Nationals baffle Cardinals again; Yankees rout Astros
Max Scherzer followed Aníbal Sánchez’s near nohitter with a try of his own and the stingy Washing- ton Nationals beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 on Sat- urday in St. Louis for a 2-0 lead in the NL Championship Series.
Scherzer didn’t allow a hit until Paul Goldschmidt led off the seventh inning with a single that left fielder Juan Soto played conservatively with a one-run lead. A day earlier, Sánchez held the Cardinals hitless until José Martínez had a pinch- single with two down in the eighth.
Sánchez and Scherzer also began the 2013 ALCS with consecutive no-hit bids of at least five innings for Detroit against Boston.
Scherzer, a St. Louis native who played college ball for the University of Missouri, struck out 11 and walked two in seven innings.
It doesn’t get any easier for St. Louis, either. Ace Stephen Strasburg gets the ball for the wild-card Nationals when the best-of-seven series moves to Washington for Game 3 on Monday night. Jack Flaherty pitches for the Cards.
St. Louis got another solid performance from Adam Wainwright, who struck out 11 in 7 1/3 innings.
Patrick Corbin got the first out of the ninth before Daniel Hudson closed for his third save of the playoffs. The right-hander was reinstated from the postseason paternity list before the game after he missed the series opener to be with his wife, Sara, for the birth of their third child, a girl named Millie.
Scherzer, who has pitched two no-hitters in the regular season, has a record five career postseason no-hit bids of at least five innings, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. ALCS >> Gleyber Torres kept up his October surge with a homer and five RBIS, Masahiro Tanaka polished his playoff resume and the New York Yankees blanked the Houston Astros 7-0 Saturday night in the AL Cham- pionship Series opener.
With so much attention focused on the Astros aces, Tanaka showed he more than belonged on this stage, too. He threw one-hit ball for six innings to outpitch Zack Greinke, improving to 5-2 with a 1.32 ERA in the postseason.
Torres did his part in this matchup of 100-win behemoths with a go-ahead double, a solo homer, a two-run single and an RBI grounder. Moved up to third in the batting order after mashing in a sweep of Minnesota, the 22-year-old star became the youngest AL player to drive in five runs during a postseason game.
Giancarlo Stanton and Gio Urshela also homered and right fielder Aaron Judge turned in the key play, catching a line drive and doubling Alex Bregman off first base when it was still 1-0.
The Yankees will try to build on their early momentum when James Paxton starts against 21-game winner Justin Verlander in Game 2 on Sunday night.
Houston hardly looked like a club that led the majors with a franchise-record 107 victories. Jose Altuve, Bregman and their teammates were held to three singles.
The Astros had homered in 30 straight games — every game since Aug. 31 — and their streak was the second-longest in major league history behind a 31game string by the Yankees this year.
ANGELS EMPLOYEE SAYS HE PROVIDED DRUGS TO SKAGGS >> A Los Angeles Angels employee admitted to federal investigators that he provided oxycodone to Tyler Skaggs, used the drug with the late pitcher for years, and that the team knew about Skaggs’ drug abuse, ESPN reported Saturday.
Eric Kay, the Angels’ director of communications, also told the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that five other players used opiates while with the team, according to an investigation by the network’s “Outside the Lines.”
Skaggs, 27, was found dead in a hotel room in Southlake, Texas, on July 1 when the Angels were in town to meet the Texas Rangers. His autopsy report, released Aug. 30, said Skaggs had oxycodone, fentanyl and alcohol in his system.
FREESE RETIRES >> David Freese, the 2011 World Series Most Valuable Player with the Cardinals, announced his retirement after 11 seasons. Freese, 36, spent the past two seasons with the Dodgers.