Rays beat Astros 3-1 for their 9th straight win

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Rays beat Astros 3-1 for their 9th straight win

The Associated Press · Associated Press

Sat, Jul 4, 2026 ·

8 min read

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HOUSTON (AP) — Nick Fortes homered and hit a run-scoring double, Junior Caminero added a solo shot, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Houston Astros 3-1 on Friday night to extend the longest active win streak in the major leagues to nine games.

The Rays have homered in a season-high eight consecutive games. Tampa Bay had its streak of nine straight games scoring at least four runs snapped.

Steven Okert (1-1) replaced starter Spencer Arrighetti to begin the seventh and struck out Jonathan Aranda swinging before Caminero hit a 1-1 slider over the wall in left field to give the Rays a 2-1 lead.

Kevin Kelly (5-3) pitched 1 2/3 innings of no-hit relief for the win.

Bryan Baker pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for 23rd save this season.

Yordan Alvarez hit his American League-leading 27th home run this season, a 427-foot shot off Rays starter Nick Martinez in the sixth that made it 1-1. Philadelphia 's Kyle Schwarber leads MLB with 30 homers.

CARDINALS 17, CUBS 1

CHICAGO (AP) — Nathan Church and Masyn Winn hit three-run homers and St. Louis had 17 hits overall to cool off Chicago.

Winn and Alec Burleson had two hits and four RBIs each to help St. Louis win for the fourth time in its last five games and end NL Central rival Chicago's five-game win streak. Ivan Herrera and Blaze Jordan had three hits each.

Cardinals starter Andre Pallante (10-5) limited the Cubs to five hits and one walk over 5 2/3 innings.

Church's drive off David Peterson (4-7) in the second inning was his third in four games. The center fielder has eight RBIs in the span.

Alex Bregman had two hits and drove in the Cubs' run with a double in the seventh inning.

Peterson gave up a career-high 10 earned runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings in his second start with the Cubs since being acquired from the Mets on June 25. The Cardinals went on to build a 17-0 lead, their biggest over an opponent since an 18-0 lead at Pittsburgh on May 22, 2022.

NATIONALS 9, PIRATES 5

WASHINGTON (AP) — Luis García Jr. and Daylen Lile each homered twice, and José Tena also went deep for Washington as the Nationals beat Pittsburgh.

Foster Griffin (9-2) allowed a run and four hits in five innings, lowering his ERA to 2.87 for the Nationals. Washington has won five of six.

Bryan Reynolds homered for Pittsburgh. Mitch Keller (6-6) allowed five runs and eight hits in six innings.

The temperature at game time was 100 degrees, and the ball was certainly carrying. García opened the scoring in the first with his 17th homer of the season, a solo shot to right. An inning later, Lile hit a 417-foot drive to center to make it 2-0.

Reynolds' solo homer to center in the third went 426 feet to get the Pirates on the board, but after James Wood led off the bottom half with a triple, Tena hit a two-run shot — also to center — that went 434 feet.

BRAVES 5, METS 3

ATLANTA (AP) — Matt Olson hit two home runs, Michael Harris II added a two-run shot , and Ozzie Albies also homered as the Atlanta Braves cranked up their power game to beat the New York Mets 5-3 on Friday night.

The Braves lead second-place Philadelphia in the NL East by three games despite entering the four-game series with a 5-14 record since June 9.

New York dropped 16 games under .500 for the first time since 2018. The most games under .500 for a team that reached the postseason was 16 by the 1914 Boston Braves at 12-28, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The Braves reclaimed their power stroke with the four homers. They had not hit as many as three homers in a game since a 5-2 win at Cincinnati on May 30.

ORIOLES 3, REDS 0

CINCINNATI (AP) — Samuel Basallo hit a two-run homer and Trevor Rogers pitched out of trouble for five innings as Baltimore beat Cincinnati.

The Orioles executed a double steal in the first inning and Gunnar Henderson scored when the throw to third base from Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson sailed into left field for an error.

Basallo's 13th homer came off starter Brady Singer to make it 3-0 in the third.

