Dodgers level series with Brewers

Astros strike quickly against Red Sox

LOS ANGELES, Oct 14, (AFP): Justin Turner’s two-run homer in the eighth inning lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday that knotted their Major League Baseball playoff series at one game each.

Turner’s blast off Brewers relief pitcher Jeremy Jeffress gave the Dodgers the lead for the first time in front of a crowd of 43,900 at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

Turner rebounded from an zero-forfive showing in game one on Friday that included four strikeouts, producing his first home run of this post-season.

“You just shrug it off,” Turner said. “Obviously I wasn’t feeling good about myself last night and wasn’t happy with the results, but today was a new day and another chance to go out and win a ballgame.”

In the other game, Josh Reddick belted a lead-off homer to spark a four-run ninth inning as the defending champions Houston Astros clobbered the Boston Red Sox 7-2 in the opening game of the AL series.

Once Los Angeles were ahead, relief pitchers Pedro Baez, Caleb Ferguson, Kenta Maeda and Kenley Jansen combined to get the last six outs and preserve the win.

Jansen pitched the ninth for his second save of the playoffs, retiring Milwaukee’s National League Most Valuable Player candidate Christian Yelich on a broken bat ground out to end the game with a runner on second base.

Houston Astros’ Yuli Gurriel hits a three-run home run against the Boston Red Sox during the ninth inning in Game 1 of a baseball American League Championship Series

on Oct 13 in Boston. (AP)

The Dodgers now head home to Los Angeles to host games three, four and five of the best-of-seven National League Championship Series with renewed confidence.

After hanging on for a 6-5 victory over the Dodgers on Friday, Milwaukee seized a 3-0 lead in game two with the help of home runs from Orlando Arcia and Travis Shaw.

The Dodgers loaded the bases with none out in the seventh inning and gained two runs with a base hit by Cody Bellinger and a walk to catcher Austin Barnes.

Although they left three on base in the seventh, the Dodgers would take the lead in the next when Chris Taylor reached first base on a single and Turner seized upon a split-fingered fastball from Jeffress, sending it 388 feet.

“I was just trying to elevate, get something in the air,” Turner said. “As soon as I hit it, it felt good. I knew it was a homer, and it’s cool to run around the bases and see all your teammates going crazy, jumping up and down waiting for you.”

In Boston, Carlos Correa hit a single into left field to break a sixth-inning tie and give Houston their fifth straight playoff victory.

“I was looking for a fastball and it was up in the zone. I put a pretty good swing on it and it got us ahead,” said Correa.

Boston left-hander David Price will be trying to end his postseason skid against Astros’ righty Gerrit Cole in Game Two of the best-ofseven series.

Yuri Gurriel broke the game open with a three-run homer just after Reddick hit his solo blast earlier in the ninth. who has yet to win a set against Djokovic in three matches played, sailed a forehand wide to miss out on the rare opportunity.

“It was really tough,” Coric said. “I didn’t know what to do exactly. I thought I was playing actually really well, which is in that moment not good because if I play bad, okay, I know I need to start playing better, need to change something.

“I’m just happy with the whole week. I think it was a really good week for me.”

Djokovic, who has now won four titles this season, will move up one ranking spot to No. 2, pushing Roger Federer back to No. 3.

The victory extended his winning streak to 18 matches, the longest of the season by any male player. Federer and Nadal both had 17-match winning streaks during the year.

In Hong Kong, Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska said Sunday she was dreaming of a Grand Slam after she crushed Chinese number one Wang Qiang 6-2, 6-1 at the Hong Kong Open to claim her first ever title.

The 18-year-old comprehensively outplayed the world number 24 to win the tournament without losing a set all week, walking away with a cheque for $163,265 and more than doubling her career winnings at a stroke.

Wang – who has been touted by some as a potential successor to Chinese tennis icon Li Na – was chasing her third title but was never in the match, which was over in little more than an hour.

Despite chants of “Keep going Wang Qiang!” ringing out in Cantonese round the Centre Court, the 26-year-old appeared curiously listless, the day after she had put both world number five Elina Svitolina and former Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza to the sword.

Until Sunday, Yastremska’s chief claim to fame had been 2016 Wimbledon girls singles finalist, but earlier this year she became the first player born this millennium to break into the WTA top 100 rankings.

She did not appear overwhelmed appearing in her first final, despite saying she had woken up so nervous she could not eat.

In Tianjin, France’s Caroline Garcia survived a difficult opening set before beating top seed Karolina Pliskova 7-6(7), 6-3 to lift the Tianjin Open title on Sunday.

Trailing 5-1 in the tiebreak, Garcia made the most of Pliskova’s two backhand errors to clinch the opening set after just over an hour of play.

With momentum on her side, Garcia broke Pliskova’s serve twice to claim her first WTA title since her back-to-back triumphs in Wuhan and Beijing last year.

“I was a little bit more aggressive than her, and I think that’s what made the difference in the first set,” the 24-year-old Garcia said.

“Of course, I’ve won three titles in China so it’s bringing me luck. China is doing a lot for women’s tennis.”