Keuchel, Astros down Athletics
HOUSTON—Dallas Keuchel threw seven shutout innings, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve homered and the Houston Astros beat the Oakland Athletics 3-1 on Friday night.
Keuchel (11-2) allowed three hits, walked one and struck out three in a dominant performance. Keuchel had his second straight solid outing after allowing one run in 6 2/3 innings Sunday at Texas.
The 2015 AL Cy Young winner retired 14 of the first 15 batters he faced, with the lone hit being a bunt single by Matt Joyce down the third base line and away from the shift in the third inning. Of the 21 outs Keuchel recorded, 16 were ground balls.
Bregman and Altuve hit back-toback home runs in the third to give Houston a 2-0 lead. Bregman hit his 14th of the season to right field, while Altuve hit his 19th into the Crawford Boxes in left field.
REDS 5, BRAVES 3
ATLANTA—Cincinnati hit three home runs in the sixth, including a two-run shot by Adam Duvall, Sal Romano threw seven strong innings and the Reds beat R.A. Dickey and the Atlanta Braves 5-3 on Friday night.
Matt Adams’ homer in the second inning gave Atlanta a 1-0 lead that Dickey held until the four-run sixth. Duvall’s homer drove in Joey Votto, who hit a leadoff single, to give the Reds the lead.
Eugenio Suarez and Jesse Winker added back-to-back homers with one out for Cincinnati’s first three-homer inning of the season.
MARINERS 7, RAYS 1
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Nelson Cruz hit two doubles and his 30th home run Friday night and Erasmo Ramirez won his first game for the Seattle Mariners since April 1, 2014, a 7-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Cruz’s home run was measured by MLB Statcast at 482 feet, the longest in Tropicana Field history.
Ramirez (5-4), who was traded back to the Mariners on July 28 after pitching 2 1/2 seasons with the Rays, gave up one run and two hits in six innings in the first game of the Mariners’ 12-game trip.
DODGERS 8, TIGERS 5
DETROIT—Chris Taylor had four hits including a pair of doubles, and the Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed Adrian Gonzalez back from the disabled list with another victory, beating the Detroit Tigers 8-5 on Friday night.
Gonzalez doubled in his first plate appearance since June 11, one of six two-base hits on the night for Los Angeles. The Dodgers (86-34) have won 20 of their last 23 games and are 51-9 over their last 60.
Rich Hill (9-4) labored through five innings, allowing three runs and six hits, but the Dodgers gave him plenty of support. Corey Seager drove in three runs for Los Angeles, and Logan Forsythe scored three times.
Justin Upton homered twice and Victor Martinez also went deep for the Tigers, but Jordan Zimmermann (7-10) allowed seven runs and 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings.
CARDINALS 11, PIRATES 10
PITTSBURGH—Matt Carpenter homered in the second inning to send the St. Louis Cardinals on to an 11-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.
With the Cardinals leading 2-1 and two outs in the second inning, Carpenter homered over the center field wall to extend the lead to 5-1. It was the second of three St. Louis home runs in the first three innings.
The Cardinals, whose lead reached 11-3 in the eighth inning, have taken the first two games of a four-game series against the Pirates to remain 1 1/2 games behind the National League Central-leading Chicago Cubs.
ORIOLES 9, ANGELS 7
BALTIMORE—Manny Machado capped a three-homer night with a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Baltimore Orioles rallied past the Los Angeles Angels 9-7 on Friday night in a game that featured 10 home runs.
Machado hit his seventh career slam off Keynan Middleton (4-1), who entered with two on and one out in the ninth. After Tim Beckham singled to load the bases, Machado hit a drive far over the center-field wall to give the Orioles their first lead.
Machado also hit a two-run homer in the third and a solo shot in the fifth to finish with seven RBIs.