Chris Sale pitched his latest Bronx gem
http://www.ravensauthorizedshops.com/authentic-orlando-brown-jr.-jersey , Rafael Devers went 5 for 5 with a first-inning grand slam and the Boston Red Sox held the New York Yankees to two hits during an 11-0 rout Saturday night to take back baseball’s best record.
Sale (8-4) allowed only Giancarlo Stanton’s clean single over seven innings, striking out 11. He has a 1.73 career ERA against the Yankees, best among pitchers with at least 10 starts against them since 1920. His ERA at Yankee Stadium is 1.86, second only to Seattle’s Felix Hernandez among pitchers with five starts.
Boston is a major league-leading 56-28, just ahead of the Yankees at 53-27. New York held the majors’ best mark by percentage points after winning Friday’s series opener 8-1.
Yankee Stadium hosted a season-high sellout of 47,125, and the crowd gave starter Sonny Gray (5-6) an earful after he gave up six runs in 2 1/3 innings. The right-hander dropped to 0-4 with a 9.35 ERA against Boston since being acquired by New York from Oakland last season.
RANGERS 13, WHITE SOX 4
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – Bartolo Colon overcame a sluggish start to earn his 245th major league win and match Dennis Martinez for the most by a pitcher from Latin America when Texas beat Chicago.
Joey Gallo and Ryan Rua homered for the Rangers, who won for the 11th time in 13 games and clinched their fifth consecutive series. Robinson Chirinos hit a three-run double in the fourth inning that put Texas ahead to stay.
The 45-year-old Colon (5-5) was done after Matt Davidson led off the sixth with a homer to center field that pulled the White Sox to 5-3.
Colon already had the most wins by a pitcher born in the Dominican Republic, having surpassed Hall of Famer Juan Marichal for that distinction with his 244th victory at Kansas City on June 18, six days before a loss at Minnesota. Colon won in his first start at home since June 6 to match Martinez, who is from Nicaragua.
White Sox lefty Carlos Rodon (1-3) allowed five runs in 5 1/3 innings.
GIANTS 7, DIAMONDBACKS 0
PHOENIX (AP) – Dereck Rodriguez blanked the Diamondbacks into the seventh inning and San Francisco made it two wins in a row at Arizona.
Brandon Crawford, Andrew McCutchen and Joe Panik homered on another rough night for Shelby Miller (0-2), who struggled in his second start since returning from Tommy John surgery.
Panik’s homer, off reliever Jimmie Sherfy in the eighth, was his first since April 3, a span of 162 at-bats.
Ty Blach and Cory Gearrin completed San Francisco’s 10th shutout of the season.
The Giants have won nine of 11 to pull into a tie with the Los Angeles Dodgers for second in the NL West
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Rodriguez (3-1), the son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan ”Pudge” Rodriguez, dominated in his sixth major league start. He allowed six hits in 6 1/3 innings, struck out five and walked two.
MARINERS 6, ROYALS 4
SEATTLE (AP) – Ryon Healy had four hits, including a homer, and drove in three runs to lead Seattle over Kansas City.
Felix Hernandez (8-6) gave up four consecutive hits, including a three-run homer by Mike Moustakas, to start the game. But the right-hander settled down to pitch four scoreless innings after that, helping the Mariners to a season-best sixth consecutive win.
Edwin Diaz worked a perfect ninth for his 31st save. The Mariners (53-31) are 22 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2003 season.
Jason Hammels (2-10) lost his fifth straight, allowing six runs and 13 hits in six innings.
PADRES 4, PIRATES 3
SAN DIEGO (AP) – Wil Myers homered, doubled and drove in three runs, and rookie Joey Lucchesi threw five scoreless innings to send San Diego past Pittsburgh.
The Padres had to hold on after closer Brad Hand allowed two runs in the ninth before earning his 23rd save. Hand gave up doubles by Elias Diaz and Austin Meadows, and a triple by Gregory Polanco. The reliever then got Jordy Mercer to fly out to shallow right field, pinch-hitter Jose Osuna to foul out to right and struck out Starling Marte.
Myers, limited to 19 games this season due to injuries, homered off Trevor Williams (6-6) in the third, his second. Myers then chased the San Diegan with a two-run double to give the Padres a 4-0 lead in the fifth.
San Diego won for just the third time in 13 games.
Lucchesi (4-3) won for the first time since April 28. He was making his third start since missing five weeks with a strained right hip. The left-hander allowed one hit while striking out five and walking four.
BLUE JAYS 4
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TORONTO (AP) – Justin Smoak led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a home run and Toronto handed Detroit its 11th straight loss.
Smoak connected against reliever Joe Jimenez (3-1) for his 11th homer of the season.
Seyunghwan Oh (4-2) worked one inning for the win. Randal Grichuk also homered for the Blue Jays, who have won 10 of 11 at home.
