– The Boston Red Sox avoided a sweep at the hands of their rivals when they beat the New York Yankees 9-2 Sunday night. David Ortiz homered for the Sox and starter Jon Lester picked up his ninth win of the season. With the Tampa Bay Rays’ 6-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals, Boston is now one game out of first in the AL East, while the Yankees sit three games back.
– Mike Jacobs went 3 for 4 with two home runs, five RBI and two runs scored for Florida on Sunday, but the Marlins couldn’t hold on to a 5-0 lead and lost to the Chicago Cubs 9-6 at Wrigley. Derrek Lee (17) and Alfonso Soriano (16) each homered for the Cubs while former Notre Dame wide receiver Jeff Samardzija picked up his first big league save.
– With the Cubs’ victory, the Milwaukee Brewers dropped a game back in the NL Central after losing 11-6 to the Houston Astros. Jeff Suppan dropped to 5-7 on the year in a losing effort, but Ryan Braun did hit his 28th home run of the year. The difference in this game was a Geoff Blum two-run shot in the fifth that gave Houston an 8-4 lead.
– Johan Santana threw a complete game in the New York Mets’ 9-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Santana gave up just one run on six hits and struck out five to improve to 9-7 on the year. He got help from Fernando Tatis (7), Ramon Castro (6) and David Wright (20), who all homered in the win. Albert Pujols hit his 20th dinger of the year in a losing effort for the Cards.
– The Big Unit picked up his fourth straight victory as the Arizona Diamondbacks swept the San Francisco Giants with a 7-2 win on Sunday. Chad Jackson (12) and Mark Reynolds (21) each homered for Arizona while Johnson gave up no runs in seven innings pitched. Barry Zito continues to be a waste of roster space and cold hard cash in San Fran, yielding six runs on six hits in just five innings of work to drop to 5-13 on the year.
– Oakland A’s starter Brad Ziegler set a MLB record for scoreless innings to start a career. After pitching two innings the A’s 6-5 win over the Texas Rangers on Sunday, Ziegler has not given up a run in 27 innings. Nice job rook.
