The Atlanta Braves backed Chris Sale's solid start with three home runs in a 5-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday that completed a three-game series sweep.
Michael Harris II, Matt Olson and Austin Riley all homered to help give Sale his first victory since joining the Braves in an offseason trade with the Boston Red Sox. The seven-time All-Star struck out six in 5 1/3 innings while allowing two runs on four hits.
Harris' solo homer off Ryne Nelson in the bottom of the fourth inning snapped a 2-2 tie, and Riley later provided some breathing room when he followed Ozzie Albies' double in the eighth with a blast into the center field seats off reliever Miguel Castro.
Nelson struck out seven in five innings but permitted three runs to take the loss.
Olson opened the scoring with a solo homer in the second inning, and the Braves loaded the bases later in the frame on three singles before Chadwick Tromp plated Marcell Ozuna with a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.
Sale set down the first 10 Arizona hitters before Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled to put runners at first and third in the top of the fourth inning. Carroll would score on a balk from Sale before Christian Walker brought in Gurriel with a game-tying single.
Walker finished 2 for 4 in the defending NL champion Diamondbacks' fourth straight loss.
Astros' Blanco dominates again in win over Rangers
Ronel Blanco followed up his no-hitter with six scoreless innings of one-hit ball to lead the Houston Astros to a 3-1 win over the rival Texas Rangers.
Six days after throwing the 17th no-hitter in franchise history to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday, Blanco yielded only a sixth-inning single to Aroldis Garcia while scattering four walks for his second victory in as many starts this season.
Yordan Alvarez supplied all the offence Blanco would need with a three-run homer off Texas starter Dane Dunning in the third inning.
Dunning struck out seven in 6 2/3 innings and encountered his only real trouble in the third, when he issued consecutive walks to Jake Meyers and Jose Altuve before Alvarez belted a pitch into the right field seats.
The Rangers mustered only two hits for the game, with the second coming when pinch-hitter Justin Foscue singled home Garcia with one out in the ninth inning.
Josh Hader shook off the hit to induce a game-ending double play off the bat of Ezequiel Duran to notch his first save since the star closer signed a five-year, $95 million contract with Houston in the offseason.
The defending World Series champion Rangers had won the first two meetings of this four-game series, which concludes Monday.
Cubs start fast, take series from Dodgers
The Chicago Cubs earned a series win over the Dodgers with Sunday's 8-1 rout that was helped out by a pair of former Los Angeles players, Michael Busch and Cody Bellinger.
Busch smacked a three-run double in the first inning and Bellinger had a solo homer in the sixth as the Cubs took two of three from the defending NL West champions and improved to 6-1 over their last seven games.
Chicago starter Shota Imanaga threw four scoreless innings before being removed due to a weather delay that lasted nearly three hours. The Japanese left-hander has now tossed 10 shutout innings over his first two major league starts.
Imanaga was staked to a quick lead as the Cubs scored three first-inning runs with two outs. With Ian Happ on base via an error by Los Angeles first baseman Freddie Freeman, Christopher Morel singled and Dansby Swanson walked before Busch cleared the bases with his opposite-field double.
Mike Tauchman drew a lead-off walk from Los Angeles starter Gavin Stone in the second and later came around on Seiya Suzuki's sacrifice fly for a 4-0 Chicago lead. Tauchman drove in the Cubs' fifth run with a double in the third, and another Dodgers' error in the fourth led to two more runs and staked the Cubs to a 7-0 advantage.
Stone allowed five runs in three innings, though just one was earned due to two of Los Angeles' three errors on the day.
Bellinger accounted for Chicago's final run with his solo blast off Ryan Yarbrough in the sixth that increased the lead to 8-0.
Shohei Ohtani finished 2 for 4 and drove in the Dodgers' lone run with an eighth-inning double. The 2023 American League MVP also had a triple earlier in the contest.
MLB: Twins beat White Sox again for 10th straight victory
Max Kepler and Jose Miranda delivered run-scoring singles in the seventh inning and the Twins added four runs in the ninth to win their 10th straight game, 10-5 over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
Alex Kiriloff had a solo home run, Will Castro and Miranda each finished with three hits and Ryan Jeffers contributed a two-run double for the Twins, whose winning streak is their longest since June 2008.
Minnesota has beaten the major league-worst White Sox seven times during the streak, with the other three wins coming against the 11–20 Angels.
Tommy Pham and Kory Lee homered for Chicago, which lost its third straight to fall to 6-25.
Twins center fielder Byron Buxton left in the second inning with right knee soreness after an unsuccessful attempt to steal second base.
Imanaga sharp again as Cubs hold off Mets
Shota Imanaga continued his historic start with seven scoreless innings and the Chicago Cubs completed a perfect relay for the game’s final out to hold off the New York Mets, 1-0.
Imanaga limited the Mets to three singles with one walk and seven strikeouts to improve to 5-0 with a 0.78 ERA in his first six major league starts.
He is the first pitcher since 1901 to go 4-0 with a sub-1.00 ERA and at least 28 strikeouts in his first five starts.
