MAJOR LEAGUES
The Los Angeles Angels maintained their narrow lead atop the American League (AL) standings by beating Miami 6-1 on Wednesday, with Mike Trout hitting his 30th home run of the season to tie his career high.
The Angels remained a game ahead of Oakland, who needed a ninth-inning, two-run homer from Sam Fuld to beat Houston.
Photo: AFP
While the race in the AL West remains tight, Kansas City created a bit of breathing room in the Central by beating Minnesota, moving 2.5 games above Detroit, who lost to the New York Yankees.
The Yankees will likely need a wild card to make the playoffs, but they did close within six games of AL East leader Baltimore, who lost to Tampa Bay.
The Angels got a homer from new signing Gordon Beckham, but it was the efforts of starting pitcher Hector Santiago that contributed most to the win over the Marlins.
Photo: AFP
Santiago (4-7) was coming off a string of six consecutive no-decisions, but got a belated win by striking out six in 5-2/3 innings. He did suffer the ignominy of giving up a third-inning homer to Adeiny Hechavarria — who had only cleared the fences twice before in his 1,100 career at-bats — but struck out his next five batters.
Tampa Bay’s Drew Smyly allowed just two hits over seven innings in his second straight
Evan Longoria had three hits for the Rays, who scored all their runs in the first two innings.
Photo: AFP
Smyly (9-10) struck out six and walked one in his fifth start for the Rays since coming from Detroit in a trade involving David Price.
The heavily prized Price was, ironically, a loser yesterday, giving up nine straight hits in the third inning as the Tigers were beaten 8-4 by the Yankees.
The Yankees scored all eight of their runs in the third off Price (12-10), who had pitched a one-hitter in his previous start. Jacoby Ellsbury started the barrage and New York went all the way through the batting order until Price was pulled after the ninth hit of the inning.
Detroit’s slip was capitalized on by Kansas City, who beat Minnesota 6-1, with all their six runs coming in the eighth inning.
Nori Aoki drove in the go-ahead run, while Billy Butler and Salvador Perez each drove in a pair of runs during the surge, which came after the Twins’ Phil Hughes (14-9) had stymied the Royals for the first seven innings.
Royals’ reliever Wade Davis (8-2) pitched a perfect eighth to earn his second straight win.
In the National League (NL), Pittsburgh’s Ike Davis hit a game-winning homer for the second straight game as the Pirates beat St Louis 3-1 in a clash of playoff-chasing divisional rivals.
In the second inning, Pittsburgh’s Russell Martin was hit by an Adam Wainwright pitch and went to first base, then Davis hit a towering 433-foot shot which hit a speaker hung above the seats beyond right-center field.
Pirates starter Jeff Locke (6-3) allowed one run in 7-1/3 innings and also made a contribution at the plate, getting only the 11th hit of his career and scoring a run in the third inning.
St Louis still lead the NL wild-card race, with San Francisco trailing by a half-game and the Pirates 1.5 games behind the Giants for the second wild-card berth.
Philadelphia’s Grady Sizemore hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth inning as the Phillies beat Washington 8-4 to complete a three-game sweep.
Marlon Byrd hit a two-run homer and Jimmy Rollins hit a solo shot for the Phillies, who went 7-2 on their best home stand this season.
The NL East-leading Nationals had won 12 of 13 before losing three in a row in Philadelphia.
San Diego’s Rene Rivera tied the game with a home run in the ninth inning, then won it with a single in the 10th, giving the Padres a 3-2 victory over Milwaukee.
Rivera was guilty of an error that helped the Brewers to a 2-0 lead, but made up for it.
In the 10th, Seth Smith walked and Yasmani Grandal singled. Smith was thrown out at third base and, one out later, Rivera singled to center field to drive in Grandal from second base.
Oakland’s Sam Fuld hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the ninth inning to lift the Athletics to a 5-4 win against Houston.
The A’s trailed by one entering the ninth before Eric Sogard’s RBI single, and Fuld’s two-out shot off Chad Qualls (1-4) put the A’s ahead 5-3.
Fuld, who entered the game with no hits in his previous nine plate appearances, had three for the game, including a double.
Atlanta’s Jason Heyward hit a leadoff home run to set the Braves on their way to a 3-2 win at the New York Mets.
Los Angeles’ Clayton Kershaw allowed only an unearned run in eight innings, steering the Dodgers to a 3-1 victory over Arizona and becoming the first pitcher this season to reach 16 wins.
Chicago rookie Jose Abreu hit a pair of run-scoring singles as the White Sox ended a season-worst seven-game losing run by beating Cleveland 3-2.
Toronto’s Danny Valencia had a go-ahead, three-run homer in the seventh inning to lift the Blue Jays to a 5-2 win against Boston.
Texas’ Rougned Odor hit a third-inning grand slam to power the last-placed Rangers to a 12-4 victory over Seattle.
Cincinnati’s Skip Schumaker drove in a pair of runs with a double and a single to lead the Reds past the Chicago Cubs 7-5.
San Francisco’s Buster Posey hit a game-ending two-run shot for his third homer in two nights, sending the Giants to a 4-2 win versus Colorado and giving manager Bruce Bochy his 1,600th victory.
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