The Cincinnati Reds can stake their claim as the hottest team in baseball after Jonathan India and Will Benson led them to a 10-3 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday.
It was the seventh straight win for the surprising Reds, their longest streak since June 2018 and the longest active run in the majors.
Cincinnati, which lost 100 games last season, moved one game over .500 for the first time since it was 3-2 in early April.
India opened the scoring in the first inning with a two-run homer – his third in seven games - off Brandon Bielak and Benson led off the fourth with a triple and scored on Curt Casali’s sacrifice bunt.
Benson greeted reliever Phil Maton with a two-run single in the fifth inning to make it 5-1.
That was more than enough offense for Hunter Greene, who allowed two runs and five hits in six innings. He won for the second time in four starts after opening the season without a victory in his first 10.
Tyler Stephenson singled home another run in the seventh and pinch-hitter Kevin Newman drove in two in Cincinnati’s four-run ninth.
Jose Altuve matched a career best with four hits, including a homer and two doubles. His 35th career four-hit game moved him past Hall of Famer Craig Biggio for the most in Astros history.
Streaking Giants pound rival Dodgers
J.D. Davis had a pinch-hit grand slam and LaMonte Wade Jr. added a three-run homer to lift the San Francisco Giants to their sixth consecutive win, a 15-0 drubbing of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Alex Wood and rookie Bobby Miller exchanged zeroes until the Giants broke through with four runs off Miller in the fifth inning on Brandon Crawford’s RBI single and Wade’s ninth home run of the season.
San Francisco extended its advantage to 9-0 an inning later. Crawford delivered another RBI single before Davis connected off reliever Alex Vesia with the bases loaded for his second grand slam this season and third of his career.
Davis closed the scoring with his fifth RBI in San Francisco’s three-run ninth.
Royals erase big deficit to snap 10-game losing streak
Samad Taylor delivered a walk-off single in his major league debut and the Kansas City Royals ended a 10-game skid by rallying for a 10-9 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
Faced with an 8-2 deficit in the seventh inning, the Royals scored three runs in the frame and tied it with three more in the eighth. Bobby Witt Jr. had a two-run double in the seventh and singled home another two in the eighth.
The Angels went back on top in the ninth on Mike Trout’s RBI single, but the Royals walked it off in the bottom half as Maikel Garcia singled home a run before scoring on Taylor’s single to deep centre.
Brandon Drury homered twice and Shohei Ohtani took over the major league lead with his 23rd home run, his eighth in his last 12 games.