Cubs claim 6th straight series win by beating beat MLB-leading Braves 6-4
CHICAGO (AP) — Cody Bellinger had his third straight multi-hit game, scored twice and drove in a run as the Chicago Cubs beat the MLB-leading Atlanta Braves 6-4 on Sunday for their sixth straight series win.
Dansby Swanson added a double and two RBIs against his former team, and Ian Happ drove in a pair of runs, helping the Cubs win for the 15th time in 19 games.
All-Star Justin Steele scuffled at times through 5 1/3 innings, and won his fourth straight start on a misty day at Wrigley Field. Mike Tauchman had two hits, scored two runs and threw out Ronald Acuña Jr. at the plate from right field in the fifth to limit an Atlanta rally.
Atlanta’s Matt Olson hit his NL-leading 39th home run, a monster 453-foot blast to the top of Wrigley’s right-center bleachers, and finished with three RBIs. Ozzie Albies had three hits, including a double. Olson and Acuña and each had two hits.
Steele (13-3) allowed four runs, three earned, and eight hits while striking out seven and walking four.
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Charlie Morton (10-10) lost his fourth straight start, allowing five runs and four hits with four walks and hit batter in 4 1/3 innings.
ASTROS 9, YANKEES 7
NEW YORK (AP) — Jake Meyers hit two long three-run homers and Houston beat New York after struggling Yankees starter Carlos Rodón exited early with another injury.
Yordan Alvarez and Martín Maldonado also went deep to help Houston split the four-game series, the first meeting between the teams since the Astros swept the ALCS last October.
Houston, which holds an AL wild-card spot, remained 2 1/2 games behind first-place Texas in the AL West.
Gleyber Torres homered and reached base five times. Harrison Bader also had three hits and two RBIs for the fourth-place Yankees, who fell 4 1/2 games behind Toronto for the final AL wild card.
Rodón was removed in the third inning with left hamstring tightness. Signed to a $162 million, six-year contract in the offseason, he missed the first three-plus months of the season with a forearm strain and a bad back. The left-hander has a 7.33 ERA in 27 innings this season.
Meyers took Rodón deep in the second and put Houston ahead for good in the sixth with a 432-foot drive off Wandy Peralta (3-2). The six RBIs for Meyers matched the most by an Astros player this season.
Rookie right-hander J.P. France (8-3), making his first career relief appearance, did not allow an earned run in 3 1/3 innings.
Bryan Abreu got four outs for his fourth save. Giancarlo Stanton flied out with two on to end it.
WHITE SOX 5, GUARDIANS 3
CLEVELAND (AP) — Elvis Andrus hit a two-run single after Chicago tied it in the ninth inning on consecutive throwing errors by Cleveland rookie Bryan Rocchio, one day after a nasty benches-clearing brawl between the AL Central rivals.
There was no carryover from Saturday night’s melee, triggered by a fight at second base between Chicago’s Tim Anderson and Cleveland’s José Ramírez. There were six total ejections. Major League Baseball is still reviewing the Anderson-Ramírez altercation, along with subsequent flareups, before handing out discipline.
The White Sox were down to their final strike in the series finale before rallying against All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase (1-6).
Sammy Peralta (1-0) got the win, and Jimmy Lambert worked the ninth for his first career save.
Rookie Gabriel Arias hit a two-run homer for the Guardians.
NATIONALS 6, REDS 3
CINCINNATI (AP) — Washington’s CJ Abrams and Lane Thomas hit Lyon Richardson’s first two major league pitches for home runs and the last-place Nationals finished a three-game sweep of Cincinnati.
Over the last 50 seasons, the 23-year-old Richardson (0-1) is the only pitcher to allow a home run on the first two pitches of his major league career, according to Optastats.
Jake Au added a two-run single to Washington’s four-run first. Abrams finished with four hits as Washington (49-63) pieced together a four-game win streak for the first time this season.
