Rodon strikes out 11, White Sox blank Cubs 4-0
— Carlos Rodón struck out 11 in five stellar innings, Cesar Hernandez and José Abreu hit back-to-back home runs and the Chicago White Sox blanked the Chicago Cubs 4-0 on Saturday.
Yoán Moncada added a two-run double for the White Sox in their second straight win in the crosstown series at Wrigley Field. The AL Central leaders improved to 9-9 since the All-Star break.
Rodón and the White Sox bullpen combined for 17 strikeouts. David Bote got two of the five hits for the Cubs, who have dropped three straight and five of six.
Rodn (9-5) allowed just two hits to bounce back after losing consecutive starts for the first time this season. He was lifted after walking Rafael Ortega to lead off the sixth.
“If you watched the first hitter, it was time to go get him,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said of Rodón. “He gave us what he had. He was outstanding.”
The All-Star lefty's velocity was down in his last start at Kansas City on July 29, but topped out at 98 mph on Saturday after receiving extra rest between starts.
“It was nice to get a few more days,” Rodón said. “The arm felt better today. It just worked out.”
Michael Kopech came on to strike out the first batter he faced in the sixth, but Bote followed with a hitand-run single to left to put runners on the corners. Kopech, though, escaped further damage by getting Patrick Wisdom to pop up and Frank Schwindel to ground out.
Aaron Bummer, Craig Kimbrel and Ryan Tepera each worked a scoreless inning. Kimbrel, acquired like Tepera recently from the Cubs, bounced back from a rare rough outing Friday.
Cubs starter Adbert Alzolay (4-12) dropped his eighth straight decision and hasn't won since beating San Diego on June 2. He pitched well and allowed two runs on six hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out seven and walking none. Alzolay entered with a 6.25 ERA in the nine starts during the winless streak.
“That's something he can benefit from,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “I know wins are important for starting pitchers, but that's something he can build off of.”
The White Sox jumped out to 2-0 lead in the first when Moncada stroked a two-out double off the center-field wall to score Hernandez and Eloy Jiménez, who each reached on infield singles.
Hernandez and Abreu added insurance in the eighth with homers off reliever Trevor Megill to make it 4-0.
BLUE JAYS 1, RED SOX 0
TORONTO (AP) — Marcus Semien hit a walk-off home run to begin the seventh inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the skidding Boston Red Sox 1-0 in the opening game of Saturday's doubleheader.
Each team managed only two hits, and Semien got the biggest of all. He connected on the first pitch from Matt Barnes (5-3) for his 26th home run of the season and the first game-ending homer of his career.
“It was amazing,” left-hander Robbie Ray said of the celebration that followed Semien's drive. “Everybody was screaming and yelling. It was a fun little experience.”
Semien's decisive shot was Toronto's 166th. The Blue Jays began the day tied with San Francisco for the MLB lead.
The Blue Jays have hit at least one home run in 20 consecutive games, the third-longest such streak in team history. Toronto had 22- and 21-game streaks in 2000.
The Blue Jays improved to 8-1 since returning to
Toronto July 30.
“It feels like right now that everything is kind of coming together,” Ray said. “We're pitching really good, we're hitting, guys are getting on base, we're getting them over and getting them in. We're doing the small things. It's really fun, especially to be able to do it here in Toronto.”
The Red Sox have lost eight of nine and have scored five runs or fewer in 14 consecutive games. Before this game, they put slugger J.D. Martinez on the COVID-19related injured list.
“Overall, we haven't been able to do much,” manager Alex Cora said. “It's tough to lose 1-0 but the positive is we pitched better.”
The shutout defeat was Boston's fourth. Starters Nick Pivetta of Boston and Ray dominated. Kiké Hernández walked to lead off the game against Ray, but the Red Sox didn't get their first hit until Kevin Plawecki's grounded a one-out single through the left side in the fifth. Christian Vazquez followed by grounding into a double play.
Pivetta was perfect through the first four innings before Corey Dickerson lined a two-out single to left.
The Red Sox used a walk and a hit to put runners at the corners with two outs in the sixth, but Xander Bogaerts fouled out to end the threat.
Ray allowed two hits, both singles, in six scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 2.90. He walked two and struck out five.
Jordan Romano (5-1) pitched a perfect seventh to earn the win.
YANKEES 5, MARINERS 4
NEW YORK (AP) — DJ LeMahieu and Kyle Higashioka made savvy baserunning moves, turning a double-play grounder into the go-ahead run, and the New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners 5-4 Saturday for their fifth straight win.
Aaron Judge and Rougned Odor homered and the Yankees capitalized on a three-base error by right fielder Mitch Haniger to win for the 10th time in 12 games.
New York erased a 4-1 deficit by scoring four times in the sixth inning. The Yankees have won the first three in a four-game series against Seattle in a matchup of teams in the playoff chase.
Odor hit a two-run drive inside the right field foul pole to pull the Yankees within 4-3 in the sixth.
With one out, pinch-hitter Gleyber Torres hit a fly and Haniger raced back, appeared to overrun it and then slipped, allowing the ball to get to the warning track.
Higashioka delivered a tying, pinch-hit double with one out and took third on LeMahieu's single off Casey Sadler (0-2).
Anthony Rizzo followed with a sharp grounder to first baseman Ty France, who stepped on the bag. Higashioka broke for home while France focused on LeMahieu, who alertly stopped first and second. LeMahieu forced a rundown and was tagged out after Higashioka had crossed the plate for the tiebreaking run.
“LeMahieu's pretty shifty,” Judge said. “People may not know it, but he's got some agility and he's pretty quick. He stayed it in long enough for us to get that run and get the win. That was big time. It's little plays like that kind of go unnoticed at times but make the big difference in the long haul.”