Wallner HR helps Twins earn a DH sweep
Matt Wallner went 1-for-3 with a three-run homer, and the Minnesota Twins pulled away for a 6-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians in the second game of a doubleheader Friday night in Minneapolis.
Willi Castro stole home for the Twins, who won both games of the day-night doubleheader. Minnesota moved within 11⁄2 games of Cleveland for first place in the American League Central.
Josh Naylor hit a three-run homer to lead Cleveland at the plate. The Guardians lost their seventh game in a row, extending their worst streak of the season.
Twins right-hander Cole Sands (6-1) pitched 11⁄3 scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory. Sands followed starter Louie Varland, who allowed three runs on eight hits in 42⁄3 innings.
Guardians right-hander Alex Cobb (0-1) lost his season debut as well as his team debut. He gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits in 42⁄3 innings.
In the opener, Carlos Santana and Ryan Jeffers each homered, and the Twins held on for a 4-2 win.
Royce Lewis and Kyle Farmer added one RBI apiece for Minnesota, which snapped a two-game skid.
Brayan Rocchio hit a two-run homer to lead the Guardians at the plate. Cleveland lost its sixth game in a row, which is its longest drought of the season.
Twins right-hander Bailey Ober (12-5) fired six scoreless innings and struck out nine. He held Cleveland to two hits and two walks.
Diamondbacks 3, Phillies 2
Adrian Del Castillo belted the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth inning over the wall in right to give Arizona a dramatic victory over Philadelphia in Phoenix.
Del Castillo had three hits and two RBIs in his second major league game, including the winning 416-foot blast off a fastball from Philadelphia's Jeff Hoffman (3-2).
He became the first player in Diamondbacks history to have his first career homer be a walk-off shot.
Del Castillo's heroics gave Arizona its fifth victory in six games.
The Diamondbacks are 15-5 since the All-Star break.
Joc Pederson also homered for the Diamondbacks, who evened the rematch of last season's National League Championship Series at 1-1 with two games remaining.
Orioles 4, Rays 1
Zach Eflin scattered four hits over seven shutout innings, and Colton Cowser and Cedric Mullins each homered to lead Baltimore to a victory over Tampa Bay in the opener of a threegame series in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Eflin (8-7), who was traded by Tampa Bay to Baltimore on July 26, walked one and struck out seven while improving to 3-0 in three starts with the Orioles. Baltimore, which improved to 25-12 against teams in the American League East, moved a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East.
Eflin, who went 21-15 with a 3.72 ERA in 50 starts with the Rays during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, threw 94 pitches, 61 for strikes.
Eloy Jimenez had three hits, Ryan O'Hearn went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a walk, and James McCann also had two hits and a run scored for Baltimore, which improved to 7-1 against Tampa Bay this season.
Dylan Carlson homered and Jose Caballero had a double for Tampa Bay. Zack Littell (5-8) had a two-start winning streak snapped after allowing three runs on eight hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Blue Jays 3, Athletics 1
Right-hander Jose Berrios struck out eight in seven innings, George Springer and Spencer Horwitz homered and Toronto defeated visiting Oakland.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. extended his hit streak to 21 games with two singles and Ernie Clement had three singles in the opener of a three-game series.
Darell Hernaiz had a homer and single for the Athletics.
Berrios (10-9) allowed one run, six hits and one walk.
Oakland right-hander Mitch Spence (7-8) allowed two runs and eight hits with two strikeouts in 52⁄3 innings.
Rockies 6, Braves 5
Brenton Doyle homered among his two hits, Ryan McMahon and Charlie
Blackmon also had two hits, and Colorado beat Atlanta in Denver.
Jorge Soler, Marcell Ozuna and Ramon Laureano homered, Jarred Kelenic had three hits and Sean Murphy had two hits for the Braves, who have now dropped six straight. Their seven-game winning streak in Denver came to an end.
They got the tying run to third with two outs in the ninth before Victor Vodnik struck out Austin Riley to end the game and pick up his seventh save.
Colorado starter Tanner Gordon was in line for his first career win when the bullpen coughed up a 5-2 lead in the seventh. Laureano led off with his fourth home run of the season and Kelenic singled.
