The Houston Astros enacted a measure of revenge against the Kansas City Royals.
Yordan Alvarez hit a pair of home runs and the Astros beat the Royals 7-2 on Sunday to cap a four-game sweep.
Houston's first-ever four-game sweep of Kansas City came after the Royals swept a three-game series from the Astros back in April.
Jon Singleton hit a two-run homer and Jeremy Peña added a two-run single for the AL West-leading Astros (75-62), who have won five in a row to move six games ahead of the second-place Seattle Mariners.
The Royals (75-63), meanwhile, have lost a season-high five straight games to drop 3 1/2 games behind the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians.
Bobby Witt Jr. reached the 30-homer mark for the second straight season by homering in the second straight game. He now has five home runs in his last nine games.
Alvarez also hit his 30th homer with his second multi-homer game of the week. The Astros have won the last six games Alvarez has homered and are 19-4 this season in games when he hits at least one home run.
Ronel Blanco won for the first time since July 9, allowing three hits and four walks over five innings.
Cubs pound Nationals to extend win streak to six games
The Chicago Cubs scored seven runs in the ninth inning to finish off a 14-1 rout of the Washington Nationals and push their winning streak to a season-high six games.
The Cubs have remained in the NL wild-card race, thanks to a 9-1 stretch that has been fueled by an offence that is suddenly surging.
Chicago has plated 99 runs with 14 homers and 33 doubles in its last 10 games.
In the series finale at Washington, Seiya Suzuki hit a pair of doubles and Dansby Swanson had one double among his four hits. Isaac Paredes drove in three runs, while Cody Bellinger, Nico Hoerner and Miguel Amaya each had two RBIs for a Cubs team that pounded out 18 hits.
Jordan Wicks earned the win, yielding one run and four hits in his return from the 60-day injured list after being side-lined since June 14 with a right oblique strain.
Despite Chicago's recent tear, the Cubs (71-66) are still three games back of the Atlanta Braves for the NL's last wild-card spot.
The Nationals (61-76) finished with five hits as they were swept for the eighth time this season and dropped a season-worst 15 games under .500.
White Sox suffer franchise-worst 107th loss
Garrett Crochet was brilliant early for the Chicago White Sox but their series finale with the New York Mets ended like so many other of their games this season - with a loss.
Crochet tied an American League record by striking out the first seven batters but the White Sox ended up getting swept in the three-game series with a 2-0 loss to the Mets.
The loss was the 107th of the season for Chicago, as it broke the franchise record for losses set by the 1970 team.
With just 31 wins, the White Sox need to go 12-12 the rest of the season to avoid matching the 1962 expansion Mets for the most losses by a team since 1900.
The White Sox managed just two hits in finishing off the first 0-10 home-stand in club history. This marks the third losing streak of the season of at least 10 games for Chicago, which also has a 14-game skid and a franchise-worst 21-game slide.
Francisco Lindor hit his 29th home run and Sean Manaea permitted two hits over seven innings to help New York (73-64) win its fourth straight game. The Mets have moved within one game of the Braves for the last play-off spot.
Giants, 3B Chapman agree to 6-year, $151 million contract
Third baseman Matt Chapman and the San Francisco Giants agreed to a six-year, $151 million contract on Wednesday night.
Chapman, 31, will earn $25 million each season from 2025 to 2030 and additionally will receive a $1 million signing bonus in 2025.
He joined the Giants as a free agent in March, agreeing to a contract guaranteeing $54 million over three seasons. That deal gave him the right to opt out after 2024 and 2025. It included a $2 million signing bonus and a $16 million salary for 2024.
Chapman is hitting .247 and leads the Giants with 22 homers, 69 RBIs, 90 runs and 33 doubles. He is a four-time Gold Glove winner and has a .241 career average with 177 homers and 495 RBIs for Oakland (2017-21), Toronto (2022-23) and the Giants.
An All-Star in 2019, Chapman hit a career-high 36 home runs for Oakland and finished sixth in the American League MVP voting. He was traded to Toronto in March 2022.
MLB: Imanaga, 2 relievers combine on no-hitter as Cubs rout Pirates
Shota Imanaga threw seven no-hit innings and two relievers finished a combined no-hitter in the Chicago Cubs’ 12-0 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.
Imanaga struck out seven and walked two over seven innings. He threw 66 of 95 pitches for strikes.
The left-hander, who threw a season-high 103 pitches against St. Louis on June 15, needed 25 pitches to get through the second inning.
Nate Pearson pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Porter Hodge a perfect ninth in the Cubs’ 18th no-hitter, the first since Zach Davies, Ryan Tepera, Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel combined to hold Los Angeles hitless at Dodger Stadium on June 24, 2021.
This was the fourth no-hitter this season after complete-game efforts by Houston’s Ronel Blanco against Toronto on April 1, San Diego’s Dylan Cease at Washington on July 25 and San Francisco’s Blake Snell at Cincinnati on April 2.
Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong each had three hits, including a home run, and three RBIs for the Cubs, who collected 17 hits to win for the seventh time in nine games. Cody Bellinger also homered and Nico Hoerner added three hits.
