Cleveland extends lead to seven games
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 6-2 on Monday night 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.
Coming off three consecutive shutouts in a sweep of Kansas City, the defending AL champions ran their scoreless streak to 30 innings before Chase Headley homered against Kluber (13-4) leading off the third. The 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner went eight innings and allowed only three hits, rebounding from a loss to Boston last week that ended a fivegame winning streak and marked his first defeat since July 4.
Kluber struck out seven and walked one as the Indians (74-56) won for the 14th time in 18 games.
Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 5
TORONTO—Christian Vazquez had four hits, including a two-run home run, Eduardo Nunez added a solo shot and the Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5, snapping a four-game skid.
Boston also overcame the latest stellar defensive play from Toronto center fielder Kevin Pillar, who dived to make a sensational catch on the warning track and take a hit away from Mookie Betts in the sixth. The crowd of 35,630 gave Pillar a standing ovation.
Vazquez singled in the second and fifth innings, homered in the seventh and doubled in the eighth to help the AL East-leading Red Sox avoid their first five-game losing streak of the season.
Since July 29, Vazquez is batting .439 (25 for 57) with eight extra-base hits.
Phillies 6, Braves 1
PHILADELPHIA—Rhys Hoskins ended his homer streak but did drive in the go-ahead run with a sixth-inning double, Aaron Nola pitched seven strong innings and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves 6-1 on Monday night.
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 leftfield 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 11-2 on Monday night.
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.
Stanton, named NL Player of the Week for the second time this month on Monday, went 0 for 3 against Scherzer with two strikeouts and a groundball double play one day after becoming the first NL player to hit 50 home runs in a season since Prince Fielder in 2007.
Jayson Werth had a two-run homer off Jose Urena (12-6) in his first game with the Nationals since suffering a left foot contusion on June 5.
Matt Wieters added a two-run single in the decisive sixth for an 11-1 lead as Washington halted Miami’s four-game winning streak.
Orioles 7, Mariners 6
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 ½ 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 careerhigh five RBIs in Seattle’s third straight defeat.