Clayton Kershaw extended his scoreless streak to 37 innings with eight innings of two-hit ball and fellow-pitcher Yasmani Grandal hit a two-run homer, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3-1 victory over the Angels on Saturday.
Kershaw (9-6) struck out seven, walked one and retired his final 15 batters while working on eight days’ rest. His previous start was a three-hit shutout on July 23 in New York in which he took a perfect game into the seventh inning.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner has not given up a run since Wilmer Flores’ RBI single for the Mets on July 3 at Dodger Stadium.
Photo: AP
Kenley Jansen, battling a virus for the past four days, pitched a shaky ninth for his 20th save in 21 attempts. He ended it by retiring Erick Aybar on a pop-up with runners at the corners after giving up an RBI single to Albert Pujols.
San Francisco ace Cole Hamels followed up his no-hitter by pitching into the eighth inning of his Texas debut without a decision as the Giants beat the Texas Rangers 9-7 in 11 innings.
Hunter Pence led off the 11th with a homer off Sam Dyson (0-1), another pitcher playing his first game for Texas.
Brandon Belt homered twice for the Giants, who have won 14 of their past 17 games.
Belt led off the third with his 11th homer and added another solo shot in the 11th off Sam Freeman.
In New York, Lucas Duda homered twice and hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth inning after newcomer Yoenis Cespedes was walked intentionally, leading the Mets to a come-from-behind victory over the Washington Nationals 3-2.
Playing in his first game since being acquired from Detroit on Friday at the trade deadline, Cespedes was walked by reliever Matt Thornton (1-1), even though Duda had connected twice on fireworks night off Joe Ross and has been on a recent tear.
The Colorado Rockies downed the St Louis Cardinals 6-2 after Nolan Arenado and Ben Paulsen homered, while Ben Zobrist hit two homers and Eric Hosmer singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of the Kansas City Royals’ 7-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Chicago sluggers Melky Cabrera and Alexei Ramirez homered, while John Danks struck out eight batters as the White Sox beat the New York Yankees 8-2.
In other games, Hank Conger hit two homers, including his first career grand slam, and rookie Carlos Correa also homered twice to help the Houston Astros to a 9-2 win over the Arizona Cardinals, the Cincinnati Reds edged the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3, the Chicago Cubs defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2 and the Oakland Athletics downed the Cleveland Indians 5-1.
Minnesota’s Kurt Suzuki hit the winning RBI single with two outs in the ninth inning as the Twins outlasted the Seattle Mariners 3-2, the Baltimore Orioles downed the Detroit Tigers 6-2, the Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 11-7, the Philadelphia Phillies trounced the Atlanta Braves 12-2 and the San Diego Padres were 5-3 winners over the Miami Marlins.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but