SEATTLE (AP) — Julio Rodríguez hit a three-run homer and the Seattle Mariners won their eighth straight game Friday night as Luis Castillo and three relievers combined on a four-hitter in a 9-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
Cal Raleigh launched an early two-run shot and Ty France also went deep for the Mariners, who hammered the top team in the American League and pulled within a half-game of Toronto for the final AL wild card.
Rodríguez’s homer capped a five-run fourth against starter Kyle Gibson (11-7), who gave up nine runs in 5 1/3 innings.
Castillo (8-7) allowed two hits and one run over six innings with eight strikeouts. His lone blemish came in the fourth, when Anthony Santander homered to center field.
Taylor Saucedo and Ryder Ryan each pitched one scoreless inning, and Trent Thornton allowed a run in the ninth. Mariners pitchers struck out 13 hitters.
YANKEES 9, MARLINS 4
MIAMI (AP) — Aaron Judge hit a 464-foot home run, rookie Anthony Volpe hit a three-run drive and New York beat Miami.
Judge hit his 22nd homer and is batting .256 with three homers and five RBIs since returning from the injured list on July 28. The home run was the longest at Miami this season.
Volpe hit his 15th homer, putting the Yankees ahead with his second-inning shot off Jesús Luzardo’ (8-7).
Randy Váasquez (2-1) allowed two runs and three hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Kyle Higashioka had three hits, including a two-run single in the ninth, and Gleyber Torres doubled, singled and drove in a run. Miami’s Luis Arraez went 0 for 4, dropping his major league leading batting average to .366.
Luzardo allowed seven runs and nine hits in 3 2/3 innings.
DODGERS 6, ROCKIES 1
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lance Lynn won his third consecutive start with the Dodgers and Freddie Freeman drove in two runs as Los Angeles beat Colorado.
Amed Rosario grounded into a fielder’s choice for the go-ahead RBI in the fifth inning and the Dodgers scored four more in the sixth. The NL West leaders took their sixth game in a row, equaling their season-high winning streak accomplished four times. Los Angeles improved to 10-1 in August.
Lynn (9-9) allowed just an unearned run and four hits in five innings. The right-hander struck out nine and walked one to improve to 3-0 in three starts since being acquired from the Chicago White Sox shortly before the Aug. 1 trade deadline.
Austin Gomber (9-9) took the loss. He gave up two runs and eight hits in five innings. The left-hander struck out two and walked one.
Colorado’s lone run came on Brendan Rodgers’ infield single to third and a throwing error by third baseman Kiké Hernández in the fourth.
RED SOX 5, TIGERS 2
BOSTON (AP) — Chris Sale returned after 10 weeks on the injured list and retired his first 14 batters, combining with two relievers on a two-hitter in Boston’s win over Detroit.
Triston Casas hit a three-run homer, and Trevor Story had a pair of hits in his fourth game back to help end the Tigers’ three-game winning streak.
Sale struck out seven while holding Detroit without a runner until Kerry Carpenter’s solo homer with two outs in the fifth. Kyle Barraclough (1-0) relieved and struck out three in 1 1/3 innings, walking one and allowing pinch-hitter Riley Greene’s single, which drove in Báez to make it 4-2. Chris Murphy earned his first save.
Tarik Skubal (2-2) allowed five runs – four earned – seven hits and two walks, striking out three in 5 1/3 innings.
BRAVES 7, METS 0
NEW YORK (AP) — Eddie Rosario had three RBIs and Charlie Morton won despite issuing seven walks — his most in 345 career starts — over five-plus innings in Atlanta’s win over New York.
Austin Riley finished a triple shy of the cycle and had two RBIs for the major league-leading Braves, who are 6-1 this year against the Mets and need one more win to clinch the season series for the sixth straight season. Atlanta is 57-36 versus New York since 2018.
Ozzie Albies added a run-scoring single for the Braves. Morton (11-10) gave up three hits and struck out four.
