Marlins end Dodgers’ win streak
MIAMI — Jorge Alfaro hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning, and the Miami Marlins ended the Los Angeles Dodgers’ ninegame winning streak with a 5-4 victory on Monday night.
Alfaro drove a slider from Dodgers reliever Victor González (3-1) to center field for his third homer of the season.
All-Stars Mookie Betts and Max Muncy and 2019 NL MVP Cody Bellinger were not in the Dodgers’ starting lineup, but all three pinchhit in the eighth, when LA scored twice to tie it 4-4.
Miami reliever Zach Pop allowed Albert Pujols’ leadoff single and then walked Will Smith and Muncy. David Hess (1-0) walked Gavin Lux to force in a run and allowed Bellinger’s game-tying sacrifice fly. In his Marlins debut, Hess kept it tied, walking Betts before he retired Chris Taylor on a flyball to right and struck out A.J. Pollock.
Anthony Bender pitched a scoreless ninth for his first major league save.
The Marlins erased a 2-0 deficit with a three-run third on RBI singles by Garrett Cooper and Miguel Rojas. Cooper scored on second baseman Zach McGinstry’s throwing error.
Jazz Chisholm made it 4-2 with a single in the fourth.
Dodgers starter Walker Buehler led off the third with a double off Trevor Rogers and scored on Chris Taylor’s double. Justin Turner’s single drove in Taylor.
Rogers was lifted after five innings. In his first start since being named an All-Star, he allowed two runs on six hits and struck out eight.
Buehler allowed four runs on five hits and struck out six in five innings. The right-hander walked two and hit a batter.
Pirates 11, Braves 1
PITTSBURGH — Ben Gamel homered twice and drove in six runs to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates past the Atlanta Braves 11-1.
Gamel took Max Fried (5-5) over the fence in center field for a tworun home run in the fourth, doubled home Bryan Reynolds in the sixth and added a three-run shot in the seventh as the Pirates won their second straight following a six-game losing streak.
A day after driving in the winning run as a pinch-hitter in a 10-inning victory over Miami, Fried came back down to earth with his worst start since April. The Pirates touched the lefthander for six runs in five-plus innings as Atlanta missed a chance to get back to .500 for the first time since June 8.
Chase De Jong (1-3) survived a 36-pitch first inning to pick up the second victory of his fiveyear major-league career. De Jong struck out four and walked three to notch his first win since beating the Chicago White Sox on Sept. 28, 2018, while playing for Minnesota.
Having an offense that has struggled mightily in recent weeks helped. Pittsburgh’s 11-run outburst was one more than they scored all of last week while going 1-6.
Gamel has been one of the few bright spots in the lineup since being claimed off waivers from Cleveland in May. The well-traveled 29-year-old is hitting .312 (29 for 93) in his last 27 starts.
Ke’Bryan Hayes hit his first home run in nearly a month for Pittsburgh as the Pirates tied their season-high in runs.
Ronald Acuña and Freddie Freeman had two hits apiece for Atlanta. The rest of the Braves managed just two hits against De Jong and four relievers.
Atlanta appeared ready to chase De Jong early. Acuña singled leading off the game and raced home when Freeman followed with a double to right that Phil Evans bobbled after chasing down. A walk and a hit batter eventually loaded the bases, but De Jong survived further damage when Orlando Arcia lined out to shortstop.
De Jong settled down and Pittsburgh’s offense picked up the slack. Gamel’s blast in the fourth put the Pirates in front and by the time his second home run of the night cleared the fence in center field in the seventh, Pittsburgh was on its way to its most lopsided victory of the season.
Twins 8, White Sox 5
MINNEAPOLIS — Rookie Bailey Ober pitched five scoreless innings for his first major league victory, Max Kepler homered twice and the Minnesota Twins held off the Chicago White Sox 8-5.
Ober (1-1) hit the milestone in his seventh career start, with seven strikeouts and two hits and three walks allowed. In two previous turns against the White Sox, he gave up nine runs in 7 1/3 innings.
Kepler hit a two-run home run in the second. With an RBI single by Trevor Larnach and a tworun triple from Nick Gordon, the Twins built a 6-1 lead and gave White Sox starter Dylan Cease (7-4) the hook in the sixth inning.
Then the AL Central leaders surged back with a four-run seventh, getting a two-run single by Leury García against Caleb Thielbar and a two-run triple by Yoán Moncada off Tyler Duffey.
Moncada was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a chopper to third for the first out of the inning, and then the Twins turned to their best reliever to take back control. Taylor Rogers got five outs, four by strikeout, in a superb six-batter appearance.
Hansel Robles pitched a scoreless ninth for his eighth save.
These rivals have had a tense season on the field, if not in the standings, from rookie Yermín Mercedes angering the Twins with a home run off a 3-0 pitch from position player Willians Astudillo in May to Josh Donaldson irritating the White Sox with an insinuation that the drop in spin rate on Lucas Giolito’s pitches is tied to baseball’s crackdown on sticky substances.
The White Sox brought a 14 1/2-game lead on the last-place Twins into the series, having won eight of the first nine matchups this year by a cumulative 76-37 score, but Ober was up to the task. The 6-foot-9 right-hander set the tone by striking out the side in the first inning. He fanned José Abreu twice, before the slugger took Thielbar deep in the sixth for his team-leading 15th homer.
Cease beat the Twins last week with three-hit, two-walk ball over six innings, but he didn’t have it this time. He lasted 5 1/3 innings and allowed six hits and three walks.
Kepler recorded his 10th career multihomer game when he took Ryan Burr deep in a two-run eighth that gave the Twins some room for Robles to work.
Mets 4, Brewers 2
NEW YORK — Pete Alonso broke a seventh-inning tie with a two-run double off All-Star Brandon Woodruff, and the New York Mets beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2 in a matchup of National League division leaders.
Edwin Díaz pitched out of trouble in the ninth, retiring three straight batters with two on after giving up an RBI single to Tyrone Taylor.
Michael Conforto added an RBI single and Dominic Smith had a sacrifice fly for the Mets, who managed only one hit against an efficient Woodruff (7-4) through six innings.
Still, they improved to 25-11 at Citi Field with another stingy pitching performance — New York began the day with a 2.08 ERA at home that was best in the majors — and reached the midpoint of the season with a 44-37 record.
Rookie right-hander Tylor Megill, with his parents in the stands for his third big league start, allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out seven in five impressive innings.
Omar Narváez homered for the Brewers, who won 11 straight before a 2-0 loss Sunday in Pittsburgh. Milwaukee entered with the best record in baseball (30-11) since May 22 and the largest cushion (seven games) of any first-place club.
The Brewers also had won eight of the past nine games and 16 of the last 22 between the teams — though this was their first meeting since May 2019.
Seth Lugo (2-1) struck out two in a perfect seventh, and Díaz earned his 18th save in 19 opportunities. After putting his first three batters on, the closer struck out Jace Peterson and Keston Hiura before Jackie Bradley Jr. flied out to end it.
Hiura fanned all four times up. Narváez connected off Megill in the fourth, but the Mets responded immediately.
Woodruff had retired his first nine batters, striking out five, before Brandon Nimmo doubled leading off the Mets fourth. He advanced on a sacrifice bunt by $341 million shortstop Francisco Lindor and scored on Smith’s sac fly.
Lindor drew a leadoff walk in the seventh and dashed to third on Smith’s single. Alonso, who homered in both ends of a daynight doubleheader the Mets split Sunday at Yankee Stadium, lined the next pitch into left field and played air guitar when he reached second base.