Strasburg brilliant as surging Nationals beat Marlins 3-1
WASHINGTON — Stephen Strasburg struck out 14 in 7 1/3 shutout innings, Brian Dozier and Matt Adams homered, and the Washington Nationals continued their midseason surge with a 3-1 win over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night.
Washington has won seven of its last eight and is 25-10 since May
24. The Nationals improved to
44-41, the first time they’ve been three games over .500 this season.
Strasburg (10-4) was, as usual, brilliant against the Marlins. He allowed two hits and two walks while extending his personal winning streak against Miami to
11. The right-hander is 20-7 with a 2.86 ERA in 34 career starts against the Marlins, who didn’t get a man past first until the eighth.
Strasburg’s gem included the first immaculate inning of his career. Strasburg needed just nine pitches to strike out Garrett Cooper, Neil Walker and Starlin Castro in the fourth.
Miami’s Sandy Alcantara (4-8), making his first start since earning an All-Star nod Sunday, allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings.
Angels 6, Rangers 2
ARLINGTON, Texas — Mike Trout homered twice and Jaime Barria, filling the roster spot of the late Tyler Skaggs, struck out a career-high eight batters in five innings as Los Angeles beat Texas.
Trout hit a three-run homer in the third inning and a solo shot leading off the sixth. He has hit 24 home runs this season, tied for the American League lead with the New York Yankees’ Edwin Encarnación, with eight against Texas.
Barria (3-2) was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake for his sixth stint with Los Angeles this season. He allowed both runs on four hits and two walks. He has pitched five innings in all three of his Angels starts this season.
The Rangers were shut out over the final four innings by four relievers, limited to four hits overall and have lost four straight games. Ariel Jurado (54) gave up all six runs on seven hits and one walk after pitching seven shutout innings against the Detroit Tigers last Thursday.
Braves 9, Phillies 2
ATLANTA — Josh Donaldson and Austin Riley hit threerun homers off Nick Pivetta and Atlanta solidified its NL East lead by beating Philadelphia.
Donaldson’s homer gave Atlanta a 3-0 lead in the fourth. Following Riley’s blast, Matt Joyce added a pinch-hit, tworun homer off Juan Nicasio in Atlanta’s six-run sixth.
Atlanta leads second-place Philadelphia by 5 ½ games after splitting the first two games of the series.
Bryce Harper hit a line-drive homer to left field in the sixth. It was his 200th career homer and 1,000th career hit. According to the Phillies, it marked the first time in major league history a player reached milestones in hits and homers on the same swing.
Pirates 6, Cubs 5
PITTSBURGH — Jung Ho Kang scored on Corey Dickerson’s sacrifice fly in the ninth inning to cap a frantic rally and lift Pittsburgh over Chicago.
Josh Bell hit his 26th home of the season and fourth of the series and added a double to give him 59 extra-base hits, the most ever by a National League player before the All-Star break.
The Cubs turned to recently signed closer Craig Kimbrel (0-1) to protect a one-run lead in the ninth and the Pirates pounced.
The Pirates have won three straight and 12 of 17 to pull within one game of .500 (42-43). Richard Rodriguez (3-3) earned the win after pitching a scoreless ninth.
Astros 4, Rockies 2
DENVER — Wade Miley tossed six strong innings and Yuli Gurriel and Alex Bregman homered to lead Houston over Colorado.
Miley (7-4) struck out six and retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced. He walked the first two Rockies he faced but settled down to get out of the inning after Ian Desmond’s RBI single. Roberto Osuna pitched the ninth for his 19th save.
Charlie Blackmon had two hits, including an RBI single in the seventh, for Colorado. Rookie right-hander Peter Lambert (2-1) went five innings in his first major league loss.
Cardinals 5, Mariners 2
SEATTLE — Tommy Edman capped St. Louis’ big ninth inning with a two-out, three-run homer as the Cardinals rallied for five runs to beat Seattle.
St. Louis entered the ninth trailing 2-0 after a masterful performance from Seattle starter Mike Leake, who threw 7 2/3 shutout innings against his former team for the first time. But Austin Adams (1-1) and Seattle’s bullpen imploded and the Cardinals took full advantage of the meltdown.
John Brebbia (2-3) pitched 2 1/3 innings of relief and struck out six.
Dodgers 5, Diamondbacks 4, 10 innings
LOS ANGELES — All-Star Cody Bellinger hit a tiebreaking homer, giving Los Angeles a major league-tying fifth consecutive walk-off victory at home, over Arizona.
Bellinger hit a solo shot in the second and his 29 homers are the most in franchise history before the All-Star break. He broke a tie with Gil Hodges and Duke Snider, who had 28.
After Chris Taylor struck out to open the 10th, Bellinger crushed a high-arching pitch from Yoan Lòpez (1-2) into right field, triggering a raucous celebration and chants of “MVP! MVP!”
Joe Kelly (3-3) got the win after retiring the side in the 10th.
The Dodgers had a chance to win it in the ninth when Arizona closer Greg Holland stumbled for the second straight night.
Enriquè Hernàndez opened the inning with a double to deep right. Holland issued four of Arizona’s five walks with two outs in the ninth Tuesday.
Matt Beaty’s RBI single tied the game 4-all. He took second on Holland’s wild pitch.