Nationals on a roll, will take weekend off
Starlin Castro is coming off a fourhit game. His Washington Nationals finally have their first consecutive wins of the season. So much for momentum, though.
That’s because now the Nationals — and their opponents Thursday, the Toronto Blue Jays — need to take four days off, a coronaviruscaused “mini AllStar break,” as Washington manager Dave Martinez called it, because their scheduled opponents this weekend had games delayed because of the coronavirus.
Castro scored twice, rookie Carter Kieboom reached base four times and Michael A. Taylor homered as the “visiting” Nationals knocked around struggling Toronto starter HyunJin Ryu to beat the home a wayfrom home Blue Jays 64 in Washington.
Kurt Suzuki delivered a tworun double and Asdrubal Cabrera added an RBI double off Ryu (01, 8.00 ERA).
Home plate umpire Joe West was bloodied when he was hit in the head by Bo Bichette’s flying bat in the first inning. The 67yearold West left but returned in the third. Indians 2, Twins 0: Visiting Cleveland’s Shane Bieber tied the major-league record for strikeouts in a pitcher’s first two starts of the season, punching out 13 Minnesota batters over eight innings. Bieber (2-0) fanned 14 over six scoreless innings on Friday against Kansas City. His 27 strikeouts in the two games matched the record set by Karl Spooner of the Brooklyn Dodgers in September 1954 during the first two starts of his short career. Francisco Lindor supplied all the offense Cleveland needed with a two-run homer in the third inning off Jose Berrios (0-1).
Dodgers 6, Diamondbacks 3: AJ Pollock, Corey Seager and Max Muncy homered to help Ross Stripling move to 2-0 for visiting Los Angeles.
Yankees 8, Orioles 6: Aaron Judge hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning after New York blew an early five-run lead, and the Yankees swept an impromptu two-game series. Luke Voit hit his first career grand slam for the Yankees, who stretched their winning streak against Baltimore to 18 games and notched their 17th consecutive victory at Camden Yards.
Red Sox 4, Mets 2: Christian Vazquez hit two more homers and Martin Perez gave Boston’s patchwork rotation a much-needed lift. Vazquez joined Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk (1973) as the only Red Sox catchers to hit four home runs in the first seven games of a season.
Mariners 8, Angels 5: Jose Marmolejos and Shed Long Jr. homered and Marco Gonzales pitched into the seventh for host Seattle.
Braves 2, Rays 1: Max Fried retired visiting Tampa Bay’s first 14 batters and combined with three relievers on a fourhitter. Dansby Swanson had a run-scoring single in Atlanta’s two-run second inning. Fried (1-0) struck out seven, walked one and allowed one run in 62⁄3 innings. Luke Jackson, and Shane Greene combined for four outs before Mark Melancon pitched the ninth for his second save.
Royals 5, Tigers 3: Trevor Rosenthal pitched a scoreless ninth for his first save since 2017 and the visiting Kansas City overcame Miguel Cabrera’s first multihomer game since 2016. Once a standout closer for St. Louis, Rosenthal has struggled with his health and his effectiveness in recent years. Cabrera hit solo homers in the first and eighth, and he’s gone deep three times in the first seven games this year after hitting only 12 home runs in 2019. He now has 480 for his career.
Postponed: The Philles at Yankees and Marlins at Orioles games were postponed because of positive coronavirus tests. .. The Cubs at Reds was postponed by rain, No makeup date was set.