Cardinals record first sweep of season
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Brendan Donovan doubled home two runs and scored the go-ahead run on a throwing error, lifting the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles in the finale of the three-game series Wednesday afternoon.
The game had a 1 hour, 25 minute rain delay.
Nolan Gorman homered and drove in all three St. Louis runs, and Lance Lynn pitched six solid innings to help the Cardinals beat the Baltimore Orioles 3-1 earlier Wednesday. The game was suspended because of rain after a 91-minute delay Tuesday night with the teams tied 1-1 in the middle of the sixth inning.
It was the first series sweep this season for the Cardinals, who have won eight of their last 10 games.
The Orioles had gone 106 consecutive regular-season series without being swept. Baltimore had just eclipsed the 190305 New York Giants for the third-longest streak in MLB history.
Neither starter returned after the delay in the second game. John Means allowed one hit in three innings with two walks and a strikeout for Baltimore.
Kyle Gibson, who was a member of the 2023 American League East champion Orioles that notched a 101-61 record, gave up five hits but no earned runs in four innings. In his only season at Baltimore in 2023, Gibson recorded a careerhigh 15 victories and led the Orioles staff with 192 innings pitched.
John King (1-1) picked up the win with two innings of no-hit work. Rookie reliever Ryan Fernandez pitched the ninth for his first save despite giving up two hits and a run on a sacrifice fly.
St. Louis was helped by two errors in a threerun sixth off Cole Irvin (4-2). Nolan Arenado led off with a single. With one, shortstop Gunnar Henderson booted a possible double-play grounder by Dylan Carlson. Donovan followed with a two-run double. Donovan took third on the throw home. Catcher James McCann's tried to throw him out but his throw was wild to Ramón Urías. Donovan dashed home and scored on a headfirst slide to give St. Louis a 4-3 lead.
An error in the third inning by Arenado led to three unearned runs. It was the ninth consecutive game the Cardinals have committed an error. Urías led off with a single. Arenado muffed a grounder hit by McCann. Henderson singled home Urías and McCann scored on a fielder's choice. Anthony Santander's single scored Henderson.
Masyn Winn extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a two-out double in the fifth inning.
Winn hit his second homer of the season in the seventh off Irvin. St. Louis has homered in a season-high 10 straight games, their longest streak since a 12-game streak in 2022.
Lynn (2-2) allowed one unearned run on two hits and struck out five while pitching six innings Tuesday night.
“It's different,” Lynn said about earning the win on a day after he pitched. “Last night, I threw the ball well. I was in a good spot to keep going, but rain said otherwise.”
Andrew Kittredge and JoJo Romero combined to pitch two innings of scoreless relief. Ryan Helsley pitched the ninth to earn his 15th save to tie Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase for the major league lead.
Jacob Webb (0-3) walked Alec Burleson in the bottom of the sixth, and Gorman blasted his eighth home run of the season off left-handed reliever Keegan Akin to put St. Louis ahead 3-1.
“Big left on left homer there,” said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, who was ejected in the bottom of the third inning of the second game. “He
took a really nice swing to get us up and then our pen did a phenomenal job of finishing that game. JoJo did his job, Kittredge and Helsley closing the door there. It was a really good start yesterday to give us a shot to be in position to win today.”
Kyle Bradish allowed one run on four hits in five innings. He struck out six.
The Orioles capitalized on an error in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game at 1. Kyle Stowers reached base on a ball that bounced off Gorman's glove for an error and scored on Jorge Mateo's double to left field.
Gorman hit an RBI double to center field that bounced off Mateo's glove on the warning track to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead in the second.
ANGELS 2, ASTROS 1
HOUSTON (AP) — Rookie Kyren Paris hit a two-run shot for his first major league home run and Tyler Anderson pitched eight strong innings to lead the Angels to a win over the Astros.
The Angels took two of three games from the Astros to give them three straight road series wins in a single season for the first time since 2019.
Anderson (5-4) allowed six hits and one run in his third consecutive win, which came in his longest start of the season. Luis García struck out two in a scoreless ninth for his third save.
Mickey Moniak walked with one out in the fifth inning before Paris launched an off-speed pitch from Hunter Brown (1-5) off the wall in left-center field to make it 2-0.
Jake Meyers opened the bottom of the inning with a walk before scoring on Mauricio Dubón's double to the corner of left field to cut the lead to 1. But Dubón was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.
Meyers and Dubón hit consecutive singles with two outs in the seventh and Meyers advanced to third on the play after an error by left fielder Taylor Ward. Anderson escaped the jam when Victor Caratini grounded into a force out to end the inning.
