Francisco Lindor ended the Los Angeles Dodgers' streak of 33 consecutive scoreless innings with a lead-off home run, and Mark Vientos had a grand slam later on as the New York Mets evened the National League Championship Series with Monday's 7-3 Game 2 victory.

New York, the sixth and lowest seed in the NL play-offs, also received five-plus effective innings from Sean Manaea to bounce back from a 9-0 loss to the top-seeded Dodgers in Sunday's series opener.

Los Angeles entered Game 2 off three straight shutout victories to tie the 1966 Baltimore Orioles for the longest run of consecutive scoreless innings in a post-season in MLB history.

Lindor quickly prevented the streak from going any further, however, as he blasted a pitch from opener Ryan Brasier into the right field seats to begin the contest. The Mets then broke the game open with five runs off Landon Knack in the second inning.

Starling Marte started the second with a single for his first of three hits on the day, and Knack walked Jesse Winker before surrendering Tyrone Taylor's one-out double that plated Marte for a 2-0 lead.

After Lindor was intentionally walked to load the bases with two out, Vientos extended the margin to 6-0 with his third homer of this post-season.

Manaea kept the Dodgers off the board until Max Muncy's solo homer in the fifth, though the left-hander departed after issuing back-to-back walks to Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez to start the bottom of the sixth.

After an error by Mets second baseman Jose Iglesias loaded the bases, Tommy Edman drove in Betts and Hernandez with a single off Phil Maton to bring Los Angeles within 6-3.

The Dodgers threatened again in the eighth by putting two on with two out, but New York closer Edwin Diaz got Enrique Hernandez to fly out and protect the Mets' three-run cushion.

After Marte singled in Pete Alonso in the top of the ninth for the Mets' final run, Diaz worked out of another jam in the bottom of the inning by striking out Betts, Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in succession with two runners on.

The Mets will now host the next three games of this best-of-seven series, with Game 3 to take place Wednesday.

Rodon pitches Yankees to 1-0 lead over Guardians in ALCS

New York's other team also came out a winner on Monday, as the Yankees opened the American League Championship Series with a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians behind six sharp innings from Carlos Rodon.

Rodon struck out nine without a walk and held Cleveland to one run on three hits to help give the Yankees the early upper hand in this clash between the AL's two best teams of the regular season. The left-hander did not permit a run until Brayan Rocchio led off the top of the sixth with a solo homer.

Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton backed Rodon's gem with solo homers, and the Yankees also capitalised on seven walks and five wild pitches thrown by Cleveland hurlers.

Top-seeded New York will attempt to take a 2-0 lead behind ace Gerrit Cole on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, with the Guardians slated to throw 12-game winner Tanner Bibee.

Soto started the scoring with a lead-off homer off Alex Cobb that ignited a three-run third inning for the Yankees. Cobb would issue three walks before departing with two out in favour of Joey Cantillo, who uncorked a pair of wild pitches that enabled Aaron Judge and Stanton to score.

Cantillo threw two more wild pitches after walking Gleyber Torres in the fourth, which set up Judge's sacrifice fly that brought in Torres for a 4-0 lead.

Rocchio's homer in the sixth got Cleveland on the board, but the Yankees countered in the seventh on Stanton's 13th career post-season homer.

The Guardians made a bid to get back in it in the eighth with three singles off reliever Tim Hill, including Steven Kwan's hit that knocked in Andres Gimenez and trimmed the deficit to 5-2.

New York then summoned closer Luke Weaver, who struck out pinch-hitter Will Brennan and retired All-Star Jose Ramirez on an inning-ending groundout to strand two runners.

Weaver recorded three more strikeouts in the ninth to end the game and earn his fourth save of the post-season.

Jose Ramirez hit a three-run homer and Gabriel Arias had three hits and three RBIs as the Cleveland Guardians won their seventh straight, 10-8 over the struggling Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night.

Bo Naylor fell a home run shy of the cycle and scored three runs as Cleveland collected 14 hits and went 7 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

Ramirez’s drive to center capped a five-run fourth that extended Cleveland’s lead to 8-4. With 237 homers, he’s now in sole possession of third place on the franchise’s career list.

The major league-leading Guardians used five relievers after Logan Allen was tagged for six runs and nine hits over three-plus innings.

Emmanuel Clase pitched the ninth for his AL-best 25th save.

Jordan Westburg went 4 for 4 and Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser, James McCann and Anthony Santander homered for the Orioles, who lost their season-high fifth straight.

Santander’s home run was his 12th this month, tying the club record for June shared by Boog Powell (1964), Rafael Palmeiro (1998), Albert Belle (2000) and Chris Davis (2013).

Surging Mets rough up Cole

Mark Vientos homered twice off Gerrit Cole and the New York Mets took the New York Yankees’ ace deep four times before holding on for a 9-7 victory in the first Subway Series matchup of the season.

Reed Garrett gave up Aaron Judge’s grand slam – his major league-leading 29th home run – in the eighth inning but worked a perfect ninth to preserve the Mets’ 10th win in 12 games.

Vientos led off the second with his first home run of the night and Harrison Bader connected against his former teammate one out later.

Vientos opened the fourth with another longball to extend the Mets’ lead to 4-0 and Brandon Nimmo’s two-run shot off Cole in the inning made it 6-0.

Cole allowed six runs on seven hits in four innings with four walks and no strikeouts in his second start of the season.

He surrendered a career-high five home runs at Minnesota on June 9, 2022.