Pete Alonso drew three walks for the Mets, who stranded a season-high 14 runners. New York was blanked for the 12th time. Tylor Megill (6-6) gave up six runs (five earned) in 5 1/3 innings.
RAYS 9, GUARDIANS 8
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla, (AP) — Wander Franco hit a leadoff homer in the bottom of the ninth and wild-card-leading Tampa Bay beat Cleveland after a bullpen meltdown in the top of the inning.
Franco homered to right off Nick Sandlin (5-5).
Cleveland pulled even at 8 in the ninth, with all three runs crossing the plate on wild pitches by Pete Fairbanks and Robert Stephenson (2-4).
Myles Straw hit his first homer since Aug. 26, 2021, off Jason Adam in the eighth for the Guardians.
Tampa Bay’s Aaron Civale lasted five innings, allowing two runs and seven hits against his former team.
ASTROS 11, ANGELS 3
HOUSTON (AP) — Jon Singleton hit his first MLB home runs since 2015 and Justin Verlander got the win in his 500th career start as Houston beat Los Angeles.
Singleton homered in his first two at-bats — a three-run shot and a two-run blast — for his first multi-homer game and had a career-high five RBIs in his first game at Minute Maid Park since 2015, after his contract was selected from Triple-A Sugar Land on Tuesday.
Verlander (7-6), making his second start for the Astros since being traded from the Mets — and first at home — allowed six hits and three runs with seven strikeouts in six innings on a night he became 50th player in major league history to start 500 games. He joins Zack Greinke (536) as the only active pitchers to reach the mark.
Reid Detmers (2-9) yielded seven runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings for his fourth straight loss.
C.J. Cron hit a solo homer in the second inning for the Angels, who had a two-game winning streak snapped. Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani went 1 for 4 with two strikeouts.
CUBS 6, BLUE JAYS 2
TORONTO (AP) — Cody Bellinger and Nico Hoerner homered and Javier Assad pitched a career-high seven innings as Chicago topped Toronto for its 17th win in 23 games and improved to 7-3 in August.
Bellinger and Hoerner both connected off Blue Jays right-hander José Berríos in the first inning. Hoerner went deep for the ninth time before Belinger drilled a first-pitch, two-run shot, his 18th.
Brandon Belt hit a solo home run for the Blue Jays, his 11th of the season.
Making his third start of the season, Assad (2-2) allowed one run and four hits, all singles. He walked one and struck out two.
Berríos (9-8) allowed six runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. He walked none and struck out three.
PHILLIES 13, TWINS 2
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bryson Stott and J.T. Realmuto hit back-to-back home runs and Philadelphia scored six runs in the second inning without the ailing Bryce Harper and sent Minnesota to its fourth straight loss.
Harper sat out a day after the two-time NL MVP was sidelined by mid-back spasms.
The Phillies roughed up Twins starter Dallas Keuchel (0-1) for six runs over just 1 2/3 innings, small-balling him out of the game in the second. Despite the loss, the Twins maintained a 3 1/2-game lead in the AL Central.
Stott, J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner had RBI hits in the inning — and all runs were scored in the second without a long ball.
Johan Rojas hit his first big-league homer in the eighth for Philadelphia.
Cristopher Sánchez (1-3) earned his first win despite allowing consecutive homers to Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler in the second inning, his only runs allowed over six innings.
REDS 9, PIRATES 2
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Elly Da La Cruz hit a two-run triple in the first inning and drove in three runs, and Luke Maile belted a three-run homer as Cincinnati won for just the second time in nine games.
De La Cruz’s triple into the right-field corner sparked a three-run first. The rookie shortstop then scored on a double by Spencer Steer.
Rookie left-hander Andrew Abbott (7-3) carried a shutout into the sixth before Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a solo home run and Andrew McCutchen had an RBI single to draw the Pirates to 6-2. Abbott allowed two runs on four hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out nine and walked none.
