Yankees make it six in a row
NEW YORK: CC Sabathia pitched six sharp innings before being ejected for arguing balls and strikes and Brett Gardner hit a tie-breaking, three-run homer on Sunday as the New York Yankees won their seasonhigh sixth straight game, 6-2 over the Los Angeles Angels.
Jose Pirela hit his first MLB homer and Chris Young also connected off CJ Wilson (3-5) for New York, who came back to win after building big leads in the first two games of the series. The Yankees swept the Angels, losers of five in a row, in a series of at least three games for the first time since 2003.
Sabathia (3-7) gave up back-to-back homers to Mike Trout and Albert Pujols in the first inning but then breezed through a struggling Angles line-up the rest of the way, notching his 2,500th career strike-out in the fifth.
In other games, Chris Archer had a historic game on the mound to lead Tampa Bay past Seattle 3-1, Gerrit Cole pitched seven strong innings to win his fourth straight start to help Pittsburgh top Atlanta 3-0, league-leading St Louis defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2, and surging Toronto beat Houston 7-2 for their fifth straight win.
Archer (7-4) became the first pitcher in more than 100 years to reach doubledigits in strike-outs without a walk in three straight starts.
He fanned 11 with zero walks in seven innings against Seattle on Sunday after striking out 12 against the Mariners on May 27 and 15 against the Angels last Tuesday. No other pitcher had managed such a streak since 1914.
Kevin Jepsen pitched the ninth for his fourth save of the season and third in the four-game series.
Cole (9-2) became the first Pirate since Emil Yde in 1924-25 with 30 victories in 53 or fewer career starts.
He allowed six hits, three walks and struck out seven against the Braves, throwing 74 of his 116 pitches for strikes. He leads the National League in victories and with a 1.73 ERA, and his 13 victories over his last 17 starts lead MLB over that span.
Starling Marte had a two-run single in the three-run fifth inning for Pittsburgh.
Jhonny Peralta homered and singled home the go-ahead run during a three-run eighth inning to lead St Louis to victory.
Also, Kris Bryant tripled, doubled, singled and scored twice as Chicago beat Washington 6-3 to send Nationals to their eighth loss in 10 games.