MAJOR LEAGUES
Clayton Kershaw allowed just three hits over eight innings and hit a two-run single as the Los Angeles Dodgers increased their National League West lead to a season-best 7.5 games on Sunday night with an 8-2 interleague victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Mark Ellis had a home run and three RBIs to help Los Angeles improve to a major league-best 37-8 since June 22, a stretch that has dramatically turned around their season after they trailed the Arizona Diamondbacks by as many as 9.5 games. The Dodgers are a season-best 17 games over .500.
In New York, Mariano Rivera blew a third straight save for the first time in his career before Brett Gardner homered with two outs in the ninth inning to lift the New York Yankees over the Detroit Tigers 5-4 for their first series win in more than a month.
Rivera (3-2) gave up another homer to a limping Miguel Cabrera and a drive to Victor Martinez in the top of the ninth, tying it at 4-4 and turning Alex Rodriguez’s first homer of the season into a footnote.
Also in the AL, James Shields earned his first home win in more than three months and Alex Gordon homered as the Kansas City Royals beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3.
The Royals improved to 18 wins and five losses since the All-Star break, winning seven consecutive series.
Texas pitcher Martin Perez allowed four hits for his first career complete game, leading the Rangers past the Houston Astros 6-1 for their seventh straight victory.
Chris Carter ruined Perez’s shutout bid with a home run with two outs in the ninth inning.
Alberto Callaspo hit a tie breaking two-run double in the eighth inning and Brandon Moss had a two-run homer as the Oakland Athletics beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3, the Cleveland Indians edged the Los Angeles Angels 6-5, the Seattle Mariners blanked the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0 and the Minnesota Twins downed the Chicago White Sox 5-2.
In the NL, Stephen Strasburg pitched a four-hitter and struck out 10 batters in the first complete game of his career, and Jayson Werth had his second straight three-hit game as the Washington Nationals completed a three-game sweep of Philadelphia with a 6-0 win over the Phillies.
Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman hit a three-run homer as the Braves beat the Miami Marlins 9-4, while Nolan Arenado hit a go-ahead double in the seventh inning to lead the Colorado Rockies past the NL Central leading Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2.
The Cincinnati Reds edged the San Diego Padres 3-2 in the 13th inning, the St Louis Cardinals downed the Chicago Cubs 8-4, the Baltimore Orioles trounced the San Francisco Giants 10-2 and the New York Mets defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-5.
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