MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kansas City rookie Jorge Lopez came within three outs of a perfect game before Max Kepler walked leading off the ninth inning and Robbie Grossman followed with a single in the Royals' 4-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night.The 25-year-old right-hander made just his seventh big league start, his fifth for Kansas City since he was acquired from Milwaukee in the late-July trade that sent Mike Moustakas to the Brewers.Lopez (2-4) retired his first 24 batters before walking Kepler on a 3-1 fastball. Grossman followed with a clean single to center field on a changeup with a 1-2 count.Lopez was removed from the game after 110 pitches, 11 more than his previous high.Ehire Adrianza hit a sacrifice fly off Wily Peralta, who retired Joe Mauer and Jorge Polanco on flyouts for his ninth save, completing the one-hitter.Jose Berrios (11-11) gave up one run and three hits in six innings.ASTROS 5, RED SOX 3BOSTON (AP) — Alex Bregman hit his 30th home run, Charlie Morton returned... [More]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kansas City rookie Jorge Lopez came within three outs of a perfect game before Max Kepler walked leading off the ninth inning and Robbie Grossman followed with a single in the Royals' 4-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night.The 25-year-old right-hander made just his seventh big league start, his fifth for Kansas City since he was acquired from Milwaukee in the late-July trade that sent Mike Moustakas to the Brewers.Lopez (2-4) retired his first 24 batters before walking Kepler on a 3-1 fastball. Grossman followed with a clean single to center field on a changeup with a 1-2 count.Lopez was removed from the game after 110 pitches, 11 more than his previous high.Ehire Adrianza hit a sacrifice fly off Wily Peralta, who retired Joe Mauer and Jorge Polanco on flyouts for his ninth save, completing the one-hitter.Jose Berrios (11-11) gave up one run and three hits in six innings.ASTROS 5, RED SOX 3BOSTON (AP) — Alex Bregman hit his 30th home run, Charlie Morton returned... [More]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kansas City rookie Jorge Lopez came within three outs of a perfect game before Max Kepler walked leading off the ninth inning and Robbie Grossman followed with a single in the Royals' 4-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night.The 25-year-old right-hander made just his seventh big league start, his fifth for Kansas City since he was acquired from Milwaukee in the late-July trade that sent Mike Moustakas to the Brewers.Lopez (2-4) retired his first 24 batters before walking Kepler on a 3-1 fastball. Grossman followed with a clean single to center field on a changeup with a 1-2 count.Lopez was removed from the game after 110 pitches, 11 more than his previous high.Ehire Adrianza hit a sacrifice fly off Wily Peralta, who retired Joe Mauer and Jorge Polanco on flyouts for his ninth save, completing the one-hitter.Jose Berrios (11-11) gave up one run and three hits in six innings.ASTROS 5, RED SOX 3BOSTON (AP) — Alex Bregman hit his 30th home run, Charlie Morton returned... [More]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kyle Hendricks pitched six strong innings, Javier Baez notched his NL-leading 99th RBI and Kris Bryant doubled and had two hits in his return from the disabled list to lead the Chicago Cubs past the Philadelphia Phillies 7-1 on Saturday night.Ian Happ homered and Baez had three hits for the NL Central-leading Cubs, who have won nine of 11.Bryant had been sidelined since July 23 with left shoulder inflammation. The 2016 NL MVP doubled and scored in the third and singled in the eighth.Hendricks (11-10) allowed one run on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks.Nick Williams had two hits and an RBI for the Phillies, who fell three games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East.The Cubs, helped by another Phillies error, scored a pair of runs in the first off Zach Eflin (9-6).DODGERS 3, DIAMONDBACKS 2LOS ANGELES (AP) — Matt Kemp slugged a go-ahead, two-strike, three-run homer in the eighth inning, lifting Los Angeles over Arizona and into a tie atop the NL