MAJOR LEAGUES
Pittsburgh’s Vance Worley pitched his first career shutout to guide the Pirates to a 5-0 win over San Francisco on Monday, closing within two games of the lead in the National League Central division.
The Pirates made up ground on NL Central leaders Milwaukee, who lost a low-scoring interleauge game to Tampa Bay. It was a similar story in the NL East, where leaders Washington blew a lead in the bottom of the ninth in their Monday game to lose against Miami, cutting the Nationals’ divisional lead over second-placed Atlanta to half-a-game.
Pittsburgh’s Worley (4-1) had only thrown one complete game in his career before Monday’s game, but went the distance against the Giants, showing admirable control by issuing only one walk.
Four Pirates drove in a run off Giants starter Madison Bumgarner (12-8) in the first inning and Josh Harrison added a homer in the second to account for all the scoring.
In Tampa, Florida, pitcher Jake Odorizzi won his third straight start to steer the Rays to a 2-1 win over Milwaukee. Odorizzi (7-8) allowed one run in seven innings to beat the team that drafted him in 2008.
Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead in the sixth when James Loney drove in two runners with a two-out, bases-loaded single off Kyle Lohse (11-5).
Rays’ state rivals Miami also won on Monday, edging Washington with four runs in the ninth to win 7-6.
The Marlins were trailing 6-1 in the seventh when Washington closer Rafael Soriano (2-1) took the mound in the ninth with a 6-3 lead, but he blew the save.
Casey McGehee led off with a four-pitch walk, Garrett Jones doubled and Marcell Ozuna hit an RBI single. Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s sacrifice fly made it 6-5 and a wild pitch advanced Ozuna to second base.
Adeiny Hechavarria ended an 11-pitch at-bat with a tying triple and Donovan Solano was hit by a pitch.
Jerry Blevins replaced Soriano on the mound and got the second out with a strikeout, but Jeff Baker then drove in the winning hit.
Arizona closed in on the Nationals in the NL East after beating Cincinnati 2-1 when Nick Ahmed hit an RBI single with two outs in the 15th to give the Diamondbacks a 13-0 record in games of at least 15 innings.
Elsewhere in the NL, New York’s Travis d’Arnaud went 3 for 4 with a three-run homer to power the Mets to a 7-1 win over the Phillies, while Chicago’s Tsuyoshi Wada earned his first big leagues win by pitching seven strong innings to lead the Cubs past Colorado 4-1 and Atlanta’s Ervin Santana pitched eight scoreless innings as the Braves blanked San Diego 2-0.
In the American League, majors-leading Oakland lost to a struggling Houston that have lost their previous five games, while Toronto romped past a disappointing Boston to close in on the AL East lead.
Chris Carter, Jason Castro, Marc Krauss and Matt Dominguez all homered as Houston beat the A’s 7-3.
Carter hit a monstrous three-run shot in the third to give the Astros the lead, while Castro and Krauss went back-to-back in the sixth, with Castro’s homer a two-run shot. Two batters later, Dominguez also cleared the fences.
At Fenway Park, Toronto’s Melky Cabrera hit a left-handed and a right-handed homer and drove in five runs as the Blue Jays routed Boston 14-1 at home.
Cabrera homered after Jose Reyes led off the game with a walk and made it 9-0 in a nine-run sixth inning with a three-run homer.
Toronto starter R.A. Dickey (9-10) had a season-high 10 strikeouts, allowed one run and one walk in seven innings.
Also in the American League, Texas’ Yu Darvish struck out eight in seven innings to guide the Rangers 4-2 over the New York Yankees.
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
RSS