Jose Altuve homers in each of first 3 innings, Astros rout Rangers 14-1

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jose Altuve homered in each of the first three innings, starting with a pair off All-Star right-hander Nathan Eovaldi in his return from the injured list, and the Houston Astros pummeled the Texas Rangers 14-1 on Tuesday night.

Altuve greeted Eovaldi (11-4) with a leadoff homer, then ended the pitcher’s first outing since July 18 with another drive into the seats in left field on the 35th pitch with one out in the second.

The third homer — and 15th of the season for Altuve — was to center field off Dane Dunning, a starter who came out of the bullpen so the Rangers could get Eovaldi back on the mound without a rehab appearance coming off a right forearm strain.

Martín Maldonado hit two homers and slugger Yordan Alvarez connected for his 24th as the defending World Series champion Astros set a Globe Life Field record with six long balls while wrapping up a third consecutive series win over the Rangers.

Texas, which hasn’t had a winning season since 2016, has lost 14 of 18 games and is two back in the AL West for the second time since a run of 140 consecutive days atop the division ended in late August.

Altuve homered in four consecutive at-bats going back to Houston’s 13-6 win in the series opener Monday. The run ended with a groundout against Dunning in the fifth. Altuve struck out in the seventh.

Framber Valdez (11-9) allowed one run on six hits with four walks and four strikeouts in seven innings. The All-Star left-hander ended a three-game losing streak against the Rangers.

MARLINS 6, DODGERS 3

MIAMI (AP) — Bryan De La Cruz hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to break a tie in Miami's victory over Los Angeles.

The Dodgers played their first game since the arrest of star pitcher Julio Urías late Sunday on a felony charge of corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant. Urías did not travel with the Dodgers to Miami.

Jazz Chisholm Jr., Josh Bell and Jake Burger also homered to help Miami win its fifth straight.

Los Angeles reliever Ryan Yarbrough (7-6) hit Burger with a pitch before De La Cruz drove a cutter into the seats in left-field for his 18th homer and a 5-3 lead. Chisholm followed with a solo blast

Andrew Nardi (7-1) pitched a scoreless eighth and Tanner Scott got the last three outs for his fifth save.

The Dodgers tied it at 3 on Chris Taylor’s homer against reliever A.J. Puk leading off the seventh.

Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw gave up five hits and three runs over five innings.

YANKEES 5, TIGERS 1

NEW YORK (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton smashed his 400th home run, Gerrit Cole burnished his Cy Young Award credentials and New York beat Detroit.

DJ LeMahieu hit his second leadoff homer in four games and Gleyber Torres had a two-run double for the last-place Yankees (69-69), who have won four straight and seven of eight to get back to .500 for the first time since Aug. 15.

Stanton’s two-run homer off reliever José Cisnero broke a 1-all tie in the sixth inning. The slugger reached 400 homers in 1,520 career games — fourth-fastest in major league history behind Mark McGwire (1,412), Babe Ruth (1,475) and Alex Rodriguez (1,489). Albert Pujols is fifth at 1,523.

Stanton’s 451-foot laser to left-center was caught by a fan with a glove in the front row of the elevated bleachers above Detroit’s bullpen. The large videoboard displayed the No. 400 milestone and Stanton — often the target of boos at Yankee Stadium since arriving in 2018 — came out of the dugout for a curtain call, doffing his helmet to the crowd of 31,553.

The 2017 NL MVP with Miami, Stanton became the 58th big league player to reach 400 home runs and 10th to do it with the Yankees.

The drive made a winner of Cole (13-4), who struck out seven in six innings of one-run ball and took over the American League lead in ERA at 2.90. He gave up eight hits but walked none, throwing 104 pitches on a steamy, 87-degree night.

Joey Wentz (2-11) took the loss.

CARDINALS 10, BRAVES 6

ATLANTA (AP) — Tyler O’Neill and Nolan Gorman hit two-run homers to spoil Michael Soroka’s promotion to Atlanta and St. Louis held on to beat the Braves.

O’Neill’s homer to left field drove in Jordan Walker in the second inning. Gorman added a 426-foot blast off Soroka in the third and a ninth-inning homer, his 26th, off Michael Tonkin.

