Sox beat Angels as Cease pitches gem
Dylan Cease struck out 11 to match a career best and gave up just one hit in seven sparkling innings, propelling the Chicago White Sox to a 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday.
Three-time AL MVP Mike Trout struck out in all four at-bats, three against Cease. The Angels star, who homered and doubled in a win Sunday to raise his OPS to a whopping 1.247, fanned against Liam Hendriks — who earned his fifth save — to end the game.
Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani didn’t start, a day after making an early exit because of groin tightness. The reigning AL MVP grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth.
The White Sox won for the third time in 12 games. Los Angeles has won seven of nine.
Cease (3-1) threw 64 of 93 pitches for strikes and walked none. Taylor Ward got the only hit against him, a leadoff double in the fourth. Cease’s previous 11-strikeout performance came on Aug. 29, 2021, against the Chicago Cubs.
Angels starter Patrick Sandoval (1-1) took the loss.
BRAVES 5, METS 2 » Austin Riley homered, Max Fried won his third straight outing and Atlanta cooled off New York with a victory in the first of 19 meetings between the NL East rivals this season.
Travis d’Arnaud had three hits and three RBIs against his former team. Fried (3-2) settled in after a rocky start, outpitching Chris Bassitt as the defending World Series champions took the opener of a four-game series with only their second comeback win of the year.
CARDINALS 1, ROYALS 0 » Paul Goldschmidt hit an early home run and Steven Matz and the St. Louis bullpen made it stand up, leading the Cardinals over Kansas City.
Goldschmidt, who got his first day off of the season Sunday, connected with one out in the first inning against Zack Greinke (0-2).
TWINS 2, ORIOLES 1 » Chris Paddack pitched effectively into the sixth, and Carlos Correa hit a tiebreaking single that same inning to lift Minnesota to their 10th win in 11 games, a win over Baltimore.
The Twins were shut out in two of Paddack’s first three starts this season but got just enough run support to win this time.
YANKEES 3, BLUE JAYS 2 » Gleyber Torres homered early, then hit a go-ahead single in the ninth inning as New York won their 10th straight game, beating Toronto.
Giancarlo Stanton singled off Yimi Garcia (02) to begin the New York ninth, ending a streak of four perfect innings by Blue Jays relievers. Pinchrunner Tim Locastro stole second, but Josh Donaldson grounded out and Aaron Hicks struck out before Torres lined a single to center field.
DIAMONDBACKS 5, MARLINS 4 »
Zac Gallen outpitched Pablo López as Arizona built a lead and held on to beat Miami.
David Peralta homered, singled twice and drove in three runs, and Daulton Varsho hit two doubles for the Diamondbacks, who have won five of seven. Arizona’s Jordan Luplow had two hits and two RBIs.
In a matchup of starters who entered with ERAs under one, Gallen (1-0) threw 6 1/3 innings of tworun ball. He allowed five hits, struck out six and hit two batters.
ASTROS 3, MARINERS 0 » Yordan Alvarez hit a solo homer and rookie Jeremy Peña added a two-run shot to back up another solid start from Jake Odorizzi and help Houston top Seattle.
Ryne Stanek got the last out of the seventh after Odorizzi (2-2) left the game. Odorizzi allowed four hits in 6 2/3 scoreless innings for his second straight win after dropping his first two decisions this season.