
Angel Martínez hits a 3-run homer in the eighth inning as Guardians rally for 7-4 win over Dodgers
CLEVELAND (AP) — Angel Martínez hit a three-run, go-ahead homer and the Cleveland Guardians scored five times in the eighth inning to rally for a 7-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday.
The Dodgers built a 4-1 lead before Lou Trivino gave up an RBI single to Carlos Santana in the bottom of the seventh. Nolan Jones tied it in the eighth with a two-run single off Tanner Scott (0-1) and Martínez followed with his 394-foot blast off Alex Vesia.
Matt Festa (1-0) pitched the eighth and Emmanuel Clase worked a perfect ninth for his 11th save. The Guardians salvaged the third and final game of the interleague series.
Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw was denied his 213th win, despite pitching a season-high five innings and allowing one run. The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner struck out three in his third outing since undergoing left knee and toe surgery.
José Ramírez extended his career-long hitting streak to 21 games with an RBI single in the first, also moving into eighth place in Cleveland history with 1,564 hits. Carlos Santana went 3 for 4 with an RBI.
Will Smith, Andy Pages and Freddie Freeman drove in runs and Kiké Hernández scored on a wild pitch for Los Angeles.
Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan left the game after three innings with right wrist inflammation.
Kolby Allard made a spot start for Cleveland, allowing two runs in four innings.
Key moment
The Guardians had five runs and eight hits off Trivino and Scott over 2 1/3 innings after Kershaw left the game after the fifth.
Key stat
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, who leads the majors with 20 home runs, went 0 for 3 with a walk. He had homered in three straight games.
Up next
Dodgers: RHP Tony Gonsolin (2-1, 4.68 ERA) pitches Friday against the New York Yankees to begin a seven-game homestand.
Guardians: RHP Luis Ortiz (2-5, 4.73 ERA) is tentatively scheduled to start Friday at home against the Los Angeles Angels.
___
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CBS News
6 minutes ago
- CBS News
Yarbrough shines, Yamamoto falters and Yankees avoid sweep with 7-3 win over Dodgers
Ryan Yarbrough limited baseball's best offense to four hits over six innings, Ben Rice hit a tiebreaking two-run homer and the New York Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-3 on Sunday to avoid getting swept for the first time this season. The Dodgers outscored the Yankees 26-7 in winning the first two games of their World Series rematch, including an 18-2 rout Saturday. But right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the stalwart on a staff ravaged by injuries, labored from the start in front of 54,031, the largest crowd of the season at Dodger Stadium. Yarbrough (3-0) allowed one run and struck out five in his fifth start of the year. He was a reliever for the Dodgers last season and received his World Series ring while in town. Yamamoto (6-4) gave up a season-high seven hits while striking out two in 3 2/3 innings, both season lows. The Japanese right-hander permitted four runs and walked three. New York's DJ LeMahieu had his first four-hit game since 2021. The Yankees led 1-0 on Jasson Domínguez's RBI single in the first. Left fielder Andy Pages' throw sailed over the head of catcher Will Smith. Backing up Smith, Yamamoto made a pinpoint throw to second, but Kiké Hernández dropped the ball and Domínguez was safe. Domínguez later left the game with a bruised left thumb. Tommy Edman tied the game with a two-out homer in the second. After that, Yarbrough retired 13 of his next 15 batters. Pages and Max Muncy homered in the seventh. The Yankees took a 4-1 lead in the third. Rice's 425-foot homer to center field scored Aaron Judge, who walked. Anthony Volpe singled, went to third on Austin Wells' single and scored on Yamamoto's wild pitch. They extended the lead to 6-1 in the fifth on RBI singles by LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza off Lou Trivino. LeMahieu's RBI double made it 7-3 in the ninth. Key moment Judge and Shohei Ohtani were hitless after becoming the first reigning MVPs in major league history to homer in the first inning of a game on Friday. Judge was 0 for 4 with a walk and two strikeouts as the only Yankees player to go hitless. Ohtani went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Key stat The Yankees are 4-0 this season when facing a series sweep, having beaten Arizona, Detroit, Cleveland and the Dodgers. They're also one of three teams that hasn't been swept in a series of at least two games. ... It was the first time this season the Dodgers' top four hitters went hitless: Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández, Freddie Freeman and Smith. Up next After an off day, Yankees LHP Carlos Rodón (7-3, 2.60 ERA) starts Tuesday against Cleveland. Dodgers RHP Dustin May (3-4, 4.20) pitches Monday night against the New York Mets.


