Alvarez’s two home runs boost Astros to win over Mets
Yordan Alvarez homered twice off Carlos Carrasco as the host Houston Astros jumped on him early and held on for a 5-3 win over the New York Mets on Wednesday.
Alvarez hit two of the season-high three homers Carrasco allowed before the pitcher left with lower back tightness in the third inning with the Astros up 5-1. Alvarez, who also homered Tuesday night, now has 21 this season. The 24-year-old Alvarez leads all players with a 1.064 OPS and has hit nine homers in his last 20 games.
Alex Bregman added a two-run homer for the Astros, who won their third straight.
Houston starter Luis
Garcia (5-5) yielded six hits and three runs with five strikeouts in five-plus innings for the win.
Carrasco (8-3) yielded four hits and five runs in 2 innings before his injury. The National League-leading Mets have dropped eight in a row in Houston.
Rangers 4, Phillies 2: Brad Miller hit a two-run single against his former team and host Texas beat Philadelphia for the ninth time in a row to hand Zack Wheeler his first loss in two months.
Kole Calhoun also drove in two runs for the Rangers, whose winning streak against the Phillies dates to Opening Day of the 2014 season.
Jon Gray (3-3) won consecutive starts for the first time this season.
Wheeler (6-4) lost for the first time in his last 10 starts, since losing his first three starts this season.
Kyle Schwarber extended his career-best on-base streak to 26 games for the Phillies with a two-run homer.
Blue Jays 9, White Sox 5: Bo Bichette hit a grand slam and Alejandro Kirk homered for the second straight game, leading Ross Stripling and Toronto over injury-riddled Chicago.
Bichette’s second career slam capped a five-run fourth inning as the Blue Jays avoided a three-game series sweep at Chicago.
Kirk hit an RBI single in the first and a homer in the third. He tops All-Star fan voting for AL catchers and leads all qualified major-league catchers in batting average (.307) and OPS (.857). Kirk batted .364 (8 for 22) with four home runs and eight RBI in five games against the White Sox this season.
Padres 10, Diamondbacks 4:
Jurickson Profar had four hits, drove in two runs and scored twice for host San Diego, which jumped on Madison Bumgarner early against Arizona for a three-game sweep.
Jorge Alfaro, whose walk-off single in the 10th inning Tuesday night gave the Padres a 3-2 win, hit a solo homer in the sixth. Rookie Jose Azocar fell a home run short of the cycle in his first career three-hit game.
Padres All-Star slugger Manny Machado missed his third straight game with a sprained left ankle, but manager Bob Melvin returned after missing 11 games while in the COVID
protocols.
Bumgarner (3-8) got his 2,000th career strikeout, but lost for the fifth time in six starts. Bumgarner lasted only four innings, giving up six runs, four earned.
CBD SPONSORSHIPS GET LEAGUE OK
MLB teams have been told they can sell CBD sponsorships. CBD stands for cannabidiol and is a chemical compound found naturally in cannabis plants.
The commissioner’s office informed teams that a sponsor would need to be certified by the NSF, a global health and safety organization, to ensure the CBD products do not contain THC that causes psychoactive effects. A sponsor would need to be approved by the league.