MAJOR LEAGUES
Milwaukee extended their winning streak to seven games by beating Pittsburgh 4-2 on Friday, with Aramis Ramirez hitting a two-run homer.
The Brewers’ 8-2 record is their best start since 1987 and they claimed the outright National League lead in the early stages of the season as Washington were beaten in 10 innings at Atlanta.
Elsewhere, San Francisco went joint top of the NL West division by edging Colorado, while Seattle moved above Oakland for top spot in the AL West.
Milwaukee starter Wily Peralta (1-0) allowed in only four hits in his seven innings, although Neil Walker finally got to him with a two-run homer in the seventh.
The Brewers had their own two-run shot from Ramirez off Francisco Liriano to open the scoring in the fourth.
Atlanta’s Jordan Schafer scored from first base on Justin Upton’s bloop single with two outs in the 10th inning, giving the Braves a 7-6 victory over Washington.
Chris Johnson singled with two outs and Schafer came in to run. With a 2-2 count, Schafer ran on the pitch and Upton dropped a single in front of the right fielder. Schafer already was rounding third when Bryce Harper fumbled the ball. No error was charged.
Upton also hit a solo homer in the eighth that tied the game 6-6. It was his third homer in two games.
San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high five runs to make up for his shaky pitching performance and help the Giants edge Colorado 6-5.
Bumgarner, who hit a sacrifice fly in the third, had a moment to remember in the fourth as he hit only the second grand slam by a Giants pitcher since the team relocated to San Francisco in 1958.
On the mound, Bumgarner (2-0) allowed four runs in six innings.
Seattle Felix Hernandez (3-0) became the first Mariners pitcher to bring up three wins in the first nine games of a season as he helped the hosts beat Oakland 6-4.
Hernandez held the Athletics scoreless in the first seven innings and struck out 11.
Mike Zunino chased A’s starter Tommy Milone (0-1) with a two-run homer in the sixth and Brad Miller followed two batters later with a solo homer.
Los Angeles’ Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched seven scoreless innings to guide the Dodgers to a 6-0 win over Arizona.
Ryu (2-1) struck out eight and walked only one, retiring 18 of his past 19 batters.
Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run homer in the first, doubled in two more in the third and had an RBI single in the eighth.
It was the Dodgers’ first visit to Chase Field since clinching the NL West title there in September last year, when they angered the Diamondbacks by celebrating in the ballpark’s swimming pool.
Chicago’s Conor Gillaspie had a career-high four RBIs to power the White Sox to a 9-6 win over Cleveland.
Chris Sale (3-0) pitched five innings in his first win against Cleveland since 2012. He allowed six hits from his 105 pitches.
Indians pitchers issued nine walks and walked in two runs.
Boston’s Grady Sizemore hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning, which proved enough for the Red Sox to beat the New York Yankees 4-2.
Boston starter Jon Lester (1-2) boasted a 2.51 ERA coming into the game, yet was still at risk of falling to 0-3 for the first time in his career, but the Red Sox batters finally gave him a little run support.
Jonny Gomes homered leading off the sixth and the four-run inning was more than Boston had scored for Lester in his first two starts combined.
Toronto beat Baltimore 2-0 thanks to two unearned runs arising from throwing errors by Orioles third baseman Jonathan Schoop.
Blue Jays starter Dustin McGowan (1-1) went 6-1/3 scoreless innings to earn his first win since 2008.
Making his second start since September 2011, the oft-injured McGowan (1-1) finally beat Baltimore at his 14th attempt.
Philadelphia ended a four-game skid by beating Miami 6-3, with Marlon Byrd driving in two runs.
Chicago’s Welington Castillo hit a three-run homer in the 11th inning to give the Cubs a 6-3 win at St Louis.
San Diego’s Andrew Cashner pitched a shutout to lead the Padres to a 6-0 win over Detroit.
Tampa Bay won at Cincinnati for the first time ever, beating the Reds 2-1, with David Price taking a shutout into the ninth.
Texas’ Robinson Chirinos got the match-winning single in the 12th inning, breaking a long stalemate and giving the Rangers a 1-0 win over state rival Houston.
Los Angeles’ Hank Conger was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the 11th inning, completing a disastrous inning by New York rookie Jeurys Familia as the Angels beat the Mets 5-4.
Minnesota halted a run of eight-straight defeats at the hands of Kansas City by beating trouncing the Royals 10-1, with Chris Colabello driving in three runs.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB