AROUND THE HORN
Twins: Sonny Gray allowed two hits in six innings to lead the Twins to a 9-1 victory over the Tigers on Sunday. Gray (5-3) is 2-0 against the Tigers this season, allowing one run on six hits in 13 innings. “I’m pretty familiar with their lineup, which helps, but I think a lot of this was building on some good things I found in my last start before the break,” he said. “I was able to throw my fastball for strikes and I was able to land my breaking ball where I needed it.” Jose Miranda had three hits and scored twice for the Twins, who are 2-0 since the All-Star break. The bottom three hitters in the Twins’ order — Miranda, Gio Urshela and Gary Sanchez — combined for six hits, five RBIs and four runs. “We’ve been talking about that all season,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “If you wait for your 1-2-3 hitters to get you going every game, you are going to have a lot of bad days. The bottom of our order has gotten us going a lot this year. Miranda gets something, Gio gets something and we’re building from that.”
Reds: Joey Votto hit a three-run homer to back Tyler Mahle’s sharp return from injury, and the Reds beat the Cardinals 6-3 on Sunday. The lastplace Reds overcame Paul Goldschmidt’s two opposite-field homers to take two of three in the series. They’ve won eight of their last 12 games. “They beat us a couple of times in St. Louis,” Reds manager David Bell said. “Then we come back and win a series against a really good team. It keeps us going in the right direction.” The only hits allowed by Mahle in six innings were Goldschmidt’s two home runs, giving him four in the series and 24 this season. The slugger launched a two-run drive to right in the fourth and a solo shot in the sixth.
Angels: Taylor Ward homered in a five-run first, Reid Detmers pitched five scoreless innings and the Angels cooled off the Braves with a 9-1 victory Sunday. Max Stassi went 3 for 4 and drove in three runs, and Ward was 3 for 5 with an RBI for the Angels, who improved to 3-14 this month and snapped a five-game skid. They had dropped 14 of 16 and were a seasonworst 16 games under .500. The defending World Series champion Braves had won 14 of 19 and were 35-11 since June 1, the best record in the majors during that span. The Braves, who began the day a half-game behind the first-place Mets in the NL East, was a season-worst 10
out on June 1. The Braves are trying to erase their biggest deficit to win a division title since the division era began in 1969.
White Sox: Dylan Cease insisted simply trying to win and help the White Sox turn around a season that began with soaring expectations is enough motivation for him. As for not being selected for his first All-Star Game? “I’ll take any chip on my shoulder I get,” he said. Cease threw six innings in his third straight scoreless start, Leury García and AJ Pollock homered, and Chicago beat the Guardians 6-3 on Sunday to salvage a four-game split. Eloy Jiménez went deep in his second straight game.
Brewers: Andrew McCutchen’s tiebreaking, two-run double capped
a two-out rally in the eighth inning that gave the Brewers a 10-9 victory over the Rockies. Rowdy Tellez hit a tying single before McCutchen hit the go-ahead double off Alex Colomé. The Rockies scored a run and put the tying run on first in the ninth before Josh Hader got the final out.