Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Taylor homers twice, Nats clobber Reds
With one of baseball’s deepest and toughest lineups, the Washington Nationals showed why they lead the National League in hitting and scoring.
Michael Taylor homered twice among his four hits, Trea Turner finished 5 of 5 with a walk and the Nationals beat the Cincinnati Reds 18-3 on Saturday.
Daniel Murphy had four RBIs with his three-run double highlighting a six-run second inning. Taylor’s tworun homer capped a four-run fourth inning and he added a solo shot in the sixth.
Turner, Ryan Zimmerman, Matt Wieters each drove in two runs. Bryce Harper had one of Washington’s 19 hits.
“When everyone is doing well, you get a day like today,” Turner said. “It’s not a fun lineup to face for other teams and that’s the way we want it to be.”
Washington led 13-0 as Joe Ross (4-3) blanked the Reds until Patrick Kivlehan’s pinch-hit home run in the sixth.
In his first appearance since Aug. 28, Homer Bailey (0-1) allowed eight runs and six hits with three walks in 1 2/3 innings.
The Reds, who have lost 13 of 14, gave up 17 runs on May 29 at Toronto. Matt Olson hit his first two major league home runs, Jaycob Brugman and Franklin Barreto also launched their first career shots and Oakland routed Chicago.
Barreto homered in his big league debut. He joined Olson and Brugman in becoming the second trio of teammates to hit their first homers in the same game, the Elias Sports Bureau said. It also happened in 1914 with the Kansas City Packers of the Federal League — the rival circuit lasted a couple of seasons, and included many big leaguers.
Dylan Bundy helped Baltimore avoid a dubious pitching record, throwing seven solid innings as the Orioles beat Tampa Bay.
The Orioles had given up at least five runs in 20 straight games, matching the major league mark set by the 1924 Philadelphia Phillies.
Austin Bibens-Dirkx pitched seven dazzling innings in his first shot at the Yankees after 12 seasons in the minors, and Carlos Gomez homered for Texas.
Robinson Chirinos also went deep and Elvis Andrus had a pair of run-scoring hits for the Rangers, who rebounded quickly from a difficult defeat that ended at 12:19 a.m. Jason Vargas became the first major league pitcher to reach 11 wins this season, pitching seven efficient innings to lead surging Kansas City over Toronto.
Brian Dozier hit a leadoff homer against closer Cody Allen to break an eighth-inning tie and Minnesota defeated Cleveland.
Dozier homered into the left field porch on a 3-2 pitch and narrowed Cleveland’s lead over Minnesota in the AL Central to one-half game.
Brandon Phillips homered for the third straight game, R.A. Dickey threw seven strong innings and Atlanta beat Milwaukee.
The Braves have won four straight and nine of 12.
Jon Lester gave up a three-run homer to J.T. Realmuto in the first inning and then settled down to help Chicago beat Miami.
Jacob deGrom pitched eight strong innings and Wilmer Flores homered as the New York Mets defeated San Francisco.
DeGrom (7-3) struck out seven and allowed one run while scattering four hits. Jordy Mercer and Josh Harrison homered and starter Gerrit Cole pitched six innings, lifting Pittsburgh over St. Louis. Cole (6-6) extended his winning streak to three games, allowing five hits and one run with five strikeouts and two walks.
JC Ramirez rebounded from his shortest career start with six solid innings, Cameron Maybin doubled home a run and scored another and Los Angeles held off Boston.