MAJOR LEAGUES
Arizona’s Aaron Hill hit a game-ending single in the 14th inning to give the Diamondbacks a 5-4 win over Baltimore in Wednesday’s clash of two teams in the thick of wild-card calculations in their respective leagues.
It was a third straight walk-off win for the Diamondbacks, who remained 7.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West, but a touch closer in the wild-card race, while the Orioles are six games off the pace in the American League East, but also with realistic playoff ambitions.
Photo: AFP
Among other key games, Pittsburgh beat nearest rivals St Louis to open a three-game lead in the NL Central, Atlanta beat Philadelphia to make it 17 wins in 19 games and Boston lost in 10 innings at Toronto.
The Dodgers downed the New York Mets in 12 innings to make it eight straight wins, Texas rallied to beat Milwaukee and open a two-game lead in the AL West, while Tampa Bay ended a six-game losing skid by edging Seattle.
Baltimore led all three games against Arizona entering the seventh inning, but once again could not hold on to that advantage.
Hill forced extra innings with an RBI single in the ninth off Jim Johnson in the Orioles closer’s second blown save in as many days.
Baltimore’s Bud Norris (8-10), who started and threw five innings at San Francisco on Sunday, came on in the 14th and walked two batters ahead of Hill’s single to take the loss.
Pittsburgh’s Francisco Liriano was dominant coming off the worst outing of his career, steering the Pirates to a vital 5-1 win at St Louis.
Liriano (13-5) allowed one run with six strikeouts and needed just 94 pitches to beat the Cardinals for the second time this year.
Pedro Alvarez hit his 29th homer of the season to straightaway center leading off the second, and with one out Garrett Jones lined one over the right field wall.
Atlanta’s Chris Johnson drove in three runs and Jason Heyward homered to power the majors-leading Braves to a 6-3 win over Philadelphia.
Atlanta starter Brandon Beachy (2-0) held the Phillies scoreless until conceding a homer with one out in the sixth.
Philadelphia have lost seven of eight series since the All-Star break and have dropped 13 of 14 on the road.
Toronto’s Brett Lawrie singled home the winning run in the 10th inning to give the Blue Jays a 4-3 win over Boston.
Rajai Davis doubled off Brandon Workman (3-2) to begin the 10th and went to third on Jose Bautista’s grounder. An intentional walk brought up Lawrie, who lined a two-strike pitch off the glove of the shortstop, bringing Davis home with the winning run.
Boston’s Mike Napoli had hit a tying, two-run homer with two outs in the ninth.
Los Angeles’ Yasiel Puig hit a slow bouncer past New York’s diving shortstop and turned it into a one-out double in the 12th inning, then scored on Adrian Gonzalez’s winning hit, lifting the Dodgers to a 5-4 victory over the Mets.
Puig — who had been hitless in his first five at-bats — ran out a double after his chopper glanced off the glove of the shortstop and into center field. Gonzalez hit the next pitch off Pedro Feliciano (0-1) down the left field line for the winner.
Andre Ethier had tied the game with a two-run homer in the ninth inning for LA, who completed a three-game sweep of the Mets.
Texas’ Elvis Andrus broke out of a slump with two hits and two RBIs for the Rangers, who rallied for three runs in the seventh inning and beat Milwaukee.
The AL West-leading Rangers had been 7-40 when trailing after six innings, but Andrus had an RBI single to snap an 0-for-13 skid and Ian Kinsler a two-run single that turned a two-run deficit into a lead for Texas.
Tampa Bay’s Jason Bourgeois hit an RBI single to cap a two-run rally in the ninth inning which gave the Rays a 5-4 victory over Seattle.
The Rays trailed 4-3 when Ben Zobrist opened the ninth with a triple off rookie Danny Farquhar (0-1). Matt Joyce singled to tie it, Evan Longoria doubled and an intentional walk loaded the bases. Bourgeois singled to right over the Mariners’ drawn-in outfield.
Cincinnati’s Bronson Arroyo pitched seven crisp innings to steer the Reds to a 5-0 win over the Chicago Cubs and a three-game sweep.
Cleveland’s Michael Brantley hit a sacrifice fly in the 12th inning as the Indians rallied to a 9-8 win over Minnesota.
Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera hit a three-run homer as the Tigers ended a three-game skid with a 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox.
New York’s Alfonso Soriano homered twice for the second straight night and drove in a career-high seven runs — giving him a staggering 13 RBIs in two games — as the Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels 11-3.
Washington’s Denard Span made a diving catch in deep center field to end the game with two runners on base, allowing the Nationals to beat San Francisco 6-5 and notch a fifth-straight victory.
Colorado’s Jorge de la Rose pitched seven solid innings and catcher Yorvit Torrealba completed a remarkable double play by tagging out two runners as the Rockies defeated San Diego 4-2.
Miami’s Justin Ruggiano snapped a franchise-worst 0-for-42 slump with a single in the first inning and added two more hits and drove in a run to help the Marlins beat Kansas City 5-2.
Houston’s Carlos Corporan hit an RBI double in the 11th inning, lifting the Astros to a 2-1 win over Oakland.
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