MAJOR LEAGUES
Sean Rodriguez hit a tiebreaking homer in the sixth inning and drove in three runs to help the Tampa Bay Rays extend their longest winning streak this year to five games and hand the New York Yankees their season-worst fifth straight loss, 6-3 on Wednesday.
Ben Zobrist doubled twice among his three hits for the Rays, but ran into two outs. With manager Joe Maddon encouraging his team to be more aggressive on the bases, Rodriguez was thrown out trying to stretch an RBI single to the wall in right field in the fourth.
Photo: Adam Hunger / USA TODAY
In Washington, Ian Desmond’s solo homer provided the go-ahead run for the Nationals after a video review to complete a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies with a 4-3 win.
Jayson Werth also homered for Washington, who have won a season-high five straight. Washington’s Doug Fister (7-2) allowed three runs off seven hits over seven innings.
Michael McKenry hit a three-run homer for Colorado.
Seattle slugger Logan Morrison drove in two runs in a big sixth inning, and Chris Young pitched seven strong innings as the Mariners beat the Houston Astros 5-2 to complete a three-game sweep.
The Mariners were down by two before a four-run sixth inning, highlighted by Morrison’s double to right field off Brad Peacock (2-5) that put them on top. James Jones scored on a wild pitch in the inning, and John Buck had an RBI single.
Marwin Gonzalez and rookie Kike Hernandez homered for the Astros.
The Toronto Blue Jays downed the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4 after Edwin Encarnacion hit a three-run, walk-off home run in the ninth inning.
Jose Bautista and Juan Francisco also connected for the Blue Jays, who have hit a major league high 113 home runs this season.
Torii Hunter hit three RBI singles for Detroit and capped a six-run burst in the sixth inning that propelled the Tigers past the Oakland Athletics 9-3 for a three-game sweep. The three-time AL Central champion Tigers won for the 11th time in 13 games.
San Diego pitcher Tyson Ross allowed just three hits for his first career shutout, and Rene Rivera hit a three-run single off major leagues ERA leader Johnny Cueto to give the Padres a 3-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds for their first three-game sweep since September last year.
Justin Ruggiano, Mike Olt and Welington Castillo hit two-run homers to power the Chicago Cubs past the Boston Red Sox 16-9 in the finale of a three-game interleague series sweep, while Leury Garcia drove in the winning run with a pinch-hit single off Michael Morin in the ninth inning to lift the Chicago White Sox to 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
INDIANS 5, DODGERS 4
Mike Aviles capped a three-run eighth inning with a two-run single against Brian Wilson, rallying Cleveland past Los Angeles.
Ryan Raburn homered off Ryu Hyun-jin, who was lifted after seven with a 3-2 lead.
Wilson (1-3) retired only one of the six batters he faced, giving up a tying single by pinch-hitter David Murphy and Aviles’ clutch hit after an intentional walk to Lonnie Chisenhall.
BRAVES 3, METS 1
Chris Johnson hit a three-run double and Julio Teheran pitched seven strong innings as Atlanta polished off a three-game sweep.
The Braves extended their best winning streak of the season to seven games. The Mets have lost four straight and seven of their past eight games and are a season-worst 11 games below .500.
Teheran (8-5) gave up four hits and three walks while lowering his ERA to 2.29. Jordan Walden pitched a perfect ninth for his third save, as closer Craig Kimbrel received a night off.
The NL East-leading Braves remain half a game ahead of the Washington Nationals.
New York rookie Jacob deGrom (1-5) was undone by his season-long control problems in a long first inning.
In other games, the Pittsburgh Pirates downed the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-1, the Miami Marlins blanked the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0, the Kansas City Royals shut out the Minnesota Twins 4-0 and the St Louis Cardinals were 2-0 winners over the San Francisco Giants.
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