Juan Soto also went deep for the Yankees, who have lost seven of nine but maintain a two-game lead over Baltimore in the AL East.

Padres’ Profar hits grand slam after benches empty

Jurickson Profar broke open the game with a grand slam after he was the focal point of a benches-clearing dustup and Manny Machado had a two-run homer as the San Diego Padres defeated the Washington Nationals 9-6.

With one out in the first inning, Washington catcher Keibert Ruiz jawed at Profar and put a hand on his shoulder just before his at-bat. Machado, who was on deck, then put a hand on Ruiz’s shoulder as he got in between them, and players and coaches from both teams swarmed onto the field.

Plate umpire Brian Walsh warned both teams, and Nationals pitcher MacKenzie Gore hit Profar with a pitch but wasn’t ejected.

Machado followed by taking Gore deep for a 2-0 lead.

Profar’s fourth career grand slam and second this season came in the sixth off Derek Law and extended the lead to 9-4.

The Nationals apparently felt Profar trolled them after hitting a walk-off, two-run single in the 10th inning in Monday’s 7-6 win.

Brandon Nimmo drove in four runs and had three of the New York Mets' season-high 22 hits as Major League Baseball's hottest team rolled to a 14-2 victory over the Texas Rangers on Monday.

Francisco Lindor went 4 for 4 and knocked in two runs as the Mets won their sixth consecutive contest while collecting their most hits in a game since recording 23 against the Atlanta Braves on Aug. 15, 2019.

Nimmo had a two-run homer among his three hits and DJ Stewart added a three-run blast as New York battered Texas starter Jon Gray for nine runs and 11 hits in just three-plus innings.

Pete Alonso, Mark Vientos and Francisco Alvarez also had three hits each to support a solid start from David Peterson, who allowed two runs and struck out six over six innings to move to 3-0.

After Lindor singled to open the game and later scored on Alonso's base hit to put the Mets up early, New York broke open the game with six runs in the second.

Lindor's single brought in Vientos for a 2-0 lead and Nimmo followed with a run-scoring hit of his own to extend the margin. Alonso made it 4-0 with his second RBI single of the night before Stewart launched Gray's pitch into the right field seats to cap the big inning.

Peterson served up Robbie Grossman's two-run homer in the third inning that got the Rangers on the board, but Nimmo followed Lindor's single in the fourth with his eighth home run of the season to give New York a 9-2 advantage.

The Mets struck two more times in the fifth as Lindor doubled in a run and Nimmo added another RBI single. Stewart singled in the sixth and later crossed the plate on Alvarez's hit to increase the lead to 12-2.

Alvarez had another run-scoring hit in the eighth as the Mets scored twice more during the inning.

The defending World Series champion Rangers lost their fourth in a row and dropped six games below .500 at 33-39.

Pirates' rookie Skenes bests Reds to stay unbeaten

Paul Skenes continued an outstanding start to his MLB career by throwing six sharp innings and leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds to open a three-game series.

Skenes improved to 4-0 by yielding just one run on six hits and striking out seven. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft now sports a 2.29 ERA through his first seven major league starts.

The heralded rookie's lone run allowed came in the top of the first inning, when Jeimer Candelario singled and scored on a double by Spencer Steer.

Pittsburgh countered with three runs off Carson Spiers in their half of the first, which began with a walk to Andrew McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds' ground-rule double.

Oneil Cruz then drove both runners home with a single and later moved to third on Rowdy Tellez's double before crossing the plate on Ke'Bryan Hayes' groundout.

The Pirates extended their advantage to 4-1 in the second inning on consecutive doubles by McCutchen and Reynolds, who finished with two hits along with Tellez.

Spiers (0-1) made his first start of the season for Cincinnati, which has now lost three straight. The right-hander worked six innings while permitting all four Pittsburgh runs.

Schwarber's two homers help Phillies extend Padres' road woes

Kyle Schwarber belted a pair of two-run homers to lead the way as the Philadelphia Phillies extended the San Diego Padres' road losing streak to eight games with Monday's 9-2 rout.

Alec Bohm added a three-run homer and went 3 for 5 to help the National League leaders bounce back after losing two of three games to the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend. Rafael Marchan finished 4 for 4 with two RBIs, while Trea Turner had a pair of hits in the Philadelphia shortstop's return from a hamstring injury that had sidelined him since early May.

The Phillies also received a strong start from Cristopher Sanchez (4-3), who held struggling San Diego to two runs - one earned - in seven innings.

San Diego entered Citizens Bank Park off three straight road losses to the New York Mets over the weekend, and fell behind 2-0 when Schwarber followed Marchan's third-inning single with a blast into the seats off Randy Vasquez.

Vasquez (1-4) walked Brandon Marsh to lead off the bottom of the fourth, which led to another run when the outfielder took second on a wild pitch and scored on Marchan's single.

An error by Marsh led to a run in the top of the fifth that got the Padres on the board, though the Phillies answered in their half when Bohm took Vasquez deep with Turner and Bryce Harper aboard.

Schwarber struck again in the sixth with a homer off Adrian Morejon that extended the lead to 8-2 and once again scored Marchan, who had reached on a single.

Both teams scratched home a run in the seventh inning, as San Diego's Donovan Solano brought in Jurickson Profar with a double and Marsh doubled and later scored on Marchan's fourth hit of the game.

Vasquez lasted just 4 1/3 innings and was lit up for six runs on 12 hits.