Orioles power past Astros in battle of division leaders
Austin Hays hit two homers and had four RBIs for the visiting Baltimore Orioles in a 9-5 win over slumping Houston on Tuesday night, cutting the Astros' AL West lead to a half-game over Seattle and Texas.
Hays hit a three-run shot off Astros starter Hunter Brown (11-12) to put Baltimore up 5-2 in the third inning. He added a solo shot in the seventh, putting Baltimore up 8-5.
The Astros have lost four of their last five games and six of their last eight.
The Orioles have won four straight and have a 21/2-game lead over Tampa Bay for the AL's best record.
A two-run sixth inning extended Baltimore's lead to 7-3 after James McCann scored Cedric Mullins on a bunt single and Gunnar Henderson singled to score Adam Frazier.
Brown allowed seven runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings, while striking out five and walking two.
Ryan O'Hearn hit a tworun homer to give Baltimore a first-inning lead. Houston tied it at 2 in the bottom of the inning when Kyle Tucker hit a two-run home run.
BRAVES 9, PHILLIES 3 » Ronald Acuña Jr. homered twice and stole his 67th base, leaving him one long ball shy of becoming MLB's first 40-60 player, and Atlanta beat visiting Philadelphia to stop a four-game losing streak.
Spencer Strider (18-5) increased his major leagueleading wins total and struck out 11 to increase his big league-high total to 270.
Acuña homered on the first pitch of the game from Cristopher Sánchez (2-5) and had another solo homer off Yunior Marte in the sixth. Acuña has a Braves record 33 leadoff homers, including seven this season — three on the first pitch. Of his 205 hits this season, 51 have come in the first inning.
NL East champion Atlanta avoided what would have been its first fivegame skid since September 2017. Marcell Ozuna drove in three runs, including a two-run double in the fifth.
RANGERS 6, RED SOX 4 » Josh Jung hit a tiebreaking single in a two-run seventh inning, and host Texas defeated Boston to end a fourgame losing streak,
The Red Sox, last in the AL East, have lost five of six.
BLUE JAYS 7, YANKEES 1 » George Springer celebrated his 34th birthday with his 57th career leadoff homer, Bo Bichette hit a two-run drive and Toronto beat host New York.
Yusei Kikuchi (10-6) was pulled one batter into the sixth because of a left upper trap muscle cramp. He allowed one run and four hits in five-plus innings for his first win since Aug. 2. CUBS 14, PIRATES 1 » Rookie Alexander Canario hit a grand slam for his first major league home run in an eight-run eighth inning, and Chicago ended a fivegame losing streak with a home rout of Pittsburgh.
Cody Bellinger hit a three-run homer later in the eighth for the Cubs, who remained a half-game ahead of Miami for the final NL wild card, with Cincinnati one game behind Chicago.
Canario, a 23-year-old who debuted on Sept. 6, had five RBIs. He hit an RBI double in the sixth for his first big league hit and drove a hanging slider from into the left-field bleachers for a 10-1 lead against Kyle Nicolas.
MARLINS 4, METS 3 » Jake Burger hit a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning and Miami edged New York after blowing a late lead.
Miami took a 3-1 lead into the ninth, but closer Tanner Scott (9-5) gave up a two-run double to Brandon Nimmo with two outs.
BREWERS 7, CARDINALS 3 » William Contreras homered and Tyrone Taylor scored twice and drove in a run as visiting Milwaukee topped St. Louis.
The Brewers stopped a two-game skid and reduced their magic number to clinch the NL Central to six.
Milwaukee opened the fourth with four straight doubles. Willy Adames, Josh Donaldson, Taylor and Sal Frelick all doubled and scored to give the Brewers a 5-2 lead.
TWINS 7, REDS 0 » Willi Castro hit a two-run homer, Kenta Maeda combined on a four-hitter and Minnesota won at Cincinnati in another step toward a third AL Central title in five seasons.
The Twins (80-72) have an eight-game lead over second-place Cleveland.
In his first season after Tommy John surgery, Maeda (6-7) won his third straight start after four nodecisions. He allowed one hit in five innings, retiring his first 11 batters before Spencer Steer doubled.