Riley, Wright pace surging Braves over Nats
Austin Riley homered off Patrick Corbin, Kyle Wright pitched seven-plus innings to win his 10th game, and the host Atlanta Braves held on to beat the Washington Nationals 4-3 on Saturday.
The defending World Series champion Braves, moving a season-high 16 games over .500, improved to 28-8 since June 1, best in the NL over that span.
They began the day 2½ games behind the firstplace New York Mets in the NL East.
Atlanta leads the NL with 132 homers, trailing only the New York Yankees (143) for the major-league lead.
Ronald Acuña Jr. singled before Riley hit his 22nd homer, a two-run shot to left that sailed 422 feet and came off his bat at 108 mph in the first. The Braves have out-homered the Nationals 22-8 in eight head-to-head games this season.
Juan Soto connected for the 17th time and second straight day, his oppositefield shot to left trimming the lead to 2-1 in the third.
Pirates 4, Brewers 3: Ben Gamel hit a two-run homer to cap a four-run seventh inning and Pittsburgh rallied to win at Milwaukee. Pittsburgh was held to one hit through six innings by Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff before erasing a three-run deficit in the seventh.
Diamondbacks 9, Rockies 2: Madison Bumgarner pitched six effective
AAinnings, Josh Rojas had three RBI, and host Arizona beat Colorado. Bumgarner gave up Kris Bryant’s third homer in two games in the first inning, and was sharp after that. He allowed two runs on six hits and struck out five to pass Catfish Hunter (84th) and Dan Haren (83rd) on baseball’s all-time strikeout list with 2,014.
Phillies 1, Cardinals 0: Kyle Gibson kept the ball in the park this time against St. Louis, Alec Bohm broke a scoreless tie with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning and the visiting Phillies won.
AGibson, tagged for four straight home runs by St. Louis in the first inning at Citizens Bank Park in his previous start, combined with a pair of relievers on a two-hitter.
The Phillies have won three games in a row and five of their last six.
Gibson gave up two hits and walked none in seven innings. A week earlier in Philadelphia, Gibson allowed consecutive home runs by Nolan Arenado, Nolan Gorman, Juan Yepez and Dylan Carlson. It was the first time in major league history a team homered four straight times in the first inning.
Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson allowed two hits and two walks in six scoreless innings after not pitching beyond the fifth in each of his previous four starts. St. Louis has lost seven of nine.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
White Sox 8, Tigers 2: Johnny Cueto allowed five hits over eight innings, Gavin Sheets hit a threerun homer and the host White Sox ended the Tigers’ season-high six-game winning streak.
Cueto (3-4) and José
ARuiz combined on a sixhitter in the 11th shutout against the Tigers this season. Cueto struck out five and walked none in the longest outing by a White Sox pitcher this season. He had allowed eight runs over his previous 171⁄3 innings.
Detroit didn’t have an extra-base hit until Spencer Torkelson’s eighth-inning double.
Kody Clemens, a son of Roger Clemens who usually plays left and the infield, threw a 1-2-3 eighth for Detroit in his second big-league pitching appearance. Kody Clemens made his mound debut against the White Sox on June 15.
Athletics 3, Astros 2:
The host Athletics were held to four hits for a fourth consecutive game and made it hold up for for rookie Zach Logue.
Logue pitched five innings of three-hit ball after being recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas and dealt the Astros just their second loss in 12 games. The 26-year-old left-hander allowed two runs and set down his final 10 batters he after Martín Maldonado’s second-inning sacrifice fly.
Rangers 9, Twins 7:
Marcus Semien hit a tiebreaking RBI triple in the eighth inning and host Texas beat AL Centralleading Minnesota. Semien
AAhad earlier been part of back-to-back homers with Corey Seager for the first time since the Rangers committed a half-billion dollars in free agency to the middle infielders last December.
Orioles 1, Angels 0:
Dean Kremer combined with four relievers on a five-hitter, and host Baltimore beat Los Angeles for its first seven-game winning streak in five years. Angels manager Phil Nevin returned following a 10-game suspension. He exchanged lineup cards before the game with son, Tyler, the Orioles rookie third baseman. Tyler went 1 for 2 with a walk. Los Angeles dropped to 1-7 on a nine-game trip and at
38-48 is a season-worst 10 games under .500.
Guardians 13, Royals 1:
José Ramírez hit his first home run in nearly a month, rookie Nolan Jones connected for an impressive first homer of his career and Cleveland stopped a five-game skid, roughing up host Kansas City. The Guardians totaled a seasonhigh 23 hits and led 11-0 after four innings. Amed Rosario homered off Royals center fielder Michael Taylor in a two-run ninth. Triston McKenzie tossed six scoreless innings of three-hit ball for Cleveland.
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