Sabathia wins 5th straight start as Yankees beat Red Sox
NEW YORK: CC Sabathia beat Rick Porcello in a matchup of Cy Young Award winners, and Chris Carter drove in four runs to lead the New York Yankees over the Boston Red Sox 8-0 Wednesday night.
Sabathia (7-2) has won five straight starts for the first time since April 2012. He allowed five hits in eight innings in his longest outing since April 2015.
Jonathan Holder finished with a perfect ninth. Boston’s final 15 hitters went down in order.
Porcello (3-8) lost his third straight start, giving up six runs — five earned — and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings.
New York stopped Boston’s three-game winning streak and reopened a twogame lead over the second-place Red Sox in the AL East. Dodgers 2 Nationals 1: In Los Angeles, Clayton Kershaw outdueled Stephen Strasburg with seven sharp innings, leading the Dodgers to the victory.
Kershaw (8-2) allowed three hits and struck out nine in his first win since May 17. Pedro Baez got two outs before Kenley Jansen finished for his 10th save.
Strasburg (7-2) struck out eight in six innings in his first loss since April 29. The ace right-hander was 5-0 with a 2.75 ERA in his previous six starts.
In a rematch of last year’s NL Division Series, won by Los Angeles in five games, the NL-leading Nationals took two of three from the Dodgers.
Ryan Zimmerman hit his 17th homer for Washington in the second.
Corey Seager went deep for Los Angeles, and Yasmani Grandal hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the Dodgers’ two-run sixth. Reds 6 Athletics 4: In Cincinnati, St. Louis kept Scooter Gennett in check a day after his four-homer game, but Patrick Kivlehan had a pinch three-run shot that sparked Cincinnati.
The Cardinals have dropped six in a row. They let a 4-1 lead slip away when Kivlehan — another utility player like Gennett — and Joey Votto homered during a five-run seventh inning.
Gennett went 1 for 4 with a single a night after he became the first Reds player to homer four times in a game.
Kivlehan’s first career pinch- hit homer off Brett Cecil (0-2) tied it at 4. Votto’s two-run homer off Trevor Rosenthal finished the eight-batter rally.
Wandy Peralta (3-1) got the win in relief of Bronson Arroyo. Raisel Iglesias pitched the ninth, staying perfect in 11 save chances. Royals 7 Astros 5: In Kansas City, Missouri, Jason Vargas tossed five solid innings for his eighth victory and Cheslor Cuthbert drove in three runs, helping the Royals to the win.
The anticipated pitching duel between Vargas (8-3) and Dallas Keuchel, who have the two best ERAs in the majors, never materialized. Keuchel was scratched with an illness. Marlins 6 Cubs 5: In Chicago, Marcell Ozuna hit his 15th homer, J.T. Realmuto also went deep and the Marlins avoided a three-game series sweep.
Solo homers by Realmuto in a threerun fourth and Ozuna in the fifth against John Lackey (4-6) helped stake Miami to a 5-2 lead.
Dee Gordon added two hits and scored two runs, and the Marlins won for the eighth time in 11 games. They stopped the Cubs’ season-high win streak at five.
Kyle Schwarber homered and had two doubles for Chicago. Ian Happ also went deep. Jose Urena (4-2) improved to 3-0 in his past four starts despite a 7.45 ERA in that stretch. A.J. Ramos got four outs for his ninth save. Orioles 9 Pirates 6, 11 innings: In Baltimore, Urey Mancini tied the game with a two-run homer in the ninth inning, and then hit a three-run drive for Baltimore in the 11th.
The Orioles trailed 6-1 in the eighth before rallying for a second straight night. Adam Jones hit a solo shot in the eighth, Mancini’s pinch-hit home run capped a four-run ninth and the rookie belted the winning shot against Wade LeBlanc (3-2) in the 11th.
Mychal Givens (6-0) worked the 11th for Baltimore.
Jose Osuna homered for the Pirates, connecting with a man on in the seventh against Edwin Jackson, who was making his Orioles debut after being summoned from Triple-A Norfolk. Baltimore is the 12th big league team that Jackson has pitched for during his 15-year career.