Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Cards blank Brewers
CARDINALS 3, BREWERS 0
ST. LOUIS — Dakota Hudson and two relievers combined on a one-hitter, and Paul DeJong homered to lead the St. Louis Cardinals over the Milwaukee Brewers 3-0 Monday night in a series opener between NL Central contenders.
Yasmani Grandal’s ground-rule double with two outs in the eighth inning off Giovanny Gallegos was Milwaukee’s only hit. Hudson was lifted with two outs in the seventh after throwing 111 pitches, and Andrew Miller got four outs for his fifth save.
St. Louis increased its division lead to a half-game over the idle Chicago Cubs. Third-place Milwaukee is three games back.
Hudson (12-6) matched a career high with seven strikeouts and walked four — including his final batter, Eric Thames.
Gallegos entered and retired Ben Gamel on a grounder to end the inning.
Orlando Arcia reached on an error by DeJong at shortstop to begin the eighth before Gallegos got two outs.
Grandal then hooked a 1-2 slider just inside the right field line and the ball bounced into the stands.
Miller relieved and, after an intentional walk to Christian Yelich, got Mike Moustakas to ground out with the bases loaded. Miller then closed it out in the ninth.
Milwaukee’s best chance for a hit against Hudson came in the sixth when Trent Grisham hit a hard grounder up the middle. DeJong made a diving stop and threw out Grisham at first base.
Hudson has completed seven innings twice in his two-year major league career.
The 24-year-old right-hander threw six sharp innings in a 6-0 victory at Kansas City last time out. Before that, he allowed 11 runs (10 earned) over 112 /3 innings during a three-start span.
St. Louis scored twice in the fifth off starter Zach Davis (8-6), who pitched five innings. Matt Carpenter drew a leadoff walk and went to third when Yadier Molina singled to right field. Carpenter scored on a grounder to second by Kolten Wong, who beat the relay throw to foil a double-play opportunity. Hudson laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Wong. Dexter Flower hit a bloop single to shallow left, scoring Wong for a 2-0 lead.
DeJong added his 22nd home run with two outs in the sixth off reliever Devin Williams. DeJong has hit safely in his last 10 games against the Brewers.
NATIONALS 13, PIRATES 0
PITTSBURGH — Asdrubal Cabrera hit the last of Washington’s four home runs and drove in five runs, and three relievers combined for 62/3 innings of one-hit ball as the Nationals thumped the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Adam Eaton, Matt Adams and Trea Turner also connected for the Nationals, who have scored 79 runs in their last eight games while going 7-1. They’ve scored 43 times in their past three, including a 15-14 loss.
Adams added two doubles and had four RBIs. Juan Soto had four of Washington’s 15 hits and walked, reaching base in all five plate appearances.
Javy Guerra (2-1) pitched 32/3 perfect innings in relief of Joe Ross, who departed in the fourth inning. Ross was hit in the left knee by a one-hopper off the bat of Josh Bell.
Kyle McGowin and Tanner Rainey finished the four-hitter with one inning each for Washington’s 11th shutout of the season.
The Nationals scored four runs off Trevor Williams (5-6) in each of the first two innings.
Williams was removed after the second and was charged with eight runs — six earned — while giving up six hits and three walks. Pittsburgh fell to 7-28 since the All-Star break.
Eaton homered with one out it the first and Adams added a tworun blast following a sacrifice fly by Cabrera. Turner’s three-run homer highlighted the second, which included
an RBI double by Adams.
The Nationals moved within five games of first-place Atlanta, which was idle, in the NL East and continue to lead the wild-card standings.
Cabrera hit a two-run double in the fifth and scored on Adams’ double as the Nationals ran the lead to 11-0. He added a two-run homer in the ninth.
Bell’s single off Ross’ knee in the fourth gave the Pirates runners at first and third with one out. However, Guerra got Colin Moran to hit into a double play.
PADRES 3, REDS 2
CINCINNATI — Francisco Mejía moved San Diego closer to the club record for homers with his solo shot off the foul pole, Manny Machado had another big hit off Trevor Bauer, and the Padres held on for a victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
Kirby Yates escaped a bases-load- ed threat in the ninth to save San Diego’s third straight win.
Bauer (10-10) recovered from one of the worst outings of his career by giving up three runs and fanning 11 in seven innings. San Diego scored one of the runs on Jose Peraza’s fielding error in left field. Bauer gave up a career-high nine runs in 41/3 innings of a 17-7 loss at Washington on Wednesday.
Machado had an RBI single in the first inning, leaving him 10-for15 in his career off Bauer with four homers, two doubles and six RBIs. Mejía connected in the fourth, his slicing fly ball deflecting off the foul pole in right to put San Diego ahead to stay. San Diego is three homers shy of the club record of 189 from 2017.
