Judge HR propels Yankees to victory
Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer in the first inning and the visiting New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 on Thursday night to win for the 11th time in 16 games.
Nestor Cortes (4-2) allowed two runs and five hits in six-plus innings to snap a fourstart winless streak. He struck out six and walked one.
Anthony Volpe also homered for the Yankees, who took three of four from Toronto. The rookie shortstop made it 4-2 with a solo shot off Nate Pearson in the ninth.
Bo Bichette homered in the bottom of the first, but Toronto lost its first home series of the season after winning five straight.
José Berríos (3-4) allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings, losing for the first time since April 19. He walked one and struck out eight.
Judge connected on a 1-1 pitch from Berríos after Gleyber Torres led off the game with a single. The homer was Judge's 12th of the season and sixth in six games.
ANGELS 6, ORIOLES 5 >> Shohei Ohtani homered in the first inning and hit a tiebreaking infield single in the eighth and Los Angeles held on for a victory at Baltimore.
Mike Trout also went deep for the Angels. Adley Rutschman's two-run shot in the seventh gave the Orioles a 5-4 lead.
Baltimore's Bryan Baker (3-1) allowed a single and a walk with one out in the eighth, and then Austin Voth came on and yielded an RBI single to Gio Urshela. After a strikeout, Voth hit Trout with a pitch to load the bases.
Left-hander Danny Coulombe came in to face Ohtani, who ripped a grounder to the right side. First baseman Ryan Mountcastle made a diving stop, but Ohtani easily beat Coulombe to the bag and the go-ahead run came home.
METS 3, RAYS 2 >> Pete Alonso hit his 16th homer and host New York beat Tampa Bay to post consecutive wins for the first time in a month.
The game was tied at 2 before Tommy Pham legged out a bouncer to third with one out in the sixth inning, driving in Jeff McNeil with the infield hit against Zack Littell (0-1).
Tylor Megill (5-2) worked six innings of tworun ball for the win.
The Mets won consecutive games for the first time since April 20-21 in San Francisco.
Josh Lowe homered for Tampa Bay, which has dropped four of six.
MARLINS 5, NATIONALS 3 >> Eury Perez pitched five solid innings for his first major league win and Miami completed a sweep of visiting Washington and won its fourth in a row.
Perez made his MLB debut last Friday at 20 years and 27 days, becoming the youngest pitcher in team history. He allowed one run, three hits, walked one and struck out six on Thursday.
GUARDIANS 3, WHITE SOX 1 >> Cam Gallagher hit an RBI single during Cleveland's two-run seventh in a road victory over Dylan Cease and Chicago.
Gabriel Arias homered as the Guardians salvaged the finale of the three-game series.
Cease (2-3), who retired 13 of his first 14 hitters, was charged with three runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings.