The Los Angeles Angels beat cross-town rivals the Dodgers 5-0 on Monday in the opening of the latest Freeway Series, with Garrett Richards pitching his first career shutout.
It is a high-stakes series for both teams, not just because of local pride, with the Angels’ victory keeping them within one game of American League West leaders Oakland, while the loss cut the Dodgers’ lead over San Francisco in the National League West was to 1.5 games.
Angels’ sluggers Mike Trout and Albert Pujols had RBI doubles in a four-run first inning that effectively decided the game.
The only other run of the contest came from a Josh Hamilton homer in the sixth.
Richards (12-4) was dominant in his first nine-inning complete game, striking out nine and retiring 15 of 16 in the middle innings with a fastball regularly hitting 157kph.
In another key clash of area rivals on Monday, Baltimore won at Washington in a showdown of teams that hold top spots in the AL East and NL East respectively.
Baltimore’s Caleb Joseph homered and drove in three runs, while J.J. Hardy had four hits to lead the Orioles past the Nationals 7-3.
Hardy and Ryan Flaherty opened the seventh inning with successive doubles off Tanner Roark (11-7) to tie the game at three-all, before Delmon Young followed with an RBI single and Adam Jones capped the rally with a run-scoring single.
Orioles’ starter Kevin Gausman (6-3) pitched six innings to take the win in a game which made up for a rainout four weeks earlier.
In other interleague play, Cleveland’s Corey Kluber allowed one run in 7-1/3 innings to win his fifth straight decision and lead the Indians over Cincinnati 7-1.
In an American League clash, Oakland stayed just ahead of the Angels by edging Tampa Bay, with Derek Norris scoring the winning hit in the 10th inning against former Athletics’ closer Grant Balfour.
The A’s loaded the bases against Balfour (1-4), who received a mound visit before from the manager, and then struck out Brandon Moss for the second out.
Norris delivered with only the second game-ending hit of his career, hitting a single up the middle.
Elsewhere in the AL, New York’s Brandon McCarthy won his fourth start in a row with a gritty effort as the Yankees beat Detroit 2-1 in the first of three-straight games against the Tigers’ trio of pitching aces.
McCarthy (4-0) allowed one unearned run in 5 2-3 innings. The Yankees have won each of his five starts since being acquired from Arizona.
Tigers starter Max Scherzer (13-4) took the loss despite giving up only a single and a sacrifice fly in seven innings. New signing David Price was to pitch for Detroit yesterday, followed by Justin Verlander today.
In Chicago, Illinois, Tyler Flowers homered and drove in three runs, while Jose Abreu had two hits and two RBIs to lead the White Sox 5-3 over Texas in a rain-shortened seven-inning game.
In the National League, San Francisco’s Pablo Sandoval drove in three runs and got three hits, including an RBI double with two outs in the ninth that sent the Giants to a 4-3 win over the New York Mets.
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
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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