The major league-leading Braves, coming off an 8-2 road trip that included three wins in four games against the Los Angeles Dodgers, couldn’t keep pace with the Cardinals, who are last in the NL Central. St. Louis led 9-1. The Braves cut the deficit to 9-6 before Gorman’s second homer.

Soroka (2-2) was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett for his sixth start in Atlanta in his comeback from Achilles tendon injuries in 2020 and 2021. The right-hander lasted only three innings and allowed five runs on four hits, including the two homers.

Miles Mikolas (7-10) was the winner.

ORIOLES 5, ANGELS 4, 10 INNINGS

ANAHEM, Calif. (AP) — Jordan Westburg brought home the go ahead run on a ground out in the 10th inning and Baltimore beat Los Angeles for itsfourth straight victory.

Ryan O’Hearn and Ryan Mountcastle each had RBI singles in the ninth inning to give the AL-leading Orioles a brief lead, while Adley Rutschman also drove in a run.

Mickey Moniak tied it for the Angels at 4 in the ninth inning with a two-out RBI single. Jose Soriano (0-2) took the loss.

Right-hander Joey Krehbiel (1-0) got one out in the ninth for the victory and Shintaro Fujinami worked the 10th for his second save. Baltimore improved to 87-51 with its sixth consecutive series victory.

TWINS 8, GUARDIANS 3

CLEVELAND (AP) — Jorge Polanco hit a sacrifice fly and Donovan Solano added a three-run triple in Minnesota’s five-run eighth inning and the Twins pushed their lead in the AL Central to seven games over second-place Cleveland.

Polanco hit a shot deep enough to right off Trevor Stephan (6-6) to score pinch-runner Joey Gallo and break a 3-3 tie. Later in the inning, Solano’s liner to center skipped past outfielder Myles Straw and rolled to the wall, clearing the bases.

Minnesota’s Christian Vázquez, who homered in the sixth off Guardians reliever Matt Moore to tie it 3-all, led off the eighth with a single and Willi Castro doubled down the left-field line. Gallo came on for Vázquez and scored easily on Polanco’s fly ahead of Will Brennan’s throw.

Griffin Jax (6-8) struck out two in one inning after coming on for starter Sonny Gray.

Bo Naylor hit a two-run homer for the Guardians.

RAYS 8, RED SOX 6, 11 INNINGS

ST. PETERSBUG, Fla. (AP) — Brandon Lowe hit a three-run homer in the 11th inning and Tampa Bay beat Boston.

Lowe won it with his 18th homer off Kenley Jansen (3-6), who had his streak of converting 20 consecutive chances end. Erasmo Ramirez (3-3) got the win.

Luis Urías hit an RBI single in the 11th inning to give Boston a 6-5 lead.

The Rays loaded the bases in the 10th with one out against John Schreiber but failed to score when Josh Lowe was thrown out by right fielder Adam Duvall trying to score from third on Christian Bethancourt’s fly.

REDS 7, MARINERS 6

CINCINNATI (AP) — Nick Martini came off the bench to hit a tying three-run homer run in the eighth inning, Christian Encarnación-Strand drove in Elly De La Cruz in the ninth and Cincinnati beat AL West-leading Seattle.

Julio Rodríguez hit two home runs for the Mariners, who have lost three straight for the first time since Aug. 12-14.

De La Cruz led off the ninth with an infield hit, stole second and scored with a head-first slide on Encarnación-Strand’s single to right.

The comeback win was the Reds’ (73-68) major league-leading 44th of the season. Alexis Diaz (8-4) pitched the ninth for the win. Andres Munoz (3-7) took the loss.

ROYALS 7, WHITE SOX 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gregory Santos balked in the winning run in the ninth inning as Kansas City overcame a six-run deficit to beat Chicago.

It was the Royals’ first series win since July 28-Aug. 3. They entered the ninth trailing 6-5. Nick Loftin reached on an error and went to second on a single by Michael Massey. Maikel Garcia hit into a fielder’s choice before Bobby Witt Jr. singled in the tying run. With two outs, Santos intentionally walked MJ Melendez to load the bases, bringing up Edward Olivares.

Santos was called for a balk on his first pitch to Olivares.

