Walker HR caps rally by Yankees
Pinch-hitter Neil Walker connected for a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Yankees rallied from a four-run deficit to defeat the Chicago White Sox, 5-4, last night in New York.
Aaron Hicks hit a tying homer in the eighth and rookie Miguel Andujar also had a two-run shot to help the injury-depleted Yankees win for the ninth time in 11 games. With the second-best record in the majors, they remained 61⁄2 games behind the first-place Red Sox in the American League East.
Walker batted for Ronald Torreyes with one out and launched the first pitch he saw from Dylan Covey (4-12) over the right-center wall for his ninth home run of the season. As he neared home plate, Walker tossed his helmet high in the air and was swarmed by teammates.
With the Yankees down by two, Giancarlo Stanton singled leading off the eighth to snap an 0-for-14 slump. Hicks drove a full-count pitch from Juan Minaya to right and shouted excitedly in the direction of the Yankees’ dugout as he trotted toward first.
Dellin Betances (4-3) struck out two in a perfect ninth.
Indians 8, Twins 1 — Carlos Carrasco (16-7) struck out 11 and withstood another scary Minnesota line drive, pitching Cleveland to an easy win at home.
Francisco Lindor matched a career high with four hits while Jose Ramirez drove in three runs for the AL Central leaders.
Orioles 12, Blue Jays 5 — Josh Rogers won his major league debut, Tim Beckham hit a three-run homer and host Baltimore rolled over Toronto.
Royals 6, Tigers 2 — Jakob Junis held scuffling Detroit to six hits in his first career complete game, Adalberto Mondesi homered to spur a five-run frame and host Kansas City prevailed.
National League
Reds 9, Brewers 7 — Jose Peraza started Junior Guerra’s rough outing with a tworun homer, and host Cincinnati withstood Christian Yelich’s first multihomer game for a victory that extended Milwaukee’s fade in August.
Since trailing the Cubs by a game on Aug. 4, Milwaukee has gone 8-11 and slid to third in the NL Central.
Nationals 5, Phillies 4 — Pinch-running pitcher Vince Velasquez was called out for leaving second base early while tagging up, resulting in a game-ending double play that gave Washington a win over host Philadelphia.
After Aaron Nola outpitched Max Scherzer for the second time in six days in a matchup of NL Cy Young Award contenders, the Phillies watched Washington rally for three runs in the ninth to take a 5-3 lead.
Ramos got Philadelphia within a run with a pinch-hit double in the ninth, and Velasquez pinch-ran for the catcher. Greg Holland relieved and retired Jorge Alfaro on a flyball to center, with Velasquez moving to third as the potential tying run.
But the Nationals appealed that Velasquez left too soon, and he was called out. A replay upheld the ruling.
Interleague
Braves 9, Rays 5 — Pinch-runner Adam Duvall scored the tiebreaking run on a delayed dash from third base in Atlanta’s four-run eighth inning during a win that snapped an eight-game winning streak for visiting Tampa Bay.
Elsewhere in baseball — Thrilled with the results, the St. Louis Cardinals thanked Mike Shildt.
The Cardinals took off the interim tag from Shildt’s title and promoted him to full-time manager yesterday, a reward for steering the team back into postseason contention after taking over for the fired Mike Matheny.
In danger of missing the playoffs three straight years for the first time since the late ’90s, the Cardinals have gone 26-12 since July 15, including a 19-5 mark in August. St.Louis now holds the top spot in the National League wild card standings.