Sonny Gray gets his first victory in a Yankees’ uniform
NEW YORK — Sonny Gray outpitched Jacob deGrom, Jacoby Ellsbury and Gary Sanchez homered, and the New York Yankees held off the New York Mets 5-4 to sweep both Subway Series games in the Bronx on Tuesday.
Despite another late stumble by closer Aroldis Chapman, the Yankees kept the Empire State Building lit up in pinstripes with the win. The Mets will try to change the color scheme to blue and orange when the rivalry now shifts to Citi Field for two games beginning Wednesday night.
Gray (7-7) earned his first win in three starts since being traded from Oakland to a playoff contender. He blanked the Mets on four singles until the seventh inning, when he issued a leadoff walk and rookie Dominic Smith followed with his first major league homer.
Chapman gave up an infield single to pinch-hitter Jose Reyes and a two-run homer by rookie Amed Rosario in the ninth, then got two more outs for his 16th save in 20 chances.
DeGrom (13-6) gave up more than four earned runs for the first time in 12 starts.
• Dodgers 6, White Sox 1 — At Los Angeles: Joc Pederson got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the goahead run in a five-run eighth inning, helping the Los Angeles Dodgers rally for a victory over the Chicago White Sox.
The victory pushed the Dodgers (84-34) to a whopping 50 games above .500.
Pederson was hit in the upper right thigh by a pitch from Jake Petricka that forced in Yasmani Grandal with two outs, opening the floodgates for a Dodgers offense that had been stifled most of the game.
By the end of the inning, Los Angeles had batted around in taking a 6-1 lead. Pinch-hitter Austin Barnes and Corey Seager each added a two-run single.
• Padres 8, Phillies 4 — At San Diego: Corey Spangenberg homered and had a career-high four RBIs and Dinelson Lamet threw seven strong innings as the San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies.
Spangenberg hit his careerhigh 12th homer, his third in four games. He also had a tworun double in the first and an RBI on a fielder’s choice in the fifth.
Lamet (7-4), a rookie righthander with a power arm, held the Phillies hitless over the first 4 2/3 innings in winning for the fourth time in his last five starts. He tied a career-high by working seven innings, surrendering two runs, three hits, a walk and a hit batter. He struck out seven.
A Philadelphia batter didn’t reach base until Maikel Franco was hit by a pitch to open the fifth, which preceded Jorge Alfaro’s first homer in the majors in cutting the Padres’ lead to 4-2. That would be the closest Philadelphia would get in dropping its fifth of its last six games.
• Red Sox 10, Cardinals 4 — At Boston: Xander Bogaerts had three hits, Hanley Ramirez, Sandy Leon and Jackie Bradley Jr. all added two RBIs and Boston beat St. Louis.
Boston blew the game open courtesy of a wild fifth inning, tallying eight hits and eight runs against Cardinals starter Mike Leake and reliever Matt Bowman. It came an inning after the Red Sox turned their first triple play in six years .
The Red Sox have won 11 of their past 13.
• Nationals 3, Angels 1 — At Washington: Gio Gonzalez allowed two hits in six scoreless innings, Howie Kendrick hit two solo home runs and Washington snapped Los Angeles’ winning streak at six.
Gonzalez (11-5) struck out four and issued three walks in lowering his home ERA to 1.79, now the best in baseball. The left-hander, who was three outs from a no-hitter July 31 at Miami, allowed his first hit two hits into the fifth against the Angels.
Los Angeles, which had climbed into an AL wild-card spot during its streak, lost for the first time since Aug. 7. Tyler Skaggs (1-3) allowed the two home runs to Kendrick and five other hits while striking out six in five innings.
• Indians 8, Twins 1 — At Minneapolis: Carlos Santana hit two of Cleveland’s five home runs and Danny Salazar continued his strong second-half stretch in the Indians’ victory over Minnesota.
Santana, Jason Kipnis and Edwin Encarnacion all hit solo homers off Bartolo Colon (4-10) as Cleveland won its fifth straight overall and stayed unbeaten in eight games in Minnesota this season. Austin Jackson added a three-run shot and Santana homered from both sides of the plate for the Indians, who have outscored the Twins 5616 at Target Field this season.
