AMERICAN LEAGUE
Clay Buchholz allowed six runs in the third inning as the Baltimore Orioles held on to beat the Red Sox 7-6 on Monday in the annual Patriots’ Day morning game at Fenway Park, a year after the Boston Marathon bombings.
Trailing by two runs, Boston loaded the bases in the ninth. Mike Napoli hit an RBI groundout before Tommy Hunter, Baltimore’s fifth reliever, retired Mike Carp on a game-ending grounder for his fifth save.
The game began at 11:09am, about an hour before Meb Keflezighi crossed the marathon finish line just over 1.5km away as the first American man to win since Greg Meyer in 1983.
Taiwan’s Chen Wei-yin (3-1) allowed three runs and five hits in five innings. Buchholz (0-2) gave up seven hits in 2-1/3 innings.
INDIANS 4, ROYALS 3
In Cleveland, Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley hit two-run homers, powering the Indians over the Royals when a fearless squirrel ran around Progressive Field and provided some extra entertainment.
Kipnis connected in the sixth inning off Jeremy Guthrie (2-1), overcoming a 3-2 deficit. Brantley provided Cleveland a 2-0 lead in the fourth.
Zach McAllister (3-0) gave up six hits and overcame three errors — one on his errant throw.
Alex Gordon and Omar Infante each had two of the Royals’ six hits.
The game was momentarily delayed in the second inning when a squirrel ran onto the field. The pesky intruder hung around for another inning before it was shooed into the Indians’ center-field bullpen.
In other AL action, it was:
‧ White Sox 3, Tigers 1
‧ Astros 7, Mariners 2
‧ Rangers 4, Athletics 3
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania
Ike Davis became the first player to hit grand slams for different teams in the same April, while Neil Walker had a winning run single with two outs in the ninth inning as the Pittsburgh Pirates twice overcame deficits to beat the Reds 6-5 on Monday.
Pittsburgh trailed 2-0 before Davis’ fourth-inning homer off Mike Leake. Davis hit a game-winning, ninth-inning slam off the Reds’ J.J. Hoover on April 5 for the New York Mets, who traded him to the Pirates on Friday.
According to STATS, no player previously hit slams for different teams in the same April. Davis became just the third to hit slams for different teams against the same opponent in the same year, following Ray Boone in 1953 and Mike Piazza in 1998.
The Pirates were behind 5-4 before Andrew McCutchen’s leadoff homer in the eighth against Manny Parra.
Walker got the winning hit off Hoover (1-2) after consecutive one-out walks to Russell Martin and Andrew McCutchen followed by Pedro Alvarez’s popout.
In other NL action, it was:
‧ Angels 4, Nationals 2
‧ Braves 4, Marlins 2, 10 inns
‧ Mets 2, Cardinals 0
‧ Milwaukee 4, San Diego 3
‧ Rockies 8, Giants 2
‧ Phillies 7, Dodgers 0
‧ Cubs 5, Diamondbacks 1
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