MLB Roundup: Yankees dismantle Nationals in series opener

NEW YORK — Ben Rice hit the longest homer of his career, Cody Bellinger had three RBIs and rookie Cam Schlittler worked six scoreless innings as New York beat Washington.

Bellinger opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly off Brad Lord (4-7) in the first before Rice hit a 435-foot homer to right in the third. The Yankees chased Lord with a five-run outburst in the fifth when Aaron Judge hit an RBI double, Bellinger added a two-run single and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a two-run homer.

The homer was Chisholm’s third in two games and his career-high 25th.

New York’s Jasson Domínguez hit a three-run homer — his first since July 23 — in the seventh.

Schlittler (2-2), who carried a perfect game into the seventh inning last Wednesday against Tampa Bay, allowed four hits and three walks with eight strikeouts in six innings. He has thrown 14 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings, dating to Aug. 13.

NEW YORK — Luis Torrens hit a three-run homer and matched his career high with five RBIs as the New York Mets overcame an early three-run deficit and beat the Philadelphia Phillies 13-3 on Monday night in a matchup of the top teams in the NL East.

Mark Vientos snapped a three-all tie with the first of his two RBI doubles down the right field line off Cristopher Sánchez (11-5). Vientos sparked a three-run fourth with another RBI double down the left field line.

Torrens drove in five runs for the second time in his career and first since Aug. 14, 2021 for Seattle. He hit an RBI double for a 5-3 lead in the sixth and homered in the seventh off Jordan Romano to push New York’s lead to 10-3 before lining a single for New York’s final run in the eighth.

Jeff McNeil drove in three runs with a pair of RBI singles and a sacrifice fly as the Mets won for the sixth time in nine games and moved within six games of the division-leading Phillies.

Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto added RBI singles and Tyrone Taylor had three hits, including a run-scoring single, as the Mets went 11 for 19 with runners in scoring position.

Trea Turner hit a leadoff triple and scored on a ground ball by Kyle Schwarber in the first inning. Alec Bohm hit a two-run single in the third off Senga to give the Phillies an early three-run lead.

Bohm also prompted about a 10-minute delay in the fifth when he complained about the presence of a parabolic microphone in centre field after grounding into a double play.

Senga allowed three runs and six hits in four-plus innings.

Sánchez allowed season highs of six runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings, his shortest outing since May 24.

MIAMI — Edward Cabrera struck out 10 in seven scoreless innings, and Miami beat Atlanta.

Troy Johnston hit an RBI double and Máximo Acosta homered for the Marlins, who matched their win total from last year with their 62nd victory.

Cabrera (7-7) allowed one hit and walked two. The right-hander lost his previous two starts, yielding nine earned runs and 18 hits in 9 2/3 innings.

Rookie Drake Baldwin hit his 14th homer for Atlanta with two down in the ninth. But Calvin Faucher earned his 12th save when Ozzie Albies grounded out to third.

Miami jumped in front in the fifth against Spencer Strider (5-12). Otto López drew a leadoff walk and stole second before Johnston hit a drive that bounced off the warning track in right-centre field.

Strider surrendered three hits in seven innings. He struck out three and walked two.

BALTIMORE — Jarren Duran hit a three-run homer off Tomoyuki Sugano and Roman Anthony contributed a solo shot to help Boston beat Baltimore.

Duran’s 13th homer erased a two-run deficit in the fifth inning and propelled the second-place Red Sox to their fourth win in five games.

Sugano (10-6) gave up four runs and six hits in six innings to absorb his first loss in eight starts since July 2. Six days earlier, the 35-year-old rookie from Japan held Boston without an earned run over five innings in a Baltimore victory.

After Anthony hit the first leadoff homer of his career, Baltimore’s Colton Cowser smacked a solo homer in the second inning and added a two-run single in the third.

Duran connected after singles by Connor Wong and Anthony, and the one-run lead held up.

Boston’s Richard Fitts (2-4) gave up three runs in four innings before leaving with right biceps tightness.

Garrett Whitlock struck out the side in the eighth after Gunnar Henderson hit a leadoff double, and Aroldis Chapman worked a perfect ninth for his 25th save in 27 tries.

TORONTO — Max Scherzer pitched six innings and won his third straight start, Alejandro Kirk and Andrés Giménez homered and Toronto beat Minnesota.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. added a two-run single as the AL East-leading Blue Jays won for the 30th time in 39 home games.

Scherzer (5-2) allowed four runs and four hits, including two home runs. He struck out five and walked one. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is 10-2 in 19 career starts against the Twins.

Minnesota’s Matt Wallner homered twice off Scherzer, his 18th and 19th, but the Twins lost for the sixth time in seven games.

Twins starter Joe Ryan gave up four runs and four hits in a shaky first inning. Bo Bichette hit an RBI single and a second run scored on Daulton Varsho’s sacrifice fly before Kirk hit a two-run homer, his 11th.

Giménez extended the lead with a 422-foot drive on Ryan’s first pitch of the second. The homer was Giménez’s sixth.

