Lester wins pitchers’ duel against Scherzer
Print Edition
Boston’s Jon Lester outdueled Max Scherzer as the Red Sox beat Detroit 2-1 on Tuesday, ending the Tiger pitcher’s chance of becoming just the second pitcher ever to open a season with a 20-1 record.
The Red Sox maintained their 5 1-2 game lead in the American League East division over Tampa Bay, which beat the Los Angeles Angels 7-1.
Detroit saw its lead in the AL Central trimmed to a still comfortable 7-1/2 games over Cleveland, which beat Baltimore 4-3.
Meanwhile in the AL West, Texas defeated Oakland 5-1 to take sole possession of the divisional lead, a game ahead of the Athletics.
In the AL wild-card race, Oakland is 2-1/2 games ahead of Tampa Bay, which holds the second berth by the same margin ahead of the New York Yankees, who beat the Chicago White Sox 6-4.
In the National League, with the East and West titles all but decided, the fight rages on in the Central division, which looks likely to yield three playoff spots. Pittsburgh opened a two-game lead with a 4-3 win over Milwaukee.
Pittsburgh is clear of St Louis, which was beaten by Cincinnati 1-0, allowing the Reds to creep with 1-1/2 games of the Cardinals.
Boston’s Lester (13-8) lowered his ERA to 1.71 in his past six starts. He allowed one earned run with a season-high nine strikeouts and no walks.
Scherzer (19-2), who won his first 13 decisions, lost for the first time since July 13.
Roger Clemens is the only pitcher to start 20-1. He ended up 20-3 with the Yankees in 2001.
Texas’ Martin Perez allowed one run over seven innings to win his sixth straight start and guide the Rangers to a 5-1 win over Oakland.
After falling into a tie for first with the A’s when they lost the series opener, the Rangers bounced back behind another strong performance from Perez (9-3).
Mitch Moreland homered for Texas, which scored three unearned runs in the fifth — with two hits back toward pitcher Bartolo Colon which he could not glover — to take a 4-1 lead.
Cleveland’s Ubaldo Jimenez pitched six scoreless innings to steer the Indians to a 4-3 win over Baltimore.
Jimenez (10-9) has allowed three earned runs or less in eight consecutive starts.
In other games, it was: Braves 3, Mets 1; Nationals 9, Phillies 6; Royals 4, Mariners 3; Marlins 6, Cubs 2; Dodgers 7, Rockies 4; Twins 9, Astros 6 (12); Blue Jays 10, Diamondbacks 4; and Padres 3, Giants 2.
Tampa Bay’s Matt Moore pitched into the sixth inning in his return from injury, helping the Rays beat the Angels.
Moore (15-3) won his seventh straight decision, yielding one unearned run in 5 1-3 innings as the Rays snapped a five-game losing skid. The All-Star missed the entire month of August because of elbow soreness.
Desmond Jennings and Yunel Escobar hit homers for Tampa Bay.
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