MLB capsules: Astros win in Florida before returning home to Houston
Jose Altuve homered, the Houston bullpen pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings and the Astros beat the Texas Rangers 5-1 on Thursday in the last game in St. Petersburg, Florida, before they return to their flood-ravaged home city.
Josh Reddick added an RBI single for the A.L. West-leading Astros, who avoided a three-game sweep at the hands of their instate rivals at Tropicana Field, where the series was relocated because of Hurricane Harvey.
Houston will have a previously unscheduled day off Friday and play a doubleheader Saturday against the Mets at Minute Maid Park. The downtown Houston stadium escaped major flood damage. Astros president Reid Ryan has said he hopes the weekend games “can serve as a welcome distraction” for the city.
For the Rangers, it was their first loss all year at the Tampa Bay Rays’ home park. They swept the Rays in a three-game series in June.
Chris Devenski (7-3) worked 2 1/3 innings in relief of Collin McHugh to get the win. Ken Giles pitched the final two innings for his 27th save in 30 opportunities.
Altuve’s home run, his 21st, came off Nick Martinez (3-6) in the first.
Diamondbacks 8, Dodgers 1: Zack Greinke earned his major league-best 16th victory with six strong innings, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat Los Angeles in Phoenix to complete the first series sweep of the Dodgers this season.
Chris Iannetta and A.J. Pollock homered for the Diamondbacks, who matched their season-best seventh straight victory and pulled 3 1/2 games ahead of idle Colorado for the National League’s top wild-card spot.
The Dodgers, still with by far the best record in the majors (91-40), have lost a season-worst five in a row.
Greinke (16-6) allowed a run and four hits, striking out six and walking two, to improve to 13-1 in 16 home starts this season.
Kenta Maeda (12-6) went just three innings and gave up seven runs and eight hits.
Twins 5, White Sox 4: Max Kepler was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and Minnesota rallied to beat Chicago in Minneapolis.
Trailing 4-3 entering their final at-bat at Target Field, the Twins came back to win their fourth straight and maintain their slim lead for the second A.L. wild-card spot. The Twins completed a three-game sweep with their first hop-off win since current Minnesota manager Paul Molitor was plunked in the 10th at the Metrodome in 1996 to beat Kansas City.
Pinch-hitter Ehire Adrianza opened the ninth with an infield single off closer Juan Minaya (2-2). After a one-out walk, Eddie Rosario hit a tying single.
Joe Mauer then walked to load the bases and Jorge Polanco lined back to Minaya. With the crowd on its feet, Minaya’s first pitch hit Kepler in the front lower leg for the winning run. Knocked to the ground, Kepler got up quickly and trotted to first.
Alen Hanson hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth to give the White Sox a 4-3 lead. He connected off Matt Belisle (1-2).
Reds 7, Mets 2: Joey Votto hit a home run, then gave a bat and jersey to a 6-year-old cancer patient as host Cincinnati beat New York.
Votto homered in the seventh. He high-fived the young fan he knows through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Scooter Gennett drove in three runs with a homer and a double off Jacob deGrom (14-8).
The Reds took two of three for a rare series win against the Mets. Heading in, New York had won 14 straight games against Cincinnati, including eight in a row at Great American Ball Park.
The Mets head for Houston, where they’ll have a day off on Friday before playing a doubleheader on Saturday. Players planned to help with flood recovery and cleanup efforts for those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
Robert Stephenson (3-4) won his third straight start, allowing two runs and five hits in six innings.
Yankees 6, Red Sox 2: CC Sabathia shut down the Boston Red Sox for the fourth time this season and host New York got homers from Gary Sanchez and Greg Bird on the way to a victory in the opener of a pivotal four-game series.
Bird drove in three runs and Sanchez had two RBIs as the second-place Yankees shaved Boston’s lead in the A.L. East to 4 1/2 games. This weekend set in the Bronx marks the final meeting of the season between the longtime rivals – and perhaps New York’s last chance to make a serious run at its first division title in five years.
