Bregman, Astros crush Baltimore

Mets keep finding ways to win late

BALTIMORE — Houston manager A. J. Hinch was awestruck by his team’s extraordinary display of power.

The Astros aren’t showing any type of weakness heading into the final stretch of the season.

Rookie Yordan Alvarez hit three of Houston’s six homers and drove in a career-high seven runs to help the Astros to the highest scoring game in franchise history with a 23-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday night.

Albuquerque Academy graduate Alex Bregman, who went 3 for 3, and Alvarez set the tone with back-to-back homers in the first inning.

“It was obviously a pretty explosive night from the beginning,” Hinch said. “From top to bottom just incredible at-bats, productive at-bats, explosive atbats and ultimately a comfortable win.”

The victory was the eighth straight for the Astros, who became the latest team to feast on the reeling Orioles.

METS 4, NATIONALS 3: In New York, rookie Luis Guillorme picked a perfect time for his first big league homer — a tying shot to start the eighth — J.D. Davis added a go-ahead sacrifice fly a few batters later and the Mets worked their magic again, beating Washington for their seasonbest eighth straight victory.

The Mets have won 15 of 16 and are on their best roll since a 16-1 run in 1990. They pulled within a half-game of Washington for the first wild card and will try for a three-game sweep today.

TWINS 4, INDIANS 1: In Minneapolis, Max Kepler and Marwin Gonzalez homered, All-Star Jake Odorizzi earned his careerhigh 13th victory and Minnesota broke a tie with Cleveland atop the AL Central, beating the Indians 4-1 to snap a four-game losing streak.

The game was delayed 1 hour, 50 minutes at the start by rain.

The Indians had won the first two in the four-game series at Target Field, tying for the division lead after trailing by 11½ games in early June.

DODGERS 4, D-BACKS 0: In Los Angeles, Kenta Maeda allowed only three hits over seven innings, Max Muncy homered and the Dodgers bounced back with a victory over Arizona.

The Dodgers were defeated by the Diamondbacks 3-2 in 11 innings Friday night, in a game that included a bench-clearing postgame confrontation between the NL West rivals. Cooler heads prevailed 24 hours later, with no incidents or retaliatory pitches.

BLUE JAYS 5, YANKEES 4: In Toronto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a go-ahead, two-run triple in the seventh inning and Toronto rallied to hand New York its second straight loss following a season-high nine-game winning streak.

Gary Sanchez returned from injured list and hit a solo home run for the Yankees and Gio Urshela added a two-run drive.

Teoscar Hernandez hit a threerun home run for the Blue Jays.

REDS 10, CUBS 1: In Cincinnati, rookie Aristides Aquino homered in his first three at-bats, keeping up his prodigious power display and leading the Reds over Chicago.

Aquino has hit seven homers in his first 10 games, tying the big league mark set by former Albuquerque Isotope Trevor Story in 2016 with Colorado.

ANGELS 12, RED SOX 4: In Boston, Mike Trout hit the first home run of his career at Fenway Park, and Los Angeles snapped an eight-game losing streak.

With his 428-foot drive over the Green Monster in the sixth inning, Trout has now homered in every American League ballpark.

He had played 21 games in Boston without connecting.

BREWERS 3, RANGERS 2: In Milwaukee, Adrian Houser struck out a career-high 10 and rookie Keston Hiura hit his 14th home run as the Brewers beat Texas and extended their winning streak to five games.

Houser (5-5) limited the Rangers to one run, a solo homer by Danny Santana in the sixth inning. GIANTS 3, PHILLIES 1: In San Francisco, Jeff Samardzija pitched eight stellar innings of two-hit ball, and Evan Longoria and Kevin Pillar homered for the victorious Giants.

Samardzija (9-9) gave up one run, struck out five and walked none. He retired 20 straight after giving up a solo homer to Corey Dickerson with two outs in the top of the first inning.

WHITE SOX 3, ATHLETICS 2: In Chicago, Reynaldo López pitched shutout ball into the seventh inning, Eloy Jiménez homered on his bobblehead night and the White Sox beat Tanner Roark and Oakland.

López (7-9) allowed six hits, struck out three and walked three in his second straight win. The 25-year-old right-hander improved to 3-1 with a 2.13 ERA in his last six starts, continuing one of the best stretches of his career.

CARDINALS 3, PIRATES 1: In St. Louis, Adam Wainwright gave up a home run on the first pitch of the game but not much else, and the Cardinals beat Pittsburgh. The contending Cardinals won their second in a row after a five-game losing streak.

Wainwright (8-8) allowed six hits, including the home run by Adam Frazier, and struck out eight in six innings. He improved to 6-2 this season at home.

MARLINS 7, BRAVES 6 (10): In Miami, Martin Prado hit a sacrifice fly that scored Harold Ramirez in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Marlins rallied for a win over Atlanta.

Playing in front of a seasonhigh home crowd of 29,720, the Marlins erased a 6-2 deficit by scoring four in the bottom of the ninth.

PADRES 8, ROCKIES 5: In San Diego, Manuel Margot hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning and Hunter Renfroe had a homer among his three hits and scored four runs as the Padres beat staggering Colorado.

The Rockies have lost five straight and 19 or their last 25.

RAYS 5, MARINERS 4: In Seattle, Mike Zunino hit a three-run homer, Kevin Kiermaier and Avisail Garcia also went deep and Tampa Bay beat the Mariners.

Tampa Bay starter Charlie Morton (12-4) gave up four runs on a season-high nine hits, and struck out 10 in six innings.

ROYALS 7, TIGERS 0: In Detroit, Mike Montgomery struck out a career-high 12 in seven innings as Kansas City blanked the Tigers.

Notes

TEBOW: New York Mets minor leaguer and former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow is expected to miss the rest of the season due to a cut on his left hand.

The 31-year-old Tebow hit .163 in 77 games during his first season with Triple-A Syracuse but hasn’t played since July 21 after injuring himself fielding a ball in the outfield. The cut required several stitches. Syracuse’s regular season ends Sept. 2.

This is the second straight year Tebow’s season will end prematurely. He missed the final two months of 2018 because of a broken bone in his right hand.

The 2007 Heisman Trophywinner is in his third year of professional ball and first in Triple-A after a three-year stint at quarterback in the NFL. He has batted .223 with 18 homers in 287 minor league games.