West.With... [More]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kyle Hendricks pitched six strong innings, Javier Baez notched his NL-leading 99th RBI and Kris Bryant doubled and had two hits in his return from the disabled list to lead the Chicago Cubs past the Philadelphia Phillies 7-1 on Saturday night.Ian Happ homered and Baez had three hits for the NL Central-leading Cubs, who have won nine of 11.Bryant had been sidelined since July 23 with left shoulder inflammation. The 2016 NL MVP doubled and scored in the third and singled in the eighth.Hendricks (11-10) allowed one run on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks.Nick Williams had two hits and an RBI for the Phillies, who fell three games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East.The Cubs, helped by another Phillies error, scored a pair of runs in the first off Zach Eflin (9-6).DODGERS 3, DIAMONDBACKS 2LOS ANGELES (AP) — Matt Kemp slugged a go-ahead, two-strike, three-run homer in the eighth inning, lifting Los Angeles over Arizona and into a tie atop the NL West.With... [More]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kyle Hendricks pitched six strong innings, Javier Baez notched his NL-leading 99th RBI and Kris Bryant doubled and had two hits in his return from the disabled list to lead the Chicago Cubs past the Philadelphia Phillies 7-1 on Saturday night.Ian Happ homered and Baez had three hits for the NL Central-leading Cubs, who have won nine of 11.Bryant had been sidelined since July 23 with left shoulder inflammation. The 2016 NL MVP doubled and scored in the third and singled in the eighth.Hendricks (11-10) allowed one run on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks.Nick Williams had two hits and an RBI for the Phillies, who fell three games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East.The Cubs, helped by another Phillies error, scored a pair of runs in the first off Zach Eflin (9-6).YANKEES 2, TIGERS 1NEW YORK (AP) — Masahiro Tanaka pitched seven strong innings for his first win since July, rookie Gleyber Torres hit a two-run homer and New York beat Detroit.The Yankees got... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Justin Turner homered on Zack Greinke's first pitch of the eighth inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 on Friday night.Los Angeles began the day two games behind Arizona in the NL West and 2 1/2 games back in the wild-card race.The Dodgers also announced they had acquired third baseman David Freese from the Pirates in exchange for minor league infielder Jesus Manuel Valdez.Kenley Jansen worked the ninth for his 33rd save. Paul Goldschmidt doubled with one out, but Jansen struck out David Peralta and retired Eduardo Escobar on a grounder to shortstop.Enrique Hernandez also homered for Los Angeles, and Dylan Floro (5-3) got the win.Goldschmidt hit his 31st homer for Arizona, and Greinke (13-9) gave up six hits in 7 1/3 innings.WHITE SOX 6, RED SOX 1CHICAGO (AP) — Yoan Moncada and Matt Davidson homered for Chicago, and prized prospect Michael Kopech combined with three relievers on a five-hitter.Major league-leading Boston had won three in... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Gleyber Torres drove in the go-ahead run one batter after a contested check swing loaded the bases for New York in the eighth inning, and the Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers 7-5 on Friday night as they await the arrival of 2013 NL MVP Andrew McCutchen.Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks and Miguel Andujar homered in the sixth to end Jordan Zimmermann's bid for a second career no-hitter. Zimmermann carried a 3-0 lead and a no-hitter into the inning behind a solo homer from Niko Goodrum and a two-run triple by Jim Adduci.New York trailed 5-4 when it loaded the bases against Joe Jimenez (4-4) on a double by Gardner and walks by Hicks and Luke Voit. Voit was ruled to have checked his swing on a 3-2, two-out pitch. Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire was ejected for arguing that Voit went around.Torres then lined an 0-1 pitch from Alex Wilson to left field for a single, and the ball ricocheted off the head of diving left fielder Mikie Mahtook, allowing two runs to score for a 6-5 Yankees lead.... [More]

