Red Sox beat Yankees, move up in AL East
Jackie Bradley Jr. tripled in two runs and singled in another, and Rick Porcello pitched six innings of a combined three-hitter to help the AL East-leading Red Sox beat New York 5-1 on Sunday and extend their lead over the Yankees to five games.
The Red Sox won for the 14th time in 17 games, taking two out of three from New York for the second weekend in a row. The archrivals meet again in the first week of September for a four-game series at Yankee Stadium.
Porcello (8-14) allowed all three New York hits, striking out four and walking three to win his fourth straight start. Three relievers provided a perfect inning apiece.
Porcello has allowed two runs or fewer in all six career starts against the Yankees in Fenway Park. That’s the longest such stretch for a Red Sox pitcher since at least 1913, the ballclub said.
Sonny Gray (7-8) allowed two runs on seven hits and two walks in five innings.
Brett Gardner homered near the Pesky Pole for the Yankees, who had won five of their last six.
Blake Snell allowed only two hits in seven innings for his second consecutive win following a long drought, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Seattle Mariners 3-0 on Sunday.
Kevin Keirmaier and Adeiny Hechavarria homered for the Rays, who snapped a four-game skid and won for the first time in six tries against Seattle this season.
Snell, who ended a streak of 16 winless starts with a victory Tuesday at Toronto, gave up a leadoff single to Nelson Cruz in the second inning and another single to Robinson Cano in the eighth. The left-hander retired 12 straight during one stretch.
Snell (2-6) struck out eight and walked two, winning consecutive starts for the first time in his career. Alex Colome pitched the ninth for his 36th save.
Pinchhitter Cameron Maybin singled in the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning, Kole Calhoun and Andrelton Simmons homered and the surging Los Angeles Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-4 Sunday.
The Angels took advantage of nine walks to win the deciding matchup of a three-game series in which they hit 11 home runs.
With the score 4-all in the eighth, Calhoun and Luis Valbuena drew walks from Brad Brach (3-4). With two outs, Maybin stepped in for Juan Graterol and delivered an opposite-field liner to right.
Maybin missed the first two games of the series with a sore knee and was in a 5-for-27 funk since coming off the disabled list on Aug. 7.
Cam Bedrosian (3-2) worked one hitless inning and Bud Norris got three outs for his 19th save.
Cheslor Cuthbert homered and drove in three runs, Alcides Escobar also had three RBIs and the Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians 7-4 on Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep.
Cam Gallagher also drove in a run for the Royals, who finally got their bats going after scoring just once in the first two games of the series. Kansas City piled up 12 hits and six runs off Cleveland starter Danny Salazar (5-6), and finished with 15 hits for the day.
Jason Hammel (6-9) allowed three runs on five hits and a walk to win for only the second time since June 19. The Royals’ righthander had been 1-3 with six no-decisions during that span.
Kelvin Herrera gave up a run against the bottom of the Indians’ order before finishing the game.
Marcus Semien wound up with a Little League home run when Houston kept throwing the ball away, Jharel Cotton pitched well into the seventh inning and the Oakland Athletics beat the Astros 3-2 Sunday.
A day after the AL Westleading Astros turned six double plays, their defense quickly fell apart. Boog Powell led off the game with a single and Semien followed with a grounder in the hole that shortstop Alex Bergman threw into right field trying for a forceout at second base.
Semien, who was credited with an infield hit, never stopped running. The relay from right went to first baseman Marwin Gonzalez, and his throw to third skipped into left field, allowing Semien to score easily on the two errors.
The A’s got their other run in the sixth on a passed ball by Juan Centeno.
Cotton (6-10) yielded four hits and two runs 6 2/3 innings for his first win since June 23. Blake Treinen allowed one hit in two scoreless innings for his seventh save.
Brad Peacock (10-2) pitched into the sixth. Miguel Gonzalez escaped early trouble and pitched six scoreless innings, leading the Chicago White Sox over the Texas Rangers 3-2 Sunday.
Texas dropped 2 ½ games behind the Twins and the Angels for the AL’s second wild-card spot. The Rangers finished a 10-game homestand 7-3, but split the four-game series against Chicago.
Gonzalez (7-10) pitched out of one-out, bases-loaded jams in both the second and third innings. After allowing singles to the first two batters in the fourth, Gonzalez retired the last nine batters he faced.
Juan Minaya recorded his second save, both in the last three games, despite giving up Rougned Odor’s two-run homer with two outs in the ninth.
Chicago capitalized on the Rangers’ stranding runners by scoring all three runs in the fourth inning against A.J. Griffin (6-4). Giancarlo Stanton hit his major league-leading 45th home run and Adam Conley struck out a career-high 11, leading the Miami Marlins over the New York Mets 6-4 on Sunday.
Stanton connected for a three-run shot off Jacob deGrom (13-7) as the Marlins scored four times in the seventh inning for a 6-1 lead. Stanton had homered in six straight games before coming up short Wednesday night.
Conley (6-5) allowed one run and three hits in seven innings. Brad Ziegler pitched the ninth for his sixth save.
Yoenis Cespedes homered for the Mets, who have lost six of their last nine games. They fell to 6-15 on Sundays this season, including 2-9 at Citi Field.
Tyler Flowers’ grand slam broke open a close game in Atlanta’s six-run fifth inning, Sean Newcomb earned his first home win and the Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-1 on Sunday.
Newcomb (2-7) allowed five hits in five scoreless innings for his first victory since June 27 at San Diego. The rookie left-hander improved to 1-6 in eight starts at SunTrust Park.
The Braves led 2-0 before the big fifth against Reds reliever Drew Storen. Atlanta scored four runs in the inning before Storen got his first out. Brandon Phillips singled and moved to third on Freddie Freeman’s ground-rule double. An intentional walk to Nick Markakis loaded the bases before Flowers’ homer to left field.
Phillips and Freeman each had three hits for Atlanta.
The Reds were denied their first series sweep in Atlanta since 2009. Storen gave up six runs while getting only two outs.
Jesus Aguilar homered twice, Chase Anderson won in his return from the disabled list and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Colorado Rockies 8-4 on Sunday for their sixth victory in seven games.
Keon Broxton drove in two runs and Jonathan Villar added three hits as the Brewers remained two games behind first-place Chicago in the NL Central. They climbed within 2½ games of Arizona for the second NL wild card — and are just 3½ behind Colorado, which holds the top wild card.
Anderson (7-2) allowed one run and two hits in five effective innings. He threw 73 pitches in his first start since straining his left oblique on June 28. The right-hander struck out four, walked three and hit two batters with pitches.
A night earlier, Aguilar launched a pinch-hit homer against All-Star closer Greg Holland to put Milwaukee ahead with two outs in the ninth inning.
Gio Gonzalez allowed only five singles and struck out eight as he almost got through the seventh inning to lead the Washington Nationals to a 4-1 victory against the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
The NL East-leading Nationals won three of four against the Padres.
Gonzalez (12-5) settled in after giving up an unearned run in the first inning on two singles and a throwing error by shortstop Wilmer Difo. The lefthander retired 15 of his last 18 batters, including eight straight until allowing a single to Manuel Margot with two outs in the seventh. He was then replaced by Joe Blanton, who struck out Jabari Blash to end the inning.
Sean Doolittle struck out the side in the ninth for his 11th save.
Daniel Murphy drove in two runs for the Nationals, who took advantage of rookie Dinelson Lamet’s struggles.
Lamet (7-5) allowed three runs and three hits while walking a seasonhigh six and striking out eight in 4 2/3 innings.