Austin Meadows hit a tying, inside-the-park homer in the ninth inning, Nelson Cruz had a go-ahead single in the 10th and the Tampa Bay Rays rallied from a six-run deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox 11-10 on Monday in Boston.
The AL East-leading Rays took advantage of four errors, the biggest when center fielder Alex Verdugo appeared to lose Cruz’s high fly in the sun with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth.
The ball glanced off Verdugo’s glove and Cruz wound up circling the bases on the play, scoring on second baseman Taylor Motter’s wild throw that let Tampa Bay close to 7-5 against ace Chris Sale.
Cruz also homered and had two RBI singles as the Rays increased their AL East lead to 8 1/2 games over New York. The Red Sox missed a chance to move ahead of the Yankees for the top AL wild-card spot.
Blue Jays 8, Yankees 0: In New York, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 40th homer, Marcus Semien went deep twice and the Blue Jays beat the Yankees for their fifth straight win.
Hyun Jin Ryu (13-8) pitched six effective innings as the Blue Jays won for the eighth time in nine games.
Guerrero hit his 40th homer on Jameson Taillon’s 13th pitch. The slugger and his Hall of Fame father joined Cecil and Prince Fielder as the second father-son duo to hit 40 homers.
The Yankees lost for the seventh time in nine games following their first 13-game win streak since 1961.
Dodgers 5, Cardinals 1: In St. Louis, Max Scherzer struck out 13 in his hometown and Chris Taylor hit a two-run homer to lead the Dodgers.
Scherzer (13-4) permitted one unearned run and six hits in eight innings. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is six strikeouts away from becoming the 19th player in big league history to reach 3,000.
The Cardinals lost for the fourth time in five games. They dropped 3 1/2 games back of idle San Diego for the second NL wild card.
Giants 10, Rockies 5: In Denver, Thairo Estrada hit two of San Francisco’s four home runs, and Kevin Gausman pitched seven solid innings.
The major league-best Giants (88-50) remained one game ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West.
Darin Ruf and Buster Posey also went deep for San Francisco. Gausman (13-5) allowed three runs and five hits, and he also singled and scored a run.
Trevor Story hit a two-run homer for Colorado in the eighth. Ryan McMahon and Garrett Hampson also went deep.
Rangers 4, Angels 0: In Anaheim, California, A.J. Alexy allowed one hit over six innings in his second straight phenomenal start to begin his major league career, and Jose Trevino drove in two runs as Texas blanked Los Angeles.
Alexy (2-0) retired his final 13 batters and didn’t allow a baserunner after the second inning. He became the first pitcher in modern major league history to go at least five scoreless innings while allowing fewer than two hits as a starter in each of his first two career appearances.
Alexy struck out seven while winning his duel with Jaime Barría (2-3), who yielded eight hits and three runs over seven innings.
Phillies 12, Brewers 0: In Milwaukee, Bryce Harper hit an early home run, Brad Miller connected twice and Jean Segura added a grand slam, leading Zack Wheeler and the Phillies to the win.
Andrew McCutchen and Freddy Galvis also homered as Philadelphia won for the eighth time in the past 10 games to stay in the playoff chase. The Phillies have beaten the NL Central-leading Brewers five straight times this year.
Wheeler (12-9) threw six crisp innings, outpitching Brandon Woodruff (9-8) in a rematch of All-Star righties.
Harper gave the Phillies a quick lead with his 28th homer, a two-run drive in the first. Galvis connected in the second and Miller homered to lead off the fourth.
Cubs 4, Reds 3: In Chicago, Frank Schwindel hit a tiebreaking RBI single in the eighth inning, and the Cubs earned their season-high seventh straight win.
Schwindel’s single through the right side scored Alfonso Rivas, who started the rally with a pinch-hit single off Michael Lorenzen (0-2) and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Schwindel is batting .441 (15 for 34) with six homers and 14 RBIs during his current eight-game hitting streak.
The Reds (73-66) lost for the seventh time in nine games. They dropped to one game back of idle San Diego for the second NL wild card.
Nationals 4, Mets 3: In Washington, Carter Kieboom and Andrew Stevenson hit RBI singles in the ninth inning off Edwin Díaz, and the Nationals rallied in the finale of a five-game series.
The Nationals, who had lost eight of their past nine, were 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position prior to the ninth.
Pete Alonso hit his 30th home run of the season for New York, which fell four games behind idle Atlanta in the NL East.
It was the second blown save in four days for Díaz (5-5), who is 1-3 with a 12.71 ERA in 10 games as a Met at Nationals Park.
Twins 5, Indians 2: In Cleveland, Jorge Polanco hit a solo homer and doubled three times for Minnesota.
Polanco connected for his 27th homer in the third. He doubled in the first, fifth and seventh, and then struck out in the ninth.
Franmil Reyes connected to give the Indians at least one homer in a franchise-record 20 straight games.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli returned to Minnesota on Sunday for the birth of his child. Coach Bill Evers is filling in for Baldelli.
Royals 3, Orioles 2: In Baltimore, Andrew Benintendi hit a go-ahead single for Kansas City in the eighth inning, then reached above the left-field wall to take away a potential tying home run in the ninth.
Hanser Alberto homered against his former team, helping the Royals win in their first visit to Camden Yards since August 2019. Benintendi provided the lead with an RBI hit off Cole Sulser (4-4).
Cedric Mullins homered for Baltimore for the second consecutive day.
Pirates 6, Tigers 3: In Pittsburgh, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Yoshi Tsutsugo each hit a two-run single during Pittsburgh’s four-run seventh inning, and the Pirates stopped their six-game losing streak.
Hayes finished with three hits, and Tsutsugo, Jacob Stallings and Cole Tucker each had two. Kevin Newman hit a two-run homer in the first for Pittsburgh.
The Tigers got two hits from Robbie Grossman. Kyle Funkhouser (6-3) gave up all four runs in the seventh to take the loss.
Astros 11, Mariners 2: In Houston, rookie Jake Meyers homered and drove in four runs as Houston jumped on Yusei Kikuchi early and sailed to a win over Seattle.
Kikuchi (7-8) allowed three hits but was done in by an error behind him and four walks, which equaled a season high, over 1 2/3 innings in his shortest start this season. He gave up six runs, four earned.
Houston starter Lance McCullers Jr. (11-4) permitted four hits and two runs with seven strikeouts in six innings for his third consecutive win.
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