Sports Desk
J.A. Happ struck out nine batters over eight innings as the visiting New York Yankees recorded their season-high 10th straight win on Saturday with an 8-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
Clint Frazier homered among his three hits and drove in three runs for the Yankees, who have won 10 in a row for the first time since June 8-18, 2012. New York has won 12 straight over Boston dating back to last season.
Happ (2-2) recorded his first outing of at least eight scoreless innings without a walk since June 27, 2009. The 37-year-old left-hander scattered four hits in 113 pitches to improve to 13-4 in his career against the Red Sox.
Luke Voit and Kyle Higashioka each had an RBI single and Gio Urshela had a pair of sacrifice flies for the Yankees. DJ LeMahieu extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single off Chris Mazza (1-2) to lead off the first inning. He advanced to third on a pair of walks before scoring on Urshela’s first sacrifice fly.
Athletics 6, Giants 0
Jesus Luzardo combined with three relievers on a six-hitter and Jake Lamb broke open a tight game with a two-run home run as host Oakland once again beat Bay Area-rival San Francisco.
The win lowered the magic number for the first-place A’s to one for clinching the American League West. With second-place Houston’s win over Arizona later Saturday, the magic number stayed at one.
Luzardo (3-2) took a no-hitter into the fourth and then caught a break when the Giants pieced together three singles in the inning. The third of the three was an infield single by Mauricio Dubon, but A’s first baseman Matt Olson, after taking a late throw from shortstop Marcus Semien, was able to pick Donovan Solano off third base to end the threat after he’d rounded the bag too far.
White Sox 5, Reds 0
Tim Anderson hit two of Chicago’s five solo homers and Dallas Keuchel grinded through four innings in his return from the injured list as Chicago cooled off host Cincinnati, which had its six-game winning streak snapped.
Anderson, Yasmani Grandal and Jose Abreu hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the eighth to break open a two-run game.
Keuchel, who dealt with back spasms and most recently started on Sept. 6, was far from dominant, but was good enough to make it through 75 pitches while allowing four hits, walking three and striking out seven against the Reds, who are back in playoff contention.
Twins 8, Cubs 1
Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sano and Josh Donaldson homered, and Minnesota gained an easy win over host Chicago to clinch a playoff berth for the second straight year and the third time in the past four seasons.
Jorge Polanco added two hits and a run for Minnesota, which won for only the second time in its past six games. The Twins evened the series against the Cubs, with the finale set for Sunday.
David Bote doubled and drove in Chicago’s lone run. The loss snapped a five-game win streak for the Cubs.
Astros 3, Diamondbacks 2
Jose Altuve recorded his first multi-RBI game in almost a month, and Michael Brantley delivered a crucial defensive play in the seventh inning as host Houston defeated Arizona to square their three-game interleague series at one game apiece.
Altuve produced a run-scoring fielder’s choice grounder in the third inning and an RBI double in the sixth that pulled the Astros even at 2-2. Altuve drove home George Springer with his two-base hit and scored the go-ahead run when Kyle Tucker chased Arizona starter Luke Weaver (1-8) with an opposite-field RBI single three batters later.
With the Astros clinging to that one-run lead in the top of the seventh, Brantley completed an inning-ending double play by corralling a line drive off the bat of Jon Jay and firing to Altuve at second base to double off the Diamondbacks’ Pavin Smith. A replay review upheld the call.
Marlins 7, Nationals 3
Slideshow ( 15 images )
Miguel Rojas finished a triple short of a cycle and Garrett Cooper homered and drove in three runs to lead host Miami past Washington.
The Marlins, who are chasing their first postseason berth since 2003, remained in second place in the National League East with nine games remaining. Miami will close out its home schedule on Sunday with a doubleheader that also concludes the five-game series against the Nationals.
Rojas went 3-for-5 with his fourth career leadoff home run off Nationals starter Patrick Corbin (2-6, 4.76 ERA). Cooper’s two-run homer in the third made it 3-0. Corbin allowed all seven Marlins runs on 14 hits over six innings, with no walks and seven strikeouts. Winner Pablo Lopez (5-4, 3.96 ERA) struck out seven and walked three while allowing three hits over 5 1/3 innings.
Dodgers 6, Rockies 1
Chris Taylor homered and hit a triple, AJ Pollock also went deep, and Los Angeles beat Colorado in Denver.
