Baseball

NAGOYA – Wladimir Balentien singled in two first-inning runs and six pitchers made that lead stand up in the Yakult Swallows’ 3-1 Central League win over the Chunichi Dragons on Sunday afternoon. Veteran lefty Yudai Ono (7-8) surrendered an infield single to open the game at Nagoya Dome and hit […]

DETROIT – The Minnesota Twins capped a night of sensational slugging by breaking the major league record for home runs in a season, but that wasn’t enough to overcome Detroit’s seven-run third inning in the Tigers’ 10-7 victory Saturday. The Twins homered six times to bring their season total to […]

NAGOYA – Tetsuto Yamada broke a 10th-inning tie with a three-run home run, lifting the Tokyo Yakult Swallows to a 5-2 victory over the Chunichi Dragons on Saturday afternoon. Yamada, who this year became the first player in Nippon Professional Baseball to steal 30 bases and hit 30 home runs […]

ATLANTA – Max Fried is finding it easier this season to command his fastball now that he has opponents worried about his slider. “It was big,” he said. “I thought my fastball command was really good, too, for most of the night. Just being able to locate to both sides, […]

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – David Glass and his family have agreed to sell the Royals to an ownership group led by Kansas City entrepreneur John Sherman in a deal that is expected to be worth about $1 billion. The Royals announced the sale in a statement Friday, just days after […]

ARLINGTON, TEXAS – Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died of an accidental overdose from a toxic mix of the powerful painkillers fentanyl and oxycodone along with alcohol, a Texas medical examiner said in a report released Friday. Skaggs’ family issued a statement suggesting a team employee was part of […]

TOKOROZAWA, SAITAMA PREF. – Tomoya Mori belted a tiebreaking two-run homer in the seventh inning to lead the second-place Seibu Lions to a 4-2 win over the Pacific League-leading Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks on Friday. Mori’s second homer in two days propelled the Lions to within one game of the Hawks […]

NEW YORK – Night after night, Victor Caratini and the Chicago Cubs kept finding ways to beat the New York Mets. Like something out of “Groundhog Day”? “Kinda was, for three days,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon. Noted Cubs fan Bill Murray — and star of the popular 1993 movie — […]

YOKOHAMA – Takayuki Kajitani got caught sleeping at the wheel in the outfield during the sixth inning. When he came to the plate in the seventh, however, the Yokohama BayStars veteran was locked in 100 percent. Kajitani hit a tiebreaking two-out single to right to give his team its first […]

CHICAGO – About the only thing Jonathan Schoop hasn’t done lately is get steady playing time. That could change if he stays this hot at the plate. Schoop hit two homers and drove in four runs, Mitch Garver also connected and the slugging Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox […]