MLB

MLB: Streaking Orioles hold off Red Sox in wild slugfest for 7th straight win on Saturday

By Sports Desk September 09, 2023

James McCann hit two of the Orioles’ five home runs and Baltimore held on for its seventh straight win, topping the Boston Red Sox 13-12 in a wild slugfest on Saturday.

Baltimore had leads of 7-2 in the fourth inning, 12-6 in the seventh and 13-9 in the ninth before Yennier Cano retired Emmanuel Valdez on a game-ending flyout to strand the tying run at third and give the Orioles their AL-best 90th win.

The Red Sox, who outhit the Orioles 23-14, got a two-run, two-out double from Trevor Story and an RBI single from rookie Wilyer Abreu before left fielder Austin Hays caught Valdez’s flyball to end a three-hour, 40-minute contest.

Baltimore became the first team to win when allowing at least 23 hits since the Seattle Mariners on September 3, 1981, at Boston in a 20-inning game.

No team had done that in a nine-inning game since the St. Louis Cardinals on June 3, 1930.

Aaron Hicks and Gunnar Henderson hit three-run homers, McCann had a two-run shot and a solo blast and Jordan Westburg also went deep for Baltimore, which has won 13 of 16 to maintain a four-game lead over Tampa Bay in the AL East.

Justin Turner hit a two-run homer in the first and Abreu went 5 for 5 with three RBIs, but Boston dropped its fourth straight.

 

Diaz’s home run lifts Rays over Mariners

Yandy Diaz hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Tampa Bay Rays a 7-5 win over the Seattle Mariners.

After Taylor Walls drew a two-out walk from Taylor Saucedo, Diaz drilled an opposite-field shot to right.

The win kept Tampa Bay four games behind Baltimore in the AL East and moved it 7 ½ games ahead of Seattle and Toronto in the race for the top wild card.

Julio Rodriguez went deep for his 29th home run and is one short of joining Alex Rodriguez as the only Mariners to have 30 homers and 30 steals in a single season.

Seattle blew a lead for a second straight day to drop 1 ½ games behind AL West-leading Houston.

 

Diamondbacks beat Cubs again

Tommy Pham delivered an RBI single to cap a two-run 10th inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks made it four straight wins, 3-2 over the Chicago Cubs.

Gabriel Moreno scored on a wild pitch in the 10th to snap a 1-1 tie before Pham drove home Jordan Lawlar with a liner to left.

Paul Seward gave up Cody Bellinger’s run-scoring single with two outs in the 10th but got Dansby Swanson to foul out for his 32nd save.

Arizona pulled within one game of Chicago for the No. 2 spot in the wild-card race.

The Cubs have just four runs through the first three games of the four-game series and have fallen four games behind NL Central-leading Milwaukee.

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