Bregman’s double lifts Astros over Yankees
Alex Bregman hit a two-run double early and the Houston Astros held on for a 2-1 win over the visiting New York Yankees on Thursday night.
Thursday’s game completes a stretch for the Astros of nine games against New York teams. Houston went 3-2 against the majors-leading Yankees and swept four games with the Mets, who had the second-best record before being overtaken by the Astros.
The Yankees were in town for just one game to make up part of a series scrapped because of the lockout. They’ll complete the series with a doubleheader July 21.
Houston starter Luis Garcia (6-5) allowed three hits and one run with six strikeouts in 51⁄3 innings for his third straight win. Ryan Pressly struck out two in a scoreless ninth for his 17th save.
Jake Meyers doubled with no outs in the third before Aledmys Diaz walked with two outs. Kyle Tucker walked before Bregman’s double put Houston up 2-0.
The Astros had a chance to pad the lead, but the inning ended after a malfunction of New York starter Luis Severino’s PitchCom device.
With Yuli Gurriel at-bat, a frustrated Severino took off his cap and held the PitchCom speaker to his ear, apparently unable to hear instructions from catcher Jose Trevino.
Tucker, on third base, saw Severino was distracted and tried to sneak home. Severino had the PitchCom earpiece in his right hand and had to quickly maneuver to get the baseball back in his throwing hand. He threw home while still holding his cap, and his throw narrowly beat Tucker.
Anthony Rizzo hit a solo homer for the Yankees in the sixth inning, but they had trouble generating much else on offense as they had a fourgame winning streak snapped.
Guardians 5, Twins 3: Andres Gimenez hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning and host Cleveland got its second straight walk-off win over Minnesota. The Guardians lead the majors with 17 last at-bat wins, including six against the rival Twins.
Phillies 14, Braves 4: Kyle Schwarber finished off the month with his 12th June homer, Darick Hall went deep twice and host Philadelphia avoided a three-game sweep. Rhys Hoskins and Nick Castellanos also homered for the Phillies, who reached a season high in runs without Bryce Harper (broken thumb) in the lineup for the fourth straight game.
Pirates 8, Brewers 7Backup catcher Michael Perez had three home runs, rookies Oneil Cruz and Jack Suwinski hit back-to-back shots and host Pittsburgh hung on to beat Milwaukee. It was the first multi-homer game of Perez’s five-year career. Perez went 4 for 5 to set a career-high for hits and raise his batting average to .169. He finished with five RBIs as the Pirates ended their eight-game losing streak against Milwaukee that dated to last season. The Brewers scored three runs in the ninth inning to pull to 8-7.
Blue Jays 4, Rays 1: Teoscar Hernandez and Santiago Espinal each hit two-run home runs, and Yuseki Kukuchi struck out a season-high eight over six innings for host Toronto.
Briefly: The Rays put left-hander Brooks Raley and right-hander Ryan Thompson on the restricted list before a five-game series in Toronto. Tampa Bay added righties Javy Guerra and Phoenix Sanders from Triple-A Durham . ... Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford had his suspension stemming from last weekend’s brawl with the Los Angeles Angels cut from five to four games, and he started serving it Thursday . ... Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge and Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. were elected to start in the July 19 All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. The pair were chosen under rules that give starting spots to the top vote-getter in each league in the first phase of online voting, which ended Thursday.