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Japanese ace Hiroki Kuroda held Boston to just five hits as the New York Yankees snapped a three-game losing skid by beating the rival Red Sox 5-2 on Saturday. |
Kuroda got credit for the victory as he took a shutout into the seventh inning before leaving the Major League Baseball game. He improved to nine wins and six losses on the season, as New York scored three times in the top of the seventh to break open a tight contest.
“He had everything today,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. “His stuff was really crisp. He kept his pitch in the early innings.” Saturday’s win helped New York avenge a 4-2 loss in Friday’s opener of the three-game series against the Red Sox.
Kuroda got out of a jam in the Red Sox’s half of the fifth after surrendering back-to-back singles to begin the inning. He recovered to get out the next two batters, then got the third out when Boston’s Mike Carp made an unsuccessful attempt to score from third on a pitch that initially got away from Yankee catcher Chris Stewart.
Kuroda got plenty of help from the Yankee batters who pounded out 12 hits, with Brett Gardner and Lyle Overbay collecting three hits each. Robinson Cano knocked in two runs, while Eduardo Nunez finished three- for-four and scored once in the win.
Carp batted three-for-four with a run scored and David Ortiz had two hits for American League East-leading Boston, who had a five-game home win streak snapped. John Lackey took the loss for the Red Sox. He allowed 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Elsewhere, the Tampa Bay Rays used a three-run third inning to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 in front of 42,639 fans. Wil Myers went 2-for-4 and drove two runs, while Evan Longoria added his team-leading 54th run batted in of the season. Desmond Jennings went 3-for-4 with a walk and scored twice.
The Rays (57-41) won their fourth straight game and 19th in the last 23. Tampa’s hot stretch has moved the Rays from last place in the American League East to second.
In New York, Juan Lagares tied a career high with three hits, including an RBI single in a three-run first inning, as the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-4. Marlon Byrd added two hits and a first-inning RBI single in the victory. The Mets (42-51) won for the sixth time in nine games while the Phillies (49-49) lost for just the fifth time in 15 games this month.
A day after getting pulled from a game for not hustling on a key double play grounder, Alex Rios tried to make up for it with his third career grand slam and five RBIs in Chicago’s 10-6 come-from-behind victory over the Braves.
Rios came into the game struggling at the plate, going 2-for-20 in his previous six games and hitting just .235 with no home runs and nine RBIs in his last 31 games but he broke out of it in a big way by going 3-for-5 and highlighting a five-run third inning for the White Sox (38-57) with his slam.
In Cincinnati, shortstop Zack Cozart went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI and first baseman Joey Votto drove in two runs, lifting the Cincinnati Reds to a 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Andrew McCutchen went 4-for-5 with a home run and Garrett Jones hit his ninth home run for Pittsburgh.