Rays beat the Royals 5-2 for their eighth straight win

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cedric Mullins hit a two-run homer, Ian Seymour dominated the Royals for the second time in a week, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat Kansas City 5-2 on Thursday night to extend their winning streak to eight games.

Taylor Walls, Richie Palacios and Hunter Feduccia also drove in runs for the red-hot Rays, though Junior Caminero had his home run streak end at six games. The slugging third baseman went 0 for 5.

Seymour (5-1) allowed a leadoff homer to Carter Jensen but just two more hits over six crisp innings, striking out eight and walking one. Cam Booser and Garrett Cleavinger got the game to Bryan Baker, who handled the ninth for his 22nd save.

Stephen Kolek (4-3) struggled for the Royals in his first start since his wife gave birth to their daughter, Faye, last week. He cruised through the first but allowed three runs on four hits and a walk in the second, and he did not return for the third.

Kolek matched a career high by allowing nine runs in just 1 2/3 innings in his most recent start June 21 against St. Louis.

PIRATES 6, PHILLIES 1

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Esmerlyn Valdez tripled, singled and knocked in two runs, Endy Rodriguez and Nick Gonzales homered and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-1 on Thursday.

The Pirates split their four-game series in Philadelphia, closing with a win against a Phillies team that had won 11 of its previous 15 games at Citizens Bank Park.

Jake Mangum had three hits and a run scored, while Brandon Lowe had a pair of hits, scored a run and reached safely three times for Pittsburgh. The Pirates had 14 hits and limited the Phillies to four.

Phillies starting pitcher Alan Rangel, promoted recently from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, held his own against the Pirates but didn’t last long.

Rangel threw 90 pitches in four innings, allowing no runs on only three hits, but with four walks and four strikeouts. He left with a 1-0 lead, courtesy of Bryce Harper’s two-out, RBI double to left field in the third.

That left runners on second and third, but Pirates starter Jared Jones escaped further damage by getting Brandon Marsh on a fly to right. Jones also lasted four innings, allowing two hits with six strikeouts.

REDS 7, BREWERS 2

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Sal Stewart and Jose Trevino homered off Jacob Misiorowski, and Chase Burns pitched six strong innings as Cincinnati beat Milwaukee.

TJ Friedl also went deep for Cincinnati as the Reds beat the Brewers for the first time in seven attempts this season. Garrett Mitchell homered for Milwaukee.

The game featured two of baseball’s best and hardest-throwing pitchers in Burns and Misiorowski. Burns (10-1) earned the win by giving up two runs and four hits. Burns is the only Reds pitcher since at least 1900 to open a season by allowing two runs or fewer in 15 of his first 17 starts.

Misiorowski (9-4) struck out 10 and walked none in five innings while reaching a peak velocity of 103.8 mph, but the five runs he allowed matched a career high. Only one of the runs was earned.

The most recent time Misiorowski allowed five runs came on Aug. 15 of last season, when he lasted only 1 1/3 innings in a 10-8 victory at Cincinnati.

Misiorowski had gone 8-1 with an 0.54 ERA over his last 10 starts.

ROCKIES 14, MARLINS 4

DENVER (AP) — Jake McCarthy drove in four runs, Mickey Moniak had two RBIs and finished a triple shy of a cycle, and the Colorado Rockies beat the Miami Marlins 14-4 on Thursday to earn a split in the four-game series.

McCarthy and Moniak both homered, with Moniak going deep for the third consecutive game.

It was the second consecutive game and the third time this season that Moniak missed out on a cycle by one hit. In the previous two instances, he failed to get a single.

McCarthy and Moniak both drove in runs during a seven-run sixth inning that stretched Colorado’s lead from one run to eight. In that burst, the Rockies had seven consecutive batters get on base.

Troy Johnston, Willi Castro and Cole Carrigg added two RBIs apiece for Colorado, which had lost eight of its previous nine games against the Marlins.

GUARDIANS 6, WHITE SOX 5

CLEVELAND (AP) — Brayan Rocchio hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning that gave Cleveland a victory over Chicago in the opener of a four-game series between the top two teams in the AL Central.

Cleveland rallied from a three-run deficit and trails Chicago by less than a full percentage point atop the division standings.

Pinch-hitter David Fry launched a solo homer in the seventh that trimmed the Guardians’ deficit to 5-4.

White Sox reliever Grant Taylor (4-2) walked Rhys Hoskins leading off the ninth. Kahlil Watson flied out to center before Rocchio pulled a 99 mph fastball down the right-field line for his sixth home run this season.

Tim Herrin (1-3) pitched a perfect inning for the win.

CARDINALS 11, BRAVES 5

ATLANTA (AP) — Jordan Walker homered and drove in four runs, Nathan Church hit a tying two-run homer in a seven-run seventh inning and St. Louis beat Atlanta.

The Braves led 5-3 before the Cardinals rallied in the seventh. After Church’s homer off Tyler Kinley (4-3), JJ Wetherholt’s run-scoring single off Dylan Lee gave St. Louis the lead. Walker added a run-scoring single in the big inning.

Alec Burleson homered in the ninth and Masyn Winn had three hits and a walk for St. Louis.

Right-hander Gordon Graceffo (6-1) pitched a scoreless sixth as St. Louis won two of three in the series. The Cardinals gave manager Oliver Marmol a win on his 40th birthday.

Dominic Smith drove in three runs with a double in Atlanta’s five-run first inning.