Orioles win first meeting of the season against Rays 3-1

BALTIMORE (AP) — Jorge Mateo hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the sixth inning and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 on Friday night.

It was the first meeting of the season between the teams after the Orioles (101-61) edged the Rays (99-63) in a fierce race for the AL East title last year. Baltimore scored all three of its runs in the sixth after Tampa Bay’s Aaron Civale took a shutout into that inning.

Civale left after Anthony Santander’s one-out single, and Richard Lovelady (1-4) allowed singles to Colton Cowser and pinch-hitter Austin Hays, the latter of which tied the game. After Rámon Urías struck out, Phil Maton came on and yielded Mateo’s drive to left-center field that scored both runners.

Cionel Pérez (1-0) got the win as the first of five Baltimore relievers after Albert Suárez worked five innings. Craig Kimbrel pitched a perfect ninth for his 13th save in 16 chances.

Suárez had a high pitch count early, but allowed only one run on four hits and two walks while striking out five. The 34-year-old journeyman might have a spot in the rotation for a while after the Orioles announced before the game that John Means and Tyler Wells need elbow surgery and will miss the rest of the season.

Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Ben Rortvedt in the second.

PHILLIES 4, CARDINALS 2

PHILAEDELPHIA (AP) — Edmundo Sosa homered, Bryce Harper doubled and singled and Philadelphia beat St. Louis for their seventh consecutive win at home.

Aaron Nola (7-2) pitched into the seventh inning for the Phillies, who entered tied with the Yankees for most wins in baseball. Philadelphia improved to 40-18.

Sosa put the Phillies up 3-0 with a 439-foot, two-run drive into Ashburn Alley in center field in the second inning against Miles Mikolas (3-6). It was the first ball to reach the walkway beyond the outfield seats since July 22, 2022, when Darick Hall hit a drive there.

Nola allowed a pair of home runs among his three hits while striking out six and walking two. Nolan Arenado and Brandon Crawford hit the homers for the Cardinals, who lost for just the fourth time in the last 16 games.

Philadelphia returned home after losing four of six on a road trip in Colorado and San Francisco. They were welcomed back to Philly by another sellout crowd, their largest of the season of 44,742, on a beautiful night for baseball. The Phillies improved to 23-8 overall at home and followed three-game sweeps over the Nationals and defending World Series champion Rangers by opening this three-game set against the Cardinals with a victory in a crisp 2 hours, 14 minutes.

Jeff Hoffman pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save in eight tries.

REDS 5, CUBS 4

CHICAGO (AP) — Santiago Espinal hit a two-run homer while pinch hitting in the seventh inning and Cincinnati held on to beat sliding Chicago.

Espinal, who entered hitting just .195, batted for Will Benson with zero outs and Jonathan India on first after a walk. He sent Drew Smyly’s first pitch into Wrigley Field’s left-center bleachers for his third homer, giving Cincinnati its first lead at 4-3.

Tyler Stephenson had two hits and drove in a run for the Reds, who ended a two game slide.

Nick Martini added an RBI and TJ Friedl singled in an insurance run in the ninth. The Reds needed it.

Cincinnati closer Alexis Diaz entered the bottom of the ninth with a 5-3 lead. Pete Crow-Armstrong singled to lead off, then Diaz walked pinch-hitter Michael Busch.

Crow-Armstrong scored on Seiya Suzuki’s double with one out. But Nick Madrigal, who had reached on a force, was thrown out at the plate. Cody Bellinger flied out to right to end it and Diaz got his 11th save.

GUARDIANS 7, NATIONALS 1

CLEVELAND (AP) — Tanner Bibee carried a shutout into the seventh and David Fry’s three-run homer in the bottom of the inning broke open a close game as Cleveland beat Washington.

Bibee (4-1) allowed one run and three hits in 6 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts and one walk. Eddie Rosario’s RBI double with one out in the seventh inning chased Bibee and drew the Nationals within 2-1.

