In a matchup of old friends from the Far East, Hisashi Iwakuma made one mistake too many.
Alex Rodriguez snapped his hitless skid with an early two-run homer off Iwakuma that sent the New York Yankees past the Seattle Mariners 4-3 on Sunday, ending their four-game losing streak.
Masahiro Tanaka topped Iwakuma in the first major league pitching matchup between former Japanese teammates, a game that was broadcast live on television back home — at 2am in Tokyo.
The 35-year-old Iwakuma, teammates with the 27-year-old Tanaka from 2007 to 2011 on the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, was charged with four runs and eight hits in seven innings.
Steve Clevenger had an RBI single for the Mariners, who had won three straight following a five-game slide.
Nori Aoki tripled and scored on Seth Smith’s single.
Brett Gardner had three hits, including an RBI double that stopped New York’s 0-for-30 slump with runners in scoring position. He scored the tiebreaking run on a wild pitch by Iwakuma (0-2) in the fifth.
New York avoided a three-game sweep thanks in large part to Tanaka (1-0), who yielded three runs — two earned — and six hits in seven efficient innings. He struck out six and walked none, improving to 4-0 in four career starts against the Mariners.
“Just extremely satisfied being able to get that win,” Tanaka said through a translator.
Hitters in the bottom five spots in Seattle’s lineup combined to go one for 17. Aoki had the team’s lone extra-base hit.
Tanaka worked out of a bases-loaded jam in a 24-pitch first inning, when Kyle Seager drove in a run with a groundout. The right-hander needed only 93 pitches to get through seven.
“He was mixing it up. You never know what he’s going to throw,” Clevenger said. “He’s got good stuff. He commands the zone really well. In and out with his cutter, and his split just disappears on you.”
Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller combined to strike out all six batters they faced on 13 pitches apiece, with Miller working the ninth for his third save.
Rodriguez, dropped three spots to sixth in a struggling Yankees lineup, homered on the first pitch he saw after Iwakuma plunked Brian McCann in the second inning. The 40-year-old designated hitter was without a hit in his previous 19 at-bats, two shy of matching the longest drought of his career.
The three-time MVP sent a 138kph fastball into the lower-deck seats in left field. It was the 689th home run for Rodriguez, who ranks fourth on the career list.
A season after hitting 33 homers, A-Rod began the day batting .100 (three for 30), with one home run and two RBIs.
In other MLB action, it was:
‧ Phillies 3, Nationals
‧ Dodgers 3, Giants 1
‧ Rays 3, White Sox 2
‧ Mets 6, Indians 0
‧ Braves 6, Marlins 5
‧ Twins 3, Angels 2
‧ Pirates 9, Brewers 3
‧ Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 3
‧ Astros 5, Tigers 4
‧ Cardinals 4, Reds 3
‧ Rockies 2, Cubs 0
‧ Athletics 3, Royals 2
‧ Diamondbacks, Padres 3
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
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
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