TORONTO — Nomar Mazara hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 on Monday night for their fifth win in six games.
In the bottom of the eighth, Mazara preserved the one-run lead by throwing out Michael Saunders at home plate to end the inning.
Tony Barnette (1-1) worked one inning for the win and Shawn Tolleson finished for his ninth save as the Rangers handed the Blue Jays their fourth consecutive home loss. It’s Toronto’s longest slump at Rogers Centre since a four-game skid from April 23-26, 2014.
Named the AL’s top rookie in the month of April earlier Monday, Mazara broke a 1-1 tie with a shot to center off Gavin Floyd (0-2).
TWINS 6, ASTROS 2: Brian Dozier broke out of a slump with three hits and Minnesota snapped Dallas Keuchel’s 17-game home winning streak with a win at Houston.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CUBS 7, PIRATES 2: Jason Hammel raised his record to 4-0 and Anthony Rizzo hit two doubles as Chicago won at Pittsburgh.
Hammel’s ERA rose to 1.24 after entering the game with a National League-leading 0.75 mark. He gave up two runs and five hits in five-plus innings with three strikeouts and one walk. His streak of five straight starts of allowing one run or fewer ended.
GIANTS 9, REDS 6: Cincinnati roughed up Johnny Cueto in his return to Great American Ball Park, but San Francisco rallied against the Reds’ historically bad bullpen, riding Brandon Crawford’s three-run homer to a win at Cincinnati.
Joey Votto hit a three-run homer as the Reds piled up six runs in the third inning off Cueto.
METS 4, BRAVES 1: David Wright, Yoenis Cespedes and Lucas Duda hit loud homers in the first inning as the Mets teed off to back Bartolo Colon for their ninth win in 10 games.
The Mets’ homer barrage came in a span of 16 pitches.
A few weeks shy of his 43rd birthday, Colon (2-1) pitched eight scoreless innings. He coasted to his 220th career victory, breaking a tie with Pedro Martinez for the second-most among Dominican-born pitchers and trailing only the 243 by Hall of Famer Juan Marichal.
CARDINALS 10, PHILLIES 3: Adam Wainwright pitched six innings and hit a three-run home run – the first of five for St. Louis – as St. Louis snapped a four-game losing streak with a win at home.
Matt Adams, rookie Aledmys Diaz and Randal Grichuk added solo homers and Kolten Wong hit a two-run homer for St. Louis.
INTERLEAGUE
BREWERS 8, ANGELS 5: Jimmy Nelson (4-2) pitched seven strong innings and drove in the go-ahead run to lead Milwaukee to a win at home.
Ryan Braun reached base four times as the Brewers ended an eight-game home losing streak to the Angels.
NATIONALS 2, ROYALS 0: Gio Gonzalez and the Washington bullpen combined on a five-hitter while Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy each drove in first-inning runs for visiting Washington.
Gonzalez (2-1) scattered four hits and a pair of walks over six innings in his latest smooth start.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
