Maeda, Vierling lead Tigers to 4-1 win over Cardinals
DETROIT (AP) — Kenta Maeda got his first win for Detroit, allowing four hits over six innings in a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday as the Tigers took two of three games in the series.
Matt Vierling had three RBIs for the Tigers, who are 31-16 against St. Louis in interleague play. The teams also met in three World Series, with the Cardinals winning in 1934 and 2006, and Detroit taking the title in 1968.
Maeda (1-1) allowed a fourth-inning home run to Willson Contreras that landed in shrubbery above the center-field fence. He struck out five and walked none.
The 36-year-old righthander, who signed a $24 million, two-year contract during the offseason, had a 7.64 ERA in his first four starts but has lowered it to 5.02 by allowing one run over 11 innings in his last two outings. He spent his first seven big league seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota.
Alex Lange got four outs for his second save.
Miles Mikolas (2-4), facing Detroit for the first time, gave up three runs and six hits in six innings.
Vierling singled leading off the second and scored on Colt Keith's double, then hit a two-run, twoout homer in the third and added a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
BREWERS 7, RAYS 1
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Willy Adames homered twice with four RBIs and Colin Rea pitched six scoreless innings to lead the Brewers over the Rays in the finale of a contentious three-game series.
Milwaukee reliever Abner Uribe was suspended for six games and starter Freddy Peralta for five by Major League Baseball for their roles in a brawl on Tuesday night. Rays outfielder Jose Siri was suspended for three games, and Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy for two. All four also were fined.
Murphy started his suspension on Wednesday, leaving associate manager Rickie Weeks to lead the team. Siri's suspension was cut to two games as part of an agreement, and he served the first game Wednesday. Uribe and Peralta can continue to play until their appeals are resolved.
Adams hit a solo homer in the third off Zach Eflin (1-4) and a threerun drive in the seventh against Erasmo Ramírez for his fifth big league two-homer game.
Rea (3-0) gave up four hits over six innings with two walks and six strikeouts in a 99-pitch outing. Bryan Hudson, Uribe and Thyago Vieira finished a five-hitter, and the Brewers took two of three from the Rays.
William Contreras hit a go-ahead, two-run double in the third off Elfin, who allowed three runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings. Eflin is 0-3 in his last five starts.
BRAVES 5, MARINERS 2
SEATTLE (AP) — Chris Sale allowed one run over five innings and struck out nine, Austin Riley had the big blow at the plate with a two-run triple, and the Braves salvaged the final game of a threegame series with a win over the Mariners.
The NL East-leading Braves rebounded after suffering back-to-back defeats for the first time this season with another strong start from Sale and Atlanta's offense taking advantage of an error to score four unearned runs off Seattle starter Emerson Hancock.
Sale (4-1) continued to flash signs of his former self — one of the most dominant lefties in the game before injuries sidetracked his career. He used his assortment of arm angles and pitch shapes to reach a season high in strikeouts while scattering six hits. The only run Sale allowed came with two outs in the fifth inning on Jorge Polanco's blooper.
Sale won his third straight decision and has
a 2.36 ERA over his last three starts.
Atlanta scored four times in the fourth inning, all with two outs. Right fielder Mitch Haniger gave the Braves that opportunity when he dropped Orlando Arcia's popup down the right field line. It was Seattle's second error of the day and the most costly.
Hancock retired Chadwick Tromp for the second out, but Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies reached on backto-back singles to plate one run, and Haniger couldn't come up with Riley's deep drive as he crashed into the right field wall. That gave the Braves a 4-0 lead.
Matt Olson capped the inning with a sharp single off reliever Trent Thornton that scored Riley.
Seattle brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, when Raisel Iglesias walked Luke Raley and gave up a single to Julio Rodríguez. But Iglesias got popups from Haniger and Polanco and a groundout from Cal Raleigh to finish off his eighth save.
Hancock (3-3) lasted just 3 2/3 innings and was struggling even before the problems in the fourth. He walked four, including a bases-loaded walk to Marcell Ozuna with two outs in the third after Hancock was ahead 0-2 in the count.
ATHLETICS 4, PIRATES 0
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Ross Stripling threw six strong scoreless innings to earn his first win in nearly two years, and the Athletics hit two home runs to beat the Pirates to complete their first series sweep of the season.
Abraham Toro and Phil Nevin both went deep to help the A's to their fourth straight victory in front of another sparse crowd of 4,679 at the Coliseum. Kyle McCann added two hits and an RBI.
Stripling (1-5), acquired from San Francisco in the offseason, had lost 10 consecutive decisions for the A's and Giants before putting the clamps on the Pirates offense. The veteran righthander allowed three hits, had two strikeouts and retired the final seven batters he faced to gain his first win since Oct. 1, 2022.
Five Oakland relievers combined for three innings to complete the A's fourth shutout of the season.
Toro put the A's ahead early when he belted a 3-1 sinker from Quinn Priester (0-2) to center field that bounced off the top of the fence and went over.
Nevin extended his career-best hitting streak to nine games with his fourth homer of the season in the third to make it 2-0.
Oakland tacked on an unearned run in the fifth after Nevin reached on an infield single then scored on shortstop Onell Cruz's throwing error that pulled Rowdy Tellez off the first base bag.
Priester walked four and allowed five hits and three runs in six innings.
PHILLIES 2, ANGELS 1
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Kyle Schwarber had a two-run single in the second inning, Alec Bohm extended his hitting streak to 15 games and the Phillies defeated the Angels.
Philadelphia won the getaway game despite striking out 18 times, the 11th time since 1906 the team has whiffed at least that many times in a game.
Ehire Adrianza hit his first home run in three years for the Angels, who went 3-6 on their homestand and have not won any of their five home series this season.
