Aaron Sanchez can be beat, just not often.
Danny Duffy on Saturday night outpitched Sanchez, stopping a 10-game winning streak by the Toronto ace and leading the Kansas City Royals over the Blue Jays 4-2.
Sanchez (11-2) had not lost since April 22 against Oakland. He allowed four runs and nine hits in six innings.
Photo: John Rieger, USA TODAY
“It’s not like I thought he was out there distracted or rattled or anything,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “They just beat him. Nobody’s invincible.”
Sanchez still leads the AL with a 2.85 ERA.
The Blue Jays last week opted to go with a six-man rotation instead of putting 24-year-old Sanchez in the bullpen in an effort to limit his innings.
Sanchez said he was “absolutely” happy with the decision to keep him in the rotation.
“It was definitely stressful early on, but we sat down and we talked about it and we came up with the best possible solution,” Sanchez said. “Them asking me, me giving my input, and figuring out what’s best, and I think when it came down to it, we sat down for a while and we came up with something they wanted to do and something I wanted to do. Something that we felt the team would like to. I think at the end of it, it’s all said and done and we can move forward now. And all this is behind.”
The All-Star righty pitched only 102 innings last year, including 9-2/3 in the minors on a rehabilitation assignment after a shoulder injury.
He has thrown 145-1/3 innings this season.
Duffy (8-1) won his seventh straight decision. In his previous start, he struck out a team-record 16 and permitted just one hit over eight innings at Tampa Bay.
On Saturday, he held the Blue Jays to two runs and five hits over 6-2/3 innings.
Kelvin Herrera picked up his fourth save in six chances with a perfect ninth.
Devon Travis led off the game with a home run for the second straight night. He also had an RBI single in the fifth after Kevin Pillar doubled.
Eric Hosmer hit a two-out, two-run single in a three-run fifth that made it 3-2.
Alcides Escobar’s infield single scored Kansas City’s first run.
Raul Mondesi had an RBI triple in the sixth for his first extra-base hit in his 11th game in the majors.
The Royals scored more than three runs in a game for the first time in 10 games.
ROCKIES 12, MARLINS 6
In Denver, Ichiro Suzuki grounded out in his first try at 3,000 hits as the Miami Marlins, despite a 504-foot home run by Giancarlo Stanton, lost to the Colorado Rockies 12-6.
Suzuki had a pinch-hit infield single in the eighth inning for No. 2,999 and stayed in the game to play right field. In the ninth, with many in the crowd at Coors Field standing, Suzuki hit a comebacker to Scott Oberg.
The 1.9m tall pitcher reached high to get the ball before it went up the middle and, after dropping the transfer, quickly gathered it to barely throw out the speedy Suzuki.
The 42-year-old Japanese star is to become the 30th player in major league history to reach 3,000 with his next hit.
Stanton’s 23rd homer was the longest in the major leagues this season and the longest in Coors Field history. Stanton connected in the fifth on a 143kph changeup from Chad Bettis (10-6), sending a drive into the seats in left-center field for a 3-2 lead.
Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza held the record for the longest homer at Coors Field, hitting a 496-foot home run in 1997 when he was with Los Angeles.
Suzuki batted for the All-Star Home Run Derby champion in the eighth.
Charlie Blackmon homered among his four hits and drove in four runs for the Rockies, and rookie David Dahl had three hits to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.
Andrew Cashner (4-8) was the loser.
CUBS 4, ATHLETICS 1
In Oakland, California, Jake Arrieta pitched eight innings of three-hit ball to get his first victory in over a month, leading Chicago past Oakland.
Arrieta (13-5) was 0-3 in his previous five starts and 1-4 since ending a 20-decision winning streak on June 22. He struck out four and walked one on 108 pitches.
The NL Central-leading Cubs have won five straight and 16 of 22. The A’s have lost seven of eight.
Ben Zobrist’s two-out two-run single off former A’s teammate Sonny Gray broke a scoreless tie in the top of the third. Gray (5-11) left after five innings with soreness in his right forearm. He allowed two runs on five hits. Zobrist and Addison Russell had two hits each for the Cubs.
In other results, it was:
‧ Tigers 6, Mets 5
‧ Brewers 15, Diamondbacks 6
‧ Dodgers 3, Red Sox 0
‧ Giants 7, Nationals 1
‧ White Sox 4, Orioles 2
‧ Indians 5, Yankees 2
‧ Mariners 8, Angels 6
‧ Pirates 5, Reds 3
‧ Royals 4, Blue Jays 2
‧ Padres 9, Phillies 7
‧ Rangers 3, Astros 2
‧ Braves 13, Cardinals 5
‧ Rays 7, Twins 3
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS