MAJOR LEAGUES
Oakland remained on pace for their best-ever season and took bragging rights over Bay Area rival San Francisco by beating the Giants 6-1 on Thursday, thanks chiefly to All-Star pitcher Scott Kazmir striking out nine batters over seven scoreless innings, while there were a couple of important intra-division fights, with American League (AL) Central leader Detroit routing second-placed Kansas City, while Pittsburgh tightened the National League (NL) Central fight with a comfortable win at St Louis.
Oakland starter Kazmir (11-3) continued his banner year. He has yielded one run or none in 11 of 19 starts this season for a 2.38 ERA.
Josh Donaldson hit a two-run homer and Stephen Vogt drove in three runs for the A’s, who have won seven of eight overall and matched the franchise record for the best win-loss ratio after 92 games, at 58-34.
The floundering Giants have lost 15 of their past 19 home games.
The Tigers established a season-high for runs just two days after scoring 14 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and took a 5.5-game lead over the second-place Royals in the AL Central.
Royals’ starter Jeremy Guthrie (5-8) gave up a career-worst eight earned runs after completing only four innings. He has now allowed 16 earned runs covering his past two starts.
Pittsburgh’s Edinson Volquez pitched a complete game to win his fourth straight start, steering the Pirates to a 9-1 win at St Louis.
Volquez (8-6) has a 0.90 ERA in winning four consecutive starts for the first time in his career.
Neil Walker, Josh Harrison, Russell Martin and Andrew McCutchen all drove in two runs for the Pirates, who avoided being swept in the four-game series.
The Cardinals played without All-Star catcher Yadier Molina, who tore a ligament in his right thumb on Wednesday and is expected to miss eight to 12 weeks.
Philadelphia completed a four-game road sweep at Milwaukee, piling on all their runs late to beat the Brewers 9-1.
Milwaukee pitcher Matt Garza (6-6) held the Phillies without a hit over the first six innings, before Jimmy Rollins finally got a single in the seventh.
It was Rollins who then sparked a seven-run eighth inning with a two-run single. The Phillies sent 12 batters to the plate in the eighth and got RBI ground-rule doubles from Ryan Howard and Cody Asche.
The Brewers are still clinging to the NL Central lead despite losing nine of their past 10 games.
Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw had his run of scoreless innings ended at 41, but still put in another strong performance that guided the hosts to a 2-1 win over San Diego.
Kershaw won his eighth straight start and came within 18 innings of the major league record set by fellow Dodgers Orel Hershiser, who threw 59 consecutive scoreless innings in 1988.
Chase Headley ended his streak with a homer in the sixth inning, leaving Kershaw tied with Luis Tiant for the fifth-longest scoreless streak in the expansion era (since 1961).
The Dodgers’ crosstown rivals, the Angels, won in contrasting style, piling on the runs to win 15-6 at Texas.
Atlanta avoided a four-game sweep at New York, beating the Mets 3-1, with Aaron Harang winning his fourth straight start.
Cleveland’s Roberto Perez hit a two-run homer in his major league debut and Carlos Santana also connected as the Indians scored nine runs in the final two innings and beat the New York Yankees 9-3.
Minnesota’s Kendrys Morales hit a two-run double in the fifth inning to help the Twins beat Seattle 4-2.
Chicago’s Luis Valbuena hit a tiebreaking, two-run triple in the 12th inning to give the Cubs a 6-4 win at Cincinnati, dodging a rare five-game series sweep.
Boston’s Mike Carp connect for a single in the 10th inning to give the Red Sox a 4-3 win over the Chicago White Sox and their second straight walk-off victory.
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