MAJOR LEAGUES
Washington edged San Francisco 2-1 in Tuesday’s clash of National League divisional leaders, with Doug Fister pitching seven scoreless innings for the Nationals.
Also on Tuesday, Collin Cowgill’s 14th-inning homer lifted the Los Angeles Angels over Oakland, Minnesota extended Toronto’s sudden offensive slump and Taylor Teagarden hit a grand slam in his New York Mets debut to sink Milwaukee.
Fister (5-1) came into the game against the Giants with an appetite for vengeance after memories of the 2012 World Series, when he was the losing pitcher at AT&T Park in Game 2, and San Francisco went on to sweep the series.
He succeeded in taking that measure of revenge, pitching seven scoreless innings with only one walk to notch his fifth straight win.
Jayson Werth and Denard Span each drove home a run in the fifth inning, and Werth also threw out a runner at the plate from right field in the sixth.
The Los Angeles Angels also won 2-1, but in more dramatic style, with Cowgill hitting a two-out homer in the 14th to defeat Oakland.
Cowgill connected against Jeff Francis (0-1), driving a two-strike pitch just over Yoenis Cespedes’ head in left field, giving the Angels their fifth-straight win and moving them within 2.5 games of the Athletics atop the American League West.
Cory Rasmus (2-0) pitched two hitless innings for Los Angeles’ maligned bullpen, which yielded one run in eight innings.
Minnesota won 4-0 at Toronto, with the Blue Jays failing to score for the third time in four games.
Brian Dozier hit a two-run home run for the Twins, who avoided falling to a season-worst five games below .500.
Minnesota starter Kevin Correia (3-7) gave up no runs and only one walk in six innings. It was his first scoreless outing this season.
The New York Mets won 6-2 against Milwaukee to ease the pressure on under-fire manager Terry Collins.
Before the game, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson gave Collins the dreaded vote of confidence, with the Mets again struggling.
Taylor Teagarden, who was called up from the minors this week, hit a four-run grand slam and Daniel Murphy had a two-run shot for New York to account for all their runs.
The Mets’ crosstown rivals, the Yankees, were also winners, with a 3-2 victory at Seattle.
Jacoby Ellsbury lined an RBI single to score Derek Jeter with the go-ahead run in the eighth inning.
Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 14 games — the longest for a Yankees player since Jeter’s 19-game streak in 2012. The winning hit came after Jeter’s ground-rule double ended the night for Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma (4-3), who had not been threatened since the first inning.
Kansas City pitcher Jason Vargas cooled down hot-hitting Cleveland and guided the Royals to a 9-5 win.
Vargas (6-2) gave up six hits and hit three batters with pitches, but did not allow a run until the eighth.
Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer and also drove in a run during a four-run fourth inning as the Royals (32-32) moved back to .500 by matching their second-best run total of the season.
Miami won 8-5 at Texas to take their 13th consecutive interleague victory, matching the major-league record.
The 13-game streak matched the record shared by the Yankees and Tampa Bay, who both reached that mark in 2004. The Marlins were to have a chance to make the record their own when they played Texas yesterday.
Christian Yelich set career highs with four hits and four RBIs. His single in the seventh inning sent home two unearned runs and put the Marlins ahead to stay.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won 6-1 at Cincinnati in a game delayed for more than two hours by rain, with Josh Beckett pitching six scoreless innings.
Atlanta outslugged Colorado in a runfest at Coors Field, with Andrelton Simmons hitting his first career grand slam as part of a seven-run first inning that set up a 13-10 win.
Boston’s Brandon Workman allowed one hit over 6-2/3 innings to guide the Red Sox to a 1-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
St Louis’ Adam Wainwright became the first pitcher to get nine wins in the National League this season as he steered the Cardinals to a 1-0 win over Tampa Bay — the Ray’s third-straight shutout loss.
Arizona’s Bronson Arroyo pitched seven strong innings to guide the Diamondbacks to a 4-1 win over Houston.
Chicago’s Anthony Rizzo homered, doubled twice and drove in three runs to power the Cubs to a 7-3 win over Pittsburgh.
Philadelphia’s A.J. Burnett threw 7-1/3 sharp innings as the Phillies defeated San Diego 5-2.
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