DENVER (AP) — Eddie Butler pitched six solid innings for his first major league win and the Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-1 on Saturday.
Corey Dickerson and Josh Rutledge homered for the Rockies, who have won five straight for the first time since June 11-15.
Butler (1-1) made his debut against the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 6 and went on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation the next day. He made nine minor league rehab starts before getting the ball Saturday.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Max Scherzer and the Detroit Tigers won their appeal on a wild play, and Joe Nathan escaped a ninth-inning jam to hold off the Kansas City Royals 3-2 Saturday and boost their AL Central lead.
The Tigers increased their edge to 2 1/2 games over the Royals. Kansas City fell into a tie for the second wild-card spot with Seattle, which played later at Houston.
Detroit, seeking its fourth straight division title, has won 13 of 18 against the Royals this year, including eight of nine at Kauffman Stadium.
Scherzer (17-5) outpitched James Shields (14-8). The Royals put two runners on against Nathan, but he retired Nori Aoki and pinch-hitter Raul Ibanez on grounders for his 33th save in 40 tries.
It was 1-all in the sixth when a line drive and a wild throw led to an appeal toss and a pair of umpire discussions that wound up ruling a Royals runner had left third base too soon.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Ian Kinsler hit a two-run homer, everyone in the Detroit starting lineup had a hit by the fourth inning and the Tigers pounded Jason Vargas and the second-place Kansas City Royals 10-1 on Friday night to add another game to their AL Central lead.
Justin Verlander (14-12) had all the support he needed by the end of the first inning, when the Tigers had shelled Vargas (11-10) for three runs on five hits. Detroit tacked on a run in the second, another in the fourth and then broke things open with a five-run fifth.
The Tigers (85-68), who now lead the division by 1 1/2 games, have forged their advantage by dominating head-to-head matchups. They are 12-5 against the Royals his season.
DENVER (AP) — Michael Cuddyer hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high seven runs, leading the Colorado Rockies to a 15-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.
Jordan Lyles pitched six strong innings for his first win in six weeks.
Rafael Ynoa added four hits and three RBIs and Wilin Rosario had three hits and two RBIs for the Rockies, who moved a game up on last-place Arizona in the NL West. It’s the first time Colorado hasn’t been in last place, either alone or shared, since July 13.
Lyles (7-3) gave up two runs and nine hits with one strikeout, consistently getting ground-ball outs in getting en route to his first win in eight starts since Aug. 6.
Chase Anderson (9-7), trying to become the fifth Diamondbacks rookie with at least 10 wins in a season, allowed six runs and nine hits in five innings.
Representatives of Major League Baseball and the players’ union are opening talks about establishing new policies and punishments for domestic violence.
The first meeting is scheduled for Friday in negotiations that could continue for several weeks or even months.
The recent spate of high-profile domestic violence cases involving Ray Rice and other NFL players prompted the discussions.
Like baseball, other top professional sports organizations surveyed by The Associated Press — including the NBA, NHL, NASCAR, PGA Tour and ATP — currently have rules covering various kinds of inappropriate or criminal behavior away from arenas but do not address domestic violence on its own.
DENVER (AP) — Wilin Rosario hit a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Colorado Rockies rallied to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 on Thursday night.
Rosario finished with four hits to lift the Rockies into a fourth-place tie with Arizona in the NL West.
Corey Dickerson led off the ninth with a single against Addison Reed (1-7). Two outs later Rosario, hit a towering drive into the seats in left to give the Rockies their third straight win.
LaTroy Hawkins (4-3) pitched a perfect top of the ninth.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Lorenzo Cain hit a three-run homer, Nori Aoki kept up his tear at the plate and the Kansas City Royals roughed up Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale in a 6-2 victory Wednesday night that kept the pressure on Detroit in the AL Central.
The first-place Tigers led the Royals by 1 1/2 games at the start of the night.
Alcides Escobar also homered for a Royals offense that had been scuffling for weeks, and Aoki went 3 for 4 to finish with 11 hits in the series. Yordano Ventura (13-10) allowed three hits and two walks over seven innings, the lone run off him coming on a sacrifice fly.
Meanwhile, Sale (12-4) was cuffed for a season-high five earned runs on nine hits over five innings. It was arguably the three-time All-Star’s worst start since Aug. 23, 2013, when he gave up eight runs over seven innings in a loss to the Rangers.
DENVER (AP) — Justin Morneau tied a season high with six RBIs, including five as part of an eight-run first inning against spot starter Carlos Frias, and the Colorado Rockies routed the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers 16-2 on Wednesday.
Morneau hit a three-run homer and a two-run single in the opening frame as the last-place Rockies chased Frias (0-1) from the game after two outs. Morneau and Carlos Gonzalez are the only Rockies players to drive in five runs in an inning.
Charlie Blackmon went 5 for 5, including a solo homer, as the Rockies took two of three from the Dodgers. Los Angeles began the day with a three-game division lead over San Francisco.
Morneau had three hits and a sacrifice fly, raising his average to .320 and leaping over Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison for the NL batting lead.
Jorge De La Rosa (14-11) gave up two hits in six scoreless innings to improve to 10-2 at home this season.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis both gave up runs for the first time in nearly three months as the Kansas City Royals’ dominant bullpen was touched up Tuesday night in a 7-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
Davis replaced Herrera with two on in the seventh inning and walked Jose Abreu to load the bases for Conor Gillaspie, who cleared them with a triple to right-center on a 2-2 pitch to give Chicago a 7-5 lead.
That ended Herrera’s scoreless streak at 30 2-3 innings, dating to June 24. Also snapped was Davis’ shutout streak of 31 2-3 innings, a club record for a reliever, with the first run charged to him since June 25.
The rare bullpen failure prevented Kansas City from gaining ground on AL Central leader Detroit, which lost at Minnesota. The Royals remained 1 1/2 games behind the Tigers, but still lead Seattle for the second wild-card spot.
DENVER (AP) — Corey Dickerson homered, tripled and drove in four runs, Tyler Matzek pitched into the sixth inning by getting out of several tight spots, and the Colorado Rockies snapped a seven-game skid with a 10-4 win over the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.
The Dodgers had Matzek (6-10) on the ropes, but couldn’t produce the timely hit. They stranded 10 runners to drop 1 1-2 games behind Washington for the best record in the National League.
Matzek allowed two runs and 11 hits in 5 1-3 innings. He also had six strikeouts, including Juan Uribe twice to end threats.
Dan Haren (13-11) had a more productive evening at the plate than on the mound, where he struggled to find his rhythm as he allowed five runs in five innings.
