American LeaguePedro Martinez extended his dominance of the Seattle Mariners, pitching three-hit ball for seven innings to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 5-1 victory Saturday.
Martinez (9-3) improved to 11-0 lifetime against Seattle, his most wins against any team. He allowed one run, one walk and struck out seven.
PHOTO: AP
Kevin Millar hit a solo homer and drove in two runs. David Ortiz added a two-run double for the Red Sox, who maintained a one-game lead over Oakland in the AL wild card race.
Seattle's lead over the Athletics in the AL West was reduced to four games because Oakland beat Toronto.
Scott Williamson worked a scoreless eighth. Kim Byung-hyun struck out two in the ninth, finishing the five-hitter.
Joel Pineiro (13-8) allowed five runs and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings.
Athletics 6, Blue Jays 4
In Oakland, California, Tim Hudson won his fifth straight decision and Jose Guillen homered twice, lifting Oakland over Toronto.
Mark Ellis hit a three-run homer for the A's, who snapped a three-game skid. Hudson left with a bruised right hand after getting hit by Dave Berg's line drive in the seventh inning and was taken for X-rays, which were negative.
Mike Bordick drove in three runs for the Blue Jays.
Hudson (12-4) allowed one run on two hits with six strikeouts and three walks in 6 1-3 innings. Keith Foulke got his 30th save in 35 chances.
Mark Hendrickson (7-9) gave up five runs on seven hits over six innings.
Twins 14, Royals 5
In Kansas City, Missouri, Torii Hunter drove in three runs for the second straight game and Minnesota routed Kansas City again.
Kyle Lohse (10-9) went seven innings for the win, which brought Minnesota within two games of first-place Kansas City in the AL Central.
Luis Rivas scored three runs for the Twins. Doug Mientkiewicz, Corey Koskie, Jacque Jones and A.J. Pierzynski each had two RBIs.
Carlos Beltran, who had missed five starts with a sore elbow, homered twice and drove in the Royals' first three runs.
Runelvys Hernandez (7-5) lasted just 3 1-3 innings and was charged with nine runs on nine hits.
Hunter hit a three-run homer in Minnesota's 9-2 romp Friday.
Yankees 5, Orioles 4
In Baltimore, Orioles rookie Jack Cust fell down and was tagged out 10 feet from an uncovered home plate, ending a wild 12th-inning rundown and New York's win over Baltimore.
Jason Giambi hit his 35th homer with two outs in the top of the 12th off Hector Carrasco (1-4) as the Yankees dealt Baltimore its sixth straight loss.
Jeff Nelson walked Cust with two outs in the bottom half, and Larry Bigbie doubled to right-center. Cust tried to stop coming around third, but slipped to the ground.
Second baseman Alfonso Soriano made a low relay throw to third, and Cust was caught in a rundown. After a couple of throws, nobody covered the plate for the Yankees, and all Cust had to do to score the tying run was outrace third baseman Aaron Boone.
Cust couldn't do it. He stumbled face first to the ground and was easily tagged out by Boone.
Rangers 12, White Sox 8
In Arlington, Texas, Todd Greene hit a three-run homer, Jason Jones and Hank Blalock added two-run shots, and Texas rallied after wasting an early five-run lead to defeat hand Chicago its fourth straight loss.
The Rangers scored nine runs in three innings against White Sox starter Bartolo Colon (10-11). Colon, 4-1 with a 2.09 ERA in his previous five starts, tied a career high for runs allowed. He gave up seven hits, struck out five and walked three.
Joaquin Benoit (8-5) benefited from Texas' four-run third to post his second straight victory in long relief since being removed from the rotation on Aug. 7.
National League
Adam Dunn hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Cincinnati Reds rallied for a 9-7 victory Friday that knocked the Houston Astros out of first place.
Houston has lost four in a row, matching its worst slump of the season, and fallen out of the top spot in the NL Central for the first time since July 7. The Astros, who are a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs, hadn't lost four straight since June 23-27.
A day after they ended a 16-game losing streak against Arizona, the Reds broke a 10-game skid against the Astros by getting yet another game-ending hit.
D'Angelo Jimenez led off the 10th with a single off Brad Lidge (4-3). One out later, Dunn hit his 27th homer into the Astros' bullpen in right, his first RBI since July 30. It was the Reds' 13th game-ending hit of the season and their 27th win in their last at-bat, most in the majors.
Mets 5, Rockies 0
In New York, with the lights back on at Shea Stadium, Tom Glavine tossed six effective innings and New York got homers from rookies Jose Reyes and Jason Phillips.
After a blackout that affected much of the Northeast forced the postponement of New York's game against the San Francisco Giants on Thursday night, the last-place Mets rewarded 28,081 fans who made it to the ballpark by winning for the seventh time in 10 games.
Cliff Floyd hustled on his sore Achilles' tendon and scored twice. Ty Wigginton hit a pair of RBI doubles. Glavine (8-11) allowed only three hits but walked four and pitched out of trouble all night.
Cubs 2, Dodgers 1
In Chicago, Mark Prior scattered seven hits in his third complete game of the season -- and second in a week against Los Angeles.
Sammy Sosa had three hits and drove in two runs as the Cubs won for the fifth time in six games, and moved into first place in the NL Central after Houston and St. Louis lost later in the night.
Prior (11-5) retired 18 of the first 21 he faced, including nine in a row between the fourth and sixth innings. He struck out five and walked none. Maso Kida (0-1), making his first career major league start and first appearance with the Dodgers, pitched five innings and allowed two runs and five hits.
Marlins 10, Padres 0
In Miami, Brad Penny pitched seven shutout innings, and Mike Lowell and rookie Miguel Cabrera homered for Florida.
Penny (11-9) allowed five hits and struck out seven, and Lowell drove in three runs to help Florida remain a half game behind Philadelphia in the NL wild-card race.
Ugueth Urbina pitched the eighth and Braden Looper allowed a hit in the ninth to finish the six-hitter.
Ivan Rodriguez's sharp grounder in the fifth bounced off Padres starter Oliver Perez's left forearm into right field, scoring Juan Pierre, who led off with a single and advanced on a balk.
Perez (4-6) was immediately removed and later diagnosed with a left wrist contusion.
He is day to day.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
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