NEW YORK (AP) — Nathaniel Lowe hit a two-run single with two outs in the ninth inning and the Texas Rangers rallied past the New York Mets 4-3 on Monday night for just their second victory in 11 games.
Adolis García began the comeback from a 3-0 deficit by lacing a run-scoring double in the seventh for his 95th RBI — second-most in the American League. Robbie Grossman’s groundout in the eighth scored Corey Seager, who had three hits.
Texas entered one game behind first-place Seattle in the AL West, only the second day this season the Rangers were not atop the division.
Brandon Nimmo ended an 0-for-21 slump with a two-run homer for the last-place Mets. DJ Stewart also went deep.
Jonah Heim opened the ninth with a single against Trevor Gott (0-4), and Ezequiel Duran followed with a double. Gott struck out Leody Taveras and Marcus Semien and intentionally walked Seager before Lowe hit a 2-1 pitch between first and second to score pinch-runner Josh Smith and Duran.
The win was the first this season for the Rangers when trailing after eight innings.
ASTROS 13, RED SOX 5
BOSTON (AP) — Jose Altuve completed the first cycle of his career with a two-run homer over the Green Monster in the eighth inning, and the Houston Astros rolled past the Boston Red Sox 13-5 on Monday night.
Altuve struck out swinging to lead off the game, then doubled in the third, singled in the fifth and tripled in the sixth. His homer made him the first Astros player to hit for the cycle since Brandon Barnes against Seattle on July 19, 2013.
Altuve went 4-for-6, his third four-hit game of the season and 37th of his career.
Yordan Alvarez added a three-run homer as part of a six-run sixth inning and José Abreu hit a solo home run for the Astros, who won their third straight.
Kendall Graveman (4-6) pitched a scoreless fifth inning for Houston, which followed up its 25-hit performance in Sunday’s win at Detroit with 18 on Monday.
Chris Sale (5-4) lasted 4 2/3 innings and yielded three runs and seven hits, including a home run.
MARINERS 7, ATHLETICS 0
SEATTLE (AP) — Julio Rodríguez kept up his torrid August with four more hits including a two-run homer and an RBI double, J.P. Crawford hit his fifth leadoff homer and the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 7-0 on Monday night.
Seattle won its fourth straight and for the 12th time in the past 13 games as the hottest team in baseball kept rolling behind its suddenly unstoppable offense. The Mariners have 20 wins in August matching the most wins in a month in franchise history with two games remaining.
It was Rodríguez and the bats leading the way yet again.
Seattle scored at least six runs for the 12th time in 18 games, and while most of the lineup contributed it was the top of the order doing most of the damage against the lowly A’s.
Crawford hit his 12th homer on the second pitch of the bottom of the first inning from Kyle Muller. Eugenio Suárez sandwiched a pair of doubles around and walk and scored once. Teoscar Hernández had a pair of RBI singles.
Rodríguez scorched a 112 mph double in the third inning to score Crawford from first base and hit his 24th homer, a 420-foot drive in the fourth inning. For good measure, Rodríguez beat out a pair of infield grounders for hits in the sixth and eighth innings.
Rodríguez extended his hitting streak to a career-best 13 games and homered for the third straight game. During his hitting streak, Rodríguez is hitting .516 (32 of 62) with five homers, six doubles and 21 RBIs.
ORIOLES 9, WHITE SOX 1
BALTIMORE (AP) — Grayson Rodriguez allowed one hit over six innings, and the AL-best Baltimore Orioles clinched their second consecutive winning season with a 9-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Monday night.
Anthony Santander hit his 25th homer for Baltimore (82-49), which has won eight of its last 10 and increased its AL East lead over idle Tampa Bay to 2 1/2 games. The Orioles went 83-79 last year, their first winning season since 2016.
The White Sox (52-80) have lost 11 of 16 and were shut out for the 10th time this season. Baltimore's shutout was its ninth.
Rodriguez (4-3) retired the first 11 batters before Luis Robert Jr. doubled to left. Robert was stranded when Eloy Jiménez grounded out two pitches later, and Chicago wouldn’t get a runner into scoring position the rest of the night.
BLUE JAYS 6, NATIONALS 3
Danny Jansen scored three runs and Kevin Gausman earned his 10th win of the season as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Washington Nationals 6-3 on Monday at Rogers Centre.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a two-run double in Toronto's four-run second inning and Jansen added a solo homer in the third.
Eight of the nine Toronto starters had at least one hit as the Blue Jays won for the second time in six games.
Jordan Hicks worked the ninth inning for his 12th save.
Toronto (72-60) entered play 2 1/2 games off the pace in the American League wild-card race. The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers started the day in a virtual tie for the last two spots.
CJ Abrams singled off Gausman's first pitch of the night and promptly stole second. He came across on a single by Joey Meneses.
-- With files from Canadian Press
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.