CINCINNATI — Left-hander Madison Bumgarner got his career-high sixth straight win, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Reds 6-1 on Thursday afternoon, taking a series in Cincinnati for the first time in five years. ADVERTISING CINCINNATI — Left-hander Madison
CINCINNATI — Left-hander Madison Bumgarner got his career-high sixth straight win, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Reds 6-1 on Thursday afternoon, taking a series in Cincinnati for the first time in five years.
San Francisco moved a season-high 18 games over .500 with its 11th win in 14 games. The Giants have the best record in the majors at 39-21.
Bumgarner (8-3) gave up three hits in eight innings, including Todd Frazier’s homer, and retired the last 16 batters he faced. He’s 6-0 in his last seven starts, the best such streak of his career.
Michael Morse hit a two-run homer, and Brandon Crawford broke out of a slump with a three-run shot off Mike Leake (3-5), who had overwhelmed the Giants the last four times he faced them.
NATIONALS 4, PHILLIES 2
WASHINGTON — Doug Fister kept himself and his club on a roll, allowing two runs and four hits over seven innings as Washington Nationals capped a sweep.
Fister (4-1) struck out five and didn’t walk any as he won his fourth consecutive start for what’s starting to look like the tough-act-to-follow rotation expected from the Nationals this season.
CUBS 7, METS 4
CHICAGO — Anthony Rizzo hit a tiebreaking homer, Travis Wood went deep and drove in three runs, and the Chicago Cubs beat the New York Mets 7-4 Thursday night to complete the three-game sweep.
Rizzo’s solo drive off Vic Black (1-1) with one out in the seventh gave Chicago a lead after New York’s Andrew Brown capped a four-run comeback with a two-run shot in the top half.
Junior Lake added a two-run triple in the eighth, and the Cubs came away with their first series sweep since they took three at San Francisco last July 26-28.
DIAMONDBACKS 12, ROCKIES 7
DENVER — Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Montero and Chris Owings homered as Arizona reached double-digits against the Colorado Rockies again and completed a sweep.
Arizona took all three games at Coors Field for the first time since April 2008.
BLUE JAYS 7, TIGERS 3
DETROIT — Juan Francisco and Brett Lawrie hit consecutive home runs in the sixth inning off Justin Verlander, and Toronto completed a three-game sweep of Detroit.
The AL East-leading Blue Jays have won 19 of 23, including sweeps of defending champion Boston, AL West-leading Oakland and AL Central-leading Detroit. J.A. Happ (5-2) allowed three runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings for Toronto.
Casey Janssen got the final out for his 10th save in 11 chances. He needed only one pitch to retire Nick Castellanos on a line drive to left with two on.
YANKEES 2, ATHLETICS 1
NEW YORK — Masahiro Tanaka tamed the highest-scoring team in the majors and New York stopped a four-game skid, beating Oakland and ending the Athletics’ five-game winning streak.
Facing the A’s for the first time, Tanaka (9-1) got an early jolt when John Jaso homered as the second batter in the game. But that was the only run Tanaka allowed in six innings, and he left with an AL-leading 2.02 ERA.
David Robertson worked the ninth for his 13th save in 15 chances, helped by a lucky bounce.
RANGERS 8, ORIOLES 6
ARLINGTON, Texas — Rougned Odor had a leadoff single in the seventh and scored the tiebreaking run with the help of two errors by Baltimore Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy and Texas avoided a three-game sweep with a win.
The Rangers blew an early 5-0 lead, but their three-run seventh started when No. 9 batter Odor had an infield single off reliever Brian Matusz (2-2) and moved up on throwing error by Hardy.
Odor came home when Hardy misplayed a grounder hit by Elvis Andrus to make it 6-5. Alex Rios and Chris Jimenez then added consecutive RBI singles off Preston Guilmet, the fifth Baltimore pitcher.
ASTROS 8, ANGELS 5
HOUSTON — Jose Altuve and George Springer drove in two runs each during Houston’s four-run eighth inning as the Astros pulled away for a win over Los Angeles.
Altuve had two hits, including a two-run double in the eighth, and Springer finished with three RBIs for the Astros.
Brad Peacock (2-4) allowed three runs and six hits with a strikeout in five innings.
ROYALS 3, CARDINALS 2
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Yordano Ventura threw six innings in his return from a sore elbow, and the Kansas City ended a string of eight straight home losses to their in-state rivals.
Ventura (3-5) was skipped his previous time through the rotation because of minor elbow pain, but he looked sharp in his return.
He pitched to contact and took advantage of some sharp defense, which helped him to limit the damage whenever he ran into trouble.
MARLINS 11, RAYS 6
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — J.T. Realmuto had three RBIs in his major league debut, Marcell Ozuna homered and drove in four runs, and Miami handed Tampa Bay its 10th consecutive loss.
Realmuto drove in two runs on his first big league hit, a fourth-inning single, and added a sixth-inning RBI single.
Ozuna’s two-run homer put Miami up 11-6 in the ninth. Giancarlo Stanton hit his 17th home run, a two-run shot during a three-run seventh that made it 9-5.
The Marlins beat the Rays for the fourth straight time in a home-and-home interleague series.
BREWERS 8, TWINS 5
MINNEAPOLIS — Carlos Gomez hit a three-run homer against his former team to spark Milwaukee’s comeback.
Khris Davis hit a two-run homer off Kevin Correia (2-7) for the lead in the sixth inning to pull Brewers starter Wily Peralta (5-5) out of an early deficit built by Oswaldo Arcia’s grand slam. Jonathan Lucroy tacked on a two-run shot in the ninth, and Francisco Rodriguez finished up for his 18th save in 20 attempts.
Arcia gave the Twins a 4-0 lead in the third inning, but the young slugger left the game after spraining his right ankle while being picked off second base in the sixth.
