Padres outlast Angels in 13 innings

SAN DIEGO: Clayton Richard came lumbering wide around third base and headed for home, scoring standing up.
“Just straight Michigan quarterback sprinting,” manager Bud Black quipped after the San Diego Padres’ memorable 3-2, 13-inning victory against the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday.
Two innings after Angels manager Mike Scioscia vacated left field against a right-handed batter in favor of a drawn-in, five-man infield, it was Black’s turn to try something out of the ordinary in an attempt to win a game in which both teams ran out of position players and had to use a starting pitcher to pinch-hit.
He turned to Richard, a former backup quarterback at Michigan who is scheduled to start on Monday night at St. Louis. Richard, 0 for 16 this season, got a pinch-hit single to left with two outs in the 13th off David Pauley (0-1). Will Venable followed with a single to left-center, fill-in left fielder Howard Kendrick bobbled the ball for an error and Richard scored from first.
After he scored, Richard’s momentum carried him through a pack of happy teammates who were on their way to mob Venable on the infield grass.
By taking two of three from the Angels, the Padres had their first winning homestand of the season, going 3-2 against the Dodgers and Angels. It was just their third series win in 14 this season.
Rookie Miles Mikolas (1-1) pitched two perfect innings for his first big league win.
The Padres wasted pinch-hitter John Baker’s leadoff double in the unusual 11th inning.
Dodgers 6 Cardinals 5: In Los Angeles Scott Van Slyke has been hearing the same tired story since his childhood days.
It’s the one about the time his father was in the on-deck circle at Dodger Stadium when Jack Clark hit a go-ahead three-run homer in Game 6 of the 1985 NL championship series to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Dodgers and clinch the NL pennant.
Then-Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda had wanted Tom Niedenfuer to face Clark with first base open because he felt Andy Van Slyke had a better chance to do some damage against the Dodgers’ tired closer.
Sunday night brought back a flood of memories for the elder Van Slyke, who was in the stands and witnessed his son’s first big league homer - another three-run shot that put the Dodgers ahead in the seventh inning of a 6-5 victory over his hometown team.
Kyle Lohse allowed three runs and 11 hits over 5 2-3 innings with four strikeouts and left with a 5-3 lead. But rookie Elian Herrera started the Dodgers’ winning rally with a one-out single against Victor Marte, and Bobby Abreu greeted Mark Rzepczynski (0-2) with a single.
Van Slyke got the green light from manager Don Mattingly on a 3-0 pitch and drove it into the left-field bullpen after Andre Ethier struck out.
The home run was the third allowed in 15 1-3 innings this season by Rzepczynski, the only left-hander manager Mike Matheny has in the bullpen for situations like that.
Javy Guerra (2-3) got the win, which completed a three-game sweep for the Dodgers and improved the best record in the majors to 28-13.
Reds 5 Yankees 2: In New York, Aroldis Chapman got his first opportunity as the Cincinnati Reds’ new closer and earned his first save of the season on Sunday as the Reds finished off a comeback win over the New York Yankees.
Slumping Ryan Ludwick broke out with three hits, a home run and three RBIs, and Ryan Hanigan also homered for the Reds, who rallied to beat the Yankees 5-2.
The Yankees had broken a scoreless pitchers’ duel to take a 2-0 lead off winning pitcher Johnny Cueto (5-1) in the sixth on a two-run homer by Raul Ibanez. Ibanez finished the series 5-for-12 with two homers and five RBIs.
But other than that, the Yankees’ offensive woes continued, as they’ve lost five of their last six, and have six hits in their last 58 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
That was less of an issue in their final three innings, when the Yankees got only one runner past first base.
The Reds responded with three runs in the seventh to take the lead against losing pitcher CC Sabathia (5-2). They added two runs on Ludwick’s double past a diving Dewayne Wise in left against Rafael Soriano.
Mets 6 Blue Jays 5: In Toronto, right-hander Dillon Gee allowed five hits and three runs over 6 2/3 innings and David Wright drove in two runs with a first-inning double as the New York Mets held off the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 on Sunday.
Mike Baxter was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle before an announced crowd of 41,867 at Rogers Center as the Mets ended their two-gake losing skid and stopped Blue Jays’ four-game win streak.
Jose Bautista drove in two runs for Toronto with a home run and a single.
Gee (3-3) allowed single runs in the second, third and seventh before being replaced by Bobby Parnell. All three of the 25-year-old’s wins have been on the road. He walked four, hit a batter and struck out six in the 113-pitch outing.
Frank Francisco, who pitched for the Blue Jays in 2011, earned his 10th save of the season with three strikeouts after allowing a walk and a single to start the ninth. The Mets reached 22-year-old right-hander Henderson Alvarez (3-4) for nine hits, two walks and six runs in five innings.
The Mets (22-19) scored three runs in the first inning on a leadoff walk by Andres Torres and doubles by Baxter, Wright and Kirk Nieuwenhuis.
Toronto center fielder Colby Rasmus made a diving attempt on Nieuwenhuis’ hit but the ball was ruled to have popped out of his glove before the catch was completed.