Corbin Burnes and the Milwaukee Brewers' bullpen did their job on Monday in a 3-1 defeat of the San Francisco Giants to open a series between the National League division leaders.
The All-Star Burnes allowed four hits and a run in six innings while striking out nine, and Brad Boxberger, Devin Williams and Josh Hader held the team with MLB's best record scoreless the rest of the way.
Burnes also helped himself with an RBI single in the second inning that gave the Brewers a 2-0 lead as the Giants ran out seven pitchers to get through the evening in a bullpen game.
It was the third defeat in four games for the Giants, who lost their series in Atlanta over the weekend.
Dodgers down Braves to close on Giants
The Los Angeles Dodgers took advantage of San Francisco's defeat, moving to within 1.5 games of the NL West lead after holding on for a 5-3 victory over the Braves.
Every run in the game was scored via a home run, with the teams combining for seven of them.
Los Angeles started things off with solo homers from Max Muncy, Will Smith and Mookie Betts and a two-run drive by Corey Seager before Atlanta answered with longballs from Jorge Soler, Freddie Freeman and Adam Duvall, but that trio of solo shots was not enough to get the Braves over the top.
The Tampa Bay Rays won their eighth game in a row and 12th from their past 13, defeating the Boston Red Sox 6-1 as Wander Franco hit a two-run single in his final trip to the plate to extend his on-base streak to 30 games.
The only other players aged 20 or younger to have an on-base run at least that long are Hall of Famers Frank Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott and Arky Vaughan.
The New York Yankees fell seven games back of the Rays with an 8-7 loss to the Los Angeles Angels in Corey Kluber's first start since May 25.
The former Cy Young winner served up a grand slam to Jack Mayfield as the Angels took an early lead and Shohei Ohtani later added his 42nd home run of the season, but it was Juan Lagares who won it for Los Angeles with an RBI single in the eighth after Giancarlo Stanton had levelled the game with a two-run homer the previous inning.
Punchless Reds lose again
Kyle Farmer went two-for-four with a double and a home run but the rest of the Cincinnati Reds lineup were zero-for-26 in a 3-1 loss to Jon Lester and the St Louis Cardinals.
The Reds have dropped three in a row and are clinging to a half-game lead for the second NL wild card spot.
Vladdy doubles up
Vladimir Guerrero hit his 37th and 38th home runs of the season while bumping his RBI total to 95 as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-3 at Rogers Centre.
Monday's results
Minnesota Twins 3-2 Detroit Tigers
St Louis Cardinals 3-1 Cincinnati Reds
Philadelphia Phillies 7-4 Washington Nationals
Toronto Blue Jays 7-3 Baltimore Orioles
Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 Boston Red Sox
Texas Rangers 4-3 Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Angels 8-7 New York Yankees
San Diego Padres 7-5 Arizona Diamondbacks
Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 San Francisco Giants
Houston Astros 4-3 Seattle Mariners
Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 Atlanta Braves
Braves at Dodgers
The Atlanta Braves (70-60) send veteran Charlie Morton to the mound as they try to bounce back from a series-opening loss against Walker Buehler and the Los Angeles Dodgers (83-49)
Arsenal's Saka lands first Premier League Player of the Month award
Bukayo Saka has been named the Premier League's Player of the Month for the first time, scooping the prize after helping leaders Arsenal win all four of their games in the competition in March.
Saka hit three goals and added two assists in four appearances during the month as Arsenal posted wins over Everton, Bournemouth, Fulham and Crystal Palace.
Only Manchester City's Erling Haaland (33) and Tottenham's Harry Kane (23) have been involved in more Premier League goals than Saka this season (22).
The 21-year-old – considered a candidate to be named player of the season – is the only player to reach double figures for both goals (12) and assists (10) in the competition this term.
Having helped Arsenal establish an eight-point lead over City as the Gunners chase their first league title since 2004, Saka also scored with a stunning long-range strike as England beat Ukraine 2-0 in the international break.
Saka saw off competition from Alexander Isak, Alexis Mac Allister, Tyrone Mings, Mohamed Salah and Arsenal team-mate Leandro Trossard to win the Premier League award.
He becomes the second Arsenal star to land the monthly prize this campaign, after Martin Odegaard was named the best player across November and December either side of the World Cup break.
