Mariners maintain AL West advantage
SEATTLE: The unlikely duo of Franklin Gutierrez and Lee Dae-Ho hit multi-run homers to power Seattle to a 6-4 win against Tampa Bay on Tuesday, maintaining the Mariners lead in the American League West division.
Gutierrez hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Lee added a three-run shot in the fourth, both off Drew Smyly.
The Mariners stayed 1½ games ahead of Texas, which rallied past the Chicago White Sox with a seven-run eighth inning.
While the AL Central-leading White Sox lost, their crosstown rivals, the Cubs, further bolstered their big lead in the NL Central by edging San Diego to make it eight straight wins.
In a clash of the NL West and East leaders, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Mets via a homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Seattle’s Wade Miley gave up only four hits in six-plus innings, and the Mariners saw off a threat in the eighth when the Rays got two runners on base but Nelson Cruz made a sliding catch of a fly ball down the right-field line to end the inning.
It was the first of four outs for Steve Cishek, who completed his 11th save in 12 chances.
Texas’ Ryan Rua hit a three-run homer to cap the seven-run rally in the eighth which carried the Rangers past Chicago 13-11.
The White Sox led 11-6 before the Rangers broke loose. Mitch Moreland singled home a run, Adrian Beltre drove in another with a sacrifice fly and Ian Desmond hit a two-run triple before Rua’s homer.
Rua, who earlier had two singles, had four RBIs.
The Chicago Cubs edged San Diego 8-7, led by Ben Zobrist, who went went 4 for 4 at the plate.
Zobrist had run-scoring singles in the third and fourth. He also singled in the second and seventh, and scored in each of those innings.
Addison Russell had three RBIs for the Cubs, who are 25-6; the best start by a major league team since the 1984 Detroit Tigers won 26 of their first 31 games.
Chicago now has an 8½-game lead in the NL Central.
Los Angeles’ Trayce Thompson connected for a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Dodgers a 3-2 victory over the New York Mets.
Thompson’s at-bat began with two strikes, but left the next two pitches for balls before hitting the walk-off homer into the left-field pavilion.
The Dodgers had lost their previous four games against the Mets.
Detroit ended a seven-game skid by winning 5-4 at Washington, with Andrew Romine driving in the tie-breaking run on a play that withstood a replay challenge under the new slide rule.
The Tigers hung onto the lead against the middle of the Nationals’ powerful batting order in the ninth inning. With one out, Bryce Harper was intentionally walked by Tigers closer Francisco Rodriguez to put two men on base. He then struck out cleanup hitter Ryan Zimmerman, then got Daniel Murphy to fly out to end the game.
Toronto’s JA Happ was pulled one out short of pitching a complete game shutout as the Blue Jays won 4-0 at San Francisco.
Happ, who improved to 5-0, came close to his first complete game for six years. He also hit a single in the eighth.
Troy Tulowitzki homered and drove in three runs for Toronto.
Boston had a season-high 16 hits to cruise to a 13-5 win against Oakland.
Mookie Betts, Hanley Ramirez and Travis Shaw each homered, with Shaw having a career-high with five RBIs.