Cortes superb again as Yanks dominate Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Nestor Cortes took a three-hit shutout into the ninth inning, Matt Carpenter sparked a go-ahead, three-run rally in his Yankees debut, and New York beat Tampa Bay 7-2 on Thursday in the first meeting of the American League East rivals this season.
Cortes (4-1) won his third straight start, striking out five and walking one in eight-plus innings. The 27-year-old left-hander lowered his ERA to 1.70, retiring 14 in a row during one stretch. He threw 77 strikes among a career-high 109 pitches.
Cortes has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 18 straight starts, two shy of the team record set by Russ Ford in 1910.
Wandy Peralta relieved after Wander Franco’s leadoff single in the ninth and allowed Manuel Margot’s run-scoring infield hit and Isaac Paredes’ RBI grounder before finishing a six-hitter.
Aaron Judge had two RBIS to raise his total to
36.
■ Rangers 4, Athletics 1: At Oakland, Calif., Adolis Garcia’s second double of the night drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth, and Nathaniel Lowe followed with a two-run homer. Oakland starter Frankie Montas allowed no earned runs and struck out 11 in seven innings.
■ Reds 20, Cubs 5: At Cincinnati, Kyle Farmer had two home runs among his four hits and totaled five RBIS for Cincinnati in its highest-scoring game in 23 years. The Reds entered batting .217 this season, 28th in the majors, before totaling 20 hits.
■ Royals 3, Twins 2: At Minneapolis, Whit Merrifield hit a tying two-run double and scored on Bobby Witt Jr.’s double in Kansas City’s three-run eighth off Tyler Duffey (2-3). Minnesota starter Devin Smeltzer allowed two hits in seven shutout innings.
■ Brewers 4, Cardinals 3: At St. Louis, Josh Hader escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the ninth for his 37th straight scoreless appearance and 16th save in 16 tries this season, and Tyrone Taylor drove in a run for a seventh straight game for Milwaukee.
■ Red Sox 16, White Sox 7: At Chicago, Trevor Story hit a three-run homer and totaled four RBIS for Boston. He has seven homers and 21 RBIS in his past seven games. Andrew Vaughn had a two-run homer and a three-run double for Chicago.
■ Blue Jays 6, Angels 3: At Anaheim, Calif., George Springer hit a leadoff homer off Shohei Ohtani (3-3), and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Danny Jansen also went deep for Toronto. Ohtani allowed five runs in six innings while striking out 10.
■ Nationals 7, Rockies 3: At Washington, Patrick Corbin (1-7) allowed three runs in 7⅓ innings to halt a 10-start winless streak dating to Sept. 23. Cesar Hernandez had a double, a single and a walk and scored twice for Washington.
■ Tigers 4, Guardians 3: At Detroit, Miguel Cabrera’s third hit of the night was a walk-off RBI single in the ninth. Jonathan Schoop scored the winning run after having doubled, and he hit a sacrifice fly in the second that put Detroit up 3-0.
■ Phillies 4, Braves 1: At Atlanta, Aaron Nola (2-4) struck out 10 while taking a shutout into the ninth, ultimately allowing one run on five hits over 8⅓ innings in his first win since opening day.
■ Dodgers 14, Diamondbacks 1: At Phoenix, Freddie Freeman’s four hits included a three-run homer and two RBI doubles. Los Angeles totaled 24 hits.