NATIONAL LEAGUE
Hit by a pitch two innings after homering, Bryce Harper jawed and pointed at Atlanta’s Julio Teheran, and the dugouts and bullpens emptied, but the only haymakers thrown during the NL East-leading Braves’ 2-1 victory over the Nationals on Tuesday night came from the teams’ Twitter feeds.
Evan Gattis’ two-run single in the fifth inning and the six innings thrown by Teheran (9-5) while allowing one run combined to produce Atlanta’s season-high 12th consecutive win, padding their NL East lead to 14.5 games over Washington.
Photo: Reuters
Gattis’ big hit came off Gio Gonzalez (7-5), who pitched one night after Major League Baseball announced its Biogenesis investigation cleared the left-hander.
CARDINALS 5, DODGERS 1
In St Louis, Missouri, Carlos Beltran and Matt Adams homered in the eighth inning as the St Louis Cardinals snapped the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 15-game road winning streak with a 5-1 victory on Tuesday night.
Joe Kelly pitched into the sixth inning, outperforming Clayton Kershaw and helping St Louis to their fourth victory in the last six games. Tony Cruz added an RBI single.
Adrian Gonzalez hit a one-out RBI single off Kelly (3-3) in the sixth, but that was it for Los Angeles against the right-hander. He left with runners on first and second and the Cardinals nursing a 2-1 lead.
Kershaw (10-7) allowed two runs and six hits in six innings for Los Angeles, who have dropped to 15-3 since the All-Star break. The left-hander is 5-2 with a sparkling 1.62 ERA over his past eight starts.
PIRATES 4, MARLINS 3
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Josh Harrison homered leading off the bottom of the ninth, lifting the Pirates to a win over the Marlins.
Harrison sent a fastball from Miami’s Mike Dunn (2-3) into the first row of seats in left-center field for his first career walk-off homer.
Dunn had worked out of a bases loaded, no-out jam in the eighth.
Bryan Morris (5-4) pitched a perfect top of the ninth for the victory. The Pirates have won three straight and are a season-high 24 games over .500 (68-44).
Neil Walker had three hits for the Pirates. Andrew McCutchen had two hits, including a two-run double, for Pittsburgh.
PHILLIES 9, CUBS 8
In Philadelphia, Darin Ruf and Chase Utley sparked a three-run fifth inning to lift the Phillies to a 9-8 win over the Cubs.
Utley, who had three hits, drove in the tying run on a triple to deep center field. He soon scored on Domonic Brown’s groundout to give the Phillies the lead. Ruf added one more on a solo home run, his fourth of the season.
Philadelphia tagged Edwin Jackson (7-12) for seven runs and 10 hits in six innings.
Trailing 9-5 in the ninth, the Cubs scored three runs off Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon before pinch-hitter Thomas Neal flew out with men on the corners to end it.
Kyle Kendrick (10-8) allowed five runs and six hits in six innings. He also had an RBI single.
In other NL action, it was:
‧ Mets 3, Rockies 2
‧ Brewers 3, Giants 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AP, CLEVELAND, Ohio
Justin Verlander dominated for eight innings and Don Kelly hit a three-run homer off Justin Masterson, leading the Detroit Tigers to their 10th straight win, 5-1 over the Cleveland Indians.
Verlander (12-8) allowed one run and four hits as the Tigers beat the Indians for 10th time in 11 games and opened a five-game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central.
Kelly connected in the fifth inning off Masterson (13-8) and Miguel Cabrera picked up his 100th RBI as the Tigers improved to 11-3 against their nearest division rival.
The Indians, who are 24-10 against the Central’s three other teams, have to hope they can win the next two over Detroit to split the series.
To do that, they will have to beat Doug Fister and Max Scherzer.
TWINS 7, ROYALS 0
In Kansas City, Missouri, Andrew Albers allowed four hits while pitching into the ninth inning in his major league debut, easily outdueling Royals ace James Shields and leading the Twins over Kansas City.
The first big leaguer from Saskatchewan in more than 20 years, Albers at one point retired 15 straight.
He was two outs shy of his third straight complete game dating back to Triple-A Rochester, and the first shutout in a big league debut since Detroit’s Andy van Hekken did it in 2002.
The Twins took most of the pressure off with a big night at the plate. Brian Dozier homered and drove in three runs, while Justin Morneau and Chris Colabello also went deep for the Twins.
WHITE SOX 3, YANKEES 2
In Chicago, Chris Sale allowed one run while outpitching Hiroki Kuroda into the eighth inning, as the White Sox beat the Yankees.
Alex Rodriguez singled, walked, was hit by a pitch and lined out to center field after going one-for-four in his season debut on Monday. The Yankees lost for the 13th time in 19 games after scoring a run in the ninth against closer Addison Reed.
A-Rod was on deck when Alfonso Soriano struck out to end it with a runner on first.
Reed gave up a single to a pinch-hitter Ichiro Suzuki, who took second on defensive indifference and came around on Brett Gardner’s two-out single. However, Reed finished for his 27th save in 32 chances.
In other AL action, it was:
‧ Red Sox 15, Astros 10
‧ Rangers 8, Angels 3
‧ Blue Jays 7, Mariners 2
In interleague play, it was:
‧ Reds 3, Athletics 1
‧ Diamondbacks 6, Rays 1
‧ Orioles 4, Padres 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