Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks pitched the second shutout of his career to steer the Cubs to a 5-0 win against Miami on Monday, giving the bullpen a much-needed breather.
The Cubs continued to set the pace in the National League, while Miami’s lead over idle St Louis for the second NL wildcard was trimmed to half a game.
Hendricks threw 123 pitches and lowered his earned run average to 2.22 runs per nine innings, third-best in the majors.
Photo: AP
It was a timely performance by the starter, as the bullpen were due for a rest after the previous night’s game went 12 innings and the Cubs used 22 players.
Anthony Rizzo had a single, double and triple and reached base five times, while Addison Russell had a two-run single in the first inning.
In key American League games, Houston beat Toronto in 14 innings — against a pitcher who switched between those two teams just hours before the game — dropping the Blue Jays into a virtual tie with Boston for second place in the tight AL East race after the Red Sox won a close game in Seattle.
Houston’s Carlos Correa drove in the winning run in the 14th inning to give the Astros a 2-1 win against Toronto.
Correa’s double was off Scott Feldman, who was traded from the Astros to the Blue Jays that day.
Jose Altuve, who homered earlier in the game, opened the 14th with a single off Feldman and Correa followed with his hit off the fence in right-center field.
Toronto missed a chance to go top of the AL East and held the second wildcard berth, 2.5 games ahead of the Astros.
Boston’s Mookie Betts homered to lead off the ninth inning and give the Red Sox a 2-1 win in Seattle.
Seattle starter James Paxton gave up only one run in eight innings, but his replacement, Steve Cishek, gave up the homer to Betts, having also blown a three-run lead in the ninth inning the previous day.
Boston closer Craig Kimbrel made his first start since a serious knee injury and completed the save.
The New York Yankees beat the Mets 6-5 when Starlin Castro hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning to bring home the winning run.
The Yankees, seemingly out of playoff contention, had been preoccupied in the preceding days with trading away several players in a rebuilding exercise, but did not look like a team resigned to missing the post-season.
Didi Gregorius hit a tying single with two outs in the eighth and new closer Dellin Betances worked out of a major jam for his first save this season.
The Yankees ended a four-game skid, while the Mets have lost five of six.
In other games, Washington ace Stephen Strasburg improved his season record to 15-1 as he guided the Nationals to a 14-1 rout of Arizona; Minnesota rookie Max Kepler had three two-run homers and six RBIs to power the Twins past Cleveland 12-5; San Diego’s Yangervis Solarte drove in two runs to help the Padres defeat Milwaukee 7-3 and Kansas City’ beat the Royals 3-0.
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