Twins sweep Orioles; Jays slam Brews
BALTIMORE — Beating the Baltimore Orioles twice in a row simply wasn’t good enough for the upstart Minnesota Twins, who entered Wednesday’s series finale determined to complete a sweep. That’s precisely what happened. Using a strong pitching performance by Jose Berrios, the AL Central leaders churned out a 4-3 victory. Following a 14-7 win on Monday night and a 2-0 victory Tuesday, the Twins ended Baltimore’s run of seven straight series wins at home.
Berrios took a two-hitter into the seventh inning and Kennys Vargas drove in two runs for the Twins, who have won six of seven and are a major league best 14-5 on the road.
Minnesota bolted to a 4-0 lead and withstood solo homers by J.J. Hardy, Chris Davis and Jonathan Schoop to complete its fourth sweep of the season.
RED SOX 9, RANGERS 4: Dustin Pedroia waved home the tiebreaking run on a wild pitch, then singled in two more during Boston’s seven-run seventh inning at Fenway Park.
Chris Sale (5-2) struck out six, falling short in his attempt to become the first pitcher in baseball’s modern era to strike out at least 10 in nine straight games in one season. He allowed three earned runs, six hits and a walk in 7.1 innings.
PIRATES 12, BRAVES 5: Gift Ngoepe doubled to drive in Andrew McCutchen for the go-ahead run before the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates hit three straight homers during a seven-run 10th inning to beat the Atlanta Braves.
Pittsburgh’s Jose Osuna hit a basesloaded, two-run single off Jose Ramirez in the ninth to tie it at 5. After Ngoepe’s double, the Pirates put the game away with Josh Harrison’s two-run single, followed by homers from David Freese, Osuna and Jordy Mercer — all off Josh Collmenter (0-2).
BLUE JAYS 8, BREWERS 4: Ryan Goins left a strong impression in what might be his last game as the Toronto Blue Jays’ regular shortstop.
A grand slam could help Goins continue to get playing time once the injured Troy Tulowitzki returns to the lineup. Goins’ sixth-inning grand slam was one of four homers hit by the visiting Blue Jays.
CUBS 5, GIANTS 4: Anthony Rizzo hit two home runs, Kyle Hendricks tossed seven strong innings and the host Chicago Cubs hung on to beat the San Francisco Giants. Rizzo hit solo homers off Matt Moore (2-5) in the second and fourth innings for his 14th career multi-home run game. He has four homers over his last four games and 11 on the season. Javier Baez made it 3-2 with a sacrifice fly in the fifth. Miguel Montero doubled and scored in the seventh. Jason Heyward tripled and came around on Jon Jay’s sacrifice fly in the eighth after the Giants left the bases loaded.
NATIONALS 5, MARINERS 1: Anthony Rendon hit a three-run homer for his eighth of the season, Tanner Roark allowed a run over seven innings and the host Nationals beat the Mariners.