Scherzer’s pinch hit helps lead Nationals past Braves
ATLANTA: Nationals ace Max Scherzer singled as a pinch hitter in the 14th inning and scored the tie-breaking run on Wilmer Difo’s triple, sparking Washington to a 5-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
In his third big league pinch-hit appearance, Scherzer singled up the middle against Miguel Socolovich (0-1) and sped home from first base on Difo’s hit to rightcentre field. Spencer Kieboom added an RBI single. Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, touched off a dugout celebration after he scored.
Justin Miller (2-0) struck out five in three innings, facing the minimum, and Sean Doolittle got three straight outs for his 14th save.
Juan Soto and Michael Taylor homered for Washington. Johan Camargo hit his third home run this week for Atlanta.
Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar homered to help Masahiro Tanaka win his fifth straight decision, and the New York Yankees beat the visiting Baltimore 8-5 to extend the Orioles’ losing streak to seven games.
Tanaka (7-2) allowed four runs and eight hits with seven strikeouts and one walk over 5 1/3 innings. He is 5-0 in seven road games this season — the best stretch of his career. Brett Gardner had a pair of lead-off doubles and scored a run for the Yankees, who have won four consecutive games.
Adam Jones, Joey Rickard and Manny Machado hit solo homers for the Orioles, who scored more than three runs for just the second time in 14 games.
Andrew Benintendi and Christian Vazquez homered during a three-run seventh inning that lifted the Boston Red Sox over the hosts Astros 5-4.
Former Cy Young Award winners Justin Verlander and David Price each pitched six innings before handing off to the bullpens. Will Harris (1-3) allowed the homers to Vazquez and Benintendi in the seventh, setting up Price (6-4) for a victory.
Craig Kimbrel earned his 19th save by striking out two during a scoreless ninth.
Verlander allowed two runs, three hits and two walks while striking out six. He had earned AL Pitcher of the Month in May with an 0.86 ERA in six starts.
Joc Pederson hit a pair of solo homers, Matt Kemp went deep during an eightrun seventh inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the Colorado Rockies 12-4 in Denver.
Pederson turned in his fifth multi-homer game and first since Sept 10, 2016, at Miami. He also doubled and singled to tie a career high with four hits.
Kemp kept up his torrid hitting against Colorado by lining a cutter from reliever Bryan Shaw (2-4) for a two-run homer to break open a tight game. Kemp leads all active players with 44 homers against the Rockies. That wasn’t all from the Dodgers outfielder: He threw out Charlie Blackmon at the plate in the first inning when Blackmon tried to tag up on a fly. Dodgers’ Breyvic Valera had three RBIs.