New York maintained a tenuous hold on the league’s top wild card.
Blue Jays 11, Orioles 8: Baltimore’s seven-game winning streak ended under a barrage of home runs by Kendrys Morales, who went deep three times and had a career-high seven RBIs to provide visiting Toronto with a victory.
Looking to sustain its charge into the thick of the A.L. playoff picture, Baltimore bolted to a 5-2 lead in the third inning before the last-place Blue Jays stormed back behind Morales, who had four hits and scored four runs.
Morales hit a two-run homer in the third, an RBI single in a five-run fifth, added a three-run drive in the sixth and concluded his big night with a solo shot in the eighth.
It was his second career three-homer game. The first was Sept. 20, 2015, at Detroit.
Adam Jones and Chris Davis homered for the Orioles, who fell 2 1/2 games back in the race for the final A.L. wild card.
Phillies 3, Marlins 2: Ben Lively hastened Giancarlo Stanton’s slide into a slump, and visiting Philadelphia sent Miami below .500.
Stanton failed to get the ball out of the infield in three plate appearances against Lively and finished 0 for 5 with two strikeouts. The major league home run leader (51) is 1 for 15 this week.
His young counterpart, Phillies rookie Rhys Hopkins, singled in the fifth inning to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. That’s the longest hitting streak by a Phillies player in the first month of his career since Hall of Famer Chuck Klein had a 13-game streak in 1928.
Hector Neris struck out J.T. Realmuto with the bases loaded to end the game for his 17th save. The Marlins went 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position, and they are 3 for 36 in those situations this week.
Cubs 6, Braves 2: Kyle Hendricks turned in his fourth straight quality start and host Chicago ran its winning streak to four with a victory over Atlanta.
Hendricks (6-4) allowed one earned run on five hits while striking out five and walking three in 6 2/3 innings as the reigning World Series champs maintained their 3 1/2-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central.
Kris Bryant hit his 25th home run of the season and Jon Jay had four hits to lead the Cubs offense. Bryant doubled and scored in the two-run first inning before blasting a two-run shot through a stiff wind in the sixth.
Hendricks was backed by Brian Duensing, Carl Edwards and Justin Wilson, who combined on 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.
Rookie left-hander Sean Newcomb (2-8) took the loss, allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out seven and walking three in five innings.
Brewers 6, Nationals 3: Zach Davies won his 16th game to tie Arizona’s Zack Greinke for the most victories in the majors, Jonathan Villar homered and host Milwaukee beat Washington.
Davies (16-7) scattered six hits, walked two, struck out four and lowered his ERA to 1.77 over the last nine starts, five of them victories for himself and the team.
Greinke (16-6) beat the Dodgers 8-1 on Thursday afternoon. Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers) and Chris Sale (Red Sox) are one game behind Davies and Greinke.
Villar hit a two-run homer off Gio Gonzalez (13-6) in the fifth. It was his 11th of the season, second two-run in as many days and came after Davies walked.
Trea Turner greeted Anthony Swarzak with a triple to start the eighth and scored on Jayson Werth’s groundout.
Corey Knebel pitched the ninth for his 31st save.
Cardinals 5, Giants 2: Michael Wacha pitched six strong innings and Randal Grichuk hit a two-run homer as visiting St. Louis defeated San Francisco.
The Giants were without staff ace Madison Bumgarner, a late scratch with flu symptoms, as they lost for the sixth time in seven games.
Wacha (10-7) gave up one run, four hits and two walks as he bounced back from a tough stretch. In his three previous starts he was 0-3 with a 10.22 ERA.
The Cardinals moved within 5 1/2 games of the idle Colorado Rockies in the N.L wild-card race. They failed to gain ground in the N.L. Central as the first-place Chicago Cubs defeated the Atlanta Braves to maintain a six-game lead.
Tommy Pham was 3 for 4 with a double and two RBIs for St. Louis.