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis first baseman Matt Carpenter was removed from Wednesday's game in the top of the fourth inning with a stomach issue.Matt Adams took Carpenter's place during a lull in the action with one out.Carpenter, who walked in his first two at-bats, has seven hits in his last 13 plate appearances. He leads the National League with 34 homers. Carpenter is hitting .274 with 74 RBI.Carpenter reached base safely in 35 successive games earlier in the season.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Thrilled with the results, the St. Louis Cardinals thanked Mike Shildt.The Cardinals took off the interim tag from Shildt's title and promoted him to full-time manager through 2020, a reward for steering the team back into postseason contention after replacing the fired Mike Matheny."Why now? We could have waited but we feel like the time is right," President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said Tuesday at Busch Stadium. "As we stated from Day One, we would use this time to really see how he handled the job. We just felt like we could not do better. Mike has shown he can do the job. Mike checks a lot of boxes along the way.""It made sense to do it now. Everything is going well, and more importantly momentum is building behind our players. Having Mike Shildt as manager is a tremendous story. I hope the next chapter is even better," he said.The story got off to a good start when the Cardinals scored a 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates to give Shildt his first win... [More]

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Thrilled with the results, the St. Louis Cardinals thanked Mike Shildt.The Cardinals took off the interim tag from Shildt's title and promoted him to full-time manager through 2020, a reward for steering the team back into postseason contention after replacing the fired Mike Matheny."Why now? We could have waited but we feel like the time is right," President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said Tuesday at Busch Stadium. "As we stated from Day One, we would use this time to really see how he handled the job. We just felt like we could not do better. Mike has shown he can do the job. Mike checks a lot of boxes along the way.""It made sense to do it now. Everything is going well, and more importantly momentum is building behind our players. Having Mike Shildt as manager is a tremendous story. I hope the next chapter is even better," he said.In danger of missing the playoffs three straight years for the first time since the late '90s, the Cardinals have gone 26-12 since... [More]

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Thrilled with the results, the St. Louis Cardinals thanked Mike Shildt.The Cardinals took off the interim tag from Shildt's title and promoted him to full-time manager on Tuesday, a reward for steering the team back into postseason contention after taking over for the fired Mike Matheny.In danger of missing the playoffs three straight years for the first time since the late '90s, the Cardinals have gone 26-12 since July 15, including a 19-5 mark in August. St. Louis now holds the top spot in the NL wild-card standings.The Cardinals were 47-46 when Matheny was fired a day before the All-Star break. Since then, they have the most wins in the majors. They've also cut their deficit in the NL Central from 7 1/2 games to 4 1/2 behind the division-leading Chicago Cubs."The team's focused, high-level style of play under Mike is a standard that his teams consistently displayed during his prior years in the minors, and it has continued here at the major league level," Cardinals Chairman... [More]

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Thrilled with the results, the St. Louis Cardinals thanked Mike Shildt.The Cardinals took off the interim tag from Shildt's title and promoted him to full-time manager on Tuesday, a reward for steering the team back into postseason contention after taking over for the fired Mike Matheny.In danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since the late '90s, the Cardinals have gone 26-12 since July 15, including a 19-5 mark in August. St. Louis now holds the top spot in the NL wild-card standings.The Cardinals were 47-46 when Matheny was fired a day before the All-Star break. Since then, they have the most wins in the majors. They've also cut their deficit in the NL Central from 7 1/2 games to 4 1/2 behind the division-leading Chicago Cubs."The team's focused, high-level style of play under Mike is a standard that his teams consistently displayed during his prior years in the minors, and it has continued here at the major league level," Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt said.The... [More]

TORONTO (AP) — Kendrys Morales became the seventh player in major league history to homer in at least seven consecutive games, going deep in the third inning of the Toronto Blue Jays' 8-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.Morales hit a two-run shot off Vince Velasquez, his 21st homer of the season. He has a chance to equal the major league record of homers in eight consecutive games, shared by Ken Griffey Jr., Dale Long and Don Mattingly.Rhys Hoskins and Carlos Santana hit back-to-back home runs for Philadelphia. Maikel Franco and Wilson Ramos each had two-run shots as the Phillies avoided a three-game sweep.Ramos had four hits. He singled in the first, doubled home a run in the second, singled in the sixth and homered off Tyler Clippard in the eighth, his 15th.Velasquez (9-9) allowed two runs and three hits in five innings for the victory as Philadelphia won for the second time in eight games.Marco Estrada (7-10) allowed five runs and seven hits in two-plus innings as Toronto's... [More]

