Tampa Bay Rays' Isaac Paredes (17) celebrates his two-run home run with Jonathan Aranda in front of Atlanta Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 9, 2023, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Isaac Paredes and Yandy DÃaz homered as the Tampa Bay Rays snapped a season-high, seven-game skid with a 10-4 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday in a matchup of teams with the best records in baseball.
Zach Eflin (10-4) gave up two runs and four hits over five innings in a 77-pitch outing as Tampa Bay avoided the three-game series sweep.
Travis d’Arnaud homered for the MLB-best Braves, who are 20-3 since June 14 and head into the All-Star break at 60-29. Atlanta has homered in 26 consecutive games, the longest streak in modern-era franchise history.
Atlanta All-Star Bryce Elder (7-2) allowed seven runs, six hits and four walks in 3 1/3 innings, his shortest outing this season.
Braves slugger Matt Olson drove in a run with a single in the sixth inning for his 72nd RBI. He wound up three short of tying Eddie Mathews (1953) and Andruw Jones (2005) for the most in franchise history at the All-Star break.
ROYALS 4, GUARDIANS 1
CLEVELAND (AP) – Ryan Yarbrough won his first game back after being hit in the face by a line drive two months ago and Kansas City snapped a six-game losing streak.
Yarbrough (2-4) suffered several facial fractures when he was hit on May 7 against Oakland by a line drive clocked at 106.2 mph. The left-hander limited the Guardians to one run and six hits over six innings. Scott Barlow earned his 11th save.
Bieber (5-6) came in 6-0 in 14 career starts against the Royals. The right-hander allowed four runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Isbel homered for Kansas City, which staggered into the All-Star break at 26-65 – the second-most losses before the break in franchise history.
Cleveland reached the season’s unofficial midpoint in first place in the AL Central and at .500 (45-45) or better for the seventh year in a row.
MARLINS 7, PHILLIES 3
MIAMI (AP) – Bryan De La Cruz had a solo homer among his four hits as Miami took the three-game series from Philadelphia.
Jesús Sánchez and rookie Dane Myers also went deep for the Marlins, who reached the All-Star break with their best record in franchise history at 53-39.
Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo (8-5) struck out nine and allowed four hits over 6 1/3 innings.
Miami’s Luis Arraez went 0 for 4 and his major league-leading batting average dropped to .383.
Edmundo Sosa had a two-run homer for the Phillies. Starter Aaron Nola (8-6) allowed eight hits and five runs with six strikeouts in six innings.
Phillies’ star slugger Bryce Harper was kept out of the lineup as a precaution because of right elbow soreness, a day after getting hit by a pitch.
NATIONALS 7, RANGERS 2
WASHINGTON (AP) – Joey Meneses homered for the third consecutive day, Patrick Corbin earned his first home victory since May 20, and Washington sent AL West-leading Texas to its eighth loss in 11 games.
Stone Garrett and Dominic Smith also homered for last-place Washington, which won the final two games of the series after dropping 15 of its previous 16 at Nationals Park.
Corbin (6-10) matched his victory total from all of last year, when he led the majors with 19 losses. He retired the first 10 men he faced and allowed one run and five hits while striking out six over seven innings.
Dane Dunning (8-2), one of Washington’s first-round picks in 2016, pitched for the first time at Nationals Park and allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings. The right-hander allowed seven hits while striking out four.
BLUE JAYS 4, TIGERS 3, 10 INNINGS
DETROIT (AP) – Nathan Lukes’ RBI double in the 10th inning gave Toronto a comeback win over Detroit.
The Blue Jays trailed 3-1 with two outs in the ninth before Matt Chapman walked and Danny Jansen hit a homer over the Toronto bullpen in left-centerfield.
Daulton Varsho started the top of the 10th with a grounder to second and Zack Short threw out automatic Alejandro Kirk at third. Lukes followed with an RBI double off José Cisnero (2-2).
Yimi Garcia (3-3) pitched an inning of relief and earned the victory, while Jordan Romano picked up his 26th save.
Miguel Cabrera gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead with an RBI single – his 3,128th career hit – in the second and Riley Greene added a solo homer in the third.
RED SOX 4, ATHLETICS 3
BOSTON (AP) – Masataka Yoshida scored the tying run with good baserunning and hit a go-ahead homer two innings later as Boston rallied and extended its winning streak to five games.
J.P. Sears took a no-hitter into the fifth for Oakland despite allowing an unearned run in the first thanks to one of three A’s errors.
Boston trailed 3-1 in the middle of the sixth before Adam Duvall hit a solo homer to lead off the bottom half, then Yoshida singled, stole second, took third on a bad throw from catcher Manny Piña and scored on Christian Arroyo’s double to tie it. Yoshida bounced one off the top of the Green Monster to make it 4-3 in the eighth.
Brent Rooker had three hits for Oakland, including a 443-foot home run high off of the Green Monster light stanchion. Ken Waldichuk (2-6) took the loss.
Chris Martin (3-1) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win, and Kenley Jansen earned his 19th save.
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