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TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2017 SPORTS

Veteran Scarponi takes Mignolet urges Liverpool Scottish Premiership strugglers shock Alps stage win to improve on their game Dundee sack manager Hartley

ROME: Italian veteran took his first victory in four WEST BROMWICH: Simon Mignolet has called upon Liverpool to GLASGOW: Scottish Premiership strugglers Dundee have sacked man- years as he claimed victory yesterday’s opening stage of the Tour of the improve their play in the final few games of the season as the ager Paul Hartley, the club announced yesterday. Dundee have lost Alps. The 37-year-old outsprinted Briton Geraint Merseysiders bid to secure a Champions League place. The 29-year-old their last seven matches and are second-bottom of Scotland’s top flight, Thomas and Thibaut Pinot of France to claim the goalkeeper made a key second-half save from West Bromwich Albion’s five points above basement club Inverness Caledonian early lead of the race following a 142km stage Matt Phillips as Liverpool won 1-0 at The Hawthorns on Sunday thanks Thistle with five games of the season remaining. from Kufstein to Innsbruck in Austria. The race to a goal from Roberto Firmino. Mignolet’s first clean sheet in nearly two The bottom club at the end of the season will be is one of the key warm-up events ahead of months helped Liverpool leapfrog Manchester City into third place in relegated, with the second-bottom side entering next month’s Giro d’Italia, the first of the year’s the Premier League table. “The last few performances against these a relegation play-off. “I want to thank Paul for his Grand Tours. Scarponi won the Alps Tour in teams like Burnley, Stoke and West Brom, we need to learn from that,” time with the club,” said managing director John 2011, the same year he took Giro honours. He Mignolet told Liverpool’s website. “We can only get better for it but I Nelms in a statement on Dundee’s website. will be the leader of the Kazakh team Astana at think we proved what we can do away from home again.” The Belgian “Unfortunately, the business we are in, sometimes the Giro this year following an injury to compatriot added: “To be resilient, and to grind a result out, that’s what we did, and I change is necessary to achieve the goals we Fabio Aru. Thomas and Pinot are expected to chal- think everybody is pleased with that. “Not only the three points but a have set. “I think somebody in the near lenge for overall Giro victory alongside Vuelta a clean sheet also, we’re very pleased with that. We know it’s a difficult future is going to get a good hard work- Espana champion Nairo Quintana and Italian place to go to, West Brom, especially the last 10 minutes, but we dealt ing manager.” Dundee have won just a winner of all three Grand well with it and I think we deserved the three points. Now we have to eight of 33 league games so far this Tours.— AFP keep going.— AFP season. —AFP

BOSTON: Boston Red Sox’s Dustin Pedroia, right, scores as Tampa Bay Rays’ Derek Norris gets the throw on a single by Mookie Betts during the second inning of a baseball game yesterday, in Boston. — AP

