MLB roundup: Yankees win to sweep series vs. Twins

Minneapolis — Clarke Schmidt cruised to a career-long eight shutout innings after Anthony Volpe led off the game with a home run that sparked a three-run first inning, and the New York Yankees finished a three-game sweep with a 5-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday.

Schmidt (5-1) scattered a double and two singles without a walk while striking out eight batters and winning his third consecutive start. 

The 2017 first-round draft pick, who has allowed three runs or fewer in each of his nine starts this season, lowered his ERA from 2.95 to 2.49 while throwing a career-high 103 pitches. His previous long was 6 2/3 innings, matched in his most recent outing at Tampa Bay on Friday.

Gleyber Torres hit two doubles and drove in a run, and Anthony Rizzo, Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo also had RBIs for the Yankees (30-15), who have won 11 of their last 14 games and have the second-best record in the major leagues behind Philadelphia. 

PIRATES 5, CUBS 4

CHICAGO — Edward Olivares and Nick Gonzales homered, and Pittsburgh beat Chicago.

Olivares hit a two-run homer in the first inning. He also doubled and scored in the sixth against Justin Steele (0-1) to make it 5-3.

Gonzales hit a solo drive in the fourth, and Jared Jones (3-4) struck out seven in six solid innings. Colin Holderman gave up a sacrifice fly to Christopher Morel in the eighth, but the Pirates opened the four-game series on a winning note after losing six of eight. They dropped two of three to the Cubs in Pittsburgh over the weekend.

Jones was charged with three runs and seven hits. The 22-year-old right-hander has gone at least five innings and allowed three runs or fewer in each of his nine career starts.

Aroldis Chapman worked the seventh. Holderman hit Seiya Suzuki in the left arm leading off the eighth and catcher Yasmani Grandal threw wildly to first after fielding Cody Bellinger’s roller, putting runners on second and third. Morel then cut it to 5-4 with a sacrifice fly before Ian Happ struck out. Michael Busch walked, but Nick Madrigal grounded out to end the inning.

David Bednar came on in the ninth for his ninth save in 12 chances.

ASTROS 8, ATHLETICS 1

HOUSTON — Rookie Joey Loperfido hit his first major league home run and Cristian Javier pitched six scoreless innings Thursday night to help Houston beat Oakland and complete a four-game sweep.

The victory extended Houston’s winning streak to a season-long five games. The Astros have won seven of their last eight games.

Yainer Diaz hit a three-run double and Loperfido added his two-run shot off Joey Estes (1-1) in a six-run third inning that gave the Astros a big lead early.

Javier (3-1) bounced back from a terrible performance in his prior outing to allow just two hits with eight strikeouts. The right-hander gave up seven runs in just 1 1/3 innings in his last start after returning from an 18-game absence with neck discomfort.

Abraham Toro doubled and Zack Gelof hit an RBI single in the seventh for Oakland, which lost its season-high fifth straight.

Estes yielded eight hits, eight runs and four walks — all career highs — in his second start this season and fourth of his career. His struggles continued a horrid stretch for the A’s where they’ve given up 86 runs combined in their last 12 games.

METS 6, PHILLIES 5, 11 INNINGS 

PHILADELPHIA — Pete Alonso homered, J.D. Martinez hit a go-ahead single in the 11th inning and New York overcame another blown save by Edwin Díaz, avoiding a four-game home-and-home sweep with a win over Philadelphia.

Starling Marte had two hits for the Mets, who followed a closed-door meeting held by rookie manager Carlos Mendoza on Wednesday night by winning their second game in the last seven.

Kyle Schwarber and Alec Bohm hit RBI doubles for the Phillies, who lost for only the fourth time in 20 games. NL East-leading Philadelphia is 10 games in front of the Mets.

The Phillies won a pair of games in New York on Monday and Tuesday and took the opener of the two-game series in Philadelphia on Wednesday. The rare home-and-home set was scheduled to accommodate a two-game series between the teams in London from June 8-9.

Díaz gave up a run in the ninth, his second consecutive blown save and third in four chances since May 5. Neither team scored in the 10th, but the went in front with two runs in the 11th off José Alvarado (1-2). 

RAYS 7, RED SOX 5

BOSTON — Erasmo Ramírez retired Romy González on a game-ending groundout with two on after Tampa Bay was forced to remove Jason Adam because they lost track of mound visits, and beat Boston.

Isaac Paredes had a tiebreaking single in the ninth off Kenley Jansen (1-1) that hit off the Green Monster, and Richie Palacios added a sacrifice fly.

Adam allowed a two-out walk to Rob Refsnyder and a single to Rafael Devers. Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder started to the mound and had crossed the foul line when he was stopped by plate umpire Alex Tosi. The Rays had lost track of mound visits when catcher Ben Rortvedt had gone out to speak with Adam earlier in the inning.

If a team has exhausted its mound visits entering the ninth inning, it gets an additional one. But the Rays used their last one in the ninth.

After a delay of about six minutes, Ramirez retired Gonzalez on a 2-2 pitch for his first save since 2020.

Tampa Bay took three of four from the Red Sox, won for the eighth time in their last nine games at Boston and are 14-3 against Boston over the past two seasons.

REDS 7, DODGERS 2

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Elly De La Cruz went 4 for 4 with a career-best four stolen bases and scored three times in Cincinnati’s victory over Los Angeles.

Nick Martinez (1-2) won in relief, permitting one hit over five shutout innings and striking out four for the Reds, who used seven pitchers in a bullpen game.

Cincinnati snapped the Dodgers’ franchise record of 22 straight games allowing four runs or fewer. 

Los Angeles lost back-to-back games for the first time since April 19-20 and has dropped four of seven overall.

Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 2 with a walk and a strikeout on his first bobblehead night of the season, when fans snarled traffic and waited in long lines to snag the giveaway depicting the Japanese superstar. Only 40,000 fans got a bobblehead among the sellout crowd of 53,527 — the biggest in the majors this season and at Dodger Stadium since Sept. 20, 2019.

De La Cruz matched his career high for hits and reached base five times with three singles, a double and a walk. His four steals were the most by a player against the Dodgers since Philadelphia’s Jayson Werth had that many on May 12, 2009.