Braves hold on to defeat Marlins 5-3

ATLANTA — R.A. Dickey won for the first time in seven starts, Nick Markakis hit a three-run homer and the Atlanta Braves overcame Giancarlo Stanton's two home runs to beat the Miami Marlins 5-3 on Friday night.

Stanton hit his 34th and 35th homers, tying Yankees slugger Aaron Judge for most in the majors, to give the Marlins a 3-1 lead in the sixth. Markakis took Adam Conley (4-4) deep in the bottom half of the inning to make it 4-3.

Dickey (7-7) allowed three hits, three runs, one walk and struck out three in six innings. The 42-year-old knuckleballer has pitched well lately, going 3-2 with a 2.22 ERA in nine starts since losing 10-5 at Washington on June 13.

Stanton crushed his first homer into the tunnel past the wall in center field to make it 1-all in the fourth . He followed with a two-run shot in the sixth to put Miami up 3-1 .

Stanton has eight multi-homer games this season and 26 in his career. He is hitting .288 with 24 homers and 47 RBIs in 60 games since moving to the No. 2 spot in the batting order.

Braves closer Arodys Vizcaino faced five batters in the ninth to earn his fourth save in six chances.

Conley gave up five hits, one walk and four runs — three earned — in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out two.

The Braves led 1-0 in the first when second baseman Dee Gordon misplayed a grounder and allowed Brandon Phillips to score from second.

Miami had won nine of 13 and was trying to get three games under .500 for the first time since May 4. The Braves added an insurance run in the seventh when pinchhitter Lane Adams advanced to third on Jarlin Garcia's wild pitch and scored on Phillips' single.

Reds 3, Cardinals 2

CINCINNATI — Joey Votto drove home a pair of runs with a double and a single, and Asher Wojciechowski went five innings in his return to the rotation, leading the Cincinnati Reds to a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Reds have won all five games against St. Louis at Great American Ball Park this season. They lead 8-3 in their season series.

Votto had a pair of RBI hits off Mike Leake (7-10), who fell to 0-5 in eight career starts against his former team. Billy Hamilton added a run-scoring single off Leake, who allowed eight hits in six innings.

Votto played in his fifth All-Star game and then went into a 5-for-39 slump that dropped his average to .295. He has hit safely in his last nine games, the longest active streak on the team.

Wojciechowski (2-1) started after making six relief appearances in July, taking the place of the injured Scott Feldman. Wojciechowski allowed only three hits, including Leake's RBI infield single.

Michael Lorenzen gave up Carson Kelly's RBI single in the eighth, and the Cardinals loaded the bases with two outs. Randal Grichuk took a called third strike to end the threat.

Raisel Iglesias gave up a single and a walk in the ninth before finishing his 19th save in 20 chances. Cincinnati is only 6-15 since the All-Star break.

The Cardinals are 1-3 on the start of a three-city trip to Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Kansas City. They've lost their last two games by a run, slipping to 17-22 in such close finishes. Only Philadelphia has lost more one-run games in the majors.

Nationals 4, Cubs 2

CHICAGO — Postseason or regular season, Daniel Murphy keeps crushing the ball at Wrigley Field.

Murphy hit two home runs to back Tanner Roark, and the Washington Nationals won the opener of a series between division leaders by beating the Chicago Cubs on a chilly Friday afternoon.

With the game-time temperature at 63, Murphy hit a two-run homer in the first and connected off Kyle Hendricks leading off the sixth for a 3-0 lead.

Counting the postseason, Murphy is 20 for 38 with four home runs in his last 10 games at Wrigley. With the Mets in the 2015 NL Championship Series, he hit two homers in Chicago and four overall to help New York sweep.

Roark (9-7) didn't allow a run until Javier Baez chased him with a two-run homer with one out in the seventh. The right-hander allowed five hits while improving to 3-1 in his past four starts.

Hendricks (4-4) gave up three runs and five hits in seven innings in his longest outing since May 24. Baseball's ERA leader last season, he missed about seven weeks because of tendinitis in his right hand before returning on July 24.

Chicago has lost three straight after winning 14 of 17 following the All-Star break. After giving up three homers to Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt on Thursday, the Cubs got pounded by Murphy this time.

He hit a two-run shot halfway up the bleachers in rightcenter in the first and went the opposite way in the sixth, driving his 19th home run to left-center. That gave him two multi-homer games this season and five in his career.

After Baez cut the lead to one in the seventh with his 15th home run, Brian Kintzler got the final two outs of the inning.

Anthony Rendon hit a sacrifice fly against Carl Edwards Jr. in the eighth.

Ryan Madson worked the bottom half, and Sean Doolittle finished for his fifth save in as many chances since he was acquired from Oakland on July 16. He gave up a leadoff single to Jason Heyward before striking out Baez and getting Ian Happ to ground into a double play.

Dodgers 6, Mets 0

NEW YORK — Yu Darvish fit right in with the steamrolling Dodgers, striking out 10 over seven innings of three-hit ball during his Los Angeles debut to pitch the top team in the majors past the New York Mets.

Chris Taylor hit a leadoff homer against Jacob deGrom, and Mets nemesis Chase Utley added a two-run shot as Los Angeles improved baseball's best record to 77-32 with its 11th victory in 12 games. Yasiel Puig also went deep for the Dodgers, who have outscored New York 4211 in winning all five meetings this season.

On the best extended roll by a National League team since World War II, the Dodgers are 42-7 since June 7 — a stretch unequaled in franchise history. They have won 22 of 25 since July 4, with all three losses coming against Atlanta.

In his first start since being acquired from Texas for three prospects just before Monday's trade deadline, Darvish (1-0) only made the Dodgers look even better. With his confident teammates behind him, the four-time AllStar snapped a five-game losing streak and won for the first time in nine outings since June 12 at Houston.

Tigers 5, Orioles 2

BALTIMORE — Justin Upton hit a grand slam in the eighth inning to back a strong pitching performance by Justin Verlander, and the surprising Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles for their fourth straight victory.

Jim Adduci also homered for the Tigers, who have won six of seven despite unloading three stars before the nonwaiver trade deadline. Detroit's four-game winning streak matches a season high.

Verlander (7-7) struck out 10 and gave up two runs and six hits over seven innings. He's 10-5 lifetime against Baltimore, including 8-1 at Camden Yards.

Indians 7, Yankees 2

CLEVELAND — Trevor Bauer won his third straight start, Jaime Garcia was chased in the fifth inning of his Yankees debut and the Cleveland Indians won to extend New York's losing streak to four.

Bauer (10-8) allowed one run in seven innings, on Todd Frazier's fifth-inning home run. Third baseman Giovanny Urshela made an outstanding defensive play on Clint Frazier's grounder to throw out Ronald Torreyes at home plate, and Gary Sanchez stranded the bases loaded with a strikeout.

Urshela made a diving stop of Matt Holliday's sixthinning grounder and threw him out at first.

Edwin Encarnacion had two RBIs, and Austin Jackson and Michael Brantley each had RBIs.