• Braves 4, Rockies 3 — At Denver: Brandon Phillips scored the go-ahead run on a rare error by Nolan Arenado, and Atlanta beat Colorado.
Nick Markakis homered for the Braves, who snapped an 11-game skid in Denver.
The game was tied in the eighth when Phillips reached on a one-out double off Pat Neshek (3-3). One out later Tyler Flowers hit a routine grounder to Arenado at third base, but his throw to first was off line and skipped away from Mark Reynolds, allowing Phillips to score from second.
• Rangers 10, Tigers 4 — At Arlington, Texas: Joey Gallo and Mike Napoli hit back-to-back homers and Texas beat Detroit to end Justin Verlander’s threegame winning streak.
The Rangers had just gone ahead 2-1 on Nomar Mazara’s RBI single in the fourth inning when Gallo hit his 34th homer, a towering drive that landed in the second deck of seats in right-center above the Texas bullpen and was estimated at 459 feet.
Napoli followed with a 416foot shot to left for his 24th homer, and added a two-run single in the Rangers’ fourrun eighth.
• Reds 2, Cubs 1 — At Chicago: Scooter Gennett’s sacrifice fly drove in Joey Votto to break a scoreless tie in the eighth, and Billy Hamilton singled in a run in the ninth and Cincinnati edged Chicago.
After Votto walked for the third time and advanced to third on Adam Duvall’s single off reliever Pedro Strop (3-3), Gennett smacked a line drive to right that Jason Heyward caught on the run.
Cincinnati rookie Luis Castillo allowed only two hits over six innings. Chicago remained 1 1/2 games ahead of both St. Louis and Milwaukee in the NL Central.
• Astros 9, Diamondbacks 4 — At Phoenix: Houston had six extra-base hits in the first four innings, building a big enough lead to top Arizona.
Houston jumped to an 8-0 lead in the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Brad Peacock couldn’t get out of the bottom of the fifth, so Francis Martes (5-2) came on and struck out all four batters he faced in 1 1/3 innings for the victory.
Diamondbacks starter Anthony Banda (1-3) allowed eight runs and nine hits in four innings.
• Rays 6, Blue Jays 4 — At Toronto: Lucas Duda hit a two-run homer, Wilson Ramos added a solo shot and Tampa Bay beat Toronto, snapping a four-game skid.
The Rays came in having scored 12 runs in their past 10 games. According to Elias, that is the lowest total for any AL team over a 10-game stretch since the designated hitter was introduced in 1973. The Rays suffered five shutout defeats in that span, and lead the majors with 10 scoreless losses.
Blake Snell (1-6) allowed one run and four hits.
• Brewers 3, Pirates 1 — At Milwaukee: Keon Broxton hit a pinch-hit home run, Manny Piqa drove in two runs, Zach Davies pitched into the seventh and Milwaukee beat Pittsburgh.
Davies (14-6) allowed six hits, including Adam Frazier’s run-scoring triple in the sixth, walked two and struck out two. Jared Hughes took over and retired Josh Harrison on a bouncer back to the mound. Jacob Barnes retired the side in order in the eighth and Corey Knebel pitched the ninth for his 23rd save.
Piqa capitalized on Travis Shaw’s success against Ivan Nova (10-10). Shaw came in batting .769 (10 for 13) against the big right-hander. He singled in the second and scored when Piqa bounced into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded. In the sixth, Shaw walked and scored on Piqa’s two-out infield hit.
• Mariners 3, Orioles 1 — At Seattle: Andrew Albers earned his first major league win in four years, pitching five effective innings as the Seattle Mariners beat the Baltimore Orioles to snap a fivegame losing streak.
Called up from the minors earlier in the day, Albers (1-0) settled down after giving up Jonathan Schoop’s 26th home run in the first inning. He allowed six hits for his first victory since Aug. 12, 2013, when he went 2-5 in 10 starts with Minnesota.
The 31-year-old lefty, acquired in a trade with Atlanta last Friday after going 12-3 at Triple-A Gwinnett, made one relief appearance for Toronto in 2015 and did not get a decision in six appearances last season with the Twins.