NEW YORK — Masahiro Tanaka pitched effectively into the seventh inning and on the day they officially announced the end of Alex Rodriguez’s career, the New York Yankees recorded a 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday.
With Rodriguez watching the game from the dugout in a jacket, Tanaka (8-4) allowed a run and six hits in six-plus innings.
Tanaka’s performance came after Rodriguez gave an emotional press conference to a packed interview room following the announcement that the 41-year-old will be playing his last game Friday before becoming a special advisor and instructor with the Yankees.
Jacoby Ellsbury had a sacrifice fly, Didi Gregorius homered and Mark Teixeira had an RBI double for the Yankees, who are one game over .500 for the eighth time since the All-Star break.
Nationals 1, Giants 0
WASHINGTON — Wilson Ramos hit a tie-breaking homer in the seventh inning, Tanner Roark pitched seven strong innings and Washington defeated San Francisco, taking the deciding game in a series pairing the National League East and West Division leaders.
Leading off the seventh against Madison Bumgarner, Ramos lifted an 0-1 slider to the opposite field for this 18th homer of the season.
Roark (12-6) allowed five hits and pitched out of trouble all afternoon while striking out five and walking three. Aside from the home run, Bumgarner (10-7) allowed only Anthony Rendon’s fourth-inning double and a pair of walks to go along with seven strikeouts and a hit batter over eight innings.
Mets 3, Tigers 1
DETROIT — Neil Walker’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning powered New York to just its fourth win in 12 games with a victory over Detroit.
Former Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez (1-2) hit Alejandro de Aza with an 0-2 pitch to lead off the ninth and Walker drove a high 1-0 changeup over the wall in right center for his 19th home run.
Addison Reed (3-2) pitched 1 1/3 innings to get the win, although he was aided by a Tigers’ baserunning blunder that got the Mets out of an eighth-inning jam. Jeurys Familia worked the ninth for his 39th save.
Twins 6, Rays 3
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Miguel Sano belted two home runs to lift Minnesota to a series victory over Tampa Bay.
In Sano’s first at-bat, he sent a foul ball so high that it hit the roof at Tropicana Field — becoming the first player to do so in fair territory in 19 seasons of Rays baseball. The ball was eventually caught by third baseman Evan Longoria.
In the third inning, Sano changed the trajectory a bit and launched a three-run homer to left-center field for his 17th blast of the season to give the Twins a 3-1 lead. He came back with a solo shot in the ninth for his second career multi-homer performance.