Mike Trout on Monday night got his 1,000th career hit and also homered on his 26th birthday, but Manny Machado hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the seventh inning of the Baltimore Orioles’ 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
Trout doubled down the left-field line in the fourth inning to become the 11th player with 1,000 hits in an Angels uniform.
The two-time American League Most Valuable Player also tied it in the sixth by homering on his birthday for the fourth time in his six-year career, sending his 23rd of the season high off the left-field pole.
Machado connected moments later against J.C. Ramirez (10-10) for his fifth career grand slam.
Dylan Bundy (11-8) recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts while pitching seven innings of five-hit ball for the Orioles.
Baltimore won the opener of a three-game series between two teams on the fringe of the AL wild-card race.
The Orioles have won eight of their past 10 games, while Los Angeles have followed up a 6-1 stretch with three consecutive losses.
CUBS 5, GIANTS 3
In San Francisco, Javier Baez hit an inside-the-park homer to back Jake Arrieta’s 11th win in the champion Cubs’ first visit to AT&T Park since eliminating San Francisco in Game 4 of the NL Division Series in October last year.
Baez’s 16th homer took a tricky bounce off the low wall in right-center and deflected past oncoming right fielder Carlos Moncrief nearly 100 feet back in the direction of the corner in right.
The NL Central leaders moved 1-1/2 games ahead of second-placed Milwaukee.
San Francisco rookie Ryder Jones hit his first career home run with a two-run shot in the sixth off Arrieta (11-8).
Wade Davis got three outs for his 24th save in 24 tries.
San Francisco left-hander Matt Moore (3-12) was charged with five runs and eight hits in six innings.
NATIONALS 3, MARLINS 2
In Washington, Max Scherzer pitched seven sharp innings for Washington in his first start since he was sidelined by neck spasms.
Bryce Harper homered for Washington and pinch hitter Adam Lind singled in the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning.
The Nationals expanded their lead in the National League East over second-placed Miami to 14 games.
Brandon Kintzler (4-2) worked the eighth inning and Sean Doolittle got three outs to earn his sixth save.
Giancarlo Stanton hit his major league-leading 37th homer for the Marlins, matching his previous career high. Jarlin Garcia (0-2) got the loss.
Scherzer struck out nine and gave up two runs.
The right-hander was coming off an abbreviated start against the Marlins six days earlier, when he was pulled from the game after one inning due to neck spasms.
In other results, it was:
‧ Cardinals 11, Royals 3
‧ Twins 5, Brewers 4
‧ Pirates 3, Tigers 0
‧ Reds 11, Padres 3
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