Fowler's home runs lead Cardinals to win
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Dexter Fowler feels his swing is getting closer to what he expects.
Fowler hit his first two home runs for the St. Louis Cardinals, who swept the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday with their third straight 2-1 victory over Pittsburgh.
"I feel like I've been swinging the bat for the past few days pretty good," Fowler said. "I just haven't had the results. I've been sticking with it."
Fowler, who left the World Series champion Chicago Cubs to sign an $82.5 million, five-year contract with St. Louis, was hitting .132 after going hitless in four at-bats Monday.
He rebounded with a triple on Tuesday and had three of the Cardinals' eight hits on Wednesday, including a third-inning drive into the right-field bullpen and a shot down the right-field line in the fifth, both off Gerrit Cole (1-2).
"He got a couple pitches that were up and put good swings on them," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
Fowler said his experience helped him deal with the rough start.
"It was just something mechanical that caused a lot of problems and I got that straightened out," he said. "Ever since
I corrected that I've been feeling a lot better."
Josh Bell had tied the score with a fourth-inning homer to center against Michael Wacha (2-1), who had retired his first 10 batters.
St. Louis is 6-9, winning its opener and losing nine of 11 before the sweep.
"It's huge," Cardinals first baseman Matt Carpenter said of the sweep. "It was just a much better series for us."
Wacha allowed one run and four hits in 6 2/3 innings. Matt Bowman relieved with two on and struck out Jordy Mercer to end the seventh, and Kevin Siegrist worked around a walk and two errors in the eighth. Pittsburgh left the bases loaded when Carpenter, who committed the first error, made a diving stop at first base and raced to beat Gregory Polanco to first.
"I'm just trying to stay locked in and make a play to help get us out of an ugly inning," Carpenter said. "Thankfully, Siegrist made another good pitch and worked his way out of it. I was able to make a play for him, and we were able to limit the damage there."
With closer Seung Hwan Oh unavailable after pitching the two previous games, former closer Trevor Rosenthal pitched the ninth. John Jaso singled with one out, Rosenthal threw a called third strike past Mercer, then struck out Jose Osuna for his first save this season.
Cole gave up six hits in six innings, struck out eight and walked none.
CUBS 7, BREWERS 4
CHICAGO (AP) — Addison Russell hit a three-run homer off Neftali Feliz (0-2) that capped a four-run ninth inning.
Chicago trailed 4-1 before Willson Contreras' RBI single in the sixth Carlos Torres, and Russell's run-scoring single cut the deficit to one run in the eighth. Kris Bryant's RBI single tied the score.
Wade Davis (2-0) worked around a walk in the ninth.
ATHLETICS 9, RANGERS 1
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Khris Davis hit his seventh home run of the season, Yonder Alonso and Chad Pinder also went deep.
Josh Phegley hit a two-run double in a four-run first that gave a quick lead to Jesse Hahn (1-1), who allowed one run and two hits over six innings, struck out four and walked four.
Davis hit a two-run homer in the fifth, his third home run in six games.
Martin Perez (1-2) gave up four runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.
YANKEES 9, WHITE SOX 1
NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit a 448-foot homer, Masahiro Tanaka (2-1) pitched seven innings of one-run ball and New York completed its first stretch at Yankee Stadium this season 8-1, its most wins in a homestand since going 9-1 from July 17-26, 2009.
Judge followed Starlin Castro's threerun shot in the fifth for the Yankees' first back-to-back homers of the season. Chase Headley and Aaron Hicks also went deep to give New York a season high four home runs.
Dylan Covey (0-1) got knocked around in his second major league start, allowing eight runs, 10 hits and three homers over five innings.
BLUE JAYS 3, RED SOX 0
TORONTO (AP) — Francisco Liriano (1-1) allowed four hits in 5 1/3 innings and combined with three relievers combined on a six-hitter.
Kevin Pillar had three hits for the second straight game and stole two bases as the Blue Jays won for the third time this season and improved to 2-6 on their homestand.
Toronto scored three unearned runs in the second against AL Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello (1-2) after errors by third baseman Pablo Sandoval and first baseman Mitch Moreland.
Darwin Barney hit a two-run single and scored on Ezequiel Carrera's single.