MLB: Nats stave off sweep behind Sanchez’s strong outing
Aníbal Sanchez beat his former team for the third time this season, Howie Kendrick homered and drove in three runs and the Nationals prevented a three-game sweep, beating the NL East-leading Braves 7-0 on Sunday in Washington. Atlanta’s magic number to clinch the NL East remained at four.
In Philadelphia, Christian Vazquez homered twice, including a grand slam, and drove in a career-high five runs to lead the Red Sox to a 6-3 victory over the Phillies.
In St. Louis, Ryan Braun hit a go-ahead grand slam with two outs in the ninth inning, and the Brewers beat the Cardinals 7-6 to keep up their playoff push by winning for the ninth time in 10 games.
Milwaukee remained one game behind the Cubs, who beat the Pirates 16-6, for the second NL wild card and closed within three games of the NL Central-leading Cardinals. In Anaheim, Calif., Albert Pujols hit a three-run homer off Ryan Yar
brough in the fifth inning and drove in four runs, leading the Angels over Tampa Bay 6-4 to drop the Rays 1½ games behind Oakland for the top AL wild card. Seeking their first playoff berth since 2013, the Rays are 1½ games ahead of Cleveland for the AL’s second wild card.
In Cleveland, Roberto Perez’s three-run homer helped the Indians salvage the finale of their AL Central showdown series with a 7-5 win over the Twins. ETC.: Own goal sinks Red Bulls on road against Sounders A shot by Victor Rodriguez that was knocked in for an own goal in the 83rd minute put Seattle ahead, and Nico Lodeiro’s goal in stoppage time secured the 4-2 victory over the visiting Red Bulls.
The Sounders (14-9-7) remained in contention for second place in the MLS Western Conference. The Red Bulls (12-13-5) had come back from an early 2-0 deficit, getting the equalizer from Kaku in the 67th minute.
In Beijing, Spain, behind tournament MVP Ricky Rubio’s 20 points, captured its second World Cup championship, defeating Argentina 95-75.
Europe has reclaimed the Solheim Cup in astonishing fashion by beating the U.S. 14 ½-13 ½, with Suzann Pettersen holing the clinching putt on No. 18 in the last singles match on the course in Gleneagles, Scotland.
The Americans were looking to win the biggest team prize in women’s golf for a third straight time, but lost the last three singles matches after being 13 ¹ /2-11 ¹/2 ahead. Martin Truex Jr.’ s raced his way into the second round of NASCAR’s playoffs with a victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — his series-best fifth of the season. Truex chased down Kevin Harvick, who was slowed by traffic, to cut into Harvick’s lead and eventually make the pass for the win on the outside with 20 laps remaining. Former NASCAR driver Michael Stefanik was killed in a single-engine plane crash in Sterling, Conn. He was 61. John Ralston, the former Stanford and Denver Broncos coach, has died. He was 92.