Yankees’ skid hits five with sweep
Nolan Arenado and Paul DeJong both homered and drove in four runs to help the St. Louis Cardinals outlast the New York Yankees, 12-9, completing a threegame home sweep, its first regular-season series sweep of the Yankees.
St. Louis won its season-high seventh straight in a slugfest that took 4 hours, 25 minutes — the longest nine-inning game in the majors this season.
DJ LeMahieu homered for the Yankees (7039), who have lost five in a row. It’s their worst skid since a seven-game slide last September.
Seven in ninth saves Rays
Yu Chang and Yandy Diaz drew bases-loaded walks as part of a seven-run ninth inning in an otherwise scoreless game, the Tampa Bay Rays beating the Tigers, 7-0, in Detroit.
Isaac Parades hit a one-out single off Tigers closer Gregory Soto (2-6), then took third on a two-out double by Francisco Mejia. Soto walked Jose Siri to load the bases, then missed on a 3-and-2 pitch to Chang. Soto walked Diaz, his fourth batter of the inning, to make it 2-0.
Jason Foley replaced Soto and allowed a two-run single to Brandon Lowe, a two-run double by Randy Arozarena, and an RBI single by Roman Quinn.
“When you go up there in the ninth inning of a scoreless game, your first impulse is to do something big,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It isn’t easy to still have the patience to lay off close pitches, but that’s what we were able to do. That turned into a fun inning.”
Twins lose on collision replay
Cavan Biggio hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning and Whit Merrifield scored on an overturned call to lead the Blue Jays to a 3-2 victory over the Twins in Minneapolis to split the fourgame series.
Merrifield was originally called out at the plate, but the call was reversed after Twins catcher Gary Sanchez was deemed to have not established a clear lane for Merrifield, whose right foot collided with Sanchez’s left leg as he slid into home plate. The out would have ended the inning.
“It’s one of the worst moments I think we’ve seen of umpiring in any game I’ve ever been a part of in baseball, and I think it was pathetic what just played out,” said Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli, who was ejected.
Toronto remained two games ahead of Tampa Bay for the top Wild Card in the American League. Minnesota’s lead in the AL Central shrank to one game after a win by Cleveland.
Rose dodges questions in Philly
Pete Rose dismissed questions about his first appearance on the field in Philadelphia since the franchise scrapped 2017 plans to honor him because of a woman’s claim she had a sexual relationship with baseball’s hit king when she was a minor.
“I’m not here to talk about that,” Rose said when Alex Coffey, a female baseball reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, asked about it. “Sorry about that. It was 55 years ago, babe.”
Rose was in attendance at a celebration of the 1980 Phillies, world champions 42 years ago whose celebration was postponed for two seasons because of the pandemic. After initially getting booed lightly, the 81-year-old Rose received a standing ovation from Phillies fans.
The team called off a planned induction into the team’s Wall of Fame in 2017 because of the sexual misconduct accusations levied against him. Rose apologized to Coffey following Sunday’s ceremony after initially saying, “Will you forgive me if I sign 1,000 baseballs for you?”
It preceded a 13-1 rout of the Washington Nationals by the Phillies, completing a sweep and putting Philadelphia (60-48) 12 games over .500 for the first time since August 2018.
The Phillies hit 14 homers in the four games, their most in any single series in franchise history.
DeGrom masterful for Mets
Jacob deGrom struck out 12 and carried a perfect game into the sixth inning of his second start all season, pitching the New York Mets past the visiting Braves, 5-2, for their 12th victory in 14 games. Pete Alonso drove in two runs and the first-place Mets finished with 19 strikeouts — including three in a row from closer Edwin Díaz to end it. They took four of five from Atlanta in their NL East showdown, extending their division lead to 6½ games over the defending World Series champions . . . Cody Bellinger hit two homers, Tyler Anderson allowed two hits over seven sparkling innings, and the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a statement-making sweep of the revamped San Diego Padres with a 4-0 victory at Dodger Stadium. Freddie Freeman had two RBI singles in the major league-leading Dodgers’ eighth consecutive victory and their 30th in 35 games . . . Jesse Winker hit a grand slam, Marco Gonzales struck out seven, and the Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels, 6-3, in Seattle as Shohei Ohtani finished the four-game set 2 for 16 with seven strikeouts . . . Bryse Wilson pitched effectively into the sixth inning, Ke’Bryan Hayes homered, and the Pittsburgh Pirates snapped Baltimore’s five-game winning streak with an 8-1 victory at Camden Yards, where the Pirates had lost nine straight . . . Andrew Vaughn had a two-run home run among his three hits as the White
Sox beat the host Rangers, 8-2, to split a fourgame series. Leury Garcia had three hits and scored twice, playing shortstop in place of All-Star Tim Anderson, who had his suspension for making contact with an umpire cut from three to two games . . . Triston McKenzie held Houston to two hits and struck out eight in eight innings and Luke Maile homered for the first time in three years as host Cleveland won, 1-0.