Braves’ Newcomb falls 1 strike short of no-hitter
Sean Newcomb came within one strike of pitching the first no-hitter by the Atlanta Braves since 1994, denied when Chris Taylor sharply singled in a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.
Newcomb had a 2-2 count with two outs in the ninth inning when Taylor hit a hard grounder beyond the reach of diving third baseman Johan Camargo. That came on the career-high 134th and final pitch by the 25-year-old lefty.
Newcomb (10-5) left to a thunderous standing ovation from the sellout crowd at SunTrust Park as manager Brian Snitker removed him. Snitker took the ball and gave it back to Newcomb as a keepsake — instead, Newcomb simply tossed it toward the Atlanta dugout as he walked off, wanting no souvenir of the near-miss.
Kent Mercker was the last Atlanta pitcher to throw a no-hitter, doing it 24 years ago at Dodger Stadium. There have been three nohitters in the majors this year.
Newcomb struck out eight and walked one against the NL West leaders. He retired the first 15 batters before walking Yasiel Puig to begin the sixth, and that was the only runner Newcomb permitted until the ninth. Shortstop Dansby Swanson made the defensive play of the day for Atlanta, ranging into shallow center field to snare a popup by Enrique Hernandez in the second. Jose Urena and three relievers combined on a two-hitter for the Miami Marlins in a 5-0 win over the Washington Nationals on Sunday to split a four-game series.
Urena threw six scoreless innings allowing only one hit. Adam Conley, Brad Ziegler, and Drew Steckenrider each pitched an inning in relief for the Marlins.
Miami was outscored 19-4 losing the first two games before limiting the Nationals to one run on seven hits in the final two games.
Washington is 5-7 in its last 12 games and at 52-53 trailing Philadelphia and Atlanta in the division, the front office has decisions to make ahead of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.
Zack Wheeler pitched six strong innings and drove in the lone run, leading the New York Mets to a 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.
Wheeler (5-6) allowed five hits with seven strikeouts and one walk, and got his fourth RBI of the season on a double in the fifth. He won a third straight start after giving up a combined six runs in 14 2/3 innings over his past two. Buster Posey had four hits, including a three-run double to help San Francisco break out of a collective funk, and the Giants beat the Milwaukee Brewers 8-5 on Sunday to avoid a four-game sweep.
Pablo Sandoval added a two-run triple before leaving with a possible hamstring injury, Gorkys Hernandez hit his 12th home run and Evan Longoria had a sacrifice fly, his first RBI since spending more than a month on the disabled list.
The Giants had lost four straight and six of seven before winning on a day when they didn’t have manager Bruce Bochy. Bochy left the team late Friday to attend the Hall of Fame ceremonies in Cooperstown, New York, leaving bench coach Hensley Meulens as interim manager. Paul Goldschmidt and Nick Ahmed each hit a two-run homer and A.J. Pollock also connected for the Arizona Diamondbacks, who held on to beat the San Diego Padres 5-4 on Sunday for a threegame sweep.
Clay Buchholz (4-1) almost got through the sixth as he won his third straight start. Brad Boxberger, who was with San Diego in 2012-13, pitched a perfect ninth for his 25th save in 30 chances.
The Padres lost their fifth straight game and dropped to 2-7 since the All-Star break. They’ve lost 12 of 14 overall.
Nathan Eovaldi pitched seven impressive innings in his first start with Boston, J.D. Martinez drove in all three runs to increase his major leagueleading RBI total to 89 and the Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 3-0 on Sunday for their 18th victory in 22 games.
Martinez had a double, single and walk, and Andrew Benintendi added two hits and a walk for the Red Sox. The AL East-leaders improved to a majors’ best 7433 by winning three of four in the weekend series.
J.A. Happ made the midseason impact the Yankees hoped for, pitching one-run ball over six innings to win his New York debut 6-3 over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Three days after New York acquired the 35-yearold left-hander from Toronto for infielder Brandon Drury and outfield prospect Billy McKinney, Happ took a shutout into the fifth before Salvador Perez’s opposite-field home run into the Yankees bullpen in rightcenter. Happ (11-6) struck out two and walked one, and the first-time All-Star ended a four-start winless streak.
Yonder Alonso, Melky Cabrera and Edwin Encarnacion all homered for Cleveland, and Corey Kluber pitched into the eighth inning in the Indians’ 8-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.
Rajai Davis added a triple and two doubles for the Indians, who took two of three in Detroit and extended their AL Central lead to nine games over Minnesota. It’s the largest division lead in the major leagues at the moment.
Kluber (13-6) allowed a run and five hits in 7 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Adam Jones had three hits and an RBI in what could be his final game with the Orioles, and Baltimore beat the Tampa Bay Rays 11-5 on Sunday for a rare series win.
The rebuilding Orioles are looking to deal Jones before Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline. Now in his 11th year with Baltimore, the 31-year-old center fielder becomes a free agent after the season.
Brandon Drury hit a goahead, two-run double in a five-run ninth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Chicago White Sox 7-4 on Sunday.
Luke Maile had an RBI double and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. added an RBI single in the inning before Gurriel exited with an injury. Teoscar Hernandez homered to tie the game earlier in the ninth for the Blue Jays, who won two of three against the White Sox.
Hernandez’s homer to lead off the inning was his 16th of the season.
Jurickson Profar hit a goahead double deflected by the pitcher and stayed in despite getting kicked in the face as the Texas Rangers became the first team to sweep Houston this year, beating the Astros 4-3 Sunday.
Texas took three in a row from the AL West leaders and extended the Astros’ skid to a season-high four games.
The last-place Rangers won even though they struck out 19 times — the most Houston pitchers have recorded in a nine-inning game in franchise history. Mike Zunino had a two-run double in a seven-run first inning and Marco Gonzales went six strong innings to help the Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-5 on Sunday.
Zunino drove in three runs, also delivering an RBI double in the third inning, as the Mariners salvaged the final game of the three-game series. Dee Gordon, Denard Span and Ben Gamel had three hits each for the Mariners.
Justin Upton hit a tworun home run for the Angels in the fifth inning, his 21st of the season, and added an RBI single in the seventh. Los Angeles saw its four-game win streak come to an end.