AROUND THE HORN
Braves: Max Fried allowed no hits in five scoreless innings, Marcell Ozuna homered and the Braves won their fifth straight in a rain-delayed game, 7-1 over the Marlins on Sunday in Atlanta. The defending World Series champions have taken five in a row and 20 of 25 to move a season-high 33 games over .500. They’re within one game of first place in the NL East after the Mets lost their second straight to the Nationals. The Braves are 61-24 since June 1, best in the majors over that span. Fried (13-5) didn’t allow a baserunner, retiring 12 in a row, until Nick Fortes walked to begin the fifth. Fortes was erased as a double play ended the inning before a rain delay of 1 hour, 51 minutes. Fried didn’t return after the delay.
Red Sox: Trevor Story hit a three-run HR over the Green Monster, Xander Bogaerts had his eighth straight multi-hit game and the Red Sox completed a four-game sweep over the visiting Rangers with a 5-2 victory. The Red Sox have a five-game winning streak as they’re trying to climb back into the AL’s wild-card chase. The Rangers have lost eight in a row.
Blue Jays: Teoscar Hernandez delivered the go-ahead RBI single in the seventh and the Blue Jays edged the host Pirates 4-3 to complete a three-game sweep. The Jays maintaind their hold on the third and final wild-card spot in the AL. Ross Stripling (7-4) allowed three runs on two hits with three walks and eight strikeouts in six innings as the Jays improved to 6-1 in Stripling’s last seven starts dating to July 13.
Yankees: Aaron Judge led off the game with his major league-leading 53rd HR and the visiting Yankees stopped the Rays 2-1 to avoid a three-game sweep. Judge set a career high for
HRs, topping the 52 he hit as a rookie in 2017. He also doubled, singled and scored both Yankees runs. Frankie Montas (5-11) allowed one hit over five shutout innings as the AL East-leading Yankees increased their lead to five games over the Rays . ... Yankees OF Andrew Benintendi has a broken bone in his right wrist that will need surgery, but manager Aaron Boone said he doesn’t know whether it’s a season-ending injury. The 28-year-old was an All-Star this season with the Royals, then was traded to the Yankees in late July. He’s hitting .304.
Extra innings: Albert Pujols collected HR No. 695 in the eighth and Miles Mikolas tossed eight shutout innings to lead the Cardinals to a 2-0 win over the Cubs. The 42-yearold Pujols trails only Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Alex Rodriguez (696) on the all-time list. The Cards have won four in a row, 18 of their last 20 home games and are a season-best 24 games over .500 at 79-55. It was their eighth series sweep of the season . ... Mets ace Max Scherzer said he was feeling fine, a day after he exited after a start against the Nationals after five innings because of fatigue on his left side. The 38-year-old three-time Cy Young Award winner remained on schedule to start Friday night for the NL East leaders. He’s 9-4 with a 2.26 ERA in 20 starts in his first season with the Mets . ... Dylan Cease came within one out of his first career no-hitter in the White Sox’s 13-0 rout of the visiting Twins on Saturday night. In the ninth, Cease struck out Caleb Hamilton swinging on a 1-2 slider and retired Gilberto Celestino on a fly to center. Luis Arraez then dumped a line-drive single into right-center on a 1-1 pitch. Cease (13-6) had seven strikeouts.