It was the 20th home run allowed by Singer in 17 starts this season, surpassing the 19 homers he gave up last year in 32 starts.

Rogers (6-7) limited Cincinnati to two hits and struck out four. But he matched a career high with five walks, a total he also reached May 4 against the New York Yankees .

Rico Garcia tossed two innings and Yennier Cano worked the eighth. With reliever Ryan Helsley placed on the injured list before the game, Tyler Wells pitched the ninth to finish the four-hitter.

YANKEES 5, TWINS 2

NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Rice hit go-ahead two-run homer in the third inning after a rain delay and New York ended a seven-game losing streak with a victory over Minnesota.

Trent Grisham hit a leadoff homer and had a sacrifice fly in his return from a strained right hamstring, and Gerrit Cole (3-3) pitched five innings to help the Yankees end their longest slide since a nine-game skid Aug. 12-22, 2023.

The game was stopped after Cole struck out Brooks Lee to end the third. During the 53-minute delay, the center field scoreboard showed the end of Argentina's 3-2 extra-time victory over Cape Verde in the World Cup.

Following Grisham's single, Rice snapped a 1-1 tie by hitting rookie starter Mike Paredes' full-count fastball into the right-field seats. Rice's 24th homer helped the Yankees win the fourth time in 15 games and beat the Twins for the 12th time in the last 14 meetings.

After Carlos Rodón was placed on the 15-day injured list with left elbow inflammation, Cole allowed two runs and five hits in five innings. The right-hander struck out seven, walked none and was warming up in the bullpen when Rice homered.

ROCKIES 15, GIANTS 3

DENVER (AP) — Jake McCarthy got Colorado started with a leadoff homer, hit a grand slam in a seven-run fifth and drove in a career-high six runs in the Rockies' win over San Francisco .

McCarthy was 4 for 5 to raise his batting average to .308. He also homered twice in a 2024 game with the Arizona Diamondbacks .

McCarthy sent the first pitch he saw from Logan Webb (5-6) 440 feet to right center, then made it 7-1 in the third with an RBI single. He also went to right center in the fifth for the grand slam — his career-best ninth home run of the season.

After the grand slam, Hunter Goodman doubled, TJ Rumfield walked and Cole Carrigg drove them both in with his third triple. Tyler Freeman drove in Carrigg.

Ezequiel Tovar was 3 for 4 with a two-run homer in the second inning, and Carrigg went 2 for 4 with three RBIs. The Rockies had 18 hits.

Ryan Feltner (3-2) threw six strong innings, striking out a season-high nine. He allowed six hits and three runs — two of them earned.

RED SOX 5, ANGELS 2

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Aroldis Chapman set the major league record for relief strikeouts after rookie Jake Bennett yielded five hits while pitching into the eighth inning for Boston in a victory over Los Angeles .

The 38-year-old Chapman broke Hoyt Wilhelm's record with his 1,364th career strikeout as a reliever when he fanned Denzer Guzman leading off the ninth. The knuckleballing Wilhelm last pitched in 1972.

Chapman allowed back-to-back singles after his milestone strikeout, but got Jo Adell to ground into a double play to secure his 17th save.

Caleb Durbin hit a solo homer in the opener of a nine-game trip for the Red Sox , who have won six of eight.

In just his seventh career start, Bennett (3-3) struck out six with no walks while dominating the last-place Angels until the their two-run eighth.

GUARDIANS 4, WHITE SOX 3, 10 INNINGS

CLEVELAND (AP) — Khalil Watson singled home the winning run in the 10th inning and Cleveland rallied for a victory over Chicago to move into first place in the AL Central.

It was Cleveland's second consecutive walk-off win to begin a four-game series between the top two teams in the division.

Steven Kwan began the bottom of the 10th as the automatic runner on second base. He moved to third on Travis Bazzana's single to left field and scored on Watson's base hit up the middle off Sean Newcomb (0-2).

It was the first walk-off hit for Watson, called up June 17 from Triple-A Columbus. The rookie has nine RBIs in 15 games.

