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.
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