Jackson Kowar (1-0) was the winner. Santos (2-2) took the loss.

BLUE JAYS 7, ATHLETICS 1

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Former Athletics ace Chris Bassitt allowed one run in eight strong innings and Toronto took sole possession of the third AL wild-card spot with a win over Oakland.

Toronto’s fifth win in six games moved the Blue Jays past the Rangers in the crowded AL playoff race.

The Blue Jays did it behind plenty of offense and a superb outing from Bassitt (14-7). The 6-foot-5 right-hander allowed seven hits and didn’t walk anyone while striking out seven.

Bowden Francis recorded three consecutive strikeouts in the ninth for Toronto in front of another small crowd of 4,751 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Zach Neal (1-1) was the loser.

CUBS 11, GIANTS 8

CHICAGO (AP) — Seiya Suzuki and Christopher Morel homered during Chicago’s six-run seventh inning and the Cubs beat San Francisco for their third straight victory.

Suzuki had four hits and three RBIs as Chicago remained 2 1/2 games back of NL Central-leading Milwaukee. Yan Gomes added three hits and two RBIs, and Drew Smyly (10-9) got three outs for the win.

The Cubs moved a season-high 11 games over .500 at 75-64. They are 49-28 since they dropped to 26-36 with a 3-1 loss at the Angels on June 8.

J.D. Davis, LaMonte Wade Jr., Mike Yastrzemski and Wilmer Flores homered for San Francisco in its fifth consecutive loss. Davis and Joc Pederson each had three hits.

Luke Jackson (1-2) was the loser.

ROCKIES 3, DIAMONDBACKS 2

PHOENIX (AP) — Kyle Freeland threw six solid innings, rookie Nolan Jones added an RBI double and Colorado beat Arizona.

The Diamondbacks — locked in a tight battle for one of three National League wild-card spots — fell behind the Miami Marlins and Cincinnati Reds for the final spot. Arizona has lost six of its past eight games.

Freeland (6-14) gave up two runs on six hits, striking out two and walking three. Tyler Kinley worked the ninth for his second save this season and third of his big-league career. It was a short night for Arizona rookie Brandon Pfaadt (1-8), who gave up three runs on six hits over 3 2/3 innings.

BREWERS 7, PIRATES 3

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Brandon Woodruff pitched seven shutout innings. Mark Canha had a two-run single to cap a six-run fifth inning and NL Central-leading Milwaukee beat Pittsburgh.

Woodruff (4-1) allowed just two hits, singles to Ji Hwan Bae in the first inning and Endy Rodriguez in the fifth. Woodruff also had six strikeouts and two walks while improving to 14-3 with a 2.36 ERA in his last 29 starts dating to last season.

Connor Joe broke up the Brewers’ shutout bid by hitting a three-run home run in the ninth inning off Clayton Andrews for just his second hit in his last 29 at-bats.

Andre Jackson (1-2) was charged with six runs in 4 1/3 innings and walked five as the Pirates lost for just the second time in eight games

METS 11, NATIONALS 5

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Alonso hit his 42nd homer and Brandon Nimmo went deep twice to back a sharp outing by from José Quintana, and New York thumped Washington.

Francisco Alvarez hit a three-run shot in the first inning, and Francisco Lindor also homered for the Mets, who finally gave Quintana some run support. The Mets had scored two or fewer runs in six of his eight starts this season.

Quintana (2-5) worked a season-high seven innings. He gave up his only run two batters into the game and didn’t allow a hit after the third.

Patrick Corbin (9-13) allowed a season-worst eight runs while failing to make it through five innings for the first time since opening day as Washington lost its sixth straight, matching its worst skid of the season.

PADRES 8, PHILLIES 0

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a 431-foot home run into the second deck in left field on his bobblehead night and Pedro Avila combined with two relievers on a three-hitter to earn his first big league victory as San Diego beat Philadelphia.

Tatis’ 23rd homer opened the three-run fourth and the Padres added four more in the sixth against Michael Lorenzen (8-9). That was more than enough for Avila (1-2), who has 14 appearances in parts of four big league seasons.

Xander Bogaerts had four hits and scored three times, and Luis Campusano drove in three runs.

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