Vettel wants to put the brakes on change
ARLINGTON, Texas: Francisco Lindor hit a go-ahead grand slam off closer Sam Dyson in the ninth inning as the defending AL champion Cleveland Indians completed a season-opening sweep with a 9-6 victory over the Texas Rangers in Major League Baseball on Wednesday night.
Lindor’s first career slam and second homer of the game came after he put the Rangers ahead in the fifth when the shortstop misjudged Joey Gallo’s speed, could not beat the slugger to second base on an attempted two-out force play and allowed two runs to score on a throwing error.
Dyson (0-2) loaded the bases and walked in a run before Lindor’s homer down the right field line during a fiverun Cleveland ninth. Dyson blew his first save after giving up three runs in a tie game in an 8-5 loss on opening day. He has allowed eight runs in one inning for the defending AL West champs.
The switch-hitting Lindor homered from both sides and had a career-high five RBIs.
Shawn Armstrong (1-0) struck out the only hitter he faced, Jonathan Lucroy, for his first major league win. Bryan Shaw pitched a perfect ninth for his first save.
Astros 5 Mariners 3, 13 innings: In Houston, George Springer hit a threerun homer with two outs in the 13th inning to cap a five-RBI game, lifting Houston over Seattle.
Springer’s shot off Chase De Jong (0-1), who started the inning to make his major league debut, landed in the first row of the left field Crawford Boxes. Evan Gattis drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on Norichika Aoki’s single with two outs.
Houston reliever Jandel Gustave walked Mitch Haniger, Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz to load the bases to start the 13th. He was replaced by Brad Peacock (1-0), who walked Kyle Seager on five pitches to bring in the go-ahead run before getting the next three hitters.
The Astros improved to 3-0 for the first time since 2001, while dropping the Mariners to their first 0-3 start since 2011.
Red Sox 3 Pirates 0, 12 innings: In Boston, Sandy Leon hit a three-run homer in the 12th inning — his third hit of the game — and Chris Sale pitched seven dominant innings in his Boston debut.
Leon also doubled in the third inning but got thrown out at the plate after running through third base coach Brian Butterfield’s stop sign. It was scoreless into the bottom of the 12th, when Antonio Bastardo (0-1) walked Jackie Bradley Jr. and Pablo Sandoval with one out.
Leon followed with a drive over the Green Monster to end a cold night for the Red Sox, who also beat Pittsburgh in the season opener on Monday.
Braves 3 Mets 1, 12 innings: In New York, Bartolo Colon drew all sorts of nods, taps and tributes in his return to Citi Field during a sharp debut for Atlanta, as Matt Kemp's third double of the game in the 12th inning led the Braves over New York.
Kemp’s two-out, bases-loaded liner off Rafael Montero (0-1) gave Atlanta its first win of the season after losing on opening day. Jim Johnson (1-0) worked two scoreless innings.
Pitching a day after the 20th anniversary of his major league debut, and now just more than a month shy of turning 44, Colon was as nifty as ever. He tossed two-hit ball — including a home run by Jay Bruce — for six innings, striking out six and walking one.
Orioles 3 Blue Jays 1: In Baltimore, Dylan Bundy struck out eight over seven impressive innings as Baltimore used home runs by Adam Jones and Chris Davis to beat Toronto.
Making his 15th career start, Bundy (1-0) allowed one run and four hits. The 2011 first-round draft pick did not issue a walk and retired 14 of the last 15 batters he faced.
Brad Brach pitched the eighth and Zach Britton got three outs to earn his first save and seal the two-game sweep. After Toronto loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, Britton got former Oriole Steve Pearce to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play. SHANGHAI: Formula One’s current season leader Sebastian Vettel on Thursday warned against tinkering with the sport to make it more fan- friendly under its new American owners, saying “too much change is wrong.”
The Grand Prix circuit has entered a new era with its recent acquisition by US-based Liberty Media after decades under the helm of longtime ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone.
There had been complaints that, under the 86-year-old Ecclestone, Formula One failed to move with the times by staying entertaining, and has paid the price with plummeting fan interest.
But Vettel, a four-time champion who surged to a comprehensive victory for Ferrari in the Australia season-opener, said suggestions such as trimming the number of races or their duration were misguided.
“I am maybe very old school on many things,” the 29-year-old German said in Shanghai ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
“I think that some things we shouldn’t change. I think it’s wrong to change too much.”
The sport had been criticized for boring races, a lack of razzle-dazzle, and all-too-predictable dominance by the likes of giants Mercedes and Ferrari.
Formula One now hopes to appeal to a younger, global, social media-savvy audience and this season has introduced wider new machines and broader tires that are expectedp to p provide more noise and spectacle.
Vettel acknowledged that shorter races would be “more exciting” but added that reducing track time for the benefit of attentiondeficit millennials would also reduce the challenge of the sport.
“That’s the Grand Prix. That’s how it’s always been. ( Races have) been even longer in the past if you look a long way back, and it should remain a challenge.”