Los Angeles went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position. It had runners on first and third with one out in the ninth, but Gregory Soto struck out Jo Adell and Taylor Ward hit a deep fly ball to the warning track in left field where Schwarber caught it for the final out to secure Soto's second save.
Zack Wheeler (3-3) won his third straight start after he allowed one run on five hits and struck out six in five innings as the Phillies won seven of 10 games on its road trip.
Angels' starter Patrick Sandoval (1-5) struck out 10, the fourth time in his career he has posted double digits in strikeouts. The left-hander gave up two runs on four hits, and retired the last eight hitters he faced, including five via strikeout.
All of the runs scored in the second inning.
The Phillies had the bases loaded with two outs when Schwarber hit a sharp grounder up the middle — just beyond the glove of diving Angels' shortstop Zach Neto — to drive in two runs.
The Angels responded on Adrianza's solo shot to right-center. It was his first homer since Oct. 1, 2021, when he was with the Atlanta Braves.
Bohm's base hit in the third inning extended his hitting streak to a careerhigh 15 games.
PADRES 6, REDS 2
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Jake Cronenworth hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the seventh inning and Jurickson Profar had four hits for the San Diego Padres, who beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-2 Wednesday to take two of three in the series.
Cronenworth hit his third career grand slam and the second for the Padres this season. It came after Tyler Wade opened the inning with a bunt single over the head of reliever Fernando Cruz (1-2), followed by Profar's single and Fernando Tatis Jr.'s walk. Cronenworth connected to right on the first pitch he saw from Cruz.
Profar, re-signed in the offseason to a $1 million, one-year contract, extended his hitting streak to eight games. He had a two-run single in the fourth.
Until Cronenworth's slam, the biggest moment of the game was when Reds center fielder Stuart Fairchild made a sensational leaping catch to rob Manny Machado of a three-run homer.
After Spencer Steer homered off Joe Musgrove with two outs in the first, it looked as if the Padres would surge ahead on Machado's drive to right-center off Graham Ashcraft. But Fairchild tracked down the ball, leaped to make the catch and slammed into the low fence, with his cap flying off. He regained his balance and threw the ball in to hold the runners at second and first. Ashcraft turned and raised his right index finger toward Fairchild as some Padres looked on in disbelief from the dugout.
Cronenworth's slam made a winner of Enyel De Los Santos (1-1). Steer's homer was his fourth.
San Diego took the lead on Profar's two-run single to left with two outs in the third. The runs were unearned because of an error by first baseman Jeimer Candelario, who dropped the throw from second baseman Jonathan India on Jackson Merrill's grounder.
It took the Reds just two batters to tie the game at 2. Santiago Espinal doubled to left leading off the fifth and scored on Candelario's single to right.
Both starters went six innings. Musgrove allowed two runs and four hits while striking out nine and walking none. Ashcraft allowed two unearned runs and five hits, with four strikeouts and two walks.
ROYALS 6, BLUE JAYS 1
TORONTO (AP) — Seth Lugo pitched seven strong innings to win for the fifth time in seven starts, Michael Massey hit a three-run home run and the Royals beat the Blue Jays.
Bobby Witt Jr. had two hits, scored once and also drove in a run as the Royals won for the fifth time in seven meetings with Toronto.
Witt also turned in a highlight defensive play, making a sliding stop and throwing from one knee to retire Bo Bichette for the final out of the sixth inning.
Salvador Perez had an RBI single and extended his career-best streak of reaching base safely to 21 games. His 27 RBIs lead the American League.
Massey homered off right-hander Nate Pearson in the eighth, his second in two games. He finished with four RBIs.
Lugo (5-1) allowed just one hit, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s single in the first, until Toronto catcher Danny Jansen homered with two outs in the seventh. The solo blast was Jansen's third of the season.
Lugo walked two and struck out eight. He lowered his ERA to 1.60.
Chris Stratton worked the eighth and Nick Anderson finished.
Blue Jays right-hander Chris Bassitt (2-5) didn't allow a hit through five innings, but had his outing unravel after Royals center fielder Kyle Isbel doubled to begin the sixth.
Maikel Garcia sacrificed Isbel to third and Witt followed with a tiebreaking single through the drawn-in infield.
Vinnie Pasquantino doubled, advancing Witt to third, and Perez made it 2-0 with another base hit through the infield. Massey's RBI groundout capped the inning.
Bassitt lost his third straight start, allowing three runs and four hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out four.
TWINS 10, WHITE SOX 5
CHICAGO (AP) — Max Kepler and José Miranda hit run-scoring singles to put Minnesota ahead in the seventh, and the Twins rallied late for their 10th straight win.
Miranda added his third hit for another RBI in a four-run ninth that put it away for the Twins, whose winning streak is their longest since June 2008 and the longest in baseball this season. Willi Castro added an RBI single to cap a three-hit day that included a double and triple.
Alex Kirilloff hit a solo shot off Chicago starter Chris Flexen. Ryan Jeffers knocked in two runs with a double for Minnesota, which has beaten Chicago in eight straight dating to last season.
Tommy Pham hit his first homer with the White Sox and added an RBI double.
Kory Lee went deep, and Robbie Grossman doubled twice and drove in a run for the White Sox, worst in the majors at 6-25.
The Twins trailed until they tied it a 4 in the sixth inning, scoring two unearned runs with two outs when Castro's routine grounder ticked off the glove of shortstop Paul DeJong and rolled between his legs for an error.
Minnesota's Bailey Ober (3-1) scuffled to the win, despite allowing four runs on six hits in six innings.
Flexen allowed two runs on four hits in five innings and left with a 4-2 lead. Dominic Leone (0-1), the second of five Chicago relievers, gave up two runs in the seventh and took the loss.