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• Mariners reportedly acquire Arozarena from Rays

  Randy Arozarena is on the move,

  The Seattle Mariners are reportedly acquiring Arozarena in a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays.

  As part of the trade, which was reported late Thursday by multiple sources, the Mariners are sending the Rays outfielder Aidan Smith, right-hander Brody Hopkins and a player to be named later.

  Arozarena was named to his first All-Star team last year, but is struggling a bit this season.

  He is batting a career-low .213, but does have 15 home runs, 19 doubles and 16 stolen bases in 99 games.

  His .717 OPS, however, is higher than any of Seattle's everyday players.

   

  The Mariners are in need of a jolt with their offence suddenly struggling.

  After leading the AL West by 10 games on June 18, Seattle has lost 20 of 29 and now trails the Houston Astros by one game for the division lead.

  The offence has been the biggest culprit for the recent slide, as the Mariners have plated exactly one run in each of their last three games and have scored two or fewer in seven of their last eight.

  Seattle is also in need of another outfielder with star centre fielder Julio Rodríguez sidelined until August with a high-ankle sprain sustained Sunday.

• Cease tosses second no-hitter in Padres franchise history with gem against Nationals

  Two years ago, Dylan Cease came within one out of throwing a no-hitter.

  Against the Washington Nationals on Thursday, he finished the job, recording all 27 outs without allowing a hit.

  Cease threw the second no-hitter in San Diego Padres franchise history, baffling the Nationals during a 3-0 win.

  Cease improved to 10-8 and struck out nine in his nine sterling innings of work to win his third straight start.

   

  Despite walking three batters, Cease faced only one over the minimum, with the Nationals caught stealing in the first inning and grounding into a double play in the fourth.

  He threw 71 of his 114 pitches for strikes en route to joining Joe Musgrove as the only San Diego pitchers to throw a no-hitter. Musgrove's came against the Texas Rangers on April 9, 2021.

  Baseball's latest no-no is the second of the season after the Houston Astros' Ronel Blanco threw one against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 1.

  Cease's achievement also helps take away some of the sting from his near no-hitter from two years ago. 

  While pitching for the Chicago White Sox on September 3, 2022, he was one out away from no-hitting the Minnesota Twins, when current teammate Luis Arraez broke it up with a single to right-centre.

  In this one, he got CJ Abrams to hit a flyout to right field for the final out.

  Cease is in his first year with the Padres after beginning his career with the White Sox, and after a rocky June, has been pitching brilliantly lately.

  In his last three outings, he has not allowed a run, while surrendering just two hits and seven walks over 22 innings while piling up 30 strikeouts.

  His latest gem helped San Diego to its fifth consecutive win.

  The Padres (55-50) didn’t need much offence against the Nationals (47-56) to back Cease, with Ha-Seong Kim plating all three runs on a first-inning single off Patrick Corbin.

   

  Kershaw makes season debut in Dodgers' win over Giants

  Clayton Kershaw permitted two runs over four innings in his first start of the season and the Los Angeles Dodgers went on to beat the San Francisco Giants 6-4.

  The game was tied 4-4 until Nick Ahmed and Shohei Ohtani homered on consecutive pitches in the eighth inning to lead the NL West-leading Dodgers (62-42) to their sixth win in seven games since the All-Star break.

  Ohtani's homer was his 31st of the season and his second in the last five games. He also doubled to give him four doubles since the All-Star break.

  Kershaw allowed six hits and two walks with six strikeouts, while throwing 47 of his 72 pitches for strikes in his first start since Game 1 of last October's NL Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner had shoulder surgery four weeks later.

  Ohtani signed with the Dodgers a month later and this was the first game the Japanese superstar and Kershaw played together.

   

  Heliot Ramos led the Giants (49-55) with three hits and drove in a run while Jorge Soler singled twice.

  Logan Webb yielded four runs and nine hits, and now has surrendered 15 runs and 25 hits with eight walks over 16 innings in his last three starts.

