Surging Yankees top Red Sox, Sale 4-1
NEW YORK (AP) — DJ LeMahieu homered and hit an RBI double off the wall against Chris Sale, sending the surging New York Yankees to a 4-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.
Aaron Hicks broke a third-inning tie with a two-run single, and J.A. Happ (5-3) pitched well against Boston again to win his fourth consecutive decision overall. New York got four shutout innings from its deep and dominant bullpen, handing the defending World Series champions their third loss in a row. Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman each worked an inning to finish the five-hitter. Chapman struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 16th save.
Despite a rash of injuries, the Yankees hold a 1½-game lead in the AL East over Tampa Bay — and a widening gap on the Red Sox. New York has won all three meetings between the longtime rivals this season, beating Sale (1-7) twice and outscoring Boston 17-4. New York has won nine of 11 overall and is 31-10 since a 6-9 start.
Rafael Devers homered early for the third-place Red Sox, who fell 8½ games back in the division. That’s the furthest they’ve been behind the Yankees since finishing the 2015 season nine games in the dust.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Josh Bell finished off his historic May with two more hits, Starling Marte added three hits and scored three times and the Pirates pounced on struggling Milwaukee starter Jhoulys Chacin.
Bell went 2 for 5 and drove in a run in front of a crowd that included fans in the right-field seats wearing “Bellieve” T-shirts as part of a promotion that doubled as an All-Star Game push for the 26-year-old first baseman. Bell’s two singles gave him 94 total bases in May, the most by any player in any month in the franchise’s 138-year history. Bell hit .389 in May with 12 home runs, 12 doubles and 31 RBIs.
Kevin Newman extended his hitting streak to a career-best 10 games with a pair of hits, including a two-run single off reliever Freddy Peralta in the third to cap a six-run outburst that put the Pirates firmly in control.
Chris Archer (2-5) gave up early home runs to Jesus Aguilar and Keston Hiura, but settled down to work seven innings and pick up his first victory since April 7. Chacin (3-7) fell to 1-7 in his last 10 starts.
CINCINNATI (AP) — Curt Casali hit a three-run homer off Patrick Corbin, who had one of the worst starts of his career, and the Reds beat Washington to end the Nationals‘ streak of eight straight wins at Great American Ball Park.
Corbin (5-3) gave up eight runs — one shy of his career high — in 2 2/3 innings. The Reds piled up 11 hits, matching the most the left-hander had allowed in a game. He retired only eight of his 20 batters. Corbin hadn’t allowed so many runs since he also gave up eight on Sept. 8, 2017, during a 10-6 loss to San Diego. It’s only the fifth time in his career that he has allowed eight or more runs.
Reds right-hander Tyler Mahle (2-5) gave up three runs in five innings, including Juan Soto’s 10th homer. Soto has hit safely in a career-high 14 straight games.
Cincinnati’s Joey Votto returned after missing three games with a tight right hamstring and had three hits. Eugenio Suarez was back in the lineup after getting hit on the left hand by Clay Holmes‘ pitch on Wednesday.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Eddie Rosario hit a tiebreaking, two-run single off Adam Kolarek in the ninth inning after a pair of batters were hit by pitches, and Minnesota beat Tampa Bay in a matchup of two of the major leagues’ hottest teams.
Minnesota, a big league-best 38-18, overcame a 3-1 fifth-inning deficit and won for the 13th time in 16 games. The Twins opened a season-high 10½-game in the AL Central. They have scored three or more runs in 24 straight games, matching the Minnesota record for a single season, set in 2006.
José Berríos and Taylor Rogers (2-1) combined on a four-hitter and stopped a six-game winning streak by the Rays (35-20), their longest since last August. Tampa Bay won the series opener 14-3 and had allowed three runs or fewer in its previous nine games. Helped by $7.11 tickets, the Rays drew 14,375 to Tropicana Field after three straight days of crowds ranging from 5,786 to 8,076.
