BALTIMORE: A tempestuous three-game series between the Red Sox and Baltimore wound up with Matt Barnes being ejected for throwing a fastball behind the head of Orioles star Manny Machado in Boston’s 6-2 victory Sunday.
Barnes’ ejection was the latest facet of this tense rivalry between AL East contenders. His high, very inside pitch came two days after Machado took out Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia with a spikes-high slide.
Pedroia watched from the dugout for a second straight day with knee and ankle injuries. Machado apologized with a text message on Friday night, but that evidently wasn’t the end of it.
Mookie Betts and Hanley Ramirez homered on successive pitches in a four-run first inning, and Andrew Benintendi had a career-high five hits to help Boston avert a three-game sweep. Eduardo Rodriguez (1-1) pitched six effective innings for the win.
Machado ended up making the last out, hitting a two-out popup on a pitch from Craig Kimbrel, who got his seventh save.
Baltimore right-hander Kevin Gausman (1-2) allowed five runs in 5 1/3 innings.
Nationals 6 Mets 3: In New York: Daniel Murphy hit a grand slam against his former team, Max Scherzer pitched eight fiery innings and the Nationals earned their seventh straight victory.
Ryan Zimmerman added a two-run homer for the Nationals, who completed a three-game sweep of the short-handed Mets in the first series this season between the NL East rivals.
Missing slugger Yoenis Cespedes and two other injured starters, New York (8-11) has lost four in a row and eight of nine to fall 5 1/2 games behind the Nationals, who own the best record in the majors at 13-5.
Scherzer (3-1) struck out nine. Koda Glover got three outs for his second major league save.
Rangers 5 Royals 2: In Arlington, Texas, Yu Darvish pitched eight innings in his longest outing since elbow surgery two years ago and the Rangers scored the tying and go-ahead runs without a hit, completing a four-game sweep.
The Japanese right-hander retired 15 of 16 batters after giving up three consecutive hits in the third. Two of those were back-to-back drives from Mike Moustakas and Jorge Bonifacio, whose first big league homer came two innings after he singled for his first career hit.
Darvish (2-2) struck out eight as the Rangers finished their second four-game sweep of Kansas City in as many seasons. The Royals have lost five of six since a four-game winning streak.
Rockies 8 Giants 0: In Denver, Kyle Freeland scattered six hits over seven sharp innings, Gerardo Parra hit a two-run homer and the Rockies finished off their first three-game sweep of the Giants at Coors Field since 2002.
Freeland (2-1) mixed a wicked sinker with a two-seam fastball to get 12 groundouts and three strikeouts. The Denver native also shattered three bats on a day when the Giants changed their lineup to try to break out of a hitting funk. It didn’t work as they lost for the sixth time in seven games. At 6-13, they are off to their worst start since 1983.
Jeff Samardzija (0-4) remains winless after going 5 1/3 innings and surrendering seven runs.
Colorado leads the NL West with a 13-6 mark. It is tied for the second-best start in franchise history.
Jays 6 Angels 2: In Anaheim, California, Marcus Stroman pitched a seven-hitter for Toronto, and Devon Travis hit a go-ahead, two-run homer during a four-run eighth inning.
Stroman (2-2) survived a rocky ninth by inducing a game-ending double play in his third career complete game — and his second in 12 days.
Albert Pujols delivered a run-scoring single for the Angels in the third inning shortly after Toronto manager John Gibbons’ ejection. Los Angeles has lost 10 of 12 with an injury-plagued pitching staff.
Mariners 11 Athletics 1: In Oakland, California, Nelson Cruz homered and drove in five runs for Seattle, and Taylor Motter hit his first career grand slam.
Yovani Gallardo (1-2) pitched into the seventh for his first win with the Mariners, who ended a three-game losing streak and won for only the second time in 11 road games.
Oakland had won five in a row.
Reds 7 Cubs 5: In Cincinnatti, Bronson Arroyo pitched six innings of three-hit ball, and Cincinnati salvaged the finale of the weekend set.
The 40-year-old Arroyo (2-2) allowed Anthony Rizzo’s two-run homer — his third of the series — and struck out seven batters for the first time since May 13, 2014. The lanky right-hander has needed more than two years to recover from Tommy John surgery.
Raisel Iglesias gave up a pair of runs in the ninth before finishing off the Reds’ 3-7 homestand.
Patrick Kivlehan’s bases-loaded double highlighted a four-run sixth inning off John Lackey (1-3) and decided a matchup of up-in-years starters. The 38-year-old Lackey and Arroyo have combined for 793 starts in the majors.
Despite the loss, the defending World Series champions took two of three in the series and moved back into first place in the NL Central.