Angel Chivilli relieved Justin Lawrence and gave up Soler's two-run homer, his 13th of the season and first since being acquired from San Francisco.
Cubs 7, White Sox 6
Ian Happ, Cody Bellinger, Isaac Paredes and Nico Hoerner each homered to boost the visiting Chicago Cubs to a victory against the slumping Chicago White Sox.
Losers of 23 of 24, the White Sox surrendered seven runs in the first three innings in the debut of interim manager Grady Sizemore, who took the reins after manager Pedro Grifol was fired Thursday.
The White Sox loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth, but Hector Neris recovered to retire Andrew Vaughn on a flyout and pick up his 16th save.
The White Sox have lost 11 consecutive games at Guaranteed Rate Field, including seven in a row since the All-Star break.
Happ hit a leadoff homer, the first of four given up by White Sox starter Garrett Crochet (6-9), to give the Cubs an early lead. Bellinger added a two-run blast later in the first inning.
Astros 8, Red Sox 4
Jose Altuve's two-run home run was part of a four-run seventh inning that carried visiting Houston over Boston in the first meeting between the teams this season.
The Red Sox led 3-1 when Altuve hit his 15th homer of the season against reliever Lucas Sims. Jon Singleton and Jeremy Pena followed with RBI singles that extended the lead to 5-3. Houston collected seven hits in the inning.
Sims (1-5) gave up four runs on four hits in one-third of an inning. He replaced Tanner Houck, who allowed a run on four hits in six innings. Houck exited the mound after 82 pitches.
Houston added three runs in the ninth. After Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez led off the inning with back-toback doubles, Yainer Diaz hit a two-run homer against Cam Booser.
Boston got a run back in its half of the ninth when Jarren Duran scored from third on Rafael Devers' groundout.
Cardinals 8, Royals 5
Willson Contreras belted a pair of two-run homers to fuel visiting St. Louis to a victory over Kansas City.
Contreras opened the scoring with a blast off Michael Lorenzen in the first inning and capped his three-hit performance with a mammoth homer to left field off Angel Zerpa in the ninth.
St. Louis' Alec Burleson, who also had three hits, went deep to lead off the third inning with his team-leading 20th homer of the season.
Victor Scott II ripped a go-ahead tworun double in the eighth inning for the Cardinals, who rode a 13-hit attack into their third win in four games.
Michael Massey (3-for-4) drove in two runs and Kyle Isbel, Salvador Perez and Maikel Garcia each added an RBI for the Royals, who have lost three of their past four games.
Brewers 8, Reds 3
Willy Adames hit a three-run homer and Brice Turang added a two-run shot as Milwaukee continued its offensive surge with a victory over visiting Cincinnati in the opener of the three-game series.
The Brewers were coming off a threegame sweep at Atlanta in which they scored 34 runs on 52 hits, batting .400 as a team.
Milwaukee jumped out to an 8-0 lead after three innings against Carson Spiers (4-4), who needed 108 pitches to get through five innings. Spiers allowed eight runs on seven hits, striking out seven and walking four.
Aaron Civale (3-8) allowed two runs on five hits in 61⁄3 innings to win for the first time in six starts with Milwaukee since being acquired from Tampa Bay in early July.
Civale took a shutout into the seventh before surrendering Spencer Steer's 16th homer of the year to open the inning. Jeimer Candelario singled, but was thrown out at home trying to score on Ty France's double. Nick Mears came on in relief and gave up a two-run homer to Stuart Fairchild, his eighth, to make it 8-3.
Nationals 3, Angels 2, 10 innings
Alex Call's one-out RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted host Washington over Los Angeles.
With Angels left-hander Matt Moore (5-3) on the mound to start the 10th, the Nationals' Nasim Nunez bunted automatic runner Jacob Young to third. Angels manager Ron Washington then brought in Ben Joyce, looking for a strikeout.
But Call hit a 99-mph fastball from Joyce past second baseman Luis Guillorme and into shallow center field, driving home Young for the game-winning run.
Nationals reliever Kyle Finnegan (3-5) got the win as the Nationals overcame the return of third baseman Anthony Rendon, who led the Angels' offense with three hits.
