Schwellenbach hurls slumping Braves past New York
NEW YORK (AP) — Spencer Schwellenbach struck out a career-best 11 over seven dominant innings of two-hit ball, and the Atlanta Braves stopped a sixgame losing streak Saturday with a 4-0 victory against the New York Mets.
Marcell Ozuna and Matt Olson hit back-to-back homers in the fourth after Mets starter Tylor Megill, just brought back from the minors, retired his first 11 batters.
Orlando Arcia added an RBI single in the fifth after a leadoff walk to Sean Murphy, and Eddie Rosario went deep against Megill (2-5) leading off the seventh.
Atlanta moved back ahead of the Mets for second place in the NL East and the league's top wild card. The banged-up Braves halted their longest skid since a six-game slide in September 2017 — the final week of Brian Snitker's first full season as manager. They haven't dropped seven in a row since August 2016.
Schwellenbach (4-5) completely shut down a red-hot Mets lineup as the Braves ended New York's five-game winning streak. He walked none and threw 62 of 89 pitches for strikes in his 10th major league start.
The rookie right-hander retired his final 10 batters. The only hits he permitted were doubles by Jeff McNeil in the second and Pete Alonso in the fourth.
Joe Jiménez and Raisel Iglesias completed a four-hitter for Atlanta's 12th shutout, which tied Boston for most in the majors. Rosario helped out with a leaping catch at the left-field fence in the ninth, and Iglesias whiffed J.D. Martinez and Alonso with two on to finish a game that took only 2 hours, 13 minutes.
New York, which never advanced a runner to third base, was blanked for the eighth time. Martinez fanned all four times up, and Mark Vientos struck out all three times.
BLUE JAYS 7, RANGERS 3
TORONTO (AP) — Kevin Gausman pitched a four-hitter for his third complete game in 280 major league starts, Daulton Varsho had four RBIs including a three-run homer and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers 7-3 on Saturday.
Gausman (9-8) won his third straight start and joined Atlanta's Max Fried as the only pitchers with two complete games this season. Gausman, who pitched a five-hit shutout at Oakland on June 8, struck out eight, walked three and threw 118 pitches, his most since 2016. He threw 81 pitches for strikes.
“He just executed at an extremely high level,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “When his split is carrying the zone, you see the Cy Young Award candidate coming out.”
It was the 20th complete game in the major leagues this season and the first nine-inning complete game against Texas since the Los Angeles Angels' José Suarez did it on Sept. 4, 2021.
Gausman threw his first complete game with Baltimore in 2014.
After giving up two runs in the third, Gausman struck out Nathaniel Lowe to end the inning, the first in a streak of 18 consecutive outs. Lowe walked with two outs in the ninth and Jonah Heim flied out.
“He's got great stuff,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said of Gausman. “He had a good split going, a good fastball, located well.”
Marcus Semien tripled in the first inning and scored on a wild pitch, and Wyatt Langford hit an RBI double in the third and scored on Adolis García's single. Semien scored twice but Texas lost its second straight after a five-game winning streak.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had three of Toronto's 15 hits and scored three runs. Alejandro Kirk had three hits and drove in a run for the Blue Jays, who won consecutive games for the first time since July 10 and 11 at San Francisco.
In a rare start at third base, Guerrero made a diving stop on Semien's eighth-inning grounder and threw to first for the out. Guerrero tipped his cap and Gausman raised his arms after right fielder George Springer made a diving catch to retire García in the ninth.