MAJOR LEAGUES
An injured Miguel Cabrera led off the bottom of the ninth inning with his 39th home run to lift the Detroit Tigers over the Kansas City Royals 6-5 in the American League on Saturday.
Cabrera has been slowed by a strained lower abdomen, an injured hip and a sore left leg, but he was healthy enough to do a victory lap.
Photo: AFP
Joaquin Benoit (3-0) pitched a scoreless ninth inning and Aaron Crow (7-4) threw five pitches, with Cabrera hitting a 3-1 offering for an opposite-field homer to right.
Prince Fielder hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh inning.
In the National League, Clayton Kershaw pitched eight dominant innings as the seemingly unstoppable Los Angeles Dodgers won their 10th straight game, beating Philadelphia 5-0 to keep the Phillies scoreless in two games under new manager Ryne Sandberg.
Juan Uribe hit a three-run homer and Kershaw had an RBI double as the National League West-leading Dodgers improved to 25-3 after the All-Star break.
They have won 19 of their past 20 road games and are 42-8 overall since June 22, the best 50-game stretch since the 1942 St Louis Cardinals had the same record.
In Boston, Jacoby Ellsbury had three hits, David Ortiz homered and John Lackey held down New York’s resurgent offense as the Red Sox broke a three-game losing streak by beating the Yankees 6-1.
Ortiz, Shane Victorino, Will Middlebrooks, Mike Carp and Daniel Nava each had two hits for the American League East-leading Red Sox, who won for only the third time in nine games.
Alfonso Soriano singled twice for the Yankees, but was held without an RBI after matching a major league record with 18 over his previous four games.
Cleveland’s Ubaldo Jimenez did not allow a hit until the sixth inning, while Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn each homered as the Indians beat the Oakland Athletics 7-1.
In other American League games, the Toronto Blue Jays downed the Tampa Bay Rays 6-2, the Texas Rangers trounced the Seattle Mariners 15-3, the Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 8-5 and the Los Angeles Angels edged the Houston Astros 6-5 over 10 innings.
In interleague play, Brian Roberts and Manny Machado both hit two-run doubles during a seven-run third inning as the Baltimore Orioles ended a four-game losing streak with an 8-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies.
In the National League, Adam LaRoche led off the 15th inning with a home run as the Washington Nationals recovered to beat the Atlanta Braves 8-7 after blowing a two-run lead in the ninth.
Arizona’s Martin Prado had four hits from five at-bats with a three-run homer, while Paul Goldschmidt added a three-run shot as the Diamondbacks routed the Pittsburgh Pirates 15-5.
In other games, the St Louis Cardinals blanked the Chicago Cubs 4-0, the Milwaukee Brewers shut out the Cincinnati Reds 2-0, the San Diego Padres downed the New York Mets 8-2 and the San Francisco Giants defeated the Florida Marlins 6-4.
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