Diego Castillo (1-4) hit Jonathan Schoop on the left shoulder with a slider leading off the ninth. Schoop was sacrificed to second and took third on a groundout, and Jorge Polanco was intentionally walked, and Castillo hit Willians Astudillo on the left arm with a slider on a 1-2 count.
ORIOLES 9, GIANTS 5
BALTIMORE (AP) — Dwight Smith’s first career grand slam capped a six-run outburst in the first inning and the Orioles outslugged the San Francisco Giants.
Trey Mancini and Renato Núñez also homered for the Orioles, who overcame a five-run, first-inning deficit and improved to 8-21 at home as the teams met at Camden Yards for the first time since 2004. Núñez has homered in seven of his last 11 games and has a team-leading 14 homers this season.
Mike Yastrzemski, traded by Baltimore on March 23 after he was reassigned to minor league camp, homered and tripled in his first two at-bats for San Francisco, which has lost eight of nine.
The Giants charged to a 5-0 lead off Andrew Cashner (6-2) in the first inning. The Orioles countered with six runs, highlighted by Smith’s grand slam, in the bottom half off Drew Pomeranz (1-6). Cashner and Pomeranz combined for 90 pitches in the opening inning. It was the first time that two teams scored at least five runs in the first inning since July 6, 2012, (Yankees and Red Sox), according to STATS LLC.
Richard Bleier got five outs for his second save.
CHICAGO (AP) — Dylan Covey pitched six effective innings for his first win since August, and the White Sox beat sloppy Cleveland for their season-high fifth straight win.
Charlie Tilson hit a two-run double to get Chicago’s offense rolling. Tilson, Yoán Moncada, Yonder Alonso and Yolmer Sánchez each had two hits. The win moved the White Sox into a second-place tie in the AL Central with Cleveland.
The Indians committed four errors. Four of Chicago’s six runs against slumping Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer were unearned.
Covey (1-4) settled down after allowing a leadoff homer to Francisco Lindor and scattered eight hits and ended a personal six-game losing streak. Josh Osich and Juan Minaya followed with three innings of one-hit relief.
Bauer (4-5) allowed nine hits and struck out eight in seven innings, but shaky fielding doomed the right-hander.
TIGERS 8, BRAVES 2
ATLANTA (AP) — Niko Goodrum homered twice and had a career-high five hits, Nicholas Castellanos and Grayson Greiner also went deep, and the Detroit Tigers romped past the Braves.
Spencer Turnbull (3-4) pitched into the seventh inning, allowing just five hits and one earned run in dealing the Braves their third straight loss at SunTrust Park.
Goodrum, who came into the night hitting just .208, launched a 419-foot drive that nearly went into the Chop House restaurant above the right-field seats in the third inning. He hit another almost as far in the eighth for his second career multihomer game. Goodrum finished 5 for 5 to raise his average to .230. He scored four times and also collected a run-scoring single in a three-run fifth that blew the game open.
After two straight strong starts, Atlanta’s Mike Foltynewicz (1-4) had another rough night. Foltynewicz surrendered seven hits and five runs in five innings.
Atlanta has been outscored 22-6 in its last two defeats.
RANGERS 6, ROYALS 2
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Joey Gallo’s first career grand slam capped a six-run, sixth-inning outburst as the Rangers rallied past the Kansas City Royals.
Gallo’s home run, his team leading 16th of the season, sailed 457 feet.
Ariel Jurado (2-2) won for the first time in three major league starts this season. He allowed two runs on five hits and three walks and had career highs in strikeouts (six) and pitches (101).
Danny Duffy (3-2) lost for the first time since April 26. Carrying a two-hit shutout into the sixth inning, Duffy allowed all six runs, six hits and two walks — both in the sixth.
Jesse Chavez, the first of three Texas relievers, worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning. He ran his scoreless streak to 17 1/3 innings in May, a franchise record for one month.
Cheslor Cuthbert homered in his first major league at-bat of the season, and Alex Gordon tripled-in Kansas City’s other run. Adalberto Mondesi had his major league-leading 19th stolen base, giving the Royals a major league-leading 53.