The Reds began the day tied with the Chicago Cubs for second place in the NL Central, 2 1/2 games behind Milwaukee. Cincinnati moved a half-game ahead of Miami for the third and final National League wild card after the Marlins lost 9-4 to the New York Yankees.
Jose Oviedo (6-12) plunked three batters and was tagged for six runs in five innings.
NATIONALS 8, ATHLETICS 2
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ildemaro Vargas homered and drove in four runs, Keibert Ruiz went deep at home for the first time since May and Washington defeated Oakland.
Jake Alu added his first major league homer for Washington, which has won six of nine overall and 10 of 12 at home.
Oakland has lost seven of 10 and are a major league-worst 33-83.
Four Nationals relievers combined for six shutout innings after starter Joan Adon left with an undisclosed injury. Adon halted his warmups before the fourth. Cory Abbott (1-1) replaced Adon and earned his first big league win by allowing one hit in 1 1/3 innings.
Paul Blackburn (2-3) allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings. Oakland’s Lawrence Butler was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas and went 0 for 4 in his major league debut.
ROYALS 12, CARDINALS 8
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Salvador Perez went 4 for 4 with a home run and four RBIs as Kansas City defeated struggling Adam Wainwright and St. Louis.
Bobby Witt Jr. hit a three-run homer and Nelson Velazquez went deep in his first at-bat with the Royals, who won their seventh straight home game.
In an interleague matchup of last-place teams, Kansas City jumped out to a 9-0 lead before letting the Cardinals back in the game.
Angel Zerpa (1-1), one of seven Kansas City pitchers in the game, worked four innings, allowing five hits and five runs with two strikeouts and a walk.
Wainwright (3-7) allowed eight runs and nine hits in one inning plus four batters. In his last seven starts, the 41-year-old right-hander is 0-6 with a 14.87 ERA in 23 innings. He remained two wins shy of 200.
BREWERS 7, WHITE SOX 6, 10 INNINGS
CHICAGO (AP) — Mark Canha hit a go-ahead RBI double in the 10th inning, and Milwaukee overcame a three-run deficit to beat Chicago.
Milwaukee trailed 5-2 before scoring two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth. Andrew Vaughn tied the score with an RBI groundout in the seventh.
With automatic runner Brice Turang on second in the 10th, Canha hit a one-out double into the left-field corner off Jimmy Lambert (2-2). A night earlier, Canha scored the winning run on a throwing error by Colorado shortstop Ezequiel Tovar.
All-Star closer Devin Williams (5-2) struck out the side in the ninth, and Abner Uribe got three straight outs in the 10th for his first major league save.
William Contreras and Willy Adames drove in two runs each, Victor Caratini homered and Tim Anderson had an RBI single.
RANGERS 2, GIANTS 1
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Nathaniel Lowe homered with two outs in the sixth to break up a scoreless game, Mitch Garver connected one pitch later and Texas manager Bruce Bochy beat his former San Francisco team.
Jon Gray (8-5) struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter while allowing two hits over seven scoreless innings as AL West-leading Texas notched the best 116-game record in franchise history by improving to 69-47. Will Smith earned his 22nd save.
Ross Stripling (0-5) took over in the second for Giants opener Scott Alexander and gave up the back-to-back home runs among five hits surrendered over five innings.
PADRES 10, DIAMONDBACKS 5
PHOENIX (AP) — Xander Bogaerts had four hits and three RBIs and San Diego handed Arizona its ninth consecutive loss.
Bogaerts hit a two-run homer and Jake Cronenworth also homered as the Padres snapped a four-game losing streak. Blake Snell (9-8) continued his mastery of the Diamondbacks, going six innings and giving up two hits and two runs.
Fernando Tatis had three of San Diego’s 14 hits and Juan Soto had an RBI triple in a four-run third against Arizona starter Ryne Nelson (6-7). The Diamondbacks dropped two games under .500 and have yet to win in August.
Ketel Marte homered in the sixth, his 19th, and Tommy Pham hit a three-run homer, his 11th of the season and first since Arizona acquired him last month.
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