Brown gave up two hits and two runs while walking three in six innings.
Paris walked with one out in the third and advanced to third on a single by Nolan Schanuel. Luis Rengifo hit a grounder to Jose Altuve and his throw home was just in time for Caratini to tag a sliding Paris at the plate.
The Angels challenged the call, but it was upheld.
Houston's Jeremy Peña hit a ball that bounced off the wall in left field with two outs in the fourth that initially was called a homer. But umpires reviewed the call, and it was changed to a double.
Los Angeles shortstop Zach Neto left the game with two outs in the sixth inning with right elbow soreness. Luis Guillorme entered the game to play second base and Paris moved from second to shortstop to replace Neto.
ROYALS 8, TIGERS 3
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cole Ragans allowed one hit in six innings and Freddy Fermin drove in three runs as the Royals beat the Tigers for a series sweep.
Ragans (4-3) struck out a career-best 12 while holding the Tigers hitless until Riley Greene's two-out single in the sixth.
The Royals opened the scoring in the second on Fermin's one-out RBI double off the top of the left-centerfield wall. One out later, Garrett Hampson followed with an RBI double for a 2-0 lead.
Nelson Velázquez hit his fourth home run into the leftfield fountains to lead off the fourth.
Kansas City took a 4-0 lead in the fifth on three consecutive one-out singles with Vinnie Pasquantino's RBI hit scoring Maikel Garcia, who extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Tarik Skubal (6-1) threw five innings, allowing four runs on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
The loss snapped Skubal's 14-game unbeaten streak dating to Aug. 29 last year.
Andy Ibáñez cut the deficit to 4-2 with a two-out, two-run double in the seventh.
Bobby Witt Jr. and Fermin delivered two-run hits in the bottom half of the frame, extending the lead to 8-2. The Royals have won six straight. Colt Keith recorded seven of the Tigers' 19 hits in the series.
Detroit has lost four straight.
GUARDIANS 6, METS 3
CLEVELAND (AP) — Johnathan Rodriguez singled home David Fry in the seventh inning for his first major league hit, driving in the go-ahead run for the Guardians in a victory over the Mets.
Rodriguez, playing in his second game since being recalled from Triple-A Columbus two days earlier, slapped a grounder through the right side of the infield off Reed Garrett (5-1) to snap a 3-all tie.
The AL Central-leading Guardians, who trailed 3-0 going into the sixth, moved into a tie for the second-best record in the majors at 33-17. Cleveland extended its winning streak to a season-high six and swept the Mets for the first time as a franchise.
José Ramírez and Kyle Manzardo tacked on RBI doubles in the eighth against Adam Ottavino. Andrés Giménez began the comeback with a three-run, tying homer in the sixth off New York starter Jose Quintana.
Hunter Gaddis (3-1) worked 1 1/3 innings for the win and rookie Cade Smith picked up his first save. All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase was unavailable after pitching the previous three days.
The Mets had gone in front by three on homers by Pete Alonso in the first, Jeff McNeil in the second and Harrison Bader in the fourth -- all against righthander Triston McKenzie, who lasted five innings in his sixth consecutive winless start.
New York dropped a season-high seven games below .500 at 21-28.
Quintana, who only allowed two baserunners in the first five innings, exited after the sixth. The left-hander struck out four without a walk in his first outing against Cleveland since 2017.
TWINS 3, NATIONALS 2
WASHINGTON (AP) — Carlos Correa hit a solo home run and made a diving play to prevent a game-tying run, and the Twins beat the Nationals.
Max Kepler also had a solo shot, doubled and scored a late run to win the game and series, which the Twins entered having lost seven in a row.
Minnesota starter Simeon Woods allowed three hits and a walk over 4 and 2/3 scoreless innings, and Steven Okert (1-0) retired four straight batters — after hopping on the Nationals' bullpen cart and tipping his driver — for the first win of his career with the Twins.
Joey Meneses homered for Washington, which lost its seventh out of eight.
In the seventh, Keibert Ruiz grounded into a fielder's choice off Jax Griffin to plate one runner, advance another to third and cut Washington's deficit to 2-1.
Jacob Young followed by hammering a grounder up the middle. But Correa ranged to his left, dove to glove the ball, than leaped to his feet and threw to retire Young by a step.
Caleb Thielbar worked a clean eighth, and after Kepler scored on Ryan Jeffers' single, Jhoan Duran worked around Meneses' homer to preserve his fourth save.
Jake Irvin (2-5) allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings in his first career start against a Twins team that once drafted him in the late rounds out of high school.