MAJOR LEAGUES
Baltimore extended their lead in the American League (AL) East division to five games over nearest rivals Toronto by winning 9-3 against the Blue Jays on Tuesday, with Chris Davis hitting a homer and Caleb Joseph and Jonathan Schoop adding back-to-back shots.
The Orioles’ lead is the biggest of any team in the majors’ six divisions, although they sit third in the overall AL rankings, behind West division pair Oakland and the Los Angeles Angels.
Oakland opened a two-game lead on Tuesday by shutting out Tampa Bay, as the Angels lost to the cross-town Dodgers on a ninth-inning play at the plate.
In the day’s key National League (NL) encounter, Milwaukee edged San Francisco by one run with the game decided by a reversed call on a replay review on the final out.
Baltimore’s Davis, Nelson Cruz and J.J. Hardy all had two RBIs as the Orioles notched an unusual three-game winning streak, all in different cities. The O’s beat Seattle at home on Sunday and won in Washington on Monday before traveling to Toronto on Tuesday.
Bud Norris (9-7) pitched 5-1/3 innings to win and send the Blue Jays to a fourth successive defeat.
The Dodgers squared the Freeway Series against the Angels at a game apiece by winning 5-4.
Juan Uribe scored on David Freese’s errant throw to home plate in the ninth inning, leaving catcher Chris Iannetta unable to apply the tag. Freese was charged with his second throwing error of the game.
Uribe earlier hit a three-run homer for the NL-leading Dodgers, who moved 2.5 games clear of San Francisco in the NL West.
Oakland’s Jason Hammel belatedly picked up his first win for the Athletics in a 3-0 win over Tampa Bay.
Hammel (1-4) pitched 5-2/3 scoreless innings, quite a contrast to his 9.53 ERA since the Athletics acquired him from the Chicago Cubs a month ago.
Coco Crisp singled home a run in the fifth, while Nate Freiman hit an RBI double during a two-run sixth for the A’s.
Milwaukee downed San Francisco 4-3, with the game ended by a contentious call.
With two outs in the ninth, Joe Panik hit a bouncer to second baseman Rickie Weeks, who was shielded on the play by baserunner Hunter Pence to get the ball to first. Panik was ruled safe at first, but Brewers manager Ron Roenicke challenged the call and it was overturned on review to be the game-ending out.
Earlier, Gerardo Parra hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh for his first hit since being acquired from Arizona.
Detroit’s Alex Avila homered off Matt Daley (0-1) in the 12th inning to give the Tigers a 4-3 away win over the New York Yankees.
Avila’s win put the polish on a good day for the Tigers, with David Price striking out 10 in his Detroit debut. The former Tampa Bay ace pitched 8-2/3 innings, leaving with the game tied 3-3. He leads the majors in strikeouts (199) and innings (179-1/3).
This was the Yankees’ 16th straight game decided by two or fewer runs; the longest such streak since Baltimore also had a 16-run game of close finishes in 1975.
Seattle ace Felix Hernandez allowed one run in eight innings to steer the Mariners to a 4-2 win over Atlanta and extend his record streak of low-scoring games.
Hernandez (12-3) struck out eight and walked one. His earned run average dropped to an American League-leading 1.97. He has pitched 15 straight games giving up no more than two runs and lasting at least seven innings, a major-league record.
Hernandez is 5-0 with a 1.20 ERA over his past eight starts against National League teams, and this latest victory handed slumping Atlanta their seventh successive defeat.
Cincinnati beat Cleveland 9-2 in a game that featured a bizarre play in which an Indians runner was fooled by a second ball on the field.
A ball from Cincinnati’s bullpen got on the field in the seventh inning and rolled behind second base. Cleveland runner David Murphy saw it, thought it was the live ball and edged off third base, only for the real ball to be thrown to third and he was tagged out.
Reds starter Johnny Cueto (13-6) threw his fourth complete game of the season as Cincinnati ended a run of 10 straight losses against their Ohio rival.
New York’s Zack Wheeler allowed one run in 6-2/3 innings to win his fourth consecutive decision and lead the Mets to a 6-1 win over Washington.
Wheeler (7-8) allowed one run on a wild pitch. He is 4-0 with a 1.59 ERA in seven appearances since June 30.
Daniel Murphy hit a two-run single for the Mets.
Miami’s Adeiny Hechavarria had two hits and drove in a run during a decisive five-run rally in the eighth inning that lifted the Marlins to a 6-3 win over Pittsburgh.
St Louis’ Jon Jay hit an RBI single with two outs in the eighth inning to break a tie and give the Cardinals a 3-2 win over Boston.
Kansas City’s Billy Butler had a three-run homer among his four hits and Nori Aoki hit a grand slam as the Royals cruised past Arizona 12-2.
Minnesota’s Kennys Vargas hit a three-run homer in his first home game for the Twins, producing a 3-1 win over San Diego.
Texas notched the biggest shutout win in their history, routing the Chicago White Sox 16-0, with Robinson Chirinos homering twice.
Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard singled in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the 15th inning to lift the Phillies to a 2-1 win over Houston.
Chicago’s Javier Baez homered in the 12th inning in his major league debut, giving the Cubs a 6-5 win over Colorado.
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
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Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier