Sale strikes out 13 in 2-hitter as Red Sox top Angels
Urshela homers twice to lift Yankees to win
BOSTON — Chris Sale righted himself and struck out 13 over eight two-hit innings, Sam Travis hit a two-run homer and the Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-0 on Thursday night.
Sale (6-11) had allowed 14 runs over nine innings during his previous two starts, both against the rival New York Yankees. He carved up the Angels in his 13th outing with double-digit strikeouts this season.
The Red Sox had lost nine of 10 games, not including’s Wednesday’s contest against the Royals that was suspended in the 10th inning with the score tied at 4. Thursday’s game ran without issue and was over in a tidy 2 hours, 16 minutes.
Boston entered six games back of the second AL wild card.
Angels star Mike Trout went 1 for 4 with three strikeouts a day after his 28th birthday. Los Angeles, which began the day 9½ games out in the AL wild card, suffered its season-high seventh straight loss.
YANKEES 12, BLUE JAYS 6: In Toronto, Gio Urshela hit two home runs for the second straight game and New York outslugged rookie Bo Bichette and Toronto to extend its winning streak to a season-best nine games.
Playing in Toronto for the first time, Bichette became the first player in major league history to double in nine consecutive games. He also homered, giving him an unprecedented 13 extra-base hits in his first 11 career games. Bichette is the first rookie to have an extra-base hit in nine straight games since Ted Williams in 1939, according to STATS.
The Yankees have hit a record 19 homers over their last four games, including at least five in each win during a three-game sweep at Baltimore this week.
INDIANS 7, TWINS 5: In Minneapolis, Jose Ramirez drove in three runs, Mike Clevinger kept Minnesota quiet with nine strikeouts in seven innings, and Cleveland struck first in this fourgame series between the AL Central front-runners to pull within a game of the Twins.
CUBS 12, REDS 5: In Cincinnati, Anthony Rizzo had a pair of hits as part of a 30th birthday celebration, Nicholas Castellanos added to his Chicago surge with a pair of homers and the Cubs beat Cincinnati for their biggest NL Central lead of the season.
The Cubs’ sixth win in seven games gave them a 3½-game margin over the idle Brewers. Lefthander Cole Hamels struggled, but Tyler Chatwood (5-1) fanned six in three innings as Chicago pulled away.
MARLINS 9, BRAVES 2: In Miami, Brian Anderson homered twice, Elieser Hernandez (2-4) pitched six shutout innings and Miami beat Atlanta.
Hernandez retired 11 consecutive batters before Ronald Acuña Jr.’s leadoff single in the sixth.
TIGERS 10, ROYALS 8: In Detroit, Jordy Mercer hit a walkoff, two-run homer against Richard Lovelady (0-2) in the ninth inning to lift Detroit over Kansas City.
Travis Demeritte led off the ninth with his third walk of the game and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jake Rogers. Mercer then hit a 2-1 fastball into the right-field stands.
GIANTS 5, PHILLIES 0: In San Francisco, Madison Bumgarner carried a no-hit bid into the sixth inning and won his fourth straight decision, pitching San Francisco past Philadelphia.
PADRES 9, ROCKIES 3: In San Diego, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a home run and had two RBIs to lead San Diego to a win over Colorado.