Fernando Morientes scored twice and Roberto Ayala added the other goal to help Valencia beat Atletico Madrid 3-1 and climb into third place in Spanish league soccer on Saturday.
Miguel "Mista" Ferrer scored for Atletico, which stayed in fifth place after suffering only its second defeat in nine matches on the road this season.
In other games, Sergio Garcia scored twice to lead sixth-place Zaragoza over Espanyol 2-1 and Deportivo La Coruna beat Mallorca 1-0 on Fabian Estoyanoff's penalty.
PHOTO: AP
Veteran Argentine defender Ayala crowned Valencia's bright start at its Mestalla stadium when he jumped to power home a header from David Villa's corner in the 15th minute.
Valencia, already subjected to fierce Atletico tackling, had a scare when goalkeeper Santiago Canizares took several minutes to recover from a collision with teammate Raul Albiol just before the interval.
Valencia's worries were calmed by a second goal in the 54th minute, Morientes culminating a counterattack by sliding in to meet a low cross from the left by Vicente Rodriguez.
Mista, who joined Atletico from Valencia in the offseason, reduced the deficit two minutes later with a low drive from the edge of the area. But Morientes again capitalized on Vicente's pass to score in a near-replica of his first goal.
Zaragoza followed Wednesday's victory over Barcelona in the first leg of a Copa del Rey quarter-final with a win that boosted its hopes of a European place next season.
Both sides lacked their most creative players -- Zaragoza's Pablo Aimar was injured, while Espanyol's Ivan De La Pena was suspended.
Zaragoza striker Garcia's first goal for the visitors came in the 55th minute when he collected Oscar Gonzalez's pass and side-footed an angled shot.
Moments after Espanyol's Luis Garcia equalized in the 86th, his Zaragoza namesake doubled his tally from Ewerthon's low cross to win his side three points.
Deportivo's win over Mallorca maintained its unbeaten start this year, an eight-match run which included Wednesday's 4-1 win over Valladolid in the first leg of a Copa del Rey quarter-final.
The home side's winning goal came on halftime when Estoyanoff converted his spot kick, awarded after Jordi Lopez fouled Deportivo striker Javier Arizmendi.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
PAINFUL VICTORY: Ruud said that felt pain in his rib during the warmup and was put on painkillers so that he could finish the match against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo With the help of painkillers, Casper Ruud overcame a rib ailment to defeat Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets and reach the Madrid Open final on Friday. Ruud is to face Jack Draper, who beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the other semi-final to make his third final of the year. Ruud received treatment on his rib three games into the match and went on to win 6-4, 7-5 on the Caja Magica center court. The 15th-ranked Norwegian saved 15 of the 18 break points he faced against the 21st-ranked Argentine. Ruud said he felt something in his rib during the warmup, just before
RSS