PHOENIX (AP) ― Adrian Gonzalez must love it when he sees the word “Arizona” on the opposing uniform.
Chances are he’s in for a big night.
Gonzalez did it again Saturday night, hitting a two-run homer to help the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks 8-5.
Zack Greinke (3-0) scattered eight hits but allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings for Los Angeles.
Gonzalez, who had a two-run homer and five RBIs in the series opener Friday, followed that up with a shot to the left-field seats off Wade Miley (2-2) with two outs in the third inning.
VICTORY NO. 2: Dodgers’ starter Ryu Hyun-jin picked up his second victory on Friday, as Los Angeles beat Arizona 6-0. The Korean, pitching on an extra day’s rest, threw seven dominant innings, allowing two hits, striking out eight and walking one. He retired 18 of his last 19 batters and allowed only a pair of singles by Miguel Montero. (AFP-Yonhap)
Gonzalez has 26 career home runs and 84 RBIs against the Diamondbacks, most of any active player in both categories.
He left without talking to reporters on Saturday, but said the previous night he had no good explanation for the success.
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said in a career players just have opponents like that.
“There’s nothing good vibes,” he said. “You walk into a building and know you’ve swung the bat good there. There is something to that. You walk in feeling good because you have good memories. A place you go and you’ve been shut out for five years, you don’t have the same type of feeling.”
The Dodgers scored 14 runs in the first two games of the series.
“I think Arizona is just a good place to hit,” Mattingly said. “You see the ball good here. We have one more day here and then you end up in AT&T (in San Francisco) and the ball doesn’t carry and it’s not the same. But we have swung the bats well. A lot of contributions from different people.”
Greinke succeeded even though he was not at his best.
“It’s nice to have a pitch that you can just go to at any time,” he said. “I didn’t really have that today. But there was a lot of usable pitches.”
Miley gave up five runs and eight hits in five innings.
Castro’s triple sparks Astros
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ― Jason Castro tripled with one out in the 10th and Jose Altuve had a tiebreaking sacrifice fly, helping the Houston Astros beat the Texas Rangers 6-5 Saturday night to end a 12-game skid against their state rival.
Marwin Gonzalez, running for Castro, scored Altuve’s fly off Rangers closer Joakim Soria (1-1).
The Astros, hitting a major league low .188 entering the game, scored five runs in the fourth inning to take a 5-3 lead.
Michael Choice hit his first career homer in the ninth to tie it as Texas rallied in the eighth and the ninth to send the foes into extra innings for the second straight night.
Kevin Chapman (1-0) allowed Choice’s homer but was awarded the victory. Anthony Bass pitched the 10th for his second save. Texas put runners on first and third with one out in the ninth before Bass struck out Kevin Kouzmanoff and got Choice to ground out to first base.
Choo Shin-soo came into the game having reached base 12 of his previous 16 plate appearances but struck out all five times up, including with the winning run at second base with two out in the ninth.
Houston starter Jarred Cosart shut down Texas after allowing three runs in the first four innings, limiting the Rangers to six hits while striking out eight in seven innings.
The Rangers’ streak against Houston was the longest streak in the majors between any two teams. Texas has won 17 of 20 meetings over Houston since the beginning of last season, when the state rivals became intradivision foes with the Astros moving from the National League into the American League West.
Tanner Scheppers, making his third career start since transitioning this season from short relief, allowed five runs on only four hits plus a walk and two hit batters in seven innings.
Yankees down Red Sox 7-4
NEW YORK (AP) ― Brian McCann was far from panic mode. He was hitting the ball well, and figured positive results would follow.
Still, he enjoyed seeing his drives wind up in the seats instead of someone’s glove.
McCann put an emphatic end to his season-opening slump, hitting his first two home runs for the New York Yankees to help beat John Lackey and the Boston Red Sox 7-4 Saturday.
“I was pleased about my at-bats today,” McCann said.
Carlos Beltran, Alfonso Soriano and Kelly Johnson also connected as the Yankees scored all their runs on homers. Lackey was tagged for a career-high four home runs in 5 2/3 innings.
New York has won two of three in a series that wraps up Sunday night.
A.J. Pierzynski hit his first home run for the Red Sox.
After striking out in the first inning and dropping his batting average to .158, McCann quickly reversed his fortunes. The seven-time All-Star who left Atlanta to sign an $85 million, five-year deal with the Yankees led off the fourth with a liner into the first row of the second deck in right field.
McCann hurried around the bases, and fans were still cheering when Soriano followed with his third home run of the week. Beltran opened the sixth with a double and McCann homered to right-center. It was the catcher’s 10th career multihomer game.
“I’ve been seeing the ball pretty well to be hitting in the hundreds,” McCann said.
As for any concerns about a slow start, he said, “I don’t look at it that way.”
The Red Sox have been shifting on McCann during this series, moving an extra infielder onto the right side once they get a strike on him. Facing Lackey for the first time, McCann made moot any shift.
Tampa Bay 1, Cincinnati 0
Cleveland 12, Chicago White Sox 6
Minnesota 7, Kansas City 1
St. Louis 10, Chicago Cubs 4
Colorado 1, San Francisco 0
Baltimore 2, Toronto 1
Philadelphia 5, Miami 4
Milwaukee 3, Pittsburgh 2
Atlanta 6, Washington 3
Detroit 6, San Diego 2
Oakland 3, Seattle 1
NY Mets 7, LA Angels 6