Gerrit Cole gave up two hits in six dominant innings and had an RBI in his playoff debut as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St Louis Cardinals 7-1 on Friday to even their National League division series at a game apiece.
The Pirates showed poise in their first playoff win since 1992, while St Louis looked tentative in the field — a role reversal from the Cardinals’ 9-1 win in the opener against Pittsburgh.
Cardinals starter Lance Lynn, who has not lasted long enough to qualify for the win in his three career playoff starts, yielded five runs and seven hits in 4-1/3 innings.
Photo: EPA
Cole struck out five batters and walked one. After allowing Carlos Beltran’s double with one out in the first, he retired 11 straight before Yadier Molina led off the fifth with his third career post-season homer.
Pedro Alvarez homered for the second straight game for the Pirates, who host Game 3 today.
In Atlanta, the Braves also evened their NL division series with Los Angeles at a game apiece after beating the Dodgers at home 4-3.
Mike Minor pitched six strong innings, Jason Heyward had a two-run single and the Braves pulled off some tight plays in the field to hold off the Dodgers.
In a post-season already marked by numerous defensive miscues, including some shaky plays by the Braves in Game 1, Atlanta’s defense came through by turning three double plays of which none more crucial than the one Luis Avilan started in the seventh to escape the inning with a 2-1 lead intact.
Hanley Ramirez drove in all three runs for the Dodgers, including a two-run homer in the eighth. Not taking any chances, the Braves went to closer Craig Kimbrel for a rare four-out save. He ended the eighth by retiring Juan Uribe on a groundout, then pitched around two walks in the ninth.
The best-of-five series shifts to Los Angeles today.
In the American League, the Boston Red Sox took advantage of poor Tampa Bay defense in a five-run fourth to beat the Rays 12-2 in Game 1 of their division series.
Jon Lester gave up a pair of solo homers to Tampa, but Boston got the lead back when the Rays fell apart in the fourth. One ball fell between two outfielders, one batter reached safely on a dropped third strike and another reached when pitcher Matt Moore was slow to cover first.
By the time it was over, the Red Sox were ahead 5-2 and on their way to the early lead in their series.
The Red Sox added three more runs to chase Moore in the fifth inning, when they sent nine batters to the plate — the first time in franchise history they have batted around in consecutive innings in a postseason game.
Moore was charged with eight runs — seven earned — on eight hits, two walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch, striking out four in 4-1/3 innings.
Every Boston starter got a hit and scored a run, the first time a team had done that in the Major League Baseball post-season since Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and the Yankees in the 1936 World Series.
In Oakland, California, Max Scherzer struck out 11 over seven dominant innings to help give Detroit a 1-0 lead in their AL division series rematch, in which the Tigers held on to beat the Athletics 3-2.
Scherzer retired 16 of his first 18 batters and was nearly untouchable before Yoenis Cespedes hit a two-run drive in the seventh for his first career playoff home run.
MLB’s lone 20-game winner, Scherzer (21-3), allowed three hits and walked two, while Miguel Cabrera and Alex Avila each hit first-inning RBI singles against 40-year-old MLB All-Star Bartolo Colon, whose winless streak against the Tigers was extended to 10.5 years.
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
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS