals.
Meanwhile, the American League leaders, the Boston Red Sox, pushed their lead over idle Tampa Bay to one game by producing a six-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning to rob Seattle of victory.
Among other games, Atlanta notched their seventh straight win by beating Colorado to extend their giant lead in the NL East. Texas pitcher Yu Darvish matched his Major League Baseball best with 14 strikeouts to lead the Rangers over Arizona, while the Los Angeles Dodgers quickly returned to the winners’ list by downing the Chicago Cubs.
St Louis were staring at the prospect of suffering a five-game sweep for the first time in 97 years, but pulled out an important victory thanks chiefly to pitcher Joe Kelly (2-3), who pitched six scoreless innings and contributed two hits at the plate.
Tony Cruz added three hits, including a two-run double during an eight-run seventh inning.
Boston’s Daniel Nava hit a long single to center field to cap the Red Sox’s crowd-pleasing comeback and an 8-7 victory over Seattle.
Henry Blanco hit a grand slam, while Felix Hernandez pitched seven strong innings to help Seattle take a 7-1 lead after five innings. However, Boston scored once in the eighth and six more in the ninth against three relievers who recorded just one out.
Atlanta’s Justin Upton drove in five runs with two homers to help power the Braves to an 11-2 win that completed a four-game sweep of Colorado.
The Braves outscored the Rockies 31-5 in the last three games of the series, and boosted their lead in the NL East to a seemingly invincible 11.5 games.
Atlanta starter Julio Teheran (8-5) matched his career high with 11 strikeouts, including six in a row covering the third and fourth innings. He only lasted five, giving up one run or less for his third straight start.
Texas got a powerful pitching performance from Yu Darvish, and three solo homers, in the 7-1 win over Arizona.
Darvish (10-5) had no walks over seven scoreless innings. It was his major league-leading eighth game this season with at least 10 strikeouts. He struck out 10 of the first 13 batters.
Arizona had to make a side trip to Texas, on the way from Tampa Bay to Boston, to make up the game postponed on May 29 because of unplayable field conditions.
Los Angeles’ Yasiel Puig hit a long home run and scored two runs to lead the Dodgers past the Chicago Cubs 6-4.
Hanley Ramirez and Jerry Hairston each drove in two runs for the Dodgers, who got a win a night after having a four-game winning streak snapped. Los Angeles are 11-2 since the All-Star break.
Cleveland’s Ryan Raburn homered twice and drove in four runs as the Indians won their eighth consecutive game, topping the Chicago White Sox 6-1.
Kansas City won its ninth straight game — the club’s longest winning streak in more than a decade — by beating Minnesota 7-2, thanks to Billy Butler’s hitting and Lorenzo Cain’s spectacular catch in center field.
Los Angeles’ Mark Trumbo homered in the Angels’ four-run first inning, which laid the platform for an 8-2 win over Toronto that snapped the Angels’ six-game skid.
San Francisco’s Joaquin Arias and pinch-hitter Roger Kieschnick had RBI singles in the top of the ninth inning, then pitcher Sergio Romo escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom half as San Francisco beat Philadelphia 2-1.
Baltimore’s Bud Norris — one day after being acquired from Houston — pitched his new team past his old one as the Orioles beat the Astros 6-3.
Miami’s Tom Koehler pitched six scoreless innings to steer the Marlins to a 3-0 win over the New York Mets.
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