BASEBALL Bird breaks out, Yanks sweep Cards 9-3

NEW YORK: Greg Bird emphatically ended an ROYALS 1, ANGELS 0 ballpark of his 20-year major league career. ing single in the second inning provided the ASTROS-A’S, POSTPONED 0-for-20 skid with a long home run off Adam Alcides Escobar’s ninth-inning single scored winning margin as Colorado beat San Sunday’s game between the Houston Astros Wainwright and New York ran its winning pinch runner Raul Mondesi as Kansas City Marlins 4, Mets 2 Francisco at AT&T Park. Senzatela (2-0) allowed and Oakland Athletics was postponed due to streak to seven games with a victory over St blanked Los Angeles to complete a sweep of Pinch hitter J.T. Riddle hit a two-run homer three runs on seven hits in seven innings, but rain, marking Oakland’s first home rainout in Louis. Bird began the night hitting .038 but the three-game series. Mondesi was running in the bottom of the ninth to lead Miami over he held San Francisco batters to just four hits three years. The contest was postponed approx- when New York’s latest win concluded, the for Salvador Perez, who led off the inning with New York. It was Riddle’s first career home run, after the first inning. imately two hours before the scheduled start. It first baseman held a .138 average. Besides hit- a single. Mondesi swiped second and moved and it came off reliever Addison Reed (0-1). wasn’t immediately rescheduled.—Reuters ting a 429-foot home run, Bird also doubled to third on a Blake Parker wild pitch. off Wainwright and hooked a breaking ball BREWERS 4, REDS 2 foul over the right field wall in the sixth before ORIOLES 11, BLUE JAYS 4 Ryan Braun hit a two-run home run, and drawing a walk against Matt Bowman. Aaron Trey Mancini hit two home runs, Craig Travis Shaw and Eric Thames added solo shots, Baseball results/standings Judge added an RBI triple and Aaron Hicks Gentry and Manny Machado added one lifting Milwaukee past Cincinnati in the finale contributed a solo home run and sacrifice fly homer each, Dylan Bundy pitched six scoreless of a four-game series. Thames is the first visit- NY Yankees 9, St. Louis 3; Arizona 3, LA Dodgers 1; Chicago White Sox 3, 1 (10 innings); Seattle 8, Texas 7; as the Yankees improved to 6-0 at home for innings and Baltimore defeated Toronto. ing player to hit five home runs in a four-game Colorado 4, San Francisco 3; Pittsburgh 6, Chicago Cubs 1; Kansas City 1, LA Angels 0; Washington 6, the first time since winning their first seven Bundy (2-1) allowed five hits and one walk series at Great American Ball Park. Philadelphia 4; Atlanta 9, San Diego 2; Boston 7, Tampa Bay 5; Detroit 4, Cleveland 1; Milwaukee 4, Cincinnati 2; home games of the 114-win 1998 season. while striking out six as the Orioles (8-3) took Miami 4, NY Mets 2; Baltimore 11, Toronto 4. three of four from the Blue Jays (2-10). PIRATES 6, CUBS 1 American League National League DIAMONDBACKS 3, DODGERS 1 Adam Frazier went 3-for-4, including a Eastern Division Eastern Division Taijuan Walker pitched one-run ball over TIGERS 4, INDIANS 1 three-run homer in the ninth inning, to lead W L PCT GB Miami 7 5 .583 - five innings as Arizona defeated Los Angeles. Alex Avila hit a two-run home run and Pittsburgh to a victory over Chicago. Andrew Baltimore 8 3 .727 - Washington 7 5 .583 - Walker (2-1) gave up four hits. The right-han- Matthew Boyd pitched six strong innings as McCutchen snapped a 1-1 tie with an eighth- NY Yankees 8 4 .667 0.5 NY Mets 7 6 .538 0.5 Boston 7 5 .583 1.5 der walked one and struck out seven in beat- Detroit beat Cleveland. The Tigers won two of inning RBI on a fielder’s choice before Frazier’s Atlanta 5 6 .455 1.5 Tampa Bay 6 7 .462 3 Philadelphia 4 8 .333 3 ing the Dodgers for the first time in his second three games from the slumping Indians, who bomb an inning later sealed it. Toronto 2 10 .167 6.5 career start against Los Angeles. Fernando went 2-4 on their season-opening homestand. Central Division Central Division Cincinnati 8 5 .615 - Rodney handled the ninth for his fourth save. Cleveland has lost seven of its last nine games. RED SOX 7, RAYS 5 Detroit 8 4 .667 - Milwaukee 7 6 .538 1 Minnesota 7 5 .583 1 Mitch Moreland’s two-run single in the sev- Chicago Cubs 6 6 .500 1.5 Chicago White Sox 6 5 .545 1.5 NATIONALS 6, PHILLIES 4 BRAVES 9, PADRES 2 enth inning gave Boston the lead for good in Pittsburgh 6 6 .500 1.5 Bryce Harper hit a three-run homer with Bartolo Colon was masterful for seven its win over Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park. Kansas City 6 6 .500 2 Cleveland 5 7 .417 3 St. Louis 3 9 .250 4.5 two outs in the last of the ninth off Joaquin innings, with the only hit the 43-year-old gave The newly signed first baseman is batting .356 Western Division Benoit as the Washington Nationals beat the up a homer, and Atlanta improved to 3-0 at (16-for-45) with an major league-leading nine Western Division Houston 8 4 .667 - Colorado 9 5 .643 - Philadelphia Phillies 6-4 on Sunday, taking two SunTrust Park with a victory over San Diego. doubles, one homer and five RBIs through 12 LA Angels 6 7 .462 2.5 Arizona 8 5 .615 0.5 of three games in the series. The blast capped Ryan Schimpf’s homer in the third inning was games after going 2-for-3 with three RBIs. Oakland 5 7 .417 3 LA Dodgers 7 6 .538 1.5 a big day in which Harper went 3-for-5 with the only misstep by Colon, who walked one Moreland stepped to the plate with the bases Seattle 5 8 .385 3.5 San Diego 5 8 .385 3.5 two homers and five RBIs. and struck out six while pitching in the 44th loaded in the seventh and drove an 0-1 cutter Texas 4 8 .333 4 San Francisco 5 9 .357 4 for an opposite-field single to left, plating two.

