ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Brandon Lowe capped Tampa Bay’s four-run ninth inning with a three-run homer, lifting the Rays to a 5-2 victory over the struggling Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night.
Richie Palacios started the rally with a leadoff double against Héctor Neris (6-1). Ben Rortvedt reached on a one-out walk before José Caballero’s RBI single tied it at 2.
Yandy Díaz then struck out swinging before Lowe drove a full-count pitch deep to right-centre for his third homer of the season.
Chris Devenski (2-1) worked a scoreless ninth for the win.
Chicago wasted a sharp performance by Jameson Taillon, who pitched six scoreless innings of four-hit ball. The Cubs have dropped 13 of their last 18 games.
NATIONALS 5, TIGERS 4 (10)
DETROIT — Lane Thomas hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning and Washington beat Detroit.
Andrew Chafin (3-2) struck out C.J. Abrams to start the 10th, but Jacob Young took third and Abrams reached first when the pitch sailed past Tigers catcher Jake Rogers.
Thomas put the Nationals ahead 5-4 with a sacrifice fly before Jesse Winker hit into an inning-ending double play.
Kyle Finnegan (2-3), who got the last out of the ninth, pitched a perfect 10th to get the win.
Nationals starter Mitchell Parker allowed four unearned runs in 4 2/3 innings.
PHILLIES 4, RED SOX 1
BOSTON —Kyle Schwarber homered on the first pitch of the game — then added another solo shot in the fifth inning — and Zack Wheeler won his eighth straight decision leading Philadelphia to a victory over Boston.
Wheeler (8-3) has not lost in 10 starts since April 14. He allowed one run on three hits over seven innings, striking out four and walking one to help Philadelphia improve to a season-high 10 games in front of the six-time defending NL East champion Atlanta Braves.
Phillies pitchers retired 14 straight batters before David Hamilton singled with one out in the ninth, but José Alvarado retired the next two batters for his 12th save.
Bryson Stott also had two hits for the Phillies, who picked up a pair of unearned runs when Boston first baseman Dominic Smith dropped an easy toss that should have ended the fourth inning.
ORIOLES 4, BRAVES 0
BALTIMORE — Jorge Mateo hit a three-run homer in his first plate appearance after returning to the lineup, and Albert Suarez allowed four hits in 5 1/3 innings to lead Baltimore over Atlanta.
Mateo was reinstated from the concussion injured list and played for the first time since he was hit in the head by teammate Cedric Mullins’ bat in a freak accident at the on-deck circle in a June 2 game. He hit a drive into the Baltimore bullpen in the second inning off Max Fried (6-3).
Suarez (3-0) lowered his ERA to 1.61, and the Baltimore bullpen — which lost left-hander Danny Coulombe to the injured list before the game — kept Atlanta off the scoreboard.
The Braves wasted a leadoff triple by Michael Harris II in the first inning. Then with men on first and second in the top of the second, Sean Murphy hit a drive to left field that stayed in the park for a flyout thanks to the tall, deep wall in that part of Camden Yards. It would have been a homer in all 29 other ballparks, according to Statcast.
ROCKIES 5, TWINS 4
MINNEAPOLIS — Ezequiel Tovar hit a three-run homer, Cal Quantrill kept his strong run going with six scoreless innings and Colorado held on to beat Minnesota.
Quantrill (6-4), who’s allowed more than two runs just once in his last eight starts, gave up three hits and walked one, while striking out five batters. The 29-year-old right-hander has allowed 10 earned runs in 47 innings (1.92 ERA) since the start of May.
Colorado had just one hit in five innings against Minnesota starter Louie Varland, who was recalled from Triple-A St. Paul earlier in the day. With reliever Caleb Thielbar starting the sixth inning, Charlie Blackmon singled and Brenton Doyle walked before Tovar lined a pitch over the wall in left field for his 11th homer of the season.
Tyler Kinley allowed a two-run homer to Minnesota’s Carlos Santana with two outs in the ninth but earned his fifth save in as many chances for the Rockies.
