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Cards beat Cubs 5-3

By Bruce Kropp Jun 26, 2022 | 8:48 AM

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Iván Herrera hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth inning for his first career RBI and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 5-3. Juan Yepez lined a one-out double to the left-field wall off Cubs reliever Mark Leiter Jr. in the eighth, and pinch-runner Edmundo Sosa advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring the go-ahead run on Herrera’s fly. Harrison Bader advanced to second on Herrera’s out and scored on Tommy Edman’s single to right field to extend the lead to 5-3.

Elsewhere in the MLB:

— Cristian Javier, Héctor Neris, and Ryan Pressly combined on the first no-hitter against the New York Yankees in 19 years, shutting down the best team in baseball and pitching the Houston Astros to a 3-0 victory. Javier was clearly tired when manager Dusty Baker brought in a reliever to start the eighth. The right-hander set career highs with 13 strikeouts and 115 pitches, and he matched his longest start with seven innings. Neris and Pressly pitched an inning each. Rookie J.J. Matijevic homered in the seventh off Gerrit Cole. Jose Altuve homered in the eighth against Michael King.

— Alex Verdugo hit a three-run homer, Jarren Duran had four hits and an RBI, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-2 Saturday for their sixth straight victory. Verdugo’s two-out rocket to right off Shane Bieber gave Boston a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning. Duran added an RBI single in the ninth off Enyel De Los Santos. The scorching Red Sox moved a season-high 10 games over .500 and are 18-4 this month. Boston owns the second-best record in baseball since May 10 at 31-12, yet they remain 11 games back of the AL East-leading New York Yankees.

— Chris Archer pitched five scoreless innings with one hit and the Minnesota Twins came back to shut out the Colorado Rockies in a 6-0 win a night after being shut out. Luis Arraez had two hits, Alex Kirilloff drove in three runs and Byron Buxton marked his return to the starting lineup for Minnesota with an RBI triple in the first inning. Archer had a 1.57 ERA in five June starts. Antonio Senzatela surrendered four runs on eight hits in five innings for Colorado. The Rockies’ lone hit was a single by C.J. Cron leading off the second.

— Marcell Ozuna hit a tie-breaking homer in the eighth inning and the Atlanta Braves recovered after blowing a three-run lead to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3. Travis d’Arnaud led off the seventh with a double to left field off Brusdar Graterol. Ozuna followed with his 14th homer to center field. Dodgers designated hitter Will Smith tied the game at 3-3 when he hit a homer to left field off A.J. Minter to open the eighth. Freddie Freeman had one hit with three strikeouts — including a bases-loaded whiff to end the seventh.

— Pete Alonso hit two leadoff homers, including a go-ahead shot in the eighth inning, and the New York Mets beat the Miami Marlins 5-3. Alonso’s home run over the left-center field wall against Miami reliever Jimmy Yacabonis snapped a 3-3 tie. It was Alonso’s NL-leading 22nd homer of the season and 14th multi-homer game of his career Brandon Nimmo’s third hit, an RBI double in the ninth, increased the Mets’ lead. Francisco Lindor doubled and singled and Starling Marte had two hits for the NL East leaders. New York starter Chris Bassett pitched seven string innings. Bassett allowed three runs and six hits while striking out five. Seth Lugo pitched a perfect eighth and Edwin Díaz struck out the three batters he faced in the ninth for his 16th save.

— Logan Webb pitched six innings of two-hit ball and the San Francisco Giants backed their ace with four home runs in a 9-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Evan Longoria, Thairo Estrada, Joc Pederson and Wilmer Flores homered for the Giants, who snapped a three-game skid. They had lost five of six after winning seven of their previous eight. Pinch-hitter Matt Reynolds homered for the Reds, who have lost eight of their last nine games.

— Corbin Burnes pitched into the eighth inning, Andrew McCutchen and Mike Brosseau homered, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4. The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner extended his winning streak to a season-high three games, but he wasn’t as crisp as in a 2-0 win over the Cardinals on Monday. In his first career start against Toronto, Burnes allowed home runs to Matt Chapman and Bo Bichette and an RBI groundout by Cavan Biggio. He struck nine and walked two, then turned over a 5-3 lead with runners at first and second and two outs in the eighth to Devin Williams, who fanned Alejandro Kirk.

— Jorge Mateo homered and doubled to lead the Orioles over the Chicago White Sox 6-2, giving Baltimore its first four-game winning streak this season. Lance Lynn retired eight straight batters before Mateo lifted a solo homer just over the left-center fence to put Baltimore ahead in the third. Baltimore coughed up its advantage on two errors in the bottom of the inning, but Mateo struck back by belting his 10th double off the left-field wall. He scored to make it 2-1 on the next at-bat when Leury García erred on Cedric Mullins’ infield grounder.

— Isaac Paredes hit a solo homer in the eighth inning and a two-run single with two outs in the ninth, sending the Tampa Bay Rays to a 6-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Ji-Man Choi and Vidal Bruján reached on two-out walks before Jonathan Aranda’s pinch-hit single loaded the bases against David Bednar. Paredes then hit an opposite-field liner to right for his game-ending single. Paredes got the Rays within one in the eighth with his team-leading 10th homer. Jack Suwinski and Diego Castillo homered for Pittsburgh.

— Cal Raleigh had three hits, Kevin Padlo hit a two-run, bases-loaded single in the sixth inning and the Seattle Mariners overcame a monstrous home run by Shohei Ohtani to rally for a 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Julio Rodriguez went deep for the second straight night for the Mariners, who have won a season-high five straight games. Ohtani crushed a 462-foot homer off a 96.8 mph fastball from Logan Gilbert in the third to tie it at 1.

— Adolis García homered leading off the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the Texas Rangers a 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals. The Cuban slugger matched Corey Seager for the team lead with 15 homers when he drilled a 2-2 slider from reliever Kyle Finnegan into the Washington bullpen, just to the left of the hitting background in center field. Nelson Cruz had a tying two-run homer for the Nationals against his former team in the sixth inning.

— Tony Kemp hit a two-run homer, Seth Brown and Sean Murphy combined for four RBIs, and the Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals 9-7. Kemp hit his second home run of the season in the eighth inning to wrap up a 3-for-5 afternoon. Brown hit a single in the first and a fielder’s choice in the third. Murphy had an RBI single in the seventh. Nick Allen and Jonah Bride collected RBIs during a two-run fourth inning. The A’s tied a season-high with 14 hits. Oakland had the leadoff man reach base in six innings. Four of the six were leadoff doubles, and all came around to score.

— Kody Clemens hit his first major league home run to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 6-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Clemens, the 26-year-old son of seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, hit a three-run homer in the top of the sixth inning off Arizona reliever Joe Mantiply to break a 3-3 tie. Tyler Alexander (1-3) got the win for Detroit with two innings of scoreless relief. Mantiply (0-1) took the loss, allowing three earned runs in 1 1/3 innings. It was the Diamondbacks’ fifth straight defeat and dropped Arizona to a season-low nine games under .500.