Joey Votto and TJ Friedl homered for the sliding Reds (59-55), who have lost six straight for the second time in a month and the third time this season.
Andrés Machado (3-0) got the win. Richardson allowed four hits and four runs with three walks and two strikeouts in three innings.
PHILLIES 8, ROYALS 4
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bryson Stott, Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos homered, as Philadelphia beat Kansas City for its fifth win in seven games.
Taijuan Walker (13-4) recovered from a shaky first inning to become the first NL pitcher to reach 13 victories. Bryce Harper had two hits and drove in a run for the Phillies.
Zack Greinke (1-12) took the loss, allowing five runs and seven hits in four innings. MJ Melendez homered for Kansas City.
ORIOLES 2, METS 0
BALTIMORE (AP) — Kyle Bradish and four relievers combined on a four-hitter as Baltimore completed a three-game sweep of New York.
Adley Rutschman and Ryan O’Hearn each drove in a run for American League-leading Baltimore, which won for the eighth time in 10 games. Cionel Pérez (4-1) relieved an erratic Bradish and earned the win. Félix Bautista earned his 30th save in 35 chances.
José Quintana (0-3) allowed two runs and six hits in six-plus innings. He walked two and struck out six. New York has lost six straight since trading star pitcher Justin Verlander and two others on Tuesday to cap a deadline selloff.
The plummeting Mets (50-61) were shut out for the 11th time and fell a season-worst 11 games below .500.
BLUE JAYS 13, RED SOX 1
BOSTON (AP) — Davis Schneider went 4 for 5 with a homer and four RBIs, and Toronto completed a weekend sweep of Boston.
Matt Chapman had a two-run double after Red Sox center fielder Jarren Duran misplayed a fly ball that would have been the final out of a four-run third inning.
Toronto moved five games ahead of the last-place Red Sox in the AL East for the third and final American League wild-card spot.
Triston Casas homered for Boston, which has dropped seven of eight.
Chris Bassitt (11-6) went seven innings, giving up a run on seven hits. He struck out six and walked three. Chris Murphy (1-1) took the loss.
RAYS 10, TIGERS 6
DETROIT (AP) — Yandy Díaz homered and scored three runs as Tampa Bay scored five runs in the first two innings and took two of three from Detroit in the weekend series.
Díaz and Wander Franco each had three hits and drove in two runs and Brandon Lowe homered. Colin Poche (9-3) got the win with 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.
Tigers starter Matt Manning (3-4) allowed eight runs in 5 2/3 innings, giving him 19 runs in his last three starts.
Díaz led off the game with a double and took third on Franco’s single. After Brandon Lowe grounded into a force at second, Díaz scored on second baseman Andy Ibanez’s error. Manning hit Isaac Paredes to load the bases and Josh Lowe hit a two-run single.
TWINS 5, DIAMONDBACKS 3
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Matt Wallner hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Minnesota a rain-delayed victory and a three-game sweep of Arizona.
Christian Walker put the Diamondbacks ahead 3-2 with a solo home run off Caleb Thielbar (2-1) in the top of the ninth.
Max Kepler led off the bottom half by hitting his third homer in three games. Jorge Polanco walked and Wallner connected off new Arizona closer Paul Sewald (3-2), acquired from Seattle in a trade Monday.
Minnesota opened a 4 1/2-game lead in the AL Central over Cleveland.
Dallas Keuchel, the 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner, made his Twins debut and first appearance in the majors since Sept. 2, 2022, for Texas. Against the Diamondbacks — one of three teams he pitched for last year — Keuchel gave up one run in five innings while working around eight hits.
Carlos Correa had a two-run single that put the Twins in front 2-1 in the sixth.
PIRATES 4, BREWERS 1
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Endy Rodriguez and Connor Joe homered to spoil the return of Milwaukee starter Brandon Woodruff after four months, leading Pittsburgh past the NL Central-leading Brewers.
