Prince Fielder hit two of Texas’ season-high five homers and drove in five runs to lead the Rangers in a 14-3 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday.
After taking over first place with a 6-5 victory on Tuesday night, Texas increased their advantage over Houston in the AL West division to one-and-a-half games going into the series finale yesterday.
Fielder’s RBI single in the first put the Rangers ahead to stay. The slugger pulled both of his homers into the second deck in right field, leading off the third and then capping an 11-pitch at-bat in the sixth with a three-run shot that made it 12-1.
Photo: AFP
Mike Napoli, Rougned Odor and Bobby Wilson also homered to help Texas win their third straight game in the series.
Martin Perez (3-5) gave up one run over seven innings while allowing 10 base runners — nine hits and a walk. The left-hander struck out three. Dallas Keuchel (17-8) was the loser.
GIANTS 5, REDS 3
Photo: AFP
In San Francisco, Giants pitcher Jake Peavy homered through the low-hovering mist for his first long ball in more than nine years, leading San Francisco past Cincinnati.
Peavy struck out eight in six-plus innings on the mound and connected for his third career home run in the fourth against reliever Collin Balester. It was Peavy’s first since July 26, 2006, at Dodger Stadium with the Padres.
That gave Giants pitchers nine home runs this season, the most since hitting 10 in 1934. The 1924 team also had nine.
Peavy (7-6) became the fifth San Francisco pitcher to go deep this season, matching an MLB record. Everyone in the rotation with at least 16 starts aside from rookie Chris Heston has homered, and Madison Bumgarner has five.
San Francisco remained seven-and-a-half games behind NL West-leading Los Angeles and seven-and-a-half back of the Cubs for the second playoff wild card.
BLUE JAYS 9, BRAVES 1
In Atlanta, Georgia, David Price allowed one run in seven innings and Russell Martin hit a homer and drove in four runs as Toronto beat Shelby Miller and Atlanta to protect their AL East division lead.
Price (16-5) gave up six hits and had nine strikeouts. He improved to 7-1 since coming to Toronto in a trade with Detroit, and lowered his ERA to 2.42.
The Blue Jays stayed three games ahead of second-place New York.
Toronto had 12 hits as they returned to their customary high-scoring pace after managing only a combined two runs in two straight losses. Martin hit a two-run double in the four-run first and added a two-run homer off Ryan Kelly in the ninth.
Miller (5-15) did not make it through the fourth inning. He is winless in 22 straight starts, the longest streak for any pitcher in a season he was an All-Star. The right-hander has lost 14 consecutive decisions since his last win on May 17.
YANKEES 3, RAYS 1
In St Petersburg, Florida, prized rookie Luis Severino rebounded from his worst start and Greg Bird homered and drove in two runs as New York beat Tampa Bay.
Severino (4-3) allowed one run and six hits in 5-2/3 innings. The right-hander gave up a career-high six earned runs over 2-1/3 innings in an 11-5 loss on Friday to Toronto.
After Bird had a second-inning RBI double, Chase Headley put the Yankees up 2-0 with a run-scoring single in the sixth. Bird, also a rookie, made it 3-1 on his ninth-inning shot.
Justin Wilson, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller, who pitched the ninth for his 34th save, combined for 3-1/3 scoreless innings for New York.
Chris Archer (12-12) was the loser.
CUBS 3, PIRATES 2, 12 INNINGS
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pinch-runner Quintin Berry raced home on Anthony Rizzo’s sacrifice fly in the top of the 12th inning as Chicago slipped by Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh rallied to tie it in the eighth against Jake Arrieta, spoiling his bid to become the first 20-game winner in MLB this season. Arrieta allowed two runs, one earned, and six hits, but failed to pick up a win for the first time since Aug. 4.
Chris Denorfia singled off Vance Worley (4-6) to start the 12th, and was replaced by Berry, who advanced to second on a wild pitch and third on Austin Jackson’s single. Starling Marte tracked down Rizzo’s sinking liner to left field, but had no shot at Berry.
Hector Rondon (6-4) worked two innings to help Chicago pull within three games of the Pirates for the top spot in the NL playoff wild-card race.
MARLINS 6, METS 0
In New York, Adam Conley slowed New York’s pursuit of the NL East title with a career-high seven innings for streaking Miami.
Facing a makeshift lineup of all right-handers, Conley (4-1) allowed three hits and struck out six as Miami beat New York for a second straight night to secure their fifth straight series win — matching a franchise record set in 2003 for most consecutive series won in one season.
Martin Prado and J.T. Realmuto homered off Bartolo Colon (14-12).
New York’s lead over Washington was cut to seven-and-a-half games.
NATIONALS 12, PHILLIES 2
In Philadelphia, Jayson Werth hit two homers, Bryce Harper also went deep and Gio Gonzalez tied his career high with 12 strikeouts in Washington’s victory over Philadelphia.
Werth and Harper each had four home runs in the three-game sweep that extended the Nationals’ winning streak to four. Gonzalez (11-7) allowed two runs on five hits with a pair of walks in seven innings.
Darin Ruf homered for Philadelphia. The Phillies have dropped seven of 10.
Alec Asher (0-4) was tagged for four runs on seven hits in five innings.
In other results, it was:
‧ Dodgers 2, Rockies 0
‧ Cardinals 5, Brewers 4
‧ Tigers 7, Twins 4
‧ Red Sox 10, Orioles 1
‧ Indians 5, Royals 1
‧ Padres 4, Diamondbacks 3
‧ Mariners 3, Angels 1
‧ White Sox 9, Athletics 4
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