New York Times
21 minutes ago
- New York Times
Giants takeaways: Tough pitching decisions and a glimmer of offensive hope after Marlins series
After their 4-2 win on Sunday, the Giants are averaging four runs per game in June. They averaged 3.8 runs per game in May. That month-over-month increase of .2 runs is known as a 'trend' in statistics, which means the Giants are likely to set a major-league record with 7.8 runs per game sometime in the middle of the 2027 season. It'll be so much fun, just you wait. Advertisement Until then, the story of the 2025 Giants is coming into focus. The good news is that their pitching staff can prevent runs. The bad news is their lineup can prevent runs, too. The Giants finished with a losing record in May, despite a team ERA comfortably under 3.00, which is something that happens in baseball about once every decade or so. They've scored four runs or fewer in their past 14 games, which is the team's longest streak since 1980. The franchise record is 19 (1902, 1965), and the Giants are returning to Oracle Park to face the Padres and Braves, two clubs that prevent runs better than the average team. (The major-league record of 26 games was just tied by the Pirates a couple of weeks ago. Could be worse.) The Giants didn't have a disastrous road trip, winning two of their three series, but taking just two out of three against rebuilding teams won't be enough to catch the Dodgers, and getting swept by contending teams will leave them outside of the wild-card chase. There's work to do, and most of it is on the offensive side. Some thoughts and notes on the road trip and the Giants' series win over the Marlins on the final leg: It's easy, justifiable and recommended to complain about the lack of run production. Don't forget to praise the pitching, though. It's good for the soul. And the stomach. The Giants haven't scored more than four runs in 14 games, but they also didn't allow more than four runs in a game on the road trip. They played nine games overall, scoring 14 runs and allowing 16. That's how a team can lose a road trip with a 1.89 team ERA, but it's also how they almost finished with a winning record, despite averaging 1.5 runs per game. This feels like the kind of team that could trade for Carlos Beltrán at the deadline, metaphorically speaking. Or, heck, maybe we're talking literally. He's only 48. Advertisement That low team ERA doesn't even tell the entire story. The rotation pitched well on the road trip, with a 2.08 ERA, but the starters went six innings or longer in only four of those games. That's understandable, considering that both Hayden Birdsong and Kyle Harrison weren't fully stretched out, but it shifted some of the burden onto the bullpen. They responded by allowing just three runs in 28 2/3 innings (0.94 ERA). There's still two-thirds of the season left, and the quicksand and trap doors will eventually get someone, if only because that's how pitching works. And maybe take a breath before reading too much into the strong showing from the staff against the Marlins. The best way to describe their offense is that they have Otto Lopez hitting in the middle of their order right now. That's not to say he's a bad player, but if he were the type of hitter who belonged in the middle of an order, Giants fans wouldn't be able to shut up about him. He was with the 2024 team in spring training, and Giants fans love to grumble about the players who got away. Someone is reading this right now who hasn't really processed any of the words after 'Carlos Beltrán' because they're still sour about losing Zack Wheeler. Nobody is livid about Lopez, though, which is a sign that he might not be a run producer. Still, it's not hyperbolic to claim the Giants' staff is pitching at a championship level right now, just like they did in 2009, 2010 and 2011. You can take comfort in that comparison, or you can let it slowly drive you mad. I suggest the former when they win and the latter when they lose. If you're a Warriors fan, you've heard a lot about the 'two timelines.' They're trying to win while Steph Curry and Draymond Green are still playing at a high level, but they've also made attempts to build a younger, sustainable foundation for the future. The results have been … mixed. In a way, the Giants are trying something similar. They're getting quality innings out of Robbie Ray and plenty of them (he's in the top 20 in innings pitched). They're without Justin Verlander at the moment, but you know their best-case scenario would be an effective Verlander pitching in the postseason. At the same time, they have three young starters throwing well, and one of them probably won't be in the rotation next week. One of them will likely be buried, Jonathan Kuminga-style, through little fault of their own. In another organization, their rotation spot would be a given all season, if not the next several seasons. In this one, someone is going to make room, even if they don't deserve a demotion. Advertisement The analogy breaks down when you zoom in on the differences between the two sports. A young basketball player can show flashes, but they'll typically need to understand the nuances of the game to succeed at a championship level. A young pitcher, though, can excel long before they understand the nuances of pitching. Their raw talent will take them a lot further, which means pitching staffs are rarely about two timelines. They're more about one timeline that ends in September or October, and Harrison, Birdsong and Landen Roupp all might be three out of the