Christian Villanueva heard the name and did not need a translator to explain what it meant.
Villanueva on Thursday night hit his 15th home run to help the San Diego Padres beat the Miami Marlins 8-3 — and his long fly was a significant one.
Villanueva’s homer total before June 1 is the most by a National League rookie since St Louis’ Albert Pujols hit 16 in 2001. His power surge has helped the Padres win three straight and four of their past six games.
Jordan Lyles had the blueprint for success with seven solid innings.
After taking a perfect game into the eighth inning in his previous start at Petco Park, Lyles (2-1) was not as dominant against the Marlins on Thursday.
However, he limited them to two runs and six hits, while walking one and striking out seven in his fifth start after 13 appearances out of the bullpen.
Brad Hand got the last out with the bases loaded for his 17th save after newly acquired Phil Hughes struggled in the ninth.
Derek Dietrich homered off Kirby Yates in the eighth.
Taiwanese Chen Wei-yin (1-3) got just five outs in his shortest stint of the season. He allowed four runs and four hits, and walked two and struck out four.
“It’s baseball,” Chen said through a translator. “Sometimes you have good days, sometimes you have bad days.”
San Diego pulled away with a three-run fifth inning against former Padre Odrisamer Despaigne to build a 7-2 cushion.
The Padres struck early against Chen as they seized a 2-0 lead three batters into the game.
Jose Pirela opened with a single and Villanueva followed with his homer.
Miami tied it at 2-2 in the second thanks to an unlikely offensive source in Chen.
After not collecting an RBI in his first 68 career at-bats, Chen sent a one-out, slow grounder through the middle that scored Brian Anderson and J.T. Riddle. Both had reached on singles.
“Your heart drops when that happens,” Lyles said of Chen’s hit. “That’s the lowest of the lows, but we were able to bounce back and put up five scoreless after that.”
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