WASHINGTON (AP) — Andrew McCutchen drove in four runs and the Philadelphia Phillies erased a six-run deficit against the Washington Nationals to earn a 7-6 victory and a three-game sweep.
The Phillies overcame a disappointing start from Aaron Nola and rallied against the Nationals’ bullpen for their sixth consecutive win. Philadelphia pulled within 1½ games of NL East leader Atlanta and two games of idle Cincinnati in the race for the second NL wild card. Juan Soto homered and drove in four runs and Lane Thomas also went deep for Washington, which has lost five in a row and 21 of 27.
In other MLB action:
— Sergio Alcántara scampered home when second baseman Wilmer Difo mishandled a popup in the 11th inning, and the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 for their third straight win. Rafael Ortega and Ian Happ homered for Chicago, and Alcántara logged the first three-hit game of his career. Codi Heuer got three outs for the win. Alcántara began the 11th on second base and advanced on Ortega’s sacrifice bunt. Happ then sent a high fly to second, where Difo committed the game-ending error.
— Jed Lowrie hit a three-run homer in the first inning for the first of Oakland’s eight two-out runs against Matt Manning in the Athletics’ 8-6 victory over the Tigers on Thursday. Mark Canha followed Lowrie’s shot with another homer for 4-0 lead. It was the 14th homer of the season for both Lowrie and Canha, and each went to the opposite field to reach the seats. Lowrie drilled a 411-foot shot to left-center, and Canha drove one out to right-center. Lowrie’s RBI double in the fourth made it 8-0 before the Tigers battled back by scoring six runs.
— Eduardo Rodriguez pitched four-hit ball into the seventh inning, and the Boston Red Sox beat Tampa Bay 4-0 for a split of their four-game series with the AL East-leading Rays. Garrett Richards replaced Rodriguez with two on and no outs in the seventh, and the right-hander escaped the jam with a pair of strikeouts and a fly ball. Richards earned his second save, finishing a five-hitter. Rays rookie Wander Franco extended his on-base streak to 33 games with a seventh-inning walk but left afterward with a headache.
— Pinch-hitter Dominic Smith broke a seventh-inning tie with an RBI single and the New York Mets beat the Miami Marlins 4-3 for their fifth straight victory. Marlins leadoff batter Miguel Rojas and Mets counterpart Jonathan Villar each homered on the first pitch they saw, the first time that’s happened in a major league game since at least 1985, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. New York won all three games completed this week against the last-place Marlins to cap a tumultuous homestand.
— Adam Duvall hit a two-run homer in Atlanta’s three-run fifth inning, and the Braves overcame a grand slam by Charlie Blackmon to beat the Colorado Rockies 6-5. Atlanta took the opener of a four-game series after losing three straight to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Braves also stayed two games ahead of Philadelphia in the NL East. Five Atlanta relievers combined for six scoreless innings after Touki Toussaint struggled. Jacob Webb got six outs for the win, and Will Smith worked the ninth for his 30th save.
— Triston McKenzie limited Kansas City to a run and two hits over six innings and the Cleveland Indians beat the Royals 4-2. Owen Miller hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning, plenty of support for McKenzie, who has dominated the Royals throughout his young career. A day after being activated from the injured list, McKenzie showed no ill effects from his recent shoulder fatigue and improved to 3-0 with a 1.57 ERA in six appearances against Kansas City.
