Aces Kershaw, Lester shelled as Dodgers sweep Cubs

A highly anticipated pitcher’s duel between Dodgers mega-star Clayton Kershaw and Chicago Cubs left-handed ace Jon Lester turned into a power-point presentation on Sunday night, the teams combining to club seven home runs and neither esteemed starter lasting five innings.

The Dodgers weathered one of the worst regular-season starts of Kershaw’s career, riding homers by Cody Bellinger, Enrique Hernandez, Austin Barnes and Yasiel Puig to a 9-4 victory to complete a three-game sweep of the defending World Series-champion Cubs.

Kershaw, with sporadic command of his fastball, slider and curve, was rocked for four earned runs and a career-high-tying 11 hits in 41/3 innings, striking out six and walking two.

The three-time National League Cy Young Award winner, who entered with a 7-2 record and 2.01 earned-run average, also tied a career high by giving up three home runs. His pitch count (109) was so high that manager Dave Roberts was forced to pull him in the fifth with a 6-4 lead, two outs shy of a potential win.

It was the first time Kershaw had surrendered at least 10 hits, four earned runs and three homers in a regular-season or postseason game.

“I’ve not seen Clayton like that. We were on him,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. “It was just one of those days. It’s inexplicable.”

Lester, who entered with a 3-2 record and 3.19 ERA, was even worse, giving up six earned runs and seven hits in 31/3 innings.

“Just wasted the whole day. I didn’t have command of my fastball on either side of the plate,” Lester said. “I couldn’t really go to any particular pitch to try and bail me out of any trouble.” (Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Yankees 9, Athletics 5

Aaron Judge hit his first career grand slam with two outs in the third inning, and New York beat Oakland.

Gary Sanchez and Brett Gardner added RBI doubles while Aaron Hicks and Chris Carter lifted sacrifice flies for the Yankees, who won for the fifth time in seven games.

Rays 8, Twins 6 (15)

Evan Longoria and Logan Morrison hit back-to-back homers to open the 15th inning, and Tampa Bay outlasted Minnesota in the longest game in Target Field history.

Longoria’s seventh homer of the season came off the second pitch of the inning from LOS ANGELES ANGELS superstar Mike Trout grimaces after spraining his thumb on Sunday against the Miami Marlins. Time out for the reigning AL MVP would be a big blow to the Angels, with Trout hitting .337 and leading the majors with 16 home runs. (TNS) Hector Santiago (4-4), who is scheduled to be the Wednesday starter for Minnesota. Morrison followed with a long homer to deep right field on the next pitch as Tampa Bay won for the second time in five extra-inning games this season.

Rangers 3, Blue Jays 1

Joey Gallo hit the go-ahead solo homer in the fourth inning, Andrew Cashner pitched seven strong innings and Texas defeated Toronto.

In avoiding a sweep of the three-game series, the Rangers ended a five-game losing streak and stopped a five-game winning string by the Blue Jays.

Mariners 5, Red Sox 0

Christian Bergman tossed seven scoreless innings, Robinson Cano slugged a two-run homer, and Seattle snapped Boston’s sixgame winning streak.

Cano’s homer was his ninth of the year. Guillermo Heredia added a home run, his third, and Nelson Cruz drove in a run as the Mariners matched a season high with 16 hits.

White Sox 7, Tigers 3

Miguel Gonzalez took a perfect game into the seventh inning before he allowed three hits and a run as Chicago beat Detroit.

The perfect game ended when leadoff hitter Andrew Romine reached on a hard grounder to shortstop Tim Anderson that was initially ruled an error. The call was later changed to a hit.

Mets 7, Pirates 2

Jay Bruce went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs in New York’s victory over Pittsburgh.

Curtis Granderson went 3-for-5 with an RBI for the Mets, and Lucas Duda hit a home run.

Mets starter Matt Harvey (4-3) won backto-back starts for the second time this season and the first time since April 6 and 11 -- his first two starts of the season. He pitched six innings, which was his longest outing since April 21, and scattered six hits while giving up just one run.

Giants 7, Braves 1

Johnny Cueto, bothered in recent games by blisters on his pitching hand, stopped his three-game losing streak as San Francisco beat Atlanta.

Cueto (5-4) allowed six hits and walk and one run while striking out eight and walking one in six innings. (Reuters)