Bibee, last year’s runner-up for AL Rookie of the Year, has a 1.82 ERA in his last five starts. Luis Garcia Jr. had the other two hits off Bibee with singles in the fourth and seventh, and hit another single in the ninth off closer Emmanual Clase.

Bibee left with the one-run lead before the Guardians had a four-run seventh. Josh Naylor brought home a run with a force out grounder and Fry followed with his eighth homer of the season, a blast to left-center field off Robert Garcia.

Guardians leadoff hitter Steven Kwan had three hits, two runs scored and a walk after being activated from the injured list before the game. He raised his batting average to .365 through 33 games.

MARLINS 8, RANGERS 2

MIAMI (AP) — Jesús Sánchez hit a three-run homer and doubled twice to help Miami beat Texas.

Sánchez homered off reliever Jesus Tinoco, who had given up consecutive one-out singles before Sánchez lifted his seventh pitch of the at-bat 417 feet to center to put Miami ahead 7-2 in the seventh.

The win gave the Marlins a 14-13 record in the month of May — their first winning month since going 17-10 in September of last year. Meanwhile, the World Series-champion Rangers (27-30) fell three games below .500 for the second time this month.

Nick Gordon opened scoring in the second with a two-run homer off Rangers starter José Ureña (1-5), scoring Sánchez, who led off the inning with a double.

Ureña, making his first career start against his former team, was lifted just 2 1/3 innings into the game after allowing four hits, four runs — two of which were earned — walking two and striking out one. Ureña began his big league career with the Marlins from 2015-20 and was Miami’s Opening Day starter in 2018 and 2019.

RED SOX 7, TIGERS 3

BOSTON (AP) — Ceddanne Rafaela homered twice for his first multi-homer game and drove in five runs, Tanner Houck had a solid start and Boston beat Detroit.

Houck (5-5) went seven innings, giving up one run on three hits and two walks with six strikeouts. The right-hander was hit in his pitching arm by Zach McKinstry’s comebacker with one out in the fifth inning. Houck stayed with the play and threw out McKinstry at first base.

Rafaela fell two shy of his career high in RBIs set April 27 against the Chicago Cubs.

Right-hander Kenta Maeda (2-2) went 4 2/3 innings for Detroit, giving up five runs on a season-high eight hits with two walks and a season-high six strikeouts.

Boston scored four runs in the fourth inning. Rafael Devers led off with a double and scored on Dominic Smith’s one-out double. After Vaughn Grissom singled, No. 9 hitter Rafaela hit a two-out homer over the Green Monster in left field, scoring Smith and Grissom.

BRAVES 4, ATHLETICS 2

ATLANTA (AP) — Reynaldo López set a season high with eight strikeouts, Jarred Kelenic hit a two-run double and Atlanta beat Oakland, giving them their third straight loss.

López (3-2) raised both arms as he walked off the mound after closing the sixth with two strikeouts. The right-hander allowed only four hits and one run in six innings. Given an extra day’s rest before the start, López was still strong in his final inning.

With one out in the second, Michael Harris II singled to right field against JP Sears (4-4), who then walked former Oakland teammate Sean Murphy. Kelenic lined a double off the base of the wall in left-center, driving in both runners for a 3-0 lead.

It was an important at-bat for Kelenic, who had hit only .226 in May and had only 10 RBIs for the season. Kelenic had been platooning with Adam Duvall in left field before reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. suffered a season-ending torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Sunday in Pittsburgh.

With only Marcell Ozuna able to avoid an offensive slump that has affected the remainder of Atlanta’s lineup, the Braves need improved production from Kelenic, acquired in an offseason trade with Seattle.

METS 10, DIAMONDBACKS 9

NEW YORK (AP) — Starling Marte ripped a bases-loaded triple in the first inning and drove in four runs, J.D. Martinez homered for the second consecutive game and New York held off skidding Arizona.

Trailing by five and down to their final out, the Diamondbacks got a three-run homer from Joc Pederson and a solo shot from Christian Walker on consecutive pitches from Reed Garrett before he struck out Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to end it.