   

  Mets beat Braves in 10 innings to stay hot

  Jeff McNeil drove in the winning run with a 10th-inning hit on a ball Ramón Laureano misplayed in the New York Mets' 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves.

  McNeil's hit was just the third of the game for the Mets, and possibly could've been caught had Laureano not overrun it. The ball was hit hard down into the right-field corner and Laureano raced to track it down but ran too far and couldn't catch it as he reached his glove back across his body.

   

  Jose Iglesias scored from second base, giving New York (54-48) its fourth straight win, and 10th victory in 13 games.

  The Braves (54-47), meanwhile, lost their fifth straight game, as the Mets moved within one-half game of them for the NL's top wild-card spot.

  McNeil and Francisco Lindor have been leading the charge for New York.

  McNeil has driven in six runs in the last four games, and is hitting .417 with four home runs and nine RBIs in seven games since the All-Star break.

  Lindor homered for the fifth time in four games, and is batting .359 with 14 RBIs during a 10-game hitting streak.

  Atlanta squandered another stellar outing from Chris Sale.

  The eight-time All-Star yielded two runs, two hits and a walk while striking out nine over 7 1/3 innings. It marked the eighth straight start in which he allowed two runs or fewer.

• MLB: Mets rout Yankees to finish season sweep

  Francisco Lindor homered twice and drove in five runs and the New York Mets went deep a season high-tying five times to complete a season sweep of the New York Yankees with a 12-3 rout on Wednesday night.

  Tyrone Taylor, Pete Alonso and Lindor all homered off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and Mark Vientos added a solo shot in the eighth before Lindor’s three-run shot off Caleb Ferguson later in the inning extended the lead to 11-2.

  The Mets (53-48), who moved a season-high five games over .500, have won three straight, 11 of 15 and are 29-13 after a 24-35 start.

  The Mets won all four meetings this season against their crosstown rivals by a combined score of 36-14. They swept the Subway Series for the first time since 2013.

  Gleyber Torres and Juan Soto homered for the Yankees, who have lost 20 of their last 29 games.

  Cole tied a season high with six runs allowed on eight hits in six innings as his ERA ballooned to 5.40.

   

  Rockies match franchise runs record

  Brenton Doyle had a grand slam and five RBIs and Jacob Stallings added two doubles, a homer and four RBIs as the Colorado Rockies matched a franchise record for runs in a 20-7 drubbing of the Boston Red Sox.

  Ezequiel Tovar and Ryan McMahon also went deep and Brendan Rodgers had four hits for the Rockies, who pounded out 21 hits and scored 20 runs for the fourth time in franchise history and first time since 2006.

  Cal Quantrill pitched six solid innings to help Colorado take two of three from Boston.

  Both benches and bullpens cleared in the fourth when Reese McGuire and Quantrill exchanged words. McGuire took exception when Quantrill pumped his fist after getting him to fly out to end the top of the fourth and the players had to be separated.

  Jarren Duran fell a double shy of the cycle and drove in three runs for Boston, which completed a 1-5 road trip after winning 10 of 13.

  The Red Sox committed a season-high four errors that led to six unearned runs. Three of the errors came with Nick Pivetta on the mound. Pivetta, who entered with a 13.85 ERA in four career starts against the Rockies, was lit up for eight runs and 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings.

   

  Astros’ Brown stays hot, beats A’s

  Hunter Brown pitched six innings to win for the eighth time in nine starts as the Houston Astros avoided a series sweep to the Oakland Athletics with an 8-1 win.

  Brown worked around traffic in every inning but limited the Athletics to one run and eight hits with eight strikeouts and one walk.

  The right-hander is 8-1 with a 1.80 ERA in his last nine starts with 58 strikeouts in 55 innings.

  Bryan Abreu, Tayler Scott and Bryan King retired three batters each to finish the game.

  Chas McCormick homered for the first time in over a month and Jose Altuve had three hits and two RBIs as Houston bounced back after losing the first two games of the series.

  Seth Brown had three hits for Oakland, which had won five of six.