Domingo Germán, who pitched a perfect game last year for the Yankees against Oakland, allowed seven runs and nine hits in three innings.
Winker’s slam powers streaking Mets
Jesse Winker hit a first-inning grand slam and the Mets’ bullpen pitched five scoreless innings in their seventh straight victory, 8-3 over the reeling Boston Red Sox.
The Mets completed a three-game sweep of Boston and have won 14 of their last 19 games to pull within a half-game of Atlanta for the third NL wild-card spot.
New York had just four hits after Winker’s first-inning slam against Tanner Houck, but relievers Alex Young, Huascar Brazobán and Danny Young induced inning-ending double plays in the fifth, sixth and seventh before Phil Maton retired Masataka Yoshida on a liner to strand runners at the corners in the eighth.
Francisco Lindor led off the game with a single and added a double in the fifth inning, extending his hitting streak to 15 games, tying the career high he set with Cleveland in 2018. He has also reached base in a career-best 33 straight games, the longest active streak in the majors.
Jarren Duran had two hits and an RBI for Boston, which lost its fifth in a row to drop to .500 for the first time since June.
Pham’s first homer with Royals the difference
Tommy Pham hit his first home run for Kansas City, a tiebreaking, three-run drive in a four-run fourth inning, and the Royals stopped a season-high, seven-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
Seth Lugo allowed one run and five hits in seven innings. He is one win behind Detroit’s Tarik Skubal and Atlanta’s Chris Sale, who are tied for the major league lead. Lugo is 11-1 with a 1.40 ERA in 15 starts with four days’ rest.
Kansas City closed within one percentage point of Minnesota for the second AL wild card spot. The Royals and Twins are both 4 1/2 games behind AL Central-leading Cleveland.
During the seven-game skid, the Royals had scored three runs or fewer in six straight games, the team’s longest such streak since Aug. 15-21, 2022. The Royals had scored two runs or fewer in five straight, their longest span since June 7-13, 2018.
MLB: Schwarber hits 3rd homer to complete Phillies' comeback win over Blue Jays
Kyle Schwarber’s third home run of the game was a go-ahead, three-run shot in the ninth inning and the Philadelphia Phillies rallied from a five-run deficit for a 10-9 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.
Schwarber hit his 12th leadoff homer of the season and went deep again in the fourth before his blast with no outs in the ninth on the ninth pitch he saw from Chad Green, a 96 mph fastball. Right fielder George Springer barely moved in reaction to Schwarber's 426-foot line drive that reached the second deck for his 31st homer of the season.
Schwarber became the first Phillies player to have two three-homer games in a season and has three such games in his career. He finished 5 for 6 with six RBIs and came within a triple of the cycle, adding a double in the third and an RBI single in the seventh.
Vladimir Guerrero went 4 for 5 with a two-run homer for Toronto, which led 6-1 after one and knocked Phillies starter Tyler Phillips out of the game after two-thirds of an inning. Phillips gave up six runs on eight hits, including two-run homers by Daulton Varsho and Addison Barger.
Matt Strahm, the seventh Phillies pitcher, gave up Leo Jiménez's homer in the ninth but closed it out for his second save.
NL East-leading Philadelphia matched a season high with 18 hits and won its third straight.
Green blew a save for the second straight game after doing so on Sunday at Minnesota. He converted 16 consecutive save opportunities to begin the season.
Peterson powers streaking Mets
David Peterson struck out a career-high 11 on his 29th birthday and was backed by home runs from Francisco Lindor, Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso as the New York Mets won their sixth straight, 7-2 over the slumping Boston Red Sox.
Peterson won his fourth straight decision, allowing one run and six hits – all singles - with one walk.
Early in the game, he threw a career-best 16 consecutive strikes as the first four innings zipped by in 59 minutes. New York improved to 14-3 in Peterson's starts since he made his season debut May 29 after recovering from hip surgery.
Lindor launched his 30th homer in the third inning and added an RBI double to spark a four-run eighth, drawing another chorus of “MVP! MVP!” chants from the Citi Field crowd. New York, which has won 13 of 18, remained a half-game behind Atlanta for the final NL wild card.
Vientos greeted Justin Slaten with a leadoff homer in the seventh after Lindor's blast was the lone Mets hit off starter Kutter Crawford, who fanned eight in six innings.
Nick Sogard had an RBI single for the Red Sox, who have dropped four in a row and five of six. They totalled five runs in those defeats.
Sale wins 16th, hits milestone
Chris Sale tied for the major league lead with his 16th win and reached 200 strikeouts for the first time since 2019 to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 3-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies.
Sale (16-3) earned his sixth straight win and has gone 15 straight starts allowing no more than three earned runs.
He gave up six hits and fanned nine to push his season total to 206, his most since he had 219 with the Red Sox before a series of injuries derailed his career. He became the first left-hander in Braves franchise history to post 200 strikeouts.
Sale tied Detroit’s Tarik Skubal for the major league lead in wins.
Raisel Iglesias pitched a perfect ninth for his 29th save in 31 chances, extending his scoreless streak to 22 1/3 innings.
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