Jeter, Sabathia sparkle in Yanks win over Royals
KANSAS CITY, Missouri: Derek Jeter hit a two-run homer, CC Sabathia went eight innings for the third straight time and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2 on an encouraging Friday night.
It began with closer Mariano Rivera’s announcement that he plans to return from a devastating knee injury rather than retire, and ended when David Robertson struck out the side in the ninth to give Sabathia (4-0) his fourth straight victory.
Jeter singled and scored on Mark Teixeira’s homer in the first inning, and then broke the game open with his fifth homer during a four-run seventh. Jeter hit only six homers last year, his fifth coming on Sept. 4. He’s batting a robust .404 so far this season.
All the damage came against Royals left-hander Bruce Chen (0-4), who has lost four straight after getting saddled with a pair of no decisions to start the year.
Rivera told his teammates prior to the game that he plans to have surgery to repair a torn ACL and damaged meniscus in his right knee. The injury occurred Thursday night when baseball’s career saves leader was shagging fly balls during batting practice.
Rays 7 Athletics 2: In St. Petersburg, Florida, David Price struck out 12 over eight strong innings and Jose Molina hit his first homer of the season to lead the Tampa Bay past Oakland for its sixth straight win.
The Rays, who are a major leaguebest 19-8, improved to 13-1 at home and won for the 12th time in 13 games overall.
Price (5-1) threw 106 pitches while allowing an earned run, three hits and a walk. He is the second AL pitcher to win five games this season, joining teammate James Shields, who got his fifth victory Wednesday.
Joel Peralta picked up his second save.
Orioles 6 Red Sox 4, 13 innings: In Boston, Chris Davis drove in the goahead run with a single in the top of the 13th inning and Baltimore outlasted Boston.
Mark Reynolds, who hit his first homer of the season in the third, added a sacrifice fly in the 13th and Jim Johnson set down the Red Sox down in order to end the game after 4 hours, 37 minutes.
Troy Patton (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings and Johnson earned his eighth save. Baltimore has won nine of 11, extending
Boston’s losing streak to three. Franklin Morales (0-1) took the loss. Boston has dropped eight of its last nine home games.
Blue Jays 4 Angels 0: In Anaheim, California, Henderson Alvarez pitched a six-hitter for his first major league shutout and Jose Bautista hit a tworun homer to help Toronto beat Los Angeles.
The Blue Jays handed Ervin Santana (0-6) his sixth loss in as many starts this season and kept slumping Albert Pujols homerless in a game
t h a t took just 2 hours, 10 minutes. Alvarez (2-2) threw only 97 pitches, striking out three and walking one. The 22-year-old right-hander has won back-to-back starts after going winless in his previous nine.
It was the fourth consecutive complete-game shutout at Angel Stadium, including the no-hitter by Angels ace Jered Weaver and a series-opening three-hitter by Toronto’s Brandon Morrow.
Indians 6 Rangers 3: In Cleveland, Johnny Damon hit a two-run triple in his first home game with Cleveland and Jeanmar Gomez pitched seven strong innings against Texas.
Gomez (2-1) gave up seven hits and three runs as Cleveland won for the fourth time in five games. Texas has lost five of seven, but still leads the AL West.