The Mets put runners at second and third with one out in the bottom of the ninth against Hector Neris before Jeff McNeil hit a flyball to medium left field. Ian Happ made the catch and relayed to third baseman Nick Madrigal, who threw home to get Pete Alonso for the final out.
Chicago scored the game’s only run in the fifth, when Matt Mervis led off with a double, moved up on a wild pitch and scored on rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong’s sacrifice fly.
Red-hot Lugo wins again
Seth Lugo pitched seven strong innings for his fifth win and Michael Massey hit a three-run homer to lift the Kansas City Royals to a 6-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Lugo allowed just one hit until giving up Danny Jansen’s home run with two outs in the seventh. The right-hander walked two and struck out eight to improve to 5-1 and lower his ERA to 1.60.
Bobby Witt Jr. had two hits, scored once and had an RBI to help the Royals take two of three in the series.
Salvador Perez had an RBI single and extended his career-best streak of reaching base safely to 21 games. He leads the AL with a .355 batting average and 27 RBIs.
Kansas City gave Lugo all the support he needed with a three-run sixth. Kyle Isbel led off with a double, moved up on a sacrifice and scored on Witt’s single. Vinnie Pasquantino then doubled, and Perez’s hit plated Witt before Massey’s groundout made it 3-0.
MLB: Tigers' Flaherty strikes out first 7 batters, fans 14 in doubleheader opener
Jack Flaherty tied an American League record with seven straight strikeouts to open the game and finished with a career-high 14 before the St. Louis Cardinals rallied for a 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers in a doubleheader opener on Tuesday.
Flaherty’s game-opening seven strikeouts matched the AL record shared by Joe Cowley of the 1986 Chicago White Sox, Carlos Rodon of the 2016 White Sox, Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell in 2018 and Seattle’s Luis Castillo two years ago.
Miami’s Pablo Lopez holds the major league record by striking out the first nine batters of a game in 2021.
Flaherty’s 14 strikeouts were the most by a Tigers pitcher since Max Scherzer had 14 against Pittsburgh on Aug. 14, 2014.
Detroit took a 1-0 lead into the ninth, but Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt and Alec Burleson had one-out singles before Pedro Pages followed with a go-ahead sacrifice fly for his first career RBI.
In the second game, Wenceel Perez homered from both sides of the plate, including a tiebreaking shot in the fifth inning, to lift the Tigers to an 11-6 win.
Streaking Twins beat White Sox
Max Kepler had a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the ninth inning to lead the Minnesota Twins to their ninth straight victory, 6-5 over the Chicago White Sox.
Minnesota’s win streak is its longest since a 10-game run in June 2008. The Twins also have won seven consecutive games against the White Sox.
After Andrew Benintendi homered in the eighth to tie it at 5, Bryon Buxton led off the ninth with a walk and took third on Manuel Margot’s single. Kepler’s fly to center gave the Twins a 6-5 lead and Jhoan Duran pitched around a leadoff single by Tommy Pham in the bottom of the ninth for the save in his season debut.
Danny Mendick added his first home run of the season for Chicago, which dropped to a major league-worst 6-24.
Caratini, Hader lift Astros to wild win
Victor Caratini hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning after Josh Hader pitched two innings for the first time since 2019 in the Houston Astros’ 10-9 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
David Fry’s RBI double in the top of the 10th put the Guardians ahead by one, but Caratini took Hunter Gaddis deep to give the Astros their third straight win.
Hader pitched a scoreless ninth before returning for the 10th. He got more than three outs in a regular-season game for the first time since getting four on Aug. 14, 2020, and had his first two-inning appearance in five years.
Josh Naylor and Estevan Florial hit three-run homers and Andres Gimenez also went deep for Cleveland, which rallied from an 8-3 deficit with a five-run sixth.
Angels’ Mike Trout to undergo knee surgery
Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout will undergo surgery to repair the torn meniscus in his left knee, the team announced Tuesday.
Trout will be out indefinitely, but the injury is not thought to be season-ending, ESPN reported.
The news is a devastating blow to the Angels, who will be without the three-time AL MVP for at least a couple of months.
Trout underwent an MRI after playing in the Angels’ win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday but was initially unaware that he had suffered a significant injury.
“It's crazy, because I look back and I don't even know when I did it,” Trout told reporters on Monday. “I was kind of telling myself, ‘Maybe I just banged it on something and I didn’t realise it.’ And then after the game, getting treatment on it, it was really sore.
“The plan was just to see how I felt in the morning. If I woke up and it was sore, just get it looked at. That was the plan. Last night was tough for me to sleep. It was just aching all night.”
Trout is batting .220 this season and leads the majors with 10 home runs.
This will be the third season in the last four that Trout has missed significant time due to injury. The 11-time All-Star missed the last half of last season with a broken bone in his hand, and a calf injury limited him to 36 games in 2021.
The Angels are reeling as a franchise after losing Shohei Ohtani in free agency to the cross-town rival Dodgers, a major blow to a team that has missed the playoffs in each of the last nine seasons.
Los Angeles entered play Tuesday at 11-18.
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