MAJOR LEAGUES
Milwaukee beat St Louis in extra innings for the second straight night on Tuesday, when Lyle Overbay’s 11th-inning single delivering a 5-4 win that lifted the Brewers a remarkable 6.5 games clear atop the National League Central Division after just 27 games.
Milwaukee’s Khris Davis, who hit the go-ahead triple that sealed his side’s victory on Monday, started the winning comeback on Tuesday with a leadoff double in the 11th off Kevin Siegrist (0-1), and Overbay drove him home for the winner.
The win put the Brewers at a major leagues-best 20-7 — two more victories than the previous franchise best for an opening month — and 11-1 on the road.
Carlos Gomez homered and pitcher Kyle Lohse had a two-run single for Milwaukee, who shrugged off the absence of four regular starters and improved to 4-1 in extra-inning games, with the Cardinals at 0-3.
In other games, Oakland also beat their nearest division rivals in Texas to open a two-game lead after Derek Norris drove in three runs with a pair of doubles to help the Athletics beat the Rangers 9-3.
The A’s went ahead to stay on Norris’ two-run double in the first inning off Martin Perez (4-1), who pitched 26 consecutive scoreless innings over his previous three starts.
Oakland starter Scott Kazmir (4-0) tied for the American League lead in wins. He needed 95 pitches to labor through five innings, but left with a 9-3 lead.
Elsewhere, Miami starter Jose Fernandez pitched eight scoreless innings as the Marlins opened a homestand with a 9-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Fernandez (4-1) was dominant against the NL East leaders for the second time in a week, lowering his season ERA to 1.59 and striking out eight, while Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer for the Marlins.
San Francisco’s pitching was just as dominant in their shutout win over San Diego on Tuesday, in which Angel Pagan hit a leadoff homer to set the Giants on their way to a 6-0 win.
Buster Posey connected two batters later to give the hosts an ideal start, while Giants’ starter Yusmeiro Petit (2-1) went six innings without giving up a hit until the fourth as he filled in for Matt Cain, who was sidelined after dropping a knife in the clubhouse kitchen before the game and cutting his finger as he tried to catch it.
Also on Tuesday, New York’s Jonathon Niese pitched seven steady innings on a rainy night to steer the Mets to a 6-1 win over Philadelphia.
Rain delayed the start of the game by 1 hour, 28 minutes, and temperatures were low, but the weather seemed to hardly affect Niese (2-2), who struck out five and walked one.
Daniel Murphy had three hits for the Mets, who at 15-11 are four games over a .500 record for the first time since 2012.
In Chicago, Detroit’s Bryan Holaday bunted home Austin Jackson with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Tigers a 4-3 win over the White Sox.
Jackson lined a long drive off Ronald Belisario and reached third on a fielding error by Dayan Viciedo, before scoring on Holaday’s surprise bunt down the first base line.
Detroit’s Joba Chamberlain (1-1) worked one inning of relief to take the win and Joe Nathan earned his fifth save.
In New York, Seattle’s Robinson Cano drove in a run and scored another despite boos of home fans in his return to Yankee Stadium, helping the Mariners to a 6-3 win over the hosts.
Cano began his first game in the Bronx since joining Seattle last winter for US$240 million with a wink at Yankees starter C.C. Sabathia (3-3).
Seattle starter Chris Young (1-0) gave up a second-inning homer to Teixeira and not much else in 5-2/3 innings to earn his first win since 2012.
In the day’s other games, Kansas City’s Salvador Perez homered and drove in four runs to help the Royals rally to a 10-7 win over Toronto, while Colorado’s Drew Stubbs homered off Arizona closer Addison Reed in the ninth inning to give the Rockies a 5-4 win and Boston’s Shane Victorino had four hits and his first two RBIs of the season as the Red Sox defeated Tampa Bay 7-4.
Elsewhere in the MLB, Los Angeles’ Howie Kendrick had a two-run single in his first game batting in the leadoff spot this season as the Angels downed Cleveland 6-4, Washington’s Adam LaRoche hit a tying double in the eighth and a go-ahead single in the ninth to lift the Nationals to a 4-3 win over Houston, and Cincinnati beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2 in a game delayed three times by rain that saw Billy Hamilton hit his first career homer.
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