MARLINS 4, METS 2
NEW YORK — Tim Anderson returned from the bereavement list and produced his first two-hit game in three weeks Tuesday night, sparking Miami to a win over the New York Mets.
The 2019 AL batting champion, who entered hitting .188 this season, had an RBI single in the second inning before singling and scoring in the fifth when Bryan De La Cruz doubled off the glove of Harrison Bader in deep centre field.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. scored the go-ahead run two batters later, when Jake Burger hit a hard smash and reached on a two-out throwing error by Mets third baseman Mark Vientos.
The two-hit game was Anderson’s first since May 21. He was just 5 for 39 over his next 11 games before being placed on the bereavement list and missing the Marlins’ weekend series against Cleveland.
Nick Gordon added a ninth-inning sacrifice fly.
GUARDIANS 5, REDS 3
CINCINNATI — Josh Naylor hit his 17th homer and Tyler Freeman made two impressive defensive plays, helping Cleveland beat Cincinnati in the opener of the Ohio Cup series.
Steven Kwan hit a two-run double for AL Central-leading Cleveland, which earned its third consecutive win. Triston McKenzie (3-3) pitched 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball, and Emmanuel Clase worked a shaky ninth for his 20th save.
The Guardians went ahead to stay with three runs in the third against Nick Martinez (2-4). Bo Naylor and Kwan hit consecutive RBI doubles, and Josh Naylor added a run-scoring single.
The Reds had jumped in front on Jeimer Candelario’s RBI double in the first. But they lost out on a chance for more because of back-to-back spectacular catches by Freeman in centre.
PIRATES 2, CARDINALS 1
ST LOUIS (AP) — Connor Joe and Oneil Cruz drove in runs in the ninth inning, lifting Pittsburgh to victory over St. Louis.
Colin Holderman (2-0) gave up two hits but no runs in the eighth and David Bednar earned his 14th save by pitching the ninth despite giving up a first-pitch leadoff home run to Nolan Gorman.
Bednar has converted 13 straight save opportunities and his 75 saves are the seventh-most in team history.
Both starters were splendid and neither gave up a run.
YANKEES 10, ROYALS 1
KANSAS CITY, Mo., — Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 25th home run with a 436-foot, two-run drive into the fountain behind the centre-field seats, and the New York Yankees routed Kansas City for their 11th win in 14 games.
Giancarlo Stanton followed Judge with a 446-foot shot to centre off reliever Nick Anderson for his 16th home run of the season, and Austin Wells hit a three-run homer off starter Brady Singer.
Back in the lineup after his first game off this season, Judge hit his 21st homer in his last 41 games and also singled in New York’s first run. Judge raised his average to .309 and is hitting .419 with 44 RBIs in his last 35 games after batting .197 through May 2.
AL-best New York (48-21) improved to 39-4 when Judge and Stanton homer in the same game, including the playoffs, and to 16-1 against the AL Central this season. The Yankees are a season-best 27 games over .500.
Aaron Boone got his 557th victory, moving past Billy Martin into sole possession of seventh among Yankees managers.
BLUE JAYS 3, BREWERS 0
MILWAUKEE — Yusei Kikuchi and four Toronto relievers combined to shut out Milwaukee.
Kikuchi (4-5) gave up three hits in five innings, walked four and struck out five to record consecutive wins for the first time since April. Kikuchi gave up one run in six innings in his previous outing on Thursday against the Orioles.
Closer Yimi Garcia got four outs to record his fifth save in six tries.
ASTROS 3, GIANTS 1
SAN FRANCISCO — Ronel Blanco had eight strikeouts in six innings, Mauricio Dubon scored twice and Houston beat San Francisco.
Blanco (6-2) allowed one run on three hits and became the first pitcher in Astros history to go undefeated in his first nine career road starts, improving to 6-0 away from home. His eight strikeouts tied a season high.