Mark Vientos had three singles and two RBIs, hours after taking over the everyday job at third base when the Mets made a series of roster moves. Luis Severino (3-2) recovered from a rocky start and New York (24-33) won back-to-back games for the first time since May 6-7 in St. Louis.

The brief winning streak comes after Francisco Lindor called a players-only meeting following a 10-3 loss Wednesday to the Dodgers that left the frustrated Mets with 15 losses in 19 games.

Lindor had two more hits Friday, including an RBI double that extended his hitting streak to 10 games, after going 4 for 4 with a homer Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series against Arizona.

TWINS 6, ASTROS 1

HOUSTON (AP) — Pablo López pitched seven strong innings and Trevor Larnach hit a two-run homer to lead Minnesota to a win over Houston.

Carlos Santana added a solo home run and Willi Castro tripled to help the Twins to their fourth victory in five games.

López (5-5) allowed six hits and a run with six strikeouts as he tied his longest start of the season.

Alex Bregman went deep in the third inning for his third home run in four games, but the Astros couldn’t do much else on offense in their fourth loss in five games.

Castro’s triple opened the third before Jose Miranda walked. There was one out in the inning when Carlos Correa’s double to right field scored Castro to make it 1-0. Miranda scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Kirilloff to leave Minnesota up 2-0.

Bregman cut the lead to 1 when he sent Lopez’s first pitch of the fourth inning off the foul pole in left field.

Castro walked with no outs in the fifth before Larnach made it 4-1 with his shot to left-center field off Ronel Blanco (5-1) with one out.

BLUE JAYS 5, PIRATES 3, 14 INNINGS

TORONTO (AP) — Davis Schneider hit the winning two-run homer in the 14th inning and Toronto beat Pittsburgh.

Schneider’s seventh home run of the season came on the first pitch he saw from right-hander Kyle Nicolas (0-1).

Génesis Cabrera (1-1) pitched 1 2/3 innings for the win as the Blue Jays matched a season-best with their fourth straight victory and won in the debut of their new City Connect uniforms.

After Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the top of the 11th, Toronto tied it in the bottom half when George Springer hit a two-out RBI single.

Blue Jays right fielder Springer made a sensational diving catch on Reynolds’ drive into the corner in the top half but couldn’t stop automatic runner Ji Hwan Bae scoring from third.

Hayes made it 3-2 with a sacrifice fly but Kevin Kiermaier answered with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 12th.

PADRES 11, ROYALS 8

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jake Cronenworth drove in three runs in a nine-run eighth inning, Luis Arraez had four hits and San Diego beat Kansas City.

Cronenworth hit a two-run single in the eighth to give the Padres a 4-3 lead and added an RBI double to make it 11-3. He leads San Diego with 38 RBIs. Luis Arraez had his four-hit game of the season.

San Diego took command in the eighth inning, getting seven straight singles before the Royals recorded an out. The Padres totaled 18 hits in the game and had 10 singles and 11 total hits in the eighth inning, a club record for an inning.

Yuki Matsui (3-0) got the victory with a scoreless seventh.

Dylan Cease gave up three runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and one walk. Cease made his 16th career start against the Royals, which is his most against any club in his career. He also added to his strikeout total against Kansas City, eclipsing 104 strikeouts, the most against one opponent.

BREWERS 12, WHITE SOX 5

MILWAUKEE ( AP) — Christian Yelich had five of Milwaukee’s 23 hits and drove in five runs, as they pulled away to a victory over major league-worst Chicago.

Brice Turang, William Contreras and Sal Frelick all had three hits for the NL Central-leading Brewers, who have won four of their last five games. Yelich doubled twice.

The White Sox have lost a season-high nine straight games and 13 out of 14, falling to 15-43. Michael Soroka dropped to 0-6 when he was charged with three runs in one inning of relief.

The game featured four lead changes in the first 4 1/2 innings before the Brewers, trailing 5-4, broke it open with a six-run seventh inning.

After an RBI single by Turang tied the game, Contreras gave the Brewers a 6-5 lead with a single off right-hander John Brebbia. Yelich immediately followed with a two-run double.