TORONTO (AP) — Kendrys Morales became the seventh player in major league history to homer in at least seven consecutive games, going deep in the third inning of the Toronto Blue Jays' 8-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.Morales hit a two-run shot off Vince Velasquez, his 21st homer of the season. He has a chance to equal the major league record of homers in eight consecutive games, shared by Ken Griffey Jr., Dale Long and Don Mattingly.Rhys Hoskins and Carlos Santana hit back-to-back home runs for Philadelphia. Maikel Franco and Wilson Ramos each had two-run shots as the Phillies avoided a three-game sweep.Ramos had four hits. He singled in the first, doubled home a run in the second, singled in the sixth and homered off Tyler Clippard in the eighth, his 15th.Velasquez (9-9) allowed two runs and three hits in five innings for the victory as Philadelphia won for the second time in eight games.Marco Estrada (7-10) allowed five runs and seven hits in two-plus innings as Toronto's... [More]

DENVER (AP) — Matt Carpenter tied a St. Louis Cardinals record with four doubles Sunday against the Colorado Rockies.The only other time a Cardinals player had four doubles in a game was Joe "Ducky" Medwick on Aug. 4, 1937, against the Boston Braves.Carpenter doubled twice as part of a six-run first inning, had another in the third and lined his fourth double of the afternoon in the seventh.The Cardinals first baseman entered the day with 34 doubles this season. He also has 34 homers.___More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

DENVER (AP) — Matt Carpenter tied a St. Louis Cardinals record with four doubles Sunday against the Colorado Rockies.The only other time a Cardinals player had four doubles in a game was Joe "Ducky" Medwick on Aug. 4, 1937, against the Boston Bees.Carpenter doubled twice as part of a six-run first inning, had another in the third and lined his fourth double of the afternoon in the seventh.The Cardinals first baseman entered the day with 34 doubles this season. He also has 34 homers.___More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

A look at what's happening around the majors today:BREAK OUT THE BROOMSThe surprising Rays go for their eighth straight victory when they try to become the first team to sweep Boston in a series this season. Tampa Bay is a season-high eight games over .500 at 69-61 and has allowed three or fewer runs in seven consecutive games. All-Star lefty Blake Snell (15-5, 2.07 ERA) pitches against former teammate Nathan Eovaldi (5-5) in the finale of the three-game set. "He really helped me with my work ethic and led by example," said Snell, who is 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA in three starts against Boston this year. "He's very special."Eovaldi is 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA in five starts for the major league-leading Red Sox since being acquired from the Rays on July 25. Boston (90-41) has lost five of seven. "We've been good on getaway days and day games," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. "It would be a good day to put everything together, finish strong and turn the page in this stadium."HOMER HAPPYKendrys Morales... [More]

A look at what's happening around the majors Sunday:BREAK OUT THE BROOMSThe surprising Rays go for their eighth straight victory when they try to become the first team to sweep Boston in a series this season. Tampa Bay is a season-high eight games over .500 at 69-61 and has allowed three or fewer runs in seven consecutive games. All-Star lefty Blake Snell (15-5, 2.07 ERA) pitches against former teammate Nathan Eovaldi (5-5) in the finale of the three-game set. "He really helped me with my work ethic and led by example," said Snell, who is 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA in three starts against Boston this year. "He's very special."Eovaldi is 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA in five starts for the major league-leading Red Sox since being acquired from the Rays on July 25. Boston (90-41) has lost five of seven. "We've been good on getaway days and day games," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. "It would be a good day to put everything together, finish strong and turn the page in this stadium."HOMER HAPPYKendrys Morales... [More]

A look at what's happening around the majors Sunday:BREAK OUT THE BROOMSThe surprising Rays go for their eighth straight victory when they try to become the first team to sweep Boston in a series this season. Tampa Bay is a season-high eight games over .500 at 69-61 and has allowed three or fewer runs in seven consecutive games. All-Star lefty Blake Snell (15-5, 2.07 ERA) pitches against former teammate Nathan Eovaldi (5-5) in the finale of the three-game set. "He really helped me with my work ethic and led by example," said Snell, who is 2-0 with a 0.95 ERA in three starts against Boston this year. "He's very special."Eovaldi is 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA in five starts for the major league-leading Red Sox since being acquired from the Rays on July 25. Boston (90-41) has lost five of seven. "We've been good on getaway days and day games," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. "It would be a good day to put everything together, finish strong and turn the page in this stadium."HOMER HAPPYKendrys Morales... [More]