The Boston Red Sox took advantage of sloppy St Louis Cardinals fielding to run away with Wednesday’s World Series opener 8-1 in chilly conditions at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Red Sox scored three runs in the first inning on a bases-loaded double by Mike Napoli off St Louis starter Adam Wainwright, and two more runs in the second, helped in each inning by errors charged to shortstop Pete Kozma.
David “Big Papi” Ortiz poured it on with a booming two-run homer in the seventh in support of a superb outing by Red Sox starting and winning pitcher Jon Lester, who went 7-2/3 scoreless innings, giving up five hits with eight strike outs.
Photo: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Matt Holliday finally put the Cardinals on the scoreboard with a ninth-inning home run off reliever Ryan Dempster.
Losing pitcher Wainwright gave up five runs on six hits in five innings on the mound, but only three were earned.
The pitcher contributed to the Cardinals’ comedy of errors, allowing a harmless pop-up to drop at his feet for a single to start Boston’s second-inning outburst in confusion, with catcher Yadier Molina confused over who would catch the ball.
Boston capitalized on the Cardinals’ generosity with timely hitting as they outhit St Louis by just 8-7.
The mishaps began when Ortiz grounded to second with one out and men on first and second.
Matt Carpenter tossed the ball to shortstop Kozma for a force. Although the ball was dropped, the umpire called the runner out at second, ruling that the drop was due to transferring the ball from Kozma’s glove to throw.
After an argument from the Boston manager, the umpires conferred and changed the call to safe at second, and Kozma was charged with an error. With the bags loaded, Napoli ripped a bases-clearing double to left-center for a 3-0 lead.
The pop-up by Stephen Drew that fell comically between pitcher Wainwright and Yadier Molina began a rally in the second inning which included another error by Kozma that loaded the bases.
Pedroia singled for one run and Ortiz was robbed of a grand slam by rightfielder Carlos Beltran, who reached over the wall to deny him, although a run was scored on the sacrifice fly.
Beltran left the game due to a rib injury on the play and was taken to hospital for tests.
Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles at the Orleans Masters in France on Sunday after losing in the final to his French opponent. The 25-year-old Lin, ranked world No. 14, lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 18-21 in a match that lasted 42 minutes at the Palais des Sports arena. It was the first time that the two players were facing each other in their professional careers. In the opener, Lin was slow to warm up, which gave the 20-year-old Lanier an opportunity to take an early lead with seven consecutive points. Despite
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
Two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek on Thursday avenged her shock Paris Olympics loss to Zheng Qinwen with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Chinese eighth seed, setting up a semi-final against 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the California desert. In the men’s singles, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz put on a show with his acrobatic shotmaking under the lights to close out the day’s action, overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the women’s doubles. Swiatek, one of the gold medal favorites when she lost to eventual champion Zheng in the
RSS