Left-hander Eric Lauer gave up Freddy Galvis’ homer in four innings on a humid, 94-degree night. Luis Perdomo (2-3) fanned four in two innings.
Yates allowed three hits, including Josh VanMeter’s RBI single, in the ninth and loaded the bases with two outs. He fanned Eugenio Suarez for his NL-leading 36th save in 39 chances.
The Padres had a run-saving play in the second inning. Left fielder Josh Naylor threw Suarez out at the plate as he tried to score from second on Peraza’s single.
AMERICAN LEAGUE ROYALS 5, ORIOLES 4
BALTIMORE — Nicky Lopez and Nick Dini homered on successive pitches in the seventh inning and the Kansas City Royals stretched Baltimore’s latest losing streak to eight games, defeating the Orioles.
Kansas City (45-80) won for only the sixth time in its last 22 games, and Baltimore (39-86) absorbed its 13th loss in 14 games. The only team with fewer wins than these two struggling clubs is Detroit.
Orioles starter John Means (8-9) kept Kansas City hitless until Lopez led off the sixth inning with a single to spark a three-run uprising that wiped out a 1-0 deficit.
It was 3-2 before Lopez hit a drive off Gabriel Ynoa and Dini ended an 0-for-10 run with his first major league homer on his 15th plate appearance.
Jorge Lopez (2-7) allowed one run and two hits over five innings and Ian Kennedy, the last of five Kansas City relievers, gave up a home run to Rio Ruiz in the ninth before recording his 22nd save.
Jonathan Villar also homered for the Orioles, who have endured skids of five games (twice), six games and 10 games this season.
MARINERS 9, RAYS 3
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tom Murphy homered twice and drove in four runs, Austin Nola also went deep and had three RBIs, and the Seattle Mariners beat the playoff-contending Tampa Bay Rays.
Murphy, who had three hits and a walk, hit a three-run drive in the first inning and added a solo shot in the fifth. He has 15 homers in 52 games.
Nola had a two-run homer during a four-run second off Rays two-way player Brendan McKay (2-3) and had an RBI single in the fourth.
Marco Gonzales (13-10) went five innings, giving up three runs and five hits to get the win.
Tommy Pham and Austin Meadows homered for Tampa Bay, which is 2-2 on a six-game homestand against Detroit and Seattle. The Rays had their lead over Oakland for the second AL wild card cut to one game.
Tampa Bay dropped to 33-30 at home, which matched the total number of losses at Tropicana Field (51-30) all of last season.
McKay struggled again, allowing seven runs, three hits and three walks over two innings. The lefty was coming off an outing last Tuesday at San Diego where he gave up four runs, five hits and six walks in four innings.
The Rays used five relievers before turning to infielder Mike Brosseau, who worked a perfect ninth.
Murphy’s homer in the first was set up by consecutive one-out walks to J.P Crawford and Nola.
Crawford had an RBI single and Nola hit a two-run shot in the second that helped put the Mariners up 7-1.
Pham got his third homer in five games leading off the first. Meadows had a two-run drive in the fifth.
ASTROS 5, TIGERS 4
HOUSTON — Yuli Gurriel had two hits and drove in two runs as the Houston Astros built a lead with a big first inning and held on for a 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers on Monday night.
The Astros jumped on Detroit starter Edwin Jackson (3-6) for four runs in the first inning to go on top 4-1. They led by 3 when Detroit’s Ronny Rodriguez hit a solo homer in the sixth before Travis Demeritte added one in the seventh to cut the lead to 5-4.
Detroit had runners at first and third with two outs in the eighth, but Will Harris struck out Demeritte to preserve the lead. Roberto Osuna allowed one hit in a scoreless ninth for his 28th save as the Astros won their second straight after losing five in a row.
Houston starter Wade Miley (124) allowed a season-high 10 hits, but just one of them was for extra bases, and three runs in 52/3 innings to win his sixth straight decision. He struck out eight without a walk.
Detroit designated hitter Miguel Cabrera had two hits and drove in a run before he was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the fifth inning. Manager Ron Gardenhire was also ejected in that inning after yelling at home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez about Cabrera’s ejection.
Yordan Alvarez and Robinson Chirinos also drove in runs for the Astros on a night shortstop Carlos Correa left after the first inning with back discomfort.
Jackson yielded seven hits and five runs — four earned — in six innings for his first loss with the Tigers this season after winning his first two starts.
The Tigers led 1-0 after an RBI single by Cabrera in the first inning.
Michael Brantley walked with one out in the bottom of the inning before a single by Alex Bregman. Alvarez’s double scored Brantley to tie it up. There were two outs in the inning when Gurriel doubled to center field on a ball just out of reach of Victor Reyes that scored two more and put Houston on top 3-1.
Robinson Chirinos followed with a single and he reached second and Gurriel scored on an error by left fielder Brandon Dixon on the play.