Tough debut: Cardinals reliever surrenders four straight homers
The Chicago White Sox tied a major league record with four consecutive home runs, all against reliever Roel Ramirez in his major league debut, and went on to beat the visiting St. Louis Cardinals 7-2 on Sunday.
Ramirez is the first pitcher to allow four straight homers in his debut. Yoán Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, José Abreu and Eloy Jiménez connected during a six-run fifth inning.
Ramirez took the mound in the fifth with Chicago leading 1-0. He struck out Luis Robert to start, but things went south quickly. After two singles, a caught stealing and a walk, Moncada smacked a three-run homer to right.
Grandal followed with another drive into the right-field seats, and then Abreu and Jimenez each homered to left.
Manager Mike Shildt replaced Ramirez with Seth Elledge, and he struck out Edwin Encarnacion to end the inning.
DODGERS 8, ANGELS 3 >> Keibert
Ruiz homered in his first major league at-bat, Corey Seager hit a three-run homer, and the Dodgers swept the Freeway Series with the Angels.
Ruiz made his big-league debut behind the plate. In the third inning, he homered down the right field line with his first big-league swing.
ASTROS 3, MARINERS 2 >> Kyle Tucker hit a game-ending homer in the ninth inning,
and Houston beat Seattle for its fourth straight win. Tucker drove a 96-mph fastball from Erik Swanson (0-2) deep to right for his first career gameending homer.
DIAMONDBACKS 5, PADRES 4 >> Eduardo Escobar hit a goahead, three-run homer in the eighth inning to push Arizona past San Diego and complete the three-game sweep.
INDIANS 8, TIGERS 5 >> Visiting Cleveland beat Detroit for the 20th straight time, nearing the major league record for most wins by a team over a single opponent. Baltimore holds the mark with 23 consecutive wins over Kansas City in 1969-70.
ROCKIES 10, RANGERS 6 >> Jon Gray struck out seven over a season-high seven solid innings and was backed by a 14hit attack as Colorado ended a three-game slide.
PHILLIES 6, METS 2 >> Andrew McCutchen entered as a midgame replacement and hit a go-ahead, two-run home run to help Philadelphia beat New York and complete a threegame sweep at home.
BRAVES 4, MARLINS 0 >> Nick Markakis drove in three runs, and five pitchers combined on a two-hitter to help Atlanta beat Miami. The Braves took two of three games from the first-place Marlins and trail them by only percentage points.
TWINS 4, ROYALS 2 >> Max Kepler hit a two-run homer to support another strong start from Randy Dobnak, and Minnesota beat Kansas City.
NATIONALS 6, ORIOLES 5 >> Max Scherzer struck out 10, and Washington scored an unearned run in the eighth to break a tie and squeeze past host Baltimore.
BREWERS 6, CUBS 5 >> Keston Hiura and Orlando Arcia homered, and Milwaukee beat Chicago for their third straight win against the NL Central leaders.
RAYS SWEEP JAYS >> Willy Adames hit a tiebreaking tworun home run in the eighth inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5. The win followed the Rays’ 3-2 victory in a game that was carried over to Sunday.