Gardner stars as Yankees down Astros 13-4
HOUSTON: Brett Gardner tied a career high with six RBIs and his seventh-inning grand slam on Friday helped New York to a 13-4 win over Houston, whose veteran Japanese outfielder Nori Aoki pitched for the first time in Major League Baseball.
The Yankees started off slow, and trailed by two entering the sixth inning, after arriving at their hotel in Houston about 6 a.m. following an almost three-hour rain delay before the start of their game at the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night.
They finally broke through in that inning, hitting five singles and sending 10 batters to the plate to take a 6-3 lead. Gardner, who finished a triple shy of the cycle, drove in the go-ahead run in that inning and connected off James Hoyt an inning later on his two-out, twostrike shot to make it 10-3.
Michael Pineda (8-4) yielded seven hits and three runs — two earned — in six innings for his first win since June 8. Bryan Mitchell allowed two hits and one run in three innings for his first save. Michael Feliz (4-2) allowed four hits and three runs in a third of an inning for the loss.
Aoki made his first career pitching appearance in the ninth. The 35-year-old allowed one hit with two walks and three runs while throwing mostly in the high 70s.
Braves 3 Athletics 1: In Oakland, California, Atlanta’s Mike Foltynewicz lost his no-hit bid when Matt Olson clobbered a fullcount pitch into the elevated rightfield seats leading off the ninth inning of the Braves’ interleague victory over the Athletics.
Trying for just the major leagues’ second no-hitter of the season, Foltynewicz (6-5) struck out eight and walked four while pitching into the ninth for the first time and outdueling Sonny Gray. The Braves have 14 no-hitters, the last by Kent Mercker at the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 8, 1994.
Foltynewicz, the 19th overall pick in the 2010 draft, capped baseball’s home-run heavy June with a career-best 119-pitch gem. He baffled the A’s with fastballs at up to 97 mph.
And there was not even a close defensive play on this night for the 25-year-old right hander, a fouryear veteran making his 52nd big league start. Gray (3-4) retired his final 14 batters.
Reds 5 Cubs 0: In Cincinnati, Scott Feldman held the Chicago Cubs’ depleted lineup to two singles over seven innings and Adam Duvall hit a three-run homer, powering the Cincinnati Reds to victory.
The Reds won for only the sixth time in their last 29 games against their NL Central rival.
Feldman (7-5) did not allow a hit until Ian Happ singled with two outs in the sixth. Addison Russell singled in the seventh. Feldman walked two, struck out seven and threw 108 pitches.
Michael Lorenzen and Wandy Peralta each pitched an inning, completing a combined threehitter.
Duvall connected for his third homer in four games off left-hander Mike Montgomery (1-5) in the fourth inning. The Reds also scored on Jose Peraza’s squeeze bunt for a single in the sixth, and again on catcher Victor Caratini’s throwing error in the eighth.
Mets 2 Phillies 1: In New York, Jacob deGrom struck out 12 in seven dominant innings to win his fourth consecutive start, leading New York past Philadelphia.
Curtis Granderson and Travis d’Arnaud each had an RBI single for the Mets, who have won six of seven since getting swept in four games at Dodger Stadium. They returned from a 5-5 trip and managed just enough offense against the worst team in the majors to earn their third consecutive victory.
DeGrom (8-3) has permitted only three earned runs over 32 innings for a 0.84 ERA in his last four outings. He held the Phillies hitless until Granderson lost a routine fly in the darkening sky at dusk, giving catcher Andrew Knapp his first career triple with two outs in the fifth.
Rays 6 Orioles 4, 10 innings: In Baltimore, Adeiny Hechavarria hit a tying single in the ninth inning and Steven Souza followed with a three-run homer in the 10th to carry Tampa Bay past Baltimore.
Hechavarria went 4 for 4 and Wilson Ramos hit his first homer with the Rays. They had nobody on with two outs in the ninth before rallying from a 3-2 deficit against closer Brad Brach.