Strasburg shuts down Marlins r Indians sweep doubleheader vs Yankees

Stephen Strasburg pitched his second career shutout and had two hits, including a third career home run, and Wilmer Difo (2-for-4) also went deep as the Washington Nationals defeated the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night.

The Marlins entered the contest 5½ games behind the Colorado Rockies for the second wild-card spot in the National League.

The first-place Nationals have won four in a row, while the Marlins were out-scored 23-5 in the three-game sweep by Washington.

Strasburg (11-4) gave up six hits, walked one and struck out eight while recording his second career complete game.

Orioles 8, Mariners 7

Jonathan Schoop’s RBI single with two outs in the eighth inning lifted Baltimore to a seventh straight win.

Schoop’s winning hit followed a replay challenge that kept pinch-runner Caleb Joseph on second base and capped some wild momentum swings in the late innings.

The Orioles went ahead 7-6 in the bottom of the sixth on a sacrifice fly to right by Manny Machado.

Rangers 8, Astros 1

Displaced from its home by extensive flooding, Houston took a second lopsided loss at the hands of Texas in the second of three games in Florida.

Mike Napoli’s three-run homer in the fourth inning was the Rangers’ 204th long ball this season, jumping them ahead of the Astros for the MLB lead.

Mets 2, Reds 0

Rafael Montero allowed one hit through eight innings, and RBI doubles by Wilmer Flores and Kevin Plawecki provided the offense in the first inning, lifting New York over host Cincinnati.

Montero pitched a career-high 81/3 innings, allowing three hits. He struck out eight, two shy of his career high.

Jose Reyes led off the first inning with a double and scored on Flores’ two-out double. Plawecki made it 2-0 with a double to left.

Cubs 17, Pirates 3

Ian Happ went 3-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs to lead Chicago’s season-high 20-hit attack in a rout of Pittsburgh to complete a three-game sweep.

Kyle Schwarber added a pair of tworun homers and Anthony Rizzo had a solo shot for the Cubs. Jose Quintana (5-3) shook off a rough first inning and sailed to his third win in his last four starts.

Indians 2, Yankees 1 (Game 1) Indians 9, Yankees 4 (Game 2)

Jose Ramirez went 4-for-4 and Trevor Bauer won his career-high seventh straight decision as Cleveland edged New York in the opening game of a doubleheader.

Ramirez singled in his first at-bat and scored on Yandy Diaz’s single. He then doubled in the third, singled in the fifth and doubled in the eighth. It was his third four-hit game of the season and sixth of his career.

In the second game, Ryan Merritt pitched effectively into the sixth inning and Edwin Encarnacion, Yan Gomes and Francisco Lindor homered as Cleveland completed a doubleheader sweep of New York.

Merritt (2-0) started instead of Josh Tomlin and held the Yankees to one run and five hits in 51/3 innings while not throwing any pitch faster than 87.8 mph.

Angels 10, Athletics 8

Albert Pujols hit two home runs and Mike Trout finished a double short of the cycle as Los Angeles completed a three-game sweep of Oakland.

The Angels’ Cliff Pennington, getting just his third start of the season at shortstop, hit his first career grand slam.

Diamondbacks 6, Dodgers 4

Paul Goldschmidt, Adam Rosales and Chris Herrmann homered, and Robbie Ray struck out 10 as Arizona sent Los Angeles to its season-worst fourth straight defeat.

Rosales and Goldschmidt homered in a three-run first inning and Ray gave up one run in 62/3 innings in his first home start since July 23. He missed 26 days after being struck in the head by a line drive July 28.