Woodruff (1-1) was activated off the 60-day injured list (right shoulder inflammation) on Sunday and was making his first start for the Brewers since April 7. He retired the first six hitters, striking out the first five, before Rodriguez opened the third inning with his second homer. Joe opened the fourth with his eighth homer of the season to make it 2-0.
Bryan Reynolds had a pinch-hit, two-run homer, his 14th of the season, off Abner Uribe in the eighth to make it 4-0.
Milwaukee scored an unearned run in the ninth off Carmen Mlodzinski.
Johan Oviedo (6-11) allowed just two hits, both by Contreras, in seven innings and won his third consecutive start after eight straight losses. Oviedo struck out six and walked three.
ROCKIES 1, CARDINALS 0
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Austin Gomber pitched out of trouble for six innings against his former team and Ezequiel Tovar had a sacrifice fly to lift Colorado over St. Louis.
In a matchup of last-place clubs, the Rockies took two of three games and won a series in St. Louis for the first time since sweeping the Cardinals in June 2009.
St. Louis went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position and stranded 15 overall. The Cardinals have lost four of six.
Gomber (9-8) gave up six hits and struck out two.
Cardinals starter Zack Thompson (2-4) allowed two hits in four innings. He struck out eight.
RANGERS 6, MARLINS 0
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Texas slugged four homers and swept a six-game homestand with a win over Miami in a game in which they lost standout rookie third baseman Josh Jung with a fractured thumb.
Nathaniel Lowe, Marcus Semien, Ezequiel Duran and Adolis Garcia homered, and while Andrew Heaney allowed four singles in 5 2/3 shutout innings.
The six-game winning streak and four homers match Texas highs this season.
Heaney (9-6) gave up two hits in the second inning, then retired 10 consecutive batters before leaving with two runners on in the sixth. He has a career-best scoreless streak of 15 2/3 innings.
Sandy Alcantara (4-10), the NL’s reigning Cy Young winner, gave up five runs in six innings and allowed three homers for the first time since last September.
MARINERS 3, ANGELS 2, 10 INNINGS
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Eugenio Suárez delivered an RBI single in the 10th inning, and Seattle completed a four-game sweep of Los Angeles.
J.P. Crawford homered on the first pitch of the game and Teoscar Hernández hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh for the Mariners (60-52), who have won five straight and 13 of 17 to move 4 1/2 games ahead of their AL West rival Angels (56-57) in the wild-card standings.
Seattle's Tayler Saucedo (3-1) pitched two scoreless innings of relief for the win. Jaime Barria (2-6) took the loss.
Seattle won it a few innings after Los Angeles’ Chase Silseth and Seattle’s Bryce Miller became the first pair of rookie starters to record at least 10 strikeouts apiece in the same game since 1906, according to MLB research.
Silseth set career highs with 12 strikeouts over seven innings, while Miller tied his career high with 10 strikeouts in five innings of five-hit ball for Seattle. The duo combined for 18 strikeouts in the first four innings alone.
Matt Thaiss homered and Shohei Ohtani went 1 for 4 and scored a run for the Angels.
ATHLETICS 8, GIANTS 6
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Nick Allen homered twice and had three RBIs, Shea Langeliers put Oakland ahead with a two-run single in the sixth inning and the Athletics rallied to beat San Francisco.
Limited to eight runs over their previous eight games, the last-place A’s outlasted Giants All-Star Alex Cobb and then broke through with three runs in the sixth. Oakland earned its second consecutive victory in the annual Bay Bridge series after losing the first two matchups in San Francisco this year.
Seth Brown doubled twice and had his first triple of the season for Oakland. Zack Gelof added the first three-hit game of his career.
LaMonte Wade Jr. had three hits and two RBIs for the Giants, who dropped into a tie with Philadelphia for the top National League wild card.
Kirby Snead (1-0) struck out all three batters he faced to earn his first win since July 12, 2022. Trevor May, the last of six A’s relievers, got three outs for his 11th save.
Luke Jackson (1-1) took the loss.
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