Eric Sabrowski (3-1) got the win after retiring the White Sox in order in the top of the 10th. The Guardians' bullpen has given up only two hits in 9 1/3 scoreless innings over the past two games against Chicago.

White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas reached 20 home runs for the first time in his five-year career with a three-run shot in the fifth.

DODGERS 4, PADRES 3

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Teoscar Hernández hit a go-ahead grand slam off reliever Adrian Morejon in the seventh inning, and Los Angeles rallied for the second straight game to beat San Diego .

Trailing 3-0, Hernández sent a 90-mph slider on the first pitch from Morejon (6-2) over the wall in center field. Mookie Betts walked and Max Muncy singled to chase starter Michael King .

Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth booted a grounder by Kyle Tucker that turned a potential double-play ball into the bases loaded with no outs. Muncy was safe at second on the miscue and Betts moved to third to set up Hernández's sixth career grand slam.

The Dodgers came back from a 6-0 deficit to win 12-7 in the series opener Thursday.

Kyle Hurt (3-1) earned the win with one inning of scoreless relief. Tanner Scott stuck out the side in the ninth to earn his 12th save.

King retired the first 11 batters he faced while outpitching Dodgers starter Shohei Ohtani . The first hit allowed was a single to Freddie Freeman with two outs in the fourth that extended the slugger's on-base streak to 18 consecutive games.

MARLINS 12, ATHLETICS 5

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Kyle Stowers hit two home runs in a 4-for-5 night, Heriberto Hernández , Jakob Marsee and Owen Caissie also homered and Miami beat the Athletics.

Stowers had his second four-hit game of the season, matching a June 17 performance against the Phillies .

Hernández's 414-foot three-run shot in the first inning made it a five-run game before the first out was recorded, as the first five batters all came around to score.

Liam Hicks scored on Xavier Edwards ' bases-loaded walk, and Stowers came across on a passed ball. Marsee's first of the night added one more run before the A's finally got out of the inning.

The A's briefly staged a rally, as Nick Kurtz hit a two-run homer in the third and Jeff McNeil had a three-run double in the fourth, but Stowers hit a solo homer in the sixth and a two-run shot in the eighth to stretch the lead back to five.

BLUE JAYS 2, MARINERS 0

SEATTLE (AP) — Dylan Cease struck out nine in seven sharp innings to pitch Toronto past Seattle in a rematch of last year's American League Championship Series.

Andrés Giménez hit an RBI double and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled off Mariners starter Luis Castillo in the third.

Sean Keys was 2 for 4 with a double and a run.

Cease (5-4), who leads the AL with 141 strikeouts, gave up three hits and walked one. Jeff Hoffman fanned two in a hitless eighth and Louis Varland worked a one-hit ninth for his 18th save.

Castillo (3-7) gave up five hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out four.

BREWERS 7, DIAMONDBACKS 4, 11 INNINGS

PHOENIX (AP) — Jackson Chourio 's slow roller scored the go-ahead run in the 11th inning and Milwaukee went on to beat Arizona.

Ryan Thompson (3-2), the eighth Arizona pitcher of the game, entered to start the 11th with automatic runner Blake Perkins at second. Thompson hit Cooper Pratt, and Joey Ortiz sacrificed the runners to second and third. Christian Yelich was walked intentionally and Chourio hit a soft grounder to the third-base side. Thompson fielded it, but threw wildly, also allowing Pratt to score. Brice Turang followed with a two-run single to left.

Grant Anderson (2-3) pitched the final two innings for the Brewers, winners of four of their last five. Milwaukee, opening an 11-game trip that leads into the All-Star break, has a six-game lead in the National League Central.

Garrett Mitchell hit his eighth homer, a two-run shot, off José Cabrera in the second inning.

Mitchell nearly had another homer in the third but Diamondbacks left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. made a leaping catch at the wall.

In the sixth, Chourio made a similar catch in left to rob Gurriel. And then in the ninth, Gurriel made another catch on a ball Chourio hit to left center.

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