LOS ANGELES (AP) — Miguel Vargas hit his first big league home run, Clayton Kershaw won his third straight start and the Los Angeles Dodgers bounced back with a 6-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Will Smith and Trayce Thompson also went deep for the NL West champion Dodgers, who had dropped three of four — including an 11-0 rout by the Cardinals on Friday night. St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols went 1 for 4, a night after becoming the fourth player to reach 700 career home runs. Nolan Arenado had a solo shot for the Cardinals but their NL Central lead dropped to 6 1/2 games over Milwaukee, which cruised to a 10-2 victory in Cincinnati.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Johan Oviedo tied his career high with seven strikeouts in seven innings, and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs 6-0 to snap an eight-game losing streak. Oviedo (4-2) retired the final 16 batters he faced, allowing just three hits on 82 pitches without issuing a walk. The right-hander went at least seven innings for the first time this season and second time in 24 career starts. The Pirates (56-96) ended Chicago’s four-game winning streak and now must win at least seven of their final 10 games to avoid reaching 100 losses for the 10th time. Wade Miley (1-2) gave up one hit over the next three innings before leaving with left oblique tightness in the fifth.
Elsewhere in the MLB:
SEATTLE (AP) — Right-hander Luis Castillo agreed to a $108 million, five-year contract with the Seattle Mariners that starts next season, giving up a chance to become a free agent after the 2023 World Series. The deal includes an option for 2028 that could make the agreement worth $133 million for six seasons. Castillo was the big trade deadline acquisition for the Mariners when they got him from Cincinnati. The hope was Castillo would be the difference in Seattle’s push to end the longest playoff drought in baseball and that the Mariners could convince him to stick around longer.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is set to try again Sunday night to make home run history. He has 60 home runs, just shy of the American League record of 61 set by Roger Maris of the Yankees in 1961. Judge and his New York teammates next take on the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees have 11 games left in the regular season.
