Astros stop Red Sox; go for sweep
BOSTON (AP) — Alex Bregman hit his 30th home run, Charlie Morton returned from the disabled list with five solid innings and the Houston Astros beat the Boston Red Sox 5-3 on Saturday for their seventh straight win.
Martin Maldonado also homered for AL West-leading Houston, which won the first two legs of the three-game rematch of last year's AL Division Series. The defending World Series champion Astros will try to sweep the major league-leading Red Sox on Sunday night.
Morton (14-3) was activated from the DL after missing his last start with discomfort in his right shoulder. He allowed a run and three hits in the first inning, but Boston didn't score again until Xander Bogaerts' solo homer in the fifth.
Morton matched his win total from 2017. He allowed two runs and seven hits, striking out three and walking two. Roberto Osuna took over in the ninth and got his 15th save despite allowing a run. Osuna got out of a jam when J.D. Martinez grounded into a double play.
Eduardo Rodriguez (12-4) pitched 3 1/3 innings. Houston tagged him for five runs and six hits, including solo homers by Bregman and Maldonado.
Tyler White hit an RBI triple and scored on Jake Marisnick's sacrifice fly in the third, when a pair of runs put Houston up for good.
Bregman made it 3-1 in the fourth with his towering shot that bounced off a sign above the Green Monster, and Maldonado led off the fourth with his ninth of the season.
Bogaerts went 3 for 4 with two RBIs. He gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the first on a single after back-toback singles by Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi.
Morton ran into trouble in the fourth when he walked Christian Vazquez with two outs, Jackie Bradley Jr. followed with a single and Betts walked to load the bases. Marisnick got him out of the jam with a nice running catch on Benintendi's fly ball just a couple steps from the scoreboard in left.
Rodriguez was pulled after walking Springer with one out in the fourth. Madonado led off the inning with a homer to left-center, the second in two innings off Rodriguez.
Reds 7, Padres 2, 6 innings, rain.
CINCINNATI (AP) — Joey Votto ended the second-longest homer drought of his career with yet another Reds grand slam.
Votto homered for the first time in two months on Saturday, connecting for Cincinnati's 11th slam — one shy of the NL record — and the Reds beat the San Diego Padres 7-2 in a game called because of rain in the top of the seventh inning.
The game started an hour early because of a foreboding forecast and was played in a steady rain that intensified with one out in the top of the seventh.
Votto connected off Robbie Erlin (3-6) during a seven-run second inning for his first homer since July 9. Votto had gone 36 games without a homer, not counting his long ball in the All-Star Game. He spent time on the disabled list with a sore knee during the span.
After hitting 36 homers last season, Votto has only 10.
"I didn't know it was two months," interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "I knew he'd been stuck on nine for a while."
It was Votto's second grand slam this season and the fourth of his career. Scott Schebler's slam during a 12-6 win on Friday night set a franchise record of 10 in a season. The NL mark is 12 and the major league record is 14.
Erlin went three innings and gave up eight hits and seven runs, all in the second inning. He struggled to control his pitches in the rain.