Barnes ejected, Boston beats Baltimore 6-2
Barnes ejected, Boston beats Baltimore 6-2
Own goal enough for Al-Ahli as Matchday 24 win keeps pressure on Al-Nassr
- Al-Ahli eke out 1-0 win over Al-Riyadh to keep pressure on Al-Nassr
- Milan Borjan own goal separated the sides at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium
RIYADH: Matchday 24 of the Saudi Pro League kicked off on Thursday, less than 24 hours after the conclusion of the delayed Matchday 10. With the FIFA Arab Cup, World Cup Qualifiers and FIFA World Cup sandwiching the 2025/26 campaign, resting periods have been few and far between outside the international breaks.
With fixtures coming thick and fast, Al-Ahli opted to rest Riyad Mahrez and Enzo Millot for their clash with Al-Riyadh in the capital. Ramadan has further challenged the league schedule, with Matthias Jaissle’s side only arriving in Riyadh at 5:30pm — just hours before kick-off.
With their previous outing against Damac still dominating conversation, Jaissle was keen to ensure his players did not fall into the same trap — namely, being caught off guard by an opponent’s unexpectedly proactive style.
To his relief, Al-Ahli were largely in control this time. Yet the absence of Mahrez limited their creative spark. Relying heavily on Wenderson Galeno down the left, Al-Riyadh did well to crowd the Brazilian and deny him space to operate.
The bane of any expansive side is a compact 5-4-1, and that is precisely how Al-Riyadh’s recently appointed Brazilian manager Mauricio Dulac set his team up. A long-time assistant to former Al-Riyadh coach Odair Hellmann, this marks Dulac’s first managerial role.
Al-Ahli’s attacking routes were severely restricted throughout the first half. Al-Riyadh denied them the opportunity to press high, Mahrez’s trademark diagonals were absent, and finding Ivan Toney in the six-yard box proved a difficult task.
On the rare occasions the visitors broke the defensive line, Milan Borjan stood firm in goal — there was no getting past the Canadian.
That was until first-half stoppage time. Al-Ahli had one more weapon in their arsenal: set-pieces. A lofted delivery from Galeno’s free-kick met the head of Roger Ibañez, who nodded the ball towards goal. Borjan pushed it away, but it was too late — the ball crossed the line.
VAR intervened within seconds. Ibañez was a shoulder offside, and the opener was chalked off. It was a notable twist, particulary as the simultaneous fixture between Al-Fateh and Damac in Al-Ahsa featured a celebration aimed squarely at Al-Ahli and VAR.
Earlier in the week, Damac equalised late against Al-Ahli via Yakou Méïté, only for the goal to be overturned. Méïté reacted angrily and lashed out at referees, but Al-Ahli escaped with the three points. Méïté followed up with a goal against Al-Fateh, and celebrated by mimicking the referee’s VAR signal.
Back in Riyadh, Al-Ahli returned for the second half with renewed intensity. Zakaria Hawsawi grew more adventurous from left-back, threading lofted balls over the Al-Riyadh defence.
In the 53rd minute, he found Toney behind the last defender, but the Englishman’s volley was adeptly saved by Borjan. Five minutes later, Galeno latched onto Hawsawi’s cross and thought he had broken the deadlock — only for the linesman’s flag to rise once again.
Al-Ahli pushed, but as time ticked away, it seemed the coveted winner would elude them. However, once again, set pieces proved decisive.
In the 75th minute, a corner from Saleh Abu Al-Shamat was parried by Borjan, only for his effort to be bundled into his own net, sending the travelling supporters into a frenzy.
After last week’s scare, Al-Ahli knew they had to finish the job. Cue Ibañez, who surged forward from deep before slipping the ball through to Toney to seal the game with what would have been his 24th goal of the season. The run itself deserved a goal, but Toney was flagged inches offside.
Despite another difficult outing, Al-Ahli did enough to secure a clean sheet and grind out a 1-0 victory to move top on 59 points — one ahead of Al-Nassr, who are yet to play this weekend.
Elsewhere, Méïté’s equaliser was later cancelled out by a 77th-minute Mourad Batna penalty, in a match that saw fans commemorate him for surpassing 100 goal contributions with Al-Fateh.
Batna had earlier missed from the spot to the frustation of the home fans, but Al-Fateh’s undefeated streak against Damac at home remains intact as the encounter ended 1-1.
Saudi Pro League action resumes on Friday, with Al-Hazem hosting Al-Ettifaq, Al-Ittihad welcoming Al-Khaleej, and one of Riyadh’s top derbies in Al-Shabab and Al-Hilal. All games kick-off at 10:00pm, in the league’s unified Ramadan schedule.