MARINERS 8, RANGERS 7 For the third time this season, Texas left- hander Cole Hamels exited a start with a lead. Gilbert to miss Liege And for the third time this season, the Rangers’ bullpen could not hold on to the advantage. The culprits this time were Tony Barnette and VALKENBURG: will miss the which he won in 2011, Gilbert will also skip Sam Dyson, as Seattle erased a five-run deficit, rest of the Ardennes classics season, includ- Wednesday’s La Fleche Wallonne, another with Nelson Cruz knocking in the winning run ing Sunday’s prestigious Liege-Bastogne- race he claimed six years ago when he did in the ninth for the victory and a sweep of the Liege race, due to a kidney problem, his the Ardennes treble. three-game series. Quick Step team revealed yesterday. Just 24 This season he has already won one of hours after continuing his fine start to the cycling’s ‘Monument’ races-the Tour of WHITE SOX 3, TWINS 1 season by winning the - Flanders two weeks ago-as well as Three Avisail Garcia’s 10th-inning, two-run homer one of the three major Ardennes classics- Days of De Panne. Alongside compatriot lifted Chicago over Minnesota as the White Gilbert, 33, said he was in pain and would Greg Van Avermaet and Poland’s Michal Sox took two of three games in the weekend need some time off. Kwiatkowski, whom he beat in a sprint finish series at Target Field. Minnesota reliever Ryan “When I fell (at Amstel), I felt the pain on Sunday for his fourth Amstel success, he Pressly (0-2) took the loss while Chicago’s Nate again but once back on the bike, the pain has been one of the stand-out performers Jones (1-0) came out of the bullpen to pick up disappeared again,” said the Belgian, who is during the first few months of the season. the win. David Robertson pitched one inning being kept overnight in hospital. “It’s been one of my best years and, when I for his third save of the season in three “Unfortunately, after the finish I felt once look at my results, I’m delighted,” added the chances. again pain in the base of my back and, Quick Step rider, who was world champion alongside the doctor, I went to hospital for a in 2012. “Being competitive at the same time ROCKIES 4, GIANTS 3 check-up. “Fortunately there’s nothing seri- on the cobbled and Ardennes classics, help- NEW YORK: St Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) delivers a pitch against the Antonio Senzatela settled down after a ous and everything’s fine-I’ll recommence ing the team to be the best in the world, New York Yankees during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday at Yankee Stadium in shaky first inning, and DJ LeMahieu’s run-scor- training in a week.” As well as missing Liege, gives me a lot of satisfaction.”— AFP New York. — AP