Brown hit hard as Astros drop finale
HOUSTON — The Astros finished a red-hot May with a chilling thud. The American League Centralleading Twins completed a series win at Minute Maid Park with a thorough 8-2 beating of the home team Wednesday night.
The Astros, who went 17-10 in the month to move nine games over .500, didn't produce much offense, but they would have needed a huge night to battle what the Twins did to their pitching.
Hunter Brown (5-2), who is in the early conversation for American League Rookie of the Year award, didn't make it out of the fifth inning, giving up five runs. Parker Mushinski and Seth Martinez gave up three more the rest of the way.
Twins rookie Louie Varland (3-1) had no such trouble, throwing seven shutout innings, giving up four hits and walking one with five strikeouts.
“I've said it many times, but the nod goes to a guy you haven't seen before,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said after his team got its first glimpse of Varland. “This guy's pitch count was very, very low. He was throwing strikes… He had real good command of all his pitches. He threw a real good game against us.”
Mets 4, Phillies 2: Mark Canha hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in his latest blitz of Philadelphia pitching, Max Scherzer settled down from a shaky first inning to win his third straight decision and New York completed a three-game sweep of the defending NL champions with a victory at home.
The Mets trailed 2-0 before Jeff Mcneil hit an RBI single in the third and Canha homered in the fourth against former New York starter Taijuan Walker (4-3).
Blue Jays 3, Brewers 1: Kevin Gausman pitched
6 2⁄3 shutout innings to win back-to-back starts for the first time this season, Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman both homered and Toronto beat visiting Milwaukee.
Gausman (4-3) struck out 11, giving him 100 on the season and reclaiming the AL lead from Angels righthander Shohei Ohtani (89).
Padres 10, Marlins 1: Joe Musgrove pitched a nohitter into the sixth, Fernando Tatis Jr. had three doubles and four RBIS and San Diego beat host Miami.
Recently acquired Gary Sánchez homered for the second consecutive day, helping San Diego to 11 hits after being limited to a two-hitter by three Miami pitchers Wednesday. The Padres finished 5-4 in their nine-game road trip.