Adolis Garcia, Mitch Garver and Nathaniel Lowe hit consecutive solo home runs in the sixth inning to rally the Texas Rangers to a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday that extended the American League West leaders' winning streak to six games.
Marcus Semien added a solo homer in the seventh inning to help back six sharp innings from Jon Gray as Texas reduced its magic number to win the division to four. The Rangers maintained a 2 1/2-game lead over second-place Houston with less than a week remaining in the regular season.
Garcia, Garver and Lowe's back-to-back-to-back homers off Jimmy Herget erased a 1-0 deficit, and Semien belted his third homer in two games an inning later to increase the lead to 4-1.
Texas had a season-high six homers in Sunday's 9-8 win over AL West rival Seattle and now has 227 for the season, surpassing the Angels' 225 for the most in the AL.
Gray ended a seven-start winless drought by holding the Angels to one run on five hits while recording seven strikeouts. The right-hander had gone 0-3 with a 6.46 ERA during that stretch.
Logan O'Hoppe finished 2 for 4 and accounted for Los Angeles' lone run with a solo homer in the second inning.
Angels starter Patrick Sandoval threw three scoreless innings before exiting with tightness in his right oblique. The left-hander walked the first two hitters of the fourth prior to departing.
Verlander dominates Mariners as Astros increase gap in AL wild card race
Justin Verlander took a shutout into the ninth inning in his best start since rejoining the Houston Astros, who increased their lead on the Seattle Mariners for the AL's third wild card with Monday's 5-1 win.
Verlander yielded just two hits and struck out eight until permitting a leadoff double to Josh Rojas to begin the bottom of the ninth. The three-time AL Cy Young Award winner was then removed after 96 pitches.
Rojas ended up scoring Seattle's lone run on a sacrifice fly from Julio Rodriguez.
Verlander helped the Astros to two World Series titles over four-plus seasons before signing with the New York Mets in December. The 40-year-old was traded back to Houston on Aug. 1.
Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker had solo home runs to help Houston win the opener of this important three-game series. The Astros are now 1 1/2 games up on the Mariners for the final wild card and trail the first-place Texas Rangers by 2 1/2 games in the AL West.
Martin Maldonado went 2 for 3 and delivered an RBI double during a three-run second inning that staked Verlander to an early lead. Mauricio Dubon and Jose Altuve added RBI singles during the frame.
Luis Castillo struck out eight over six innings for Seattle, which has now lost four in a row, but allowed all five Houston runs.
Diamondbacks fall to Yankees, drop into tie for NL's second wild card
Oswald Peraza, Estevan Florial and Everson Pereira had eighth-inning RBIs as the New York Yankees rallied for a 6-4 win over Arizona that dropped the Diamondbacks into a tie for the NL’s second wild card spot.
The loss sent the Diamondbacks into a tie with the idle Chicago Cubs in the wild card standings with both teams one game ahead of the Miami Marlins.
The Yankees, who overcame deficits three times in the game, trailed 4-3 entering their half of the eighth but tagged Kevin Ginkel for three runs to take the lead for good. Clay Holmes then pitched a perfect ninth for his 22nd save of the season.
Youngsters Peraza and Austin Wells homered to help the Yankees earn two wins in the three-game series.
Arizona’s Merrill Kelly needed 96 pitches to navigate five innings, but allowed just two runs while striking out five and leaving with the game tied.
Alek Thomas knocked in two runs for the Diamondbacks, while Corbin Carroll finished 3 for 5 with an RBI.
Diamondbacks acquire slugger Suarez from Mariners
The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired third baseman Eugenio Suarez from the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday in an attempt to bolster a position that lacked power during the team’s run to the World Series last season.
Arizona finished tied for 28th in Major League Baseball in 2023 with only 10 total home runs by its third baseman. Suarez, meanwhile, hit 22 homers of his own for Seattle.
“It adds a little bit of stability at that spot,” Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen said. “He’s a guy we’ve liked for a long time.”
Suarez, 32, was a 2018 All-Star for the Cincinnati Reds, who traded him to the Mariners in March 2022.
He’s hit .248 with 246 home runs and 730 RBIs in 1,313 career games for Detroit, Cincinnati and Seattle.
The Mariners acquired reliever Carlos Vargas and catcher Seby Zavala from Arizona, which lost in five games to the Texas Rangers in the World Series after going 84-78 during the regular season.
Aaron Nola staying with Phillies on 7-year contract
Starting pitcher Aaron Nola has agreed to a seven-year contract to remain with the Philadelphia Phillies, multiple media outlets reported Sunday.
The deal is worth a reported $172million, as the Phillies keep a cornerstone piece in their rotation.
Nola, 30, is the first major free agent to come off the board in a class that is headlined by two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani and includes fellow hurlers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery.
Nola has spent his entire MLB career in Philadelphia and has finished in the top five of Cy Young award voting twice.
The right-hander saw his numbers slip a bit in 2023 with a 4.46 ERA but rebounded in the post-season with three quality starts and an ERA of 2.35 over 23 innings.
Nola and Zack Wheeler make up one of the best and most reliable rotation duos in baseball.
Since 2018, Nola has thrown 1,065 1/3 innings, the second most in the majors over that span. Wheeler is fourth on that list with 1,007 innings pitched.
Nola is one of five pitchers with at least 200 strikeouts in each of the last three seasons.
Nola was the priority in a vital offseason for the Phillies after making it to the World Series in 2022 and the NLCS last season but falling short of a title.
In 235 career starts, Nola has a 3.72 ERA and has 1,582 strikeouts in 1,422 innings pitched.
NHL: Rangers beat Devils to extend point streak to 11
Artemi Panarin and Jimmy Vesey each scored twice and the New York Rangers defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-3 on Saturday to extend their point streak to 11 games.
Panarin scored a first-period power-play goal and his second goal midway through the third forged a 3-3 tie.
He set a franchise record by running his season-opening point streak to a career-high 15 games, breaking the mark he shared with Rod Gilbert.
The 15-game point streak is the longest by a Ranger since Wayne Gretzky in 1996-97.
Igor Shesterkin returned after missing four games with an undisclosed injury and stopped 30 shots as the Rangers improved to 10-0-1 in their last 11 contests.
Jack Hughes had a goal and an assist in his return after missing five games with an upper-body injury, but New Jersey lost for the fourth time in five games.
Avalanche score 6 straight to beat Stars
Valeri Nichushkin ignited a four-goal third period and the Colorado Avalanche scored six unanswered goals in a 6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars.
Colorado’s Cale Makar became the fastest defenseman in NHL history to reach 200 career assists with three in his 254th game.
Tyler Seguin’s second goal of the game early in the second period gave Dallas a 3-0 lead, but Colorado responded with goals by Miles Wood and Ryan Johansen to make it a one-goal game.
Nichushkin’s unassisted goal tied it at 4:19 of the third, Mikko Rantanan put the Avs on top with 5:28 remaining and Andrew Cogliano’s goal just 21 seconds later extended the advantage.
The Stars had a four-game winning streak snapped, while Colorado won its third in a row.
Ovechkin scores 827th as Capitals stay hot
Alex Ovechkin scored the 827th goal of his career to lead the surging Washington Capitals to a 4-3 win over the reeling Columbus Blue Jackets.
Hendrix Lapierre had a goal and two assists and Sonny Milano added a goal and an assist for the Capitals, who have won four straight and eight of 10.
Johnny Gaudreau, Justin Danforth and Ivan Provorov scored as Columbus dropped its eighth in a row (0-6-2).
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