MAJOR LEAGUES
Taiwanese left-hander Chen Wei-yin secured his fourth win of the season after leading the Baltimore Orioles to a 4-3 win at home over the Houston Astros that kept his team in first place in the American League East.
Chen pitched seven innings on Friday night for only the second time in seven starts this season, giving up two runs on five hits while striking out five.
Photo: AFP
“As a starter, my job is to last as many innings as I can,” Chen said after the game. “I still have to improve in many areas.”
The Kaohsiung native, whose record improved to 4-2 with a 3.95 ERA, said he managed to keep the ball low by focusing on the catcher’s glove and trying not to think too much.
Although he felt angry about letting the Astros tie the game at 2-2 on a solo home run by Chris Carter at the top of the seventh, Chen said he was happy his teammates regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the inning.
“I thought his breaking ball was a lot sharper,” said Orioles manager Buck Showalter, who felt Chen deserved the win.
Friday’s victory was the fourth consecutive win for the Orioles, improving their record to 19-14 and keeping them a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees atop the American League East division.
Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish was first denied a perfect game by an error and then came within one out of throwing the first no-hitter of the season as the Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox 8-0 at home on Friday.
Despite the comfortable victory, 27-year-old Darvish, who joined Texas from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2012, will be having flashbacks of facing Boston’s David Ortiz for a while.
Ortiz ended Darvish’s perfect game bid in the seventh inning with a fly ball that resulted in an error. Later, the same batter poked the Red Sox’ first hit through the right side of the infield with two outs in the ninth.
In other games, Pittsburgh beat St Louis 6-4, the LA Angels beat Toronto 4-3, Minnesota beat Detroit 2-1, Cincinnati beat Colorado 4-3 and Philadelphia beat the NY Mets 3-2.
Cleveland beat Tampa Bay 6-3, Atlanta beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2, the Chicago White Sox beat Arizona 9-3, the NY Yankees beat Milwaukee 5-3, Oakland beat Washington 8-0, Kansas City beat Seattle 6-1, San Francisco beat the LA Dodgers 3-1 and San Diego beat Miami 10-1.
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