John Hicks hit a solo homer in the Detroit second off Sam Gaviglio and Nick Castellanos made it 3-0 with a two-run shot in the third, his 12th.
Randal Grichuk hit a two-run homer to cap Toronto’s three-run fifth that tied the score.
RAYS 5, ASTROS 2
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Wilson Ramos drove in four runs in the first two innings against Justin Verlander, and Tampa Bay won for the seventh time in eight games.
Matt Duffy finished with three hits, including two in the first two innings, to help the Rays move to .500 (41-41) for the first time since June 1. Tampa Bay has held opponents to two runs or fewer in five straight games for only Philipp Grubauer was 18 and had only been in North America for a year and a half when he walked into the Windsor Spitfires locker room as the latest member of a stacked junior team.
”He was really German at that point,” Windsor teammate Taylor Hall said. ”He was very quiet, and he was a goalie, so you just kind of let them do their thing.”
Grubauer did his thing all the way to the Ontario Hockey League title and the Memorial Cup. Last year, he did his thing to help Germany qualify for the Pyeongchang Olympics.
This spring, he did his thing to earn the starting job for Thursday night’s playoff opener at home against Columbus. He got the nod over 2016 Vezina Trophy winner and longtime No. 1 Braden Holtby. Grubauer doesn’t make a whole lot of noise with his unassuming personality or how he makes saves – he just makes them with such regularity that he looks like a No. 1 NHL goaltender.
”I’m really proud of him because he never lost focus,” Germany national team coach Marco Sturm said. ”I know it was a long wait, but he always waited for his chance and he finally has it right now.”
Grubauer bided his time through four years in the minors before getting to back up Holtby. It looked like that arrangement was ending after two seasons, but when Vegas general manager George McPhee and goalie coach Dave Prior – who drafted Grubauer in 2010 – didn’t take him in the expansion draft and the Capitals didn’t trade Grubauer, the 26-year-old was back for a third year as No. 2.
”I think we have had Grubauer valued more than the league has had,” Washington general manager Brian MacLellan said. ”We feel he was going to be a good No. 1 goalie. And the rest of the league, in general
Sylvester Williams Color Rush Jersey , say that he hasn’t had time to prove it.”
Getting lit up for eight goals in Philadelphia in the Flyers’ home opener was an inauspicious start, but since Oct. 27, no goalie in the league has a better goals-against average than Grubauer’s 2.06 or save percentage better than his .933.
When Holtby struggled in February and March, Grubauer took the reins and went 7-3-0 down the stretch.
”Grubi was able to take the ball and run with it,” said former NHL goalie Olie Kolzig, who served as Capitals associate goalie coach earlier in Grubauer’s career. ”It just comes from experience. You know you belong. When you’re first coming in as a No. 2, you’re just getting your footing and getting to know the league. But then you play games, you practice with these guys, you build relationships with your teammates, you’re accepted, you have success in games. All of a sudden, you’re getting older, you’re getting more mature, you’re taking in information and then you know.”
Grubauer, now 6-foot-1, was always undersized. He was never outworked.
”Quiet guy, but always worked hard,” said Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban, who played with Grubauer in Windsor. ”To get to this level
Frank Ragnow Jersey , especially in that position, you have to be really dedicated to your craft. He’s obviously done a really good job of working at his game to get better and that’s why he’s playing for one of the top teams in the league now.”
Grubauer went 20-1 through the OHL playoffs and Memorial Cup in 2010, and yet Hall said, ”I’d be lying if I said he’d be as good as he was now.”
”He always played well in the big games,” said Hall, now an MVP candidate with the New Jersey Devils. ”When we needed a save, it was always there.”
That reputation followed Grubauer to the American Hockey League, where he stopped 54 of 58 shots at Providence to help steal a second consecutive game for eighth-seeded Hershey in the 2013 Calder Cup playoffs. And it continued to international play, where he stopped 66 of 68 shots in must-win qualifiers to get his country into the Olympics.
Last year, when the world championships were in Cologne, Grubauer landed at the airport and went straight to the rink. High-pressure situations don’t bother Grubauer.
”It seems like that’s the way he likes it,” Sturm said. ”He’s so athletic but also really calm in the net and he made the big saves when he had to. That’s something a team builds off.”
The Capitals have recently built their game up in front of Grubauer, and Kolzig has noticed them playing hard for him like they did for Holtby when first called up.
As he goes into his first Stanley Cup playoffs as the starter, Grubauer is trying to stay calm and not think about the stakes. Washington has not advanced past the second round in 20 years.
Playing the single-elimination Olympic qualifier best prepared Grubauer for this. He couldn’t lose. And he didn’t.
”The mental approach just to be dialed in and pay attention to details,” Grubauer said Wednesday. ”I learned one shot at a time. Don’t look ahead. Don’t look to the next game. Just one shot. One situation.”
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