Rare triple play helps Rangers beat Angels
Colorado snap Acuna’s home run streak
>> ARLINGTON: The Texas Rangers scored four runs in the eighth inning to complete a comeback from a five-run deficit, and an unusual triple play helped them beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-6 on Thursday night.
With the bases loaded with and no outs in the fourth inning, Los Angeles’ David Fletcher hit a one-hopper that appeared headed down the left field line. Third baseman Jurickson Profar backhanded the ball on a short hop and stepped on third for the first out.
Profar then tagged Taylor Ward, who began the play on third base but was unsure if Profar caught the ball or not and retreated back to third base. Profar then threw to Rougned Odor for a force at second base to complete the triple play, the sixth in franchise history and the first since May 20, 2009, against the Seattle Mariners.
It was the first triple play in 106 years in which the batter was not retired. The last was turned by the Brooklyn Dodgers against the Cincinnati Reds on June 3, 1912.
David Dahl drove in three runs, two of them in a three-run, ninthinning outburst, as Colorado ended hosts Atlanta’s five-game winning streak with a 5-3 victory.
Dahl hit a home run, his sixth, in the third inning, but his most timely blow came in the ninth when he slapped a 1-1 pitch into left field to drive in Gerardo Parra and Ryan McMahon, breaking a 3-3 tie.
Atlanta rookie Ronald Acuna Jr, who was plunked by the opening pitch of Wednesday’s game, sparking a benches-clearing incident, saw his home run streak end at five games. He went 1-for-4 with a stolen base, extending his hitting streak to nine games.
Jose Bautista tied a major league record by collecting seven RBIs off the bench for New York, who set a bunch of franchise records in a 24-4 thumping win during the opener of a doubleheader at Philadelphia.
The 24 runs and 25 hits were both franchise records for the Mets, snapping marks set exactly 31 years earlier in a 23-10 win over the Chicago Cubs in which New York collected 21 hits.
The seven RBIs were a career high for Bautista, and he became the first major-leaguer to reach that total in a game off the bench since John Mayberry on June 26, 1978. The Mets recorded the lopsided win just 16 days after suffering the most lopsided defeat in franchise history, a 25-4 loss to the Washington Nationals.
Zach Eflin recovered from a rocky beginning to last 6 2/3 solid innings and earn the 9-6 win as Philadelphia salvaged the finale of the doubleheader.
Eflin (9-4) allowed four runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out five. Phillies closer Seranthony Dominguez entered in the ninth and surrendered a run-scoring single to Wilmer Flores before striking out the final two batters for his 14th save.
Scott Kingery and Rhys Hoskins homered for the Phillies. Hoskins drove in three runs, and Wilson Ramos had three hits.
Logan Forsythe went 5-for-5 with two doubles, two RBIs and three runs, and Jorge Polanco homered and drove in four runs to lead Minnesota to a 15-8 victory over Detroit in Minneapolis.
Miguel Sano homered and drove in three runs, Ehire Adrianza hit a tworun home run and scored twice and Joe Mauer had two hits, a walk and three runs for Minnesota.
Forsythe, who left the contest to a standing ovation for pinch runner Jake Cave after a seventh-inning single for his career-high fifth hit, is batting .449 (22-for-49) with the Twins since coming over from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Brian Dozier deal at the non-waiver deadline.
Blake Snell pitched five scoreless innings, and Adam Kolarek worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth for his first career save as Tampa Bay held on for a 3-1 victory over New York to clinch their first series win in Yankee Stadium in over four years.