It was Rendon's first trip to Washington since he left the team via free agency after the Nationals' 2019 World Series championship.
Padres 6, Marlins 2, 10 innings
In his homecoming, Manny Machado drove in three runs — including two in the decisive 10th inning — as San Diego defeated host Miami.
San Diego has won six straight games, the longest active streak in the majors.
Padres rookie Jackson Merrill nearly upstaged Machado by going 3-for-4 and finishing a double shy of the cycle. Merrill, who also had two steals, two RBIs and a stellar catch in center, led off the ninth with a homer to send the game to extra innings.
Miami reliever George Soriano blew a save chance in the ninth. Brett de Geus (0-1) took the loss in his Marlins debut, allowing four runs (three earned) in the 10th. San Diego's Jason Adam (7-4) earned the win with a scoreless ninth.
Miami's Edward Cabrera threw seven scoreless innings in his longest outing of the season, allowing four hits and three walks. Injury-prone through much of his career, Cabrera threw a seasonhigh 106 pitches.
Dodgers 9, Pirates 5
Right-hander Jack Flaherty had 10 strikeouts in his home debut and was backed by three home runs as Los Angeles earned a victory over visiting Pittsburgh in the opener of a three-game series.
In his second start since he was traded from the Detroit Tigers to his hometown team, Flaherty (9-5) gave up four runs on nine hits over 51⁄3 innings and threw 110 pitches. Four Dodgers pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts.
Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Enrique Hernandez each hit home runs as the Dodgers won for the fourth time in their past six games. The victory came after Los Angeles lost consecutive games to the National League-leading Philadelphia Phillies.
Oneil Cruz and Joey Bart each hit home runs for the Pirates, who lost their fifth consecutive game. Right-hander Mitch Keller (10-6) gave up seven runs on seven hits in four innings for Pittsburgh.
Right-hander Domingo German made his Pirates debut and gave up two runs in four relief innings. German delivered a perfect game for the New York Yankees last season before an acrimonious departure from the club.
Mariners 6, Mets 0
Bryce Miller pitched six scoreless innings as Seattle defeated visiting New York in the opener of a three-game interleague series.
Ryan Bliss, recalled from Triple-A Tacoma on Wednesday, hit a two-run homer as the Mariners remained tied with Houston atop the American League West.
The Mets had won three of four but remained a half-game ahead of Atlanta in the race for the National League's third and final wild-card berth.
Miller (9-7), a right-hander, allowed just three hits, walked one and struck out six.
The only hits Miller gave up were two-out doubles by Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo in the second and third innings, respectively, and a two-out single by Jeff McNeil in the fourth.
Giants 3, Tigers 2
Mark Canha beat his old team with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the ninth inning as San Francisco, held hitless for six innings, rallied for a victory over visiting Detroit.
After scoring single runs in the seventh and eighth to draw even, the Giants got a gift in the ninth when second baseman Colt Keith misplayed Heliot Ramos' leadoff grounder before Jason Foley (3-4) walked Michael Conforto and hit Matt Chapman in the head.
Shelby Miller came on to get Mike Yastrzemski to ground into a force play at the plate for a first out and got ahead 0-2 on Canha before the veteran ran the count to 2-2, then drilled a deep fly to left to send Michael Conforto home with the game-winner.
Canha had been acquired by the Giants from the Tigers last Tuesday for minor league pitcher Eric Silva.
Tyler Rogers (2-4), who pitched a 12-3 top of the ninth, was credited with the win in the Giants' 10th walk-off victory of the season.
Rangers-Yankees, ppd.
Friday's game between visiting Texas and New York was postponed due to forecasts of heavy rain.
The teams will play a single-admission doubleheader Saturday when the forecast is projected for 85 degrees and sunny.
The first game will start at 1:05 p.m. ET, with the second game starting approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the opener.
Carlos Rodon (12-7, 4.37 ERA) was slated to pitch Friday for the Yankees and likely gets one of the games and Gerrit Cole (3-2, 5.09 ERA) was Saturday's originally scheduled starter.
Cody Bradford (3-0, 3.96) was set to pitch Friday for the Rangers and Nathan Eovaldi (8-5, 3.62) was scheduled to pitch Saturday for the defending champions.