five best starting pitchers in the Giants' entire organization right now. One of them still might get hosed. In a perfect world, one of the other 29 teams would be having a reverse-Giants season, both allowing and scoring bushels of runs, and they'd match up well on a trade. In this world, some teams almost fit that description, but the best examples might be the Diamondbacks and Dodgers. A pitcher-for-hitter trade makes sense if, say, the Yankees or Cubs are giving up a starting position player. It doesn't make sense if you're forced to imagine one of those young pitchers in one of those uniforms for the next few seasons. The first rule of a pitching conundrum like this is that everything will probably work itself out. Someone will make room, whether because of injury or ineffectiveness. It's how all three of them are in the rotation at the same time right now. Until then, the Giants will have tough decisions to make, yet again. And now for your moment of zen: The Giants' offensive struggles don't have an easy, realistic solution. There isn't a button they can press or a lever they can pull to improve their run production. They need their struggling hitters to do better, and that's a list that includes roughly everyone who isn't Heliot Ramos at the moment. There are a couple of unlikely, magic solutions, though. One of them is Luis Matos going on the kind of tear that makes it hard to keep him out of the lineup, even against right-handers. It's unlikely that he'll become a key contributor this season, mostly because of how limited the at-bats will be for any right-handed outfielder on the Giants, other than Ramos. The at-bats would have to come at the expense of one of the current left-handed outfielders, which isn't likely to happen. 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Or, more realistically, maybe it's Jerar Encarnacion who will fix everything, which is funny to think about, considering it wasn't that long ago he wasn't even a lock to make the team out of spring training. He was playing in Oaxaca at this time last year, and now he's the best hope for a Giants team that's desperate for runs? Yeah, sure. Everyone who responds to the Craigslist ad gets an interview for the crucial position of 'lineup savior.' But a crucial three-run homer from a 23-year-old outfielder allows you to dream a little bit more than usual. The Giants' lineup needs help. It would sure be convenient if they got it from one of the young hitters they already have. (Top photo of Luis Matos hitting a three-run homer: Sam Navarro / Getty Images)

Associated Press
21 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Yarbrough shines as Yankees avoid sweep with 7-3 win over Dodgers. Judge and Ohtani are hitless
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ryan Yarbrough limited baseball's best offense to four hits over six innings, Ben Rice hit a tiebreaking two-run homer and the New York Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-3 on Sunday to avoid getting swept for the first time this season. The Dodgers outscored the Yankees 26-7 in winning the first two games of their World Series rematch, including an 18-2 rout Saturday. But right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the stalwart on a staff ravaged by injuries, labored from the start in front of 54,031, the largest crowd of the season at Dodger Stadium. Yarbrough (3-0) allowed one run and struck out five in his fifth start of the year. He was a reliever for the Dodgers last season and received his World Series ring while in town. Yamamoto (6-4) gave up a season-high seven hits while striking out two in 3 2/3 innings, both season lows. The Japanese right-hander permitted four runs and walked three. New York's DJ LeMahieu had his first four-hit game since 2021. The Yankees led 1-0 on Jasson Domínguez's RBI single in the first. Left fielder Andy Pages' throw sailed over the head of catcher Will Smith. Backing up Smith, Yamamoto made a pinpoint throw to second, but Kiké Hernández dropped the ball and Domínguez was safe. Domínguez later left the game with a bruised left thumb. Tommy Edman tied the game with a two-out homer in the second. After that, Yarbrough retired 13 of his next 15 batters. Pages and Max Muncy homered in the seventh. The Yankees took a 4-1 lead in the third. Rice's 425-foot homer to center field scored Aaron Judge, who walked. Anthony Volpe singled, went to third on Austin Wells' single and scored on Yamamoto's wild pitch. They extended the lead to 6-1 in the fifth on RBI singles by LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza off Lou Trivino. LeMahieu's RBI double made it 7-3 in the ninth. Key moment Judge and Shohei Ohtani were hitless after becoming the first reigning MVPs in major league history to homer in the first inning of a game on Friday. Judge was 0 for 4 with a walk and two strikeouts as the only Yankees player to go hitless. Ohtani went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Key stats The Yankees are 4-0 this season when facing a series sweep, having beaten Arizona, Detroit, Cleveland and the Dodgers. They're also one of three teams that hasn't been swept in a series of at least two games. ... It was the first time this season the Dodgers' top four hitters went hitless: Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández, Freddie Freeman and Smith. Up next After an off day, Yankees LHP Carlos Rodón (7-3, 2.60 ERA) starts Tuesday against Cleveland. Dodgers RHP Dustin May (3-4, 4.20) pitches Monday night against the New York Mets. ___ AP MLB: