Dodgers, Kershaw top Giants, Bumgarner
Holliday homers twice in Cards win • Keuchel, Astros tame Tigers • Porcello power BoSox past Jays
An inquiring mind from the Bay Area sidled up to Enrique Hernandez last Saturday and posed a question: What was his secret to solving San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner?
Hernandez had just raised his lifetime average against Bumgarner to .538. As Hernandez pondered his answer, Dodgers teammate Carl Crawford chimed in.
“Don’t tell him the secret!” Crawford said. “Don’t tell him. Once you say it, you’ll never see it again.”
Hernandez mumbled a few platitudes to end the interview. A week later, in Friday’s 7-3 victory over Bumgarner and the Giants, his mastery of one of the game’s greats continued. Hernandez walloped a pair of home runs and added a two-run double as the Dodgers’ one-man offensive band. A night after delivering the go-ahead hit against Arizona, he drove in six runs.
Give Hernandez credit for this: He refused to tip his hand again after this latest performance.
“There’s no secret,” Hernandez said. “I’ve gotten lucky. And that’s basically what’s happened. I’ve gotten lucky.”
Hernandez welcomes left-handed pitchers who flood the zone with strikes. Bumgarner fits that bill. He could not tame Hernandez on Friday, and the Dodgers reaped the benefit.
The outburst by Hernandez established a cushion for Clayton Kershaw as the Dodgers (7-4) won a third game in a row. Kershaw gutted through seven innings, still searching for consistency from his curveball and slider. He gave up three runs, two of them on wild pitches. Otherwise, he held his guests at bay. He struck out six and steadied his earned-run averaged at 1.64.
“For him, not having his best stuff, he still dominated a baseball game,” Manager Dave Roberts said.
Kershaw met Bumgarner for the ninth time in their careers, the fifth time since 2015 and the second time since last Saturday. The Dodgers snatched a victory last weekend in San Francisco, but Bumgarner wounded Kershaw by taking him deep. He is the only pitcher to ever hit a home run off Kershaw, and he has done it twice.
(Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Cardinals 14, Reds 3
St. Louis broke a Busch Stadium III record with six homers as the Cardinals walloped Cincinnati for their sixth win in seven games.
Matt Holliday belted two homers, including a 449-foot solo shot in the sixth inning that gave him the 20th multi-homer game of his career.
Orioles 11, Rangers 5
Baltimore designated hitter Mark Trumbo hit two home runs and drove in five runs as part of nine-run seventh inning as the Orioles rallied past Texas.
Baltimore trailed 5-1 going into the seventh before bludgeoning three Texas pitchers for nine runs and seven hits, including four home runs.
Nationals 9, Phillies 1
Bryce Harper had three hits including a two-run homer as Washington improved to 8-1 with a victory over Philadelphia.
Brewers 8, Pirates 4
Ryan Braun hit two long two-run homers and Jimmy Nelson took a shutout into the seventh inning before faltering as Milwaukee beat Pittsburgh.
Braun blasted a 460-foot shot off the batter’s eye in center field against Kyle Lobstein in the sixth to put the Brewers ahead 5-0.
Astros 1, Tigers 0
Dallas Keuchel pitched eight shutout innings and extended his home winning streak to 17 consecutive regular-season decisions in Houston’s victory over Detroit.
Mets 6, Indians 5
New York hit four home runs – including three in the span of seven batters in a five-run fifth inning – to beat Cleveland.
Michael Conforto, Alejandro De Aza, Yoenis Cespedes and Neil Walker all homered for the Mets, who came into the game with a major league-low two home runs.
Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 3
Rick Porcello allowed two hits in 6-plus innings – both home runs by Edwin Encarnacion – as Boston defeated Toronto.
White Sox 1, Rays 0
Great base running by veteran Jimmy Rollins and a clutch hit by Melky Cabrera helped Chicago outduel Tampa Bay.
Chris Sale (3-0) threw his first complete game of the year and needed a ninth-inning leaping catch at the wall by Cabrera to save the shut out.
Twins 5, Angels 4
Byung Ho Park’s RBI double in the eighth inning lifted Minnesota to a victory over the for its first win of the season.
The Twins (1-9) were the final team in the majors to record their first victory after Atlanta defeated Miami earlier Friday.
(Reuters)