Rybakina matches Serena Williams aces feat and follows in footsteps of Graf
Elena Rybakina moved one win away from completing the 'Sunshine Double' and did so on the back of a serving feat last achieved by Serena Williams almost seven years ago.
Reigning Wimbledon champion Rybakina battled past Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals of the Miami Open, scoring a 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 win to book a clash with Petra Kvitova or Sorana Cirstea in the title match.
In doing so, Rybakina set up the chance of sealing an Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back double, a feat that only four women have pulled off before: Steffi Graf (1994, 1996), Kim Clijsters (2005), Victoria Azarenka (2016) and Iga Swiatek (2022).
She also becomes just the sixth woman to appear in the finals of the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami in the same year after Monica Seles (1991), Graf (1994), Lindsay Davenport (2000), Martina Hingis (2000) and Maria Sharapova (2012).
The Williams accomplishment that Rybakina has matched stands as testament to the Kazakhstani player's serving prowess.
She has served at least 10 aces in each of her five matches in Miami, and Williams at Wimbledon in 2016 was the last player from the WTA Tour to serve 10-plus aces in five matches in a single tournament.
Rybakina lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final in January but has put that behind her and enjoyed a stellar March. She beat Swiatek in the Indian Wells semi-finals before toppling Sabalenka in the final, and now another chance of a trophy awaits.
Discussing the challenge of completing the hard-court US double, Rybakina said: "It's really difficult, and because of different conditions in these two weeks by the matches you could see that it's much more difficult for me here than even in Indian Wells.
"It's just the finals, still close but the same time far. The Sunshine Double, I try my best, and hopefully I can make it. I didn't expect to be in the final. I knew that it was going to be very tough from the beginning, from the first match. And it was, actually. First two matches was really tough."
She came through dicey three-setters against Anna Kalinskaya and Paula Badosa before kicking on, winning in straight sets against Elise Mertens, Martina Trevisan and Pegula.
"Actually, the whole two weeks were really tough," Rybakina said after seeing off Pegula late on Thursday. "I'm happy to be in another final."
With her runs in Indian Wells and Miami, the Russian-born 23-year-old has already won 13 main-draw matches at WTA 1000 level in 2023, matching her personal best for an entire season, achieved last year.
Ohtani calls own pitches, beats clock, Ks 10, allows no runs... and loses
Los Angeles Angels reliever Aaron Loup was embarrassed to inflict an unwanted MLB first on team-mate Shohei Ohtani despite his latest superstar showing.
The Angels lost 2-1 to the Oakland Athletics on Opening Day, but they had led 1-0 through Ohtani's six innings, in which he sent down 10 strikeouts.
Loup then came in for what he described as "probably the most embarrassing outing of my career".
It was the first time since at least 1901 a pitcher's team had lost on Opening Day after he had 10 Ks and no runs allowed. They had previously been 25-0 in such circumstances.
Ohtani's performance was all the more remarkable as he called his own pitches, using the recently approved PitchCom, in response to the introduction of the pitch clock.
An early mix-up required catcher Logan O'Hoppe to ask Ohtani to re-enter the code in the device, which was soon ditched for the remainder of the first inning.
All went smoothly thereafter, though, and O'Hoppe said: "He probably could have been more unhittable if we had PitchCom in the first inning."
So quickly did the two-way sensation master the new process, Ohtani was regularly keying in his pitch before the pitch clock had even begun.
He explained the nature of a visit from home-plate umpire Adrian Johnson at the end of the fifth inning, saying: "He told me I was pitching a little early – before the batter was in the box."
The A's scarcely threatened to disrupt Ohtani's shutout, and he had the answer when they did.
With only one out and runners on second and third in the fourth inning, he struck out Jesus Aguilar and Ramon Laureano in quick succession.
Mike Trout reflected: "That sequence right there... he went from dominant to unhittable."
Ultimately, however, it was not enough, with Ohtani himself restricted to only one hit as a batter, a single in the same fourth inning.
"We got a lot of guys on base, got a few guys in scoring position, but we just lacked that one big hit," Ohtani said. "Obviously we want to score more."
Manager Phil Nevin added: "We're going to score more runs, I'm not worried about that. It's just opening night. Baseball gets weird sometimes."
Mar 28, 2023 NBA
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