Quick Hitters
Sale reaches 2,000 strikeouts, Red Sox edge Indians
CLEVELAND — Jackie Bradley Jr. homered with one out in the 10th inning as the Boston Red Sox edged the Cleveland Indians 7-6 on Tuesday night after blowing a late lead and potential win for ace Chris Sale.
Rafael Devers had six hits — four doubles — and made a costly error at third base for the Red Sox, who won for just the fourth time in 16 games.
Bradley drove a 2-0 pitch from Nick Wittgren (4-1) over the wall in right field for his 14th homer, allowing the Red Sox to hang on.
It was anything but easy as Boston blew a 6-1 lead over the final four innings, costing Sale his seventh win on a night when he also made history by getting to 2,000 career strikeouts faster than any other pitcher.
Brandon Workman (9-1) got the win despite letting the Indians tie it in the ninth on All-Star Francisco Lindor’s RBI double. Andrew Cashner, acquired last month from Baltimore, worked the 10th for his first career save in the right-hander’s 10th major league season.
Sale came in needing five strikeouts to reach 2,000. He struck out the side in the first, added his fourth in the second and Sale reached the plateau in the third by fanning rookie Oscar Mercado for the final out with a wicked, 81 mph slider.
According to information provided by the Red Sox, Sale bettered Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez’s mark by getting to 2,000 Ks in 1,626 innings. Martinez reached it in 1,711 1/3 innings, Randy Johnson took 1,733 1/3 innings and Max Scherzer 1,784.
Career strikeout leader Nolan Ryan (5,714) needed 1,865 2/3 innings.
Giants WR Tate suspended 4 games for performance enhancer
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — New York Giants wide receiver Golden Tate has had the appeal of his four-game suspension for a violation of the NFL’s policy on performance enhancers turned down.
The decision by an independent arbiter was announced Tuesday and means the 10-year-veteran will miss the first four games of the regular season, starting with Dallas on Sept. 8.
Tate, who signed a $37.5 million contract as a free agent with the Giants in March, announced the suspension in a Twitter post on July 27. He said he intended to appeal it and felt his case had merit because he was using a fertility drug prescribed by a doctor.
The appeal was heard by a member of an independent appeals panel in New York last week.
The NFL allows players to use fertility drugs but they must obtain a therapeutic use exemption prior to using them. The league has insisted players are responsible for the drugs and supplements they take and advises them to talk to team trainers and medical personnel before using them.
“This morning I received the unfortunate news that my appeal was denied,” Tate said in a statement on Twitter. “I went into this arbitration with the understanding that due to the facts, unlike many other cases, we could be the exception to win. Unfortunately the NFL stood by their no tolerance policy, which I hope one day to help have a part in reforming, so no other player has to go through this situation.”
Certain fertility drugs can help athletes boost performance or mask doping. Some fertility drugs bought on line are not approved by the FDA.
Tate will be eligible to practice with the team until the start of the regular season.
DENVER — The usually sure-footed Arizona Diamondbacks made a couple of uncharacteristic baserunning mistakes.
It didn’t matter. They found an easy way to around them — the long ball.
Jarrod Dyson homered on the second pitch of the game during a five-run first inning and was later involved in a quirky double play as the Diamondbacks cruised to a 9-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.
It was Dyson’s third career leadoff homer — all this season. Christian Walker, Nick Ahmed and David Peralta added tworun homers off Jeff Hoffman (1-4), who was making an emergency start following Jon Gray’s scratch due to left ankle soreness. Hoffman surrendered seven runs over two innings.
“Dyson started the party,” said Ahmed, who’s homered in three straight games. “A leadoff homer is always great and hitting can be contagious after that.”
The strangest play of the night was on an inningending double play in the eighth that involved tagging out two Diamondbacks runners caught in rundowns. With runners on first and third, Dyson grounded a ball to first baseman Daniel Murphy, who trapped Ahmed between third and home.
5 p.m. Thursday, ESPN
GLENDALE — Kyler Murray’s playing time figures to increase from the one drive the rookie quarterback led in the Arizona Cardinals’ first preseason game last week, a 17-13 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
But the Cardinals and coach Kliff Kingsbury continue to limit the play selection so as not to put Kingsbury’s actual offense — the one being touted given his college coaching background — on display.
Murray seems confident in his knowledge of it, no matter what plays are called in what might be two series of playing time Thursday night against the Oakland Raiders.
“I kind of know what it Ahmed was eventually tagged out and Dyson, who had broken toward second, eventually was tagged out going back to first.
The play was officially scored almost like a lottery ticket: 3-4-3-1-8.
“Good thing it didn’t cost us the game,” Dyson said. “We just learn from it and take the negative and fix it.”
Arizona also had Josh Rojas thrown out trying to steal.
“Outs are precious. I don’t like to give them up in any way,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We gave them an inning’s worth of outs on the base paths. That’s not what looks like. I know it will work,” Murray said. “It’s hard for teams to prepare for what we will do. We’re not game-planning anybody right now. But I have confidence in it. Obviously we’re we do here. We’ll tighten that up.”
Ahmed finished a double shy of the cycle in sending the Diamondbacks to their fifth straight win over Colorado. They’re averaging 5.67 runs a game against Colorado since 2011, which marks the highest average of any team against a divisional opponent over that span.
This was a rough outing for the Rockies on “Bark at the Park” night at Coors Field, where fans brought their dogs and a pregame pup parade was held around the warning track.
Hoffman never got on track, surrendering three not giving everybody the full thing, but when we get out there full speed, moving around, it will be good.”
Murray looked accurate and mobile in going 6 for 7 for 44 yards last week. Of note in practice this week, Murray took snaps under center as opposed to the shotgun formation. He’s thrown a number of interceptions in practice, but doesn’t seem fazed much by