Mets' Bassitt has solid start; Marte hits homer
Chris Bassitt scattered eight hits over eight innings and Starling Marte hit a two-run homer in the first, leading the New York Mets to a 5-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night.
With their 13th victory in 15 games, the Mets extended their NL East lead to seven games over idle Atlanta.
Bassitt (9-7) allowed an unearned run and struck out eight. He threw 114 pitches, most by a Mets starter this year and two shy of his career high set in August 2019.
Reds starter and former Mets prospect Justin Dunn (0-1) permitted three runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings. He was pitching in the majors for the first time since June 2021.
Daniel Vogelbach had an RBI single in the fourth and ex-Reds outfielder Tyler Naquin added a two-run triple in the eighth. Naquin was acquired from Cincinnati in a July 28 trade.
Ramón Urías hit a three-run homer in the first inning, and Anthony Santander, Ryan Mountcastle and Austin Hays also went deep to lift Baltimore over Toronto.
The Orioles, who entered the day two games behind Seattle and Tampa Bay for the final two wild cards in the American League, pulled within three of Toronto for the first wild card. This was the first of 15 meetings down the stretch between the Blue Jays and Orioles.
Baltimore starter Jordan Lyles (9-8) yielded two runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. Félix Bautista got four outs for his fifth save.
Cavan Biggio and Matt Chapman homered for the Blue Jays. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. extended his hitting streak to 19 games, longest in the AL this year.
Yusei Kikuchi (4-6) allowed five runs and six hits in five-plus innings.
Baltimore has won six of seven.
Zac Gallen pitched seven dominant innings, Ketel Marte had a crucial two-out, two-RBI single in the eighth and the Arizona Diamondbacks
beat the Pittsburgh Pirates..
Gallen (7-2) gave up just three hits and two walks while striking out eight. The seven innings matched a career high he's reached 13 times in the big leagues. He threw just 89 pitches but manager Torey Lovullo opted to bring in lefty Joe Mantiply for the eighth.
The decision worked. Mantiply retired the Pirates in order in the eighth and Ian Kennedy handled the ninth for his seventh save.
Keegan Thompson pitched six effective innings, and rookies Nelson Velázquez and Christopher Morel homered in the third as Chicago beat skidding Washington.
Arizona loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth. The next two batters couldn't extend the lead, grounding out weakly for force outs at home, but Marte came through, hitting a hard grounder through the right side to push the advantage to 3-0.
Thompson (9-5) gave up five hits and didn't walk a batter. Luke Voit homered in the sixth to end the shutout bid.
Pinch-hitter Joey Meneses launched a two-run homer for the Nationals in the eighth. Rowan Wick pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save.
Velázquez's homer highlighted the first three-hit game of his career.
The Nationals (36-75) dropped their sixth straight and have been outscored 51-20 during that span. Anibal Sanchez (0-5) pitched fiveplus innings, the longest outing by a Nationals starter during their losing streak.
Evan Longoria scored in his first game back off the IL on a sacrifice fly by Thairo Estrada in the fourth inning to give the Giants a victory over the Padres.
It was all the offense that Giants starter Alex Wood needed as he shut down San Diego's offense, going 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts. That's when reliever John Brebbia took over to finish out the seventh. Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval each pitched an inning to finish off the Giant's shutout.