AROUND THE HORN

■ Rays: Josh Fleming pitched five innings of tworun ball to win his major league debut, and the AL East-leading Rays beat the visiting Blue Jays 5-4 on Sunday. Fleming is the 11th different starter in 29 games this season for the injury-filled Rays pitching staff. The lefty went 12-7 between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham last year. John Curtiss, the fourth Rays reliever, worked 12⁄3 perfect innings to get his first career save. Jays starter Trent Thornton left after a scoreless inning with right elbow inflammation. That came just few hours after another rotation member, Matt Shoemaker, went on the 10-day IL due to right shoulder inflammation. The Rays took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on an RBI single from pinch hitter José Martínez, Austin Meadows’ sacrifice fly and a run-scoring single by Brandon Lowe off Ryan Borucki (1-1). Rays manager Kevin Cash was ejected in the sixth for arguing a checkswing call.

■ Pirates: Gregory Polanco’s two-run HR in the eighth lifted the host Pirates to a 5-4 victory over the Brewers and a threegame series sweep. Polanco connected off David Phelps (2-3) for his fourth HR of the season and finished 2-for-3 with a walk. It was Polanco’s second two-hit game in as many days, lifting his batting average from .085 to .151. The Pirates nearly doubled their season win total in one weekend. They entered the series with a 4-17 record, worst in the major leagues. Pirates rookie JT Brubaker remained winless in five career appearances, including three starts. He gave up two runs and four hits in four innings with six strikeouts and one walk.

■ Cardinals: Yadier Molina had four hits and top prospect Dylan Carlson hit his first career HR, helping the Cardinals beat the visiting Reds 6-2. Harrison Bader also connected for the Cards, who won three of four in the series. Molina, Carlson and Bader each finished with two RBIs. The Cardinals scored the last six runs after Eugenio Suárez hit a two-run HR in the first inning for the Reds. Bader went deep for a two-run shot in the second after he also homered during Saturday’s 3-0 win. Molina put the Cards ahead to stay with an RBI single against Tyler Mahle (0-1) in the third. The Cards added three more in the seventh against Nate Jones.

■ Extra innings: White Sox 1B Jose Abreu tied a major league record when he homered in his first at-bat against the Cubs, his fourth straight plate appearance with a HR and sixth overall in the series. The Abreu blast was the only run of a 2-1 loss for the visiting White Sox, who have scored their last 20 runs via the long ball. That’s three runs shy of a high mark set by the Brewers last season . ... The Giants designated veteran OF Hunter Pence for assignment. Pence, 37, is hitting just .096 with two HR and six RBIs in 52 at-bats this season after rejoining the Giants in the offseason. He had seemingly resurrected his career last season with the Rangers when he hit .297 with 18 HRs and 59 RBIs and was selected as an AL All-Star.