Houston took a 3-1 lead in the fifth when two runs scored on an RBI infield single by Alex Bregman. With two outs and runners on second and third, Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman grabbed Bregman’s softly hit ball with a bare hand but threw wide of first for an error, allowing both runners to score.
Ryan Pressly earned his second save of the season, striking out two in the ninth to finish a three-hitter.
MARINERS 4, WHITE SOX 3
SEATTLE — Cal Raleigh hit a go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning and Seattle earned a comeback win over the Chicago White Sox.
It was the second consecutive night that Raleigh drove in the winning run, after he hit a walk-off grand slam against Chicago on Monday.
Mariners starter Jhonathan Díaz surrendered four singles in the top of the second inning, including a bases-loaded hit by Martin Maldonado. Prior to his RBI single, Maldonado was 0 for 35 dating to May 11, and 1 for 46 over his past 15 games.
The Mariners tied it in the bottom of the second with consecutive doubles from Luke Raley and Mitch Garver. Andrew Vaughn and Paul DeJong hit back-to-back homers in the third to put Chicago up 3-1.
The Mariners pulled within one on Raleigh’s third-inning RBI double against Drew Thorpe, who allowed just three hits and two runs (one earned) over five innings in his major league debut.
But the Mariners got to the Chicago bullpen, as Josh Rojas drew a two-out walk and Julio Rodríguez reached on an infield single in the seventh against reliever John Brebbia (0-4), before Raleigh came through with his second double of the game.
PADRES 4, ATHLETICS 3
SAN DIEGO — Kyle Higashioka homered leading off the ninth inning and San Diego beat Oakland.
Fernando Tatis Jr. extended his hitting streak to a career-high 17 games, but Jurickson Profar, who entered second in the big leagues in batting and first in the NL in on-base percentage, hurt himself swinging at a pitch leading off the eighth.
Profar was replaced by pinch-hitter David Peralta, who flied out to centre field. The Padres loaded the bases with two outs before Merrill Jackson flied out to left.
Higashioka ended it with a drive to left off left-hander Scott Alexander (0-1), his fifth homer of the season. It was the first career walk-off homer for Higashioka, and his second game-ending hit.
Robert Suarez (3-0) got the win.
Tatis singled and doubled. He has the longest current hitting streak in the majors. He also extended his on-base streak to a career-best 21 games.
DODGERS 15, RANGERS 2
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and Jason Heyward homered in a seven-run sixth inning as the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the defending World Series champion Texas.
Will Smith blasted a three-run shot in the first, giving the Dodgers a lead they never relinquished in the opener of the interleague series. Their 15 runs were a season high.
James Paxton (6-1) allowed one run and two hits in six innings. He struck out two and walked two.
The last time the Dodgers homered four times in an inning was on Sept. 29, 2021, against the San Diego Padres.
Ezequiel Duran accounted for both of the Rangers’ runs. He had a sacrifice fly in the second and homered with two outs in the seventh.
DIAMONDBACKS 9, ANGELS 4
PHOENIX — Randal Grichuk had a two-run homer as part of a three-hit night, Corbin Carroll, Gabriel Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. all added three more hits and Arizona beat the Los Angeles Angels.
Grichuk finished a single short of the cycle, while Carroll was a homer shy of the feat. Moreno hit two doubles and had two RBIs. No Diamondbacks player has hit for the cycle since Aaron Hill on June 29, 2012.
Carroll got the scoring started in the second inning with an RBI triple into the right-centre gap that brought home Grichuk. Two batters later, Geraldo Perdomo added an RBI single to make it 2-0.
Angels lefty José Suarez (1-1) made his first start of the season after 16 relief appearances. He didn’t last long, giving up four runs on six hits and a walk over 2 2/3 innings while striking out three. He was pulled after giving up a towering two-run homer to Grichuk in the fourth that made it 4-2.
Arizona’s Jordan Montgomery (4-4) gave up three runs over 5 2/3 innings, providing a decent start after two straight stinkers.
