Orioles edge Mariners to climb above .500 mark
BALTIMORE — Adam Jones hit a milestone home run, Welington Castillo had three hits and two RBIs and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners 7-6 Monday night for their fifth straight victory.
Chris Davis doubled in the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning for the resurgent Orioles, who climbed over .500 (66-65) for the first time since June 11. Baltimore jumped past Seattle (66-66) to within 1 1/2 games of idle Minnesota for the final AL wild-card spot.
Jones' solo home run in the fifth inning gave him 25 for an Orioles-record seventh consecutive season. He shared the mark of six with Cal Ripken Jr.
Ben Gamel homered and had a career-high five RBIs in Seattle's third straight defeat.
With the score tied at 6, Trey Mancini led off the Baltimore seventh with a single off Emilio Pagan (1-3) and Davis followed with a liner into the right-field corner.
Donnie Hart (2-0) pitched the seventh, Darren O'Day worked out of a jam in the eighth and Zach Britton got three outs for his 12th save — the first since his run of converting 60 in a row ended last week.
Indians 6, Yankees 2
NEW YORK — Corey Kluber outpitched Luis Severino in a marquee matchup of All-Stars, and slumping Jose Ramirez homered twice to power the Cleveland Indians past the New York Yankees for their fifth straight victory.
Carlos Santana hit a tiebreaking homer off Severino in the seventh inning and Austin Jackson also went deep for the AL Central leaders, who increased their cushion to seven games over idle Minnesota.
Phillies 6, Braves 1
PHILADELPHIA — Rhys Hoskins ended his homer streak but did drive in the goahead run with a sixth-inning double, Aaron Nola pitched seven strong innings and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves.
Cameron Rupp homered for the Phillies, who have connected in 10 straight games and totaled 21 homers over that stretch.
Rookie slugger Hoskins didn't go deep after homering in five straight games while becoming the fastest ever to reach 11 home runs, doing it in 18 games and 64 at-bats. His double just inside the left-field line scored Nick Williams to put the Phillies ahead 2-1.
That was enough for Nola (10-9), who rebounded from two straight subpar outings by allowing one run and five hits with six strikeouts and no walks.
Nationals 11, Marlins 2
WASHINGTON — Max Scherzer overpowered Giancarlo Stanton, Howie Kendrick hit a three-run triple and the Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins.
Scherzer (13-5) allowed one run and five hits, including Christian Yelich's home run, and had 10 strikeouts in his return from the 10-day disabled list.