Houston lands new closer on busy trade day
James Paxton wanted a healthy return from the disabled list and a chance to beat the firstplace Astros. He and the host Mariners got just that with a tidy 2-0 victory Monday night.
Paxton excelled in his first start since dealing with lower back inflammation in Anaheim on July 12, and he needed to in order to outduel Houston starter Gerrit Cole, who had a perfect game through four innings.
Both pitchers traded high-90s fastballs and sharp breaking stuff in a scoreless tie until Nelson Cruz’s two-run double in the sixth inning accounted for all the scoring.
“Cole was about as good as you can get, and Pax is out there matching him back and forth,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “Probably one of the top pitching games that we’ve seen all year, on both sides.”
Paxton (9-4) was solid for Seattle, scattering three hits — two of them infield singles — over seven innings. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter.
Cole (10-3) retired the first 12 batters he faced, striking out six, until he hit Cruz with a pitch leading off the fifth. Jean Segura broke up the no-no with an infield single with two outs in the sixth.
After the single, Denard Span hit a clean single to right-center, and Cruz lined a firstpitch slider inside third base.
“He was dealing,” Cruz said of Cole. “We battled. We found a way to get runners on base. He’s a really tough pitcher to score runs on.”
The Mariners im- proved to 63-43 and cut the lead of Houston (6741) in the AL West to three games.
Red Sox 2, Phillies 1: Blake Swihart doubled into the Boston bullpen to score Eduardo Nuñez in the 13th inning and host Boston moved a season-high six games ahead of the Yankees in the AL East. Boston starter David Price allowed one run in eight innings but did not get a decision.
Braves 5, Marlins 4: Freddie Freeman hit a go-ahead homer in the third inning, Ronald Acuña Jr. also went deep and Atlanta pulled to a half-game back of the Phillies of the NL East.
Cardinals 5, Rockies 4: Marcell Ozuna hit his first career game-ending homer in the 10th inning as St. Louis snapped Colorado’s fourgame win streak. Ozuna connected against Jake McGee, sending a one-out drive deep to center to extended his homer streak to three games.
Twins 5, Indians 4: Mitch Garver drove in the winning run with a one-out double in the ninth inning for host Minnesota. Jose Ramirez hit two home runs to match Boston’s J.D. Martinez for the most in the majors with 32.
Rangers 9, D’backs 5: ShinSoo Choo homered twice and had four RBIs to help visiting Texas rally after a delay because of a power outage. Choo reached the 20-homer mark for the sixth time. A thunderstorm outside Chase Field caused some of the lights to go out in the sixth and caused a 21-minute delay.
Brewers 5, Dodgers 2: Eric Thames’ third-inning three-run homer off Kenta Maeda led visiting Milwaukee. The game was delayed 23 minutes by another power outage.