Nationals’ momentum on hold after sweep of Jays
NATIONALS 6, BLUE JAYS 4
WASHINGTON — Starlin Castro is coming off a four-hit game. His Washington Nationals finally have their first consecutive wins of the season. So much for momentum, though.
That’s because now the Nationals — and their opponents Thursday, the Toronto Blue Jays — need to take four days off.
Castro scored twice, rookie Carter Kieboom reached base four times and Michael A. Taylor homered as the “visiting” Nationals knocked around struggling Toronto starter Hyun-Jin Ryu to beat the home-away-from-home Blue Jays 6-4 Thursday.
“I’ve been feeling good. I’ve been hitting the ball hard,” said Castro, batting .360 through seven games in his first year with the Nationals. “The bad thing is, tomorrow we’re not going to play. And the next day, we’re not going to play. It’s tough.”
Kurt Suzuki delivered a tworun double and Asdrubal Cabrera added an RBI double off Ryu (0-1), who gave up Taylor’s two-run shot to straightaway center that he celebrated with a socially distanced dugout dance in the fourth. Taylor is 2 for 14 this season, a .143 average, but both hits cleared the fences.
Ryu’s ERA is 8.00 after he allowed five runs and nine hits in 41/3 innings, his second start under an $80 million, four-year deal Toronto gave him after he was second in NL Cy Young Award voting for the Dodgers in 2019.
“I tried to replicate what I’d done in the past against the team,” Ryu, who had a 1.37 ERA against Washington last season, said through an interpreter, “but it just didn’t work out like I wanted.”
Erick Fedde, making his second start in place of a sidelined Stephen Strasburg, gave up two runs in 31/3 innings. Ryne Harper (1-0) followed and got five outs for the win. Daniel
Hudson earned his first save.
BRAVES 2, RAYS 1 Max Fried retired Tampa Bay’s first 14 batters and combined with three relievers on a four-hitter as host Atlanta beat the Rays. Dansby Swanson had a run-scoring single in Atlanta’s two-run second inning. Fried (1-0) struck out seven and walked one while allowing one run in 62/3 innings. The left-hander improved to 4-0 in four interleague starts. Luke Jackson, and Shane Greene combined for four outs before Mark Melancon pitched the ninth for his second save.
RED SOX 4, METS 2 Christian Vazquez hit two more home runs and Martin Perez gave Boston’s patchwork rotation a much-needed lift, leading to a 4-2 victory over host New York. Perez (1-1) overcame four walks and some shaky defense behind him, allowing only two hits while striking out five in 52/3 innings for his first win with the Red Sox. The left-hander signed a $6.5 million, one-year contract as a free agent in December. Vazquez connected twice off Steven Matz (0-1), including a two-run shot on an 0-2 pitch in the fourth that put Boston ahead 3-2.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
ROYALS 5, TIGERS 3 Trevor Rosenthal pitched a scoreless ninth for his first save since 2017 and visiting Kansas City beat Detroit, overcoming Miguel Cabrera’s first multihomer game since 2016. Cabrera hit home runs in the first and eighth, and Jonathan Schoop added one for Detroit in the fourth.
INDIANS 2, TWINS 0 Cleveland’s Shane Bieber tied the major league record for strikeouts in a pitcher’s first two starts of the season, punching out 13 over eight innings in the Indians’ victory over Minnesota. Bieber (2-0) fanned 14 over six scoreless innings on Friday against Kansas City. His 27 strikeouts in the two games matched the record set by Karl Spooner of the Brooklyn Dodgers in September 1954. Francisco Lindor supplied all the offense Cleveland needed with a two-run home run in the third inning off Jose Berrios (0-1).
YANKEES 8, ORIOLES 6 Aaron Judge hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning after New York blew an early five-run lead, and the Yankees beat host Baltimore to sweep an impromptu twogame series. Luke Voit hit his first career grand slam for the Yankees, who stretched their winning streak against Baltimore to 18 games and notched their 17th consecutive victory at Camden Yards. New York has swept six consecutive series from the Orioles dating to early last year.