Moreland, BoSox win 8th straight contest

Mitch Moreland hit reliever Emilio Pagan’s first pitch of the evening for a tie-breaking grand slam in the sixth inning Friday night, propelling the Boston Red Sox to their eighth straight win, a 7-3 triumph over the host Oakland Athletics.

The Red Sox trailed the opener of a threegame series 3-0 after one inning, but quickly evened the score on a three-run home run by Jackie Bradley Jr. in the second, setting the stage for Moreland’s game-winning blow four innings later.

Right-hander Hector Velasquez (3-0) pitched three innings of shutout relief to get the win. A’s starter Kendall Graveman (0-4), who loaded the bases in the sixth, took the loss.

Graveman had retired 11 straight batters following Bradley’s homer before Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi and Hanley Ramirez singled consecutively to open the sixth. Pagan then came on and immediately served up Moreland’s grand slam, the third of his career and first since 2016. The homer was Moreland’s second of the season.

Mets 5, Braves 3 (12)

New York’s Robert Gsellman pitched two innings of scoreless relief and scored the winning run in the 12th inning to give his team a win over Atlanta at SunTrust Park.

Gsellman, who batted for himself in the 12th, was hit by a pitch by Atlanta reliever Josh Ravin. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a single by Yoenis Cespedes. Gsellman slid in ahead of the throw from right fielder Nick Markakis. The Mets added an insurance run when Asdrubel Cabrera doubled to right to drive in Cespedes.

New York closer Jeurys Familia pitched a scoreless 12th, giving him 11 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings, to earn his eighth save.

Nationals 5, Dodgers 2

Max Scherzer struck out nine in six innings and outdueled Clayton Kershaw in a matchup of three-time Cy Young Award winners as Washington defeated Los Angeles in the opener of a three-game series at Dodger Stadium.

The right-handed Scherzer (4-1) allowed one run and four hits and walked three as the Nationals improved to 3-1 on a ninegame road trip. Kershaw (1-3) gave up four runs and nine hits over seven innings. The left-hander struck out four and walked none.

Michael A. Taylor, Trea Turner and Ryan Zimmerman each had two hits and one RBI for Washington. Bryce Harper added a run-scoring single for his 19th RBI of the campaign.

Blue Jays 8, Yankees 5

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. experienced a memorable major league debut when he drove in three runs as Toronto beat New York at Yankee Stadium.

Gurriel, Toronto’s fifth-best prospect according to Baseball America, was recalled before the game and started at second base. The Cuban infielder produced a tworun single in the fourth off Sonny Gray and a two-strike single in the fifth off Domingo German (0-1) after batting .347 (17-for-49) in 12 games with Double-A New Hampshire. Gurriel is the younger brother of Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel.

Teoscar Hernandez hit a two-run homer and Yangervis Solarte added a solo homer for Toronto, which won for the eighth time in 10 games.

Astros 10, White Sox 0

George Springer drove in four runs, Carlos Correa belted two home runs and Justin Verlander logged his third scoreless appearance as Houston extended its winning streak to four games with a victory over Chicago at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Springer recorded a pair of two-run doubles, extending a five-run fourth inning with his first double off White Sox righthander James Shields (1-2) before adding his second against Chicago reliever Danny Farquhar in the sixth. Springer scored on an error by White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson in the fourth after driving in Brian McCann and Marwin Gonzalez with a liner to right.

After scoring one run three times during a six-game stretch, the Astros (14-7) have totaled 30 runs during their winning streak. McCann and Springer scored twice each while Correa added a multi-hit game, finishing 3-for-5 with three RBIs and his third and fourth homers this season.

Cubs 16, Rockies 5

Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber each homered and drove in four runs as visiting Chicago beat Colorado to open a threegame series.

Baez and Albert Almora Jr. had four each hits and Schwarber had three for Chicago (9-8), which had a season-high 18 hits. Starter Kyle Hendricks lasted just five innings but picked up his first win of the season. Hendricks (1-1) didn’t walk a batter and struck out six before leaving for a pinch hitter in the sixth inning.

Nolan Arenado homered and had three hits for Colorado in his return from a fivegame suspension.

Giants 8, Angels 1

Home runs by Andrew McCutchen and Mac Williamson highlighted a six-run fifth inning and helped lift San Francisco over Los Angeles at Angel Stadium.

Nick Hundley also homered for the Giants, who scored more on Friday than they did in their previous four games combined (five runs).

San Francisco starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija (1-0), coming off the disabled list (strained pectoral muscle) to make his first start of the season, was not particularly sharp but managed to work his way through five scoreless innings to earn the victory. (Reuters)