Sanchez falls in Tigers debut
Edwin Encarnacion, Colby Rasmus and Yunel Escobar hit home runs against Anibal Sanchez, leading the Toronto Blue Jays to a 5-1 victory Saturday against the visiting Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers have lost three consecutive games and four of their last five after a fivegame winning streak briefly lifted them into first place in the American League Central. They trail the White Sox by 21⁄2 games in the division race.
Sanchez, whom the Tigers acquired in a trade last week from the Miami Marlins, allowed five runs and eight hits in six-plus innings in his first start for his new team.
‘‘He knows what he’s doing,’’ Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of Sanchez. ‘‘He’s got some weapons. He got a couple of balls up and paid the price for that, but he’s a good-looking pitcher. I like him a lot.’’
Henderson Alvarez (7-7) yielded one run and five hits in seven innings for the Blue Jays.
Red Sox top Yankees
Curtis Granderson misplayed Pedro Ciriaco’s oneout fly ball into a go-ahead triple in the ninth inning, and the Boston Red Sox wasted a five-run lead before recovering to slip past the host New York Yankees 8-6.
The Yankees had rallied from a 6-1 deficit to tie the score on a two-run homer by Mark Teixeira in the eighth, but Granderson mistakenly broke in, then turned the wrong way on Ciriaco’s fly in the ninth, enabling Jacoby Ellsbury to score the goahead run.
Adrian Gonzalez doubled, homered and drove in four runs for the Red Sox.
Astros’ skid reaches 12
Rod Barajas ended an 0-for-18 slide by singling home Andrew McCutchen with the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning, and the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates handed the Houston Astros their club-record 12th consecutive loss with a 4-3 victory. The Astros are 2-25 in their last 27 games.
Best of the rest
Ryan Ludwick hit two of the Cincinnati Reds’ five homers in a 9-7 victory against the host Colorado Rockies. The Reds won their ninth game in a row and maintained their two-game lead over the Pirates in the National League Central.
Jordan Zimmermann (8-6) yielded one run and five hits in six innings, and the visiting Washington Nationals hit three homers — including one by Corey Brown for his first major-league hit — in a 4-1 victory against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Yoenis Cespedes and Chris Carter hit two-run homers, Jemile Weeks had three hits and two runs scored and the Oakland Athletics improved to 18-3 in July with a 6-1 victory against the host Baltimore Orioles.
Matt Kemp had a tworun homer among his four hits and drove in four runs, and Chad Billingsley (6-9) scattered four hits in 7⅓ innings to pace the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers to a 10-0 rout of the San Francisco Giants.
Ike Davis hit solo homers in the second, fourth and sixth innings, but that was all the offense the New York Mets could muster in a 6-3 loss to the host Arizona Diamondbacks. Davis also singled in the eighth.
Jones-Drew on reserve list
The Jacksonville Jaguars put running back Maurice Jones-Drew on the reserve/ did not report list, an indication they don’t expect him to show up to training camp any time soon.
Jones-Drew, who led the league with 1,606 yards rush-
Fire settles for tie
Steven Lenhart scored in the eighth minute of stoppage time to give the San Jose Earthquakes a 1-1 tie against the visiting Fire. Chris Rolfe scored in the 37th minute for the Fire (9-7-5).