Zack Greinke extended his scoreless streak to 43-2/3 innings, striking out a season-high 11 batters through the eighth inning to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 5-0 win over the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
Greinke’s streak is the longest in the majors since Orel Hershiser set the MLB record of 59 shutout innings in 1988. Greinke (9-2) leads the big leagues with a 1.30 ERA. He scattered three singles, walked one and threw 119 pitches in eight innings.
This was his sixth straight scoreless start, all of them lasting at least six innings. On Tuesday lastweek, Greinke started the MLB All-Star Game and gave up a leadoff homer to Mike Trout, but that run does not count in the regular-season statistics.
Photo: AFP
In St Louis, Ruben Tejada hit a sacrifice fly in the 18th inning as the New York Mets outlasted the Cardinals 3-1, despite stranding 25 baserunners.
The Mets went one for 26 with runners in scoring position, yet still won the majors’ second-longest game this season. Boston beat the Yankees in 19 innings in April. It took 5 hours, 55 minutes for the Mets to top the National League Central-leading Cardinals and avoid a three-game sweep.
Tejada hit a bases-loaded fly for the lead and Eric Campbell drove in another run with a squeeze bunt.
Astros ace pitcher Dallas Keuchel struck out a career-high 13 batters in seven scoreless innings to lead Houston over the Texas Rangers 10-0.
Keuchel (12-4), the starting pitcher for the American League in the All-Star Game, retired 18 straight batters during one stretch. The Rangers piled up a total of 29 hits in the first two games of the series, but could not do anything against Keuchel. He leads the AL with a 2.12 ERA.
Luis Valbuena had four hits and four RBIs, and Colby Rasmus and Preston Tucker had two-run homers.
Mark Teixeira homered with two outs in the eighth inning for the Yankees as New York rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners and a series win.
Both Cy Young Award winning pitchers, C.C. Sabathia and Felix Hernandez, were done after six impressive innings with the score tied at 1-1.
The Orioles downed the Detroit Tigers 9-3 after Jonathan Schoop hit a three-run homer — part of Baltimore’s six-run fourth inning against Justin Verlander.
Adam Jones also homered for the Orioles, and J.J. Hardy added a two-run double. Verlander (0-3) allowed seven runs and eight hits in 3-2/3 innings, another ugly start for a Detroit rotation that has suddenly become a weak link.
Kansas City’s Danny Duffy took a shutout into the ninth inning in the longest outing of his career as the Royals beat Chris Sale and the Chicago White Sox 4-1, while Jake Smolinski homered twice for four RBIs for Oakland and Josh Reddick hit a grand slam as the Athletics slugged past the Minnesota Twins 14-1.
In other games, Marco Estrada pitched eight shutout innings as the Toronto Blue Jays blanked the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0, the Cleveland Indians edged the Cincinnati Reds 5-3 over 11 innings, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins 8-7, the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-1, the San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-1 and the Chicago Cubs were 4-1 winners over the Atlanta Braves.
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