Ryan (12-7) matched a season high by allowing six runs and seven hits in five innings. He lost consecutive starts for the first time this season.

CHICAGO — Shane Smith allowed one hit in a career-high seven innings, Korey Lee hit a two-run homer, and Chicago beat Kansas City.

Smith (4-7) pitched into the seventh inning for the first time in his career, facing just 23 batters on 80 pitches.

Lee, in his first start since getting called up from triple-A Charlotte, drove a shot over the left-field wall for his first home run of the season for a 5-0 lead in the fourth. Brooks Baldwin followed with a home run near the same spot for a six-run lead.

Chicago has won three straight games after losing 14 of 18.

Kansas City dropped to 13-10 in August. The Royals entered having scored at least five runs in 20 of 34 games (58.8 per cent) since the All-Star break, tied with Milwaukee for the most in the majors.

Kansas City starter Noah Cameron (7-6) allowed six earned runs and eight hits in five innings.

Mike Yastrzemski hit a double in the third and Bobby Witt Jr. had one in the ninth for the Royals’ two hits.

CLEVELAND — Junior Caminero homered twice and drove in three runs, and Tampa Bay beat slumping Cleveland.

Yandy Díaz also connected for Tampa Bay, and Carson Williams had two hits and two RBIs in his third major league game. The Rays finished with 14 hits in their third consecutive win.

Tampa Bay left-hander Ian Seymour (2-0) struck out eight in five innings in his first career start. He allowed one hit and walked one.

Cleveland has dropped six straight and nine of 10 overall. It has been shut out in its last three games.

Caminero, who turned 22 in July, had four hits and scored four times. He has 39 homers on the season.

Díaz hit a 384-foot solo homer in the seventh, ending Tanner Bibee’s start. After a brief rain delay, Caminero hit his second homer, and Williams added a two-run double.

Bibee (9-10) was charged with five runs and eight hits in six-plus innings. He has allowed four or more runs in five of his seven starts since the All-Star break.

BREWERS 7, DIAMONDBACKS 5

MILWAUKEE — Caleb Durbin homered for a second straight game and Andruw Monasterio also went deep to help Milwaukee beat Arizona.

Monasterio and Christian Yelich each had two hits and two RBIs for NL Central-leading Milwaukee. William Contreras also had two hits.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a three-run homer for the Diamondbacks.

The game featured two five-run rallies. Milwaukee broke a scoreless tie with five runs in the third. Arizona trailed 6-0 before getting five runs in the sixth.

After Arizona’s Eduardo Rodríguez (5-8) retired his first six batters, he allowed the first seven Milwaukee batters to reach in the third inning. Yelich had a bases-loaded single.

Rodríguez lasted just 2 1/3 innings in his shortest start of the season.

Monasterio added a 404-foot solo shot off Bryce Jarvis in the fourth.

Milwaukee’s Brandon Woodruff (5-1) was cruising along before running into trouble in the sixth. Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll hit consecutive RBI singles before Gurriel connected for a 380-foot drive to left.

Durbin provided some insurance for the Brewers with a leadoff drive in the eighth off Jarvis.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Zach Neto homered on the game’s first pitch and Los Angeles, with manager Ron Washington present for the first time in more than two months, beat Texas and All-Star pitcher Jacob deGrom.

José Soriano (9-9) struck out six over 5 1/3 innings and allowed four hits in his first start since coming off the paternity list. Four relievers finished off the Angels’ sixth shutout this season.

Washington hasn’t managed the Angels since June 19, and revealed before the game that he is recovering from quadruple bypass heart surgery eight weeks ago. He won’t return to managing this season, but wants to be with the Angels, and watched from a booth upstairs after being with them pregame.

DeGrom (10-6) is 0-4 in five starts since his last win July 22, and the right-hander was pitching for the first time in 10 days after Texas skipped his last scheduled start because of shoulder fatigue. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner struck out seven, walked two and hit a batter over five innings. He gave up two runs and three hits.

ST. LOUIS — Alec Burleson hit a game-ending solo homer with two out in the ninth inning, lifting St. Louis to a victory over Pittsburgh.

Burleson drove an 87-m.p.h. slider from Dennis Santana (4-5) deep to centre for his 16th homer. It was his fourth hit of the night.

It was the first run allowed by Santana since Aug. 6. The right-hander surrendered three hits in 6 1/3 scoreless innings over his previous six appearances.

Willson Contreras had two RBIs for St. Louis, which had dropped eight of 11. Michael McGreevy permitted four runs and six hits in six innings.

Bryan Reynolds and Spencer Horwitz hit back-to-back homers for Pittsburgh in the third.

St. Louis grabbed the lead with five runs in the fifth. Contreras hit a tying two-run single and scored on Nolan Gorman’s double against Andrew Heaney. Thomas Saggese made it 6-4 with an RBI single.

Nick Gonzales got one back for Pittsburgh with a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Ronny Simon hit a tying RBI double off Riley O’Brien (2-0) in the ninth.

Contreras and Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol were ejected in the seventh after arguing a called third strike.