Cardinals win
Jack Flaherty pitched six scoreless innings, Marcell Ozuna drove in three runs, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 8-3 on Friday night. The Cardinals moved back into first place in the National League Central, a half game ahead of the Chicago Cubs.
ST. LOUIS — Jack Flaherty pitched six scoreless innings, Marcell Ozuna homered and drove in three runs, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 8-3 on Friday night.
The Cardinals moved back into first place in the NL Central, onehalf game ahead of the Chicago Cubs, who lost to Washington earlier Friday. The Cardinals have won 5 of 6 and 11 of 14.
The Rockies lost for the fourth time in five games and fell to 18-37 since June 21.
Flaherty (8-6) allowed 3 hits, struck out 9 and walked 1. He has allowed one earned run in his past 34 innings and has won four consecutive decisions. He hasn’t lost since July 7, when he allowed just two hits at San Francisco and St. Louis fell 1-0.
Peter Lambert (2-4) lasted 41/3 innings and gave up 6 hits and 4 runs — 2 earned.
Ozuna’s 24th home run of the season over the Colorado bullpen in left field gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead in the first.
He also doubled in Paul Goldschmidt in the sixth and later scored on a single from Paul DeJong.
The home run came after one of several miscues by the Rockies. Kolten Wong reached on an error by second baseman Ryan McMahon and Ozuna’s blast came one out later, accounting for two of the four unearned runs surrendered by Colorado.
Lambert plunked Wong in the fourth with the bases loaded to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
The Cardinals broke the game open in the fifth on a swinging bunt by Harrison Bader and a bad throw from reliever Wes Parsons, who fired the ball down the right-field line. That allowed Yadier Molina and Tommy Edman to score and Bader to reach third. He scored on Flaherty’s sacrifice fly to center as St. Louis went up 6-0.
The Rockies scored three times in the ninth off John Gant.
NATIONALS 9, CUBS 3 Anibal Sanchez pitched one-hit ball into the ninth inning and helped himself with two perfectly placed bunts, leading Washington over host Chicago.
PIRATES 3, REDS 2 Pablo Reyes hit a game-ending RBI single, driving in pinch-runner Joe Musgrove, and Pittsburgh rallied to beat visiting Cincinnati.
BRAVES 2, METS 1 (14) Billy Hamilton singled home the go-ahead run in the 14th inning for his first hit as a Brave, and Atlanta beat host New York for its sixth consecutive victory despite another strong game by Jacob deGrom.
MARLINS 19, PHILLIES 11 Starlin Castro homered twice and drove in five runs, and Miami spotted visiting Philadelphia a seven-run lead before rallying to win its highest-scoring game at Marlins Park.
BREWERS 6, DIAMONDBACKS 1 Jordan Lyles was pulled after pitching six no-hit innings and reliever Devin Williams gave up a bloop single with two outs in the seventh as host Milwaukee beat Arizona.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
RAYS 7, ORIOLES 1 Austin Meadows hit his first career grand slam to cap a seven-run second inning, Trevor Richards shined in his second start with the Rays and visiting Tampa Bay beat Baltimore.
INDIANS 4, ROYALS 1 Brad Hand bounced back from his recent struggles to record his 30th save, Francisco Lindor hit a two-run home run and host Cleveland defeated Kansas City.
TIGERS 9, TWINS 6 Ronny Rodriguez had three hits, including a grand slam, and Drew VerHagen struck out 11 in a career-high six innings as visiting Detroit beat Minnesota.
ASTROS 5, ANGELS 4 Zack Greinke won his fourth consecutive start since being traded to Houston and Yuli Gurriel hit a two-run home run in the fifth to send host Houston to a victory over Los Angeles.
WHITE SOX 8, RANGERS 3 Dylan Cease settled down after a tough start, Yoan Moncada hit a two-run home run for the second consecutive night and Chicago beat visiting Texas.