Blake Snell on Wednesday struck out a season-high 11 in six innings, while Mookie Betts hit a grand slam in the eighth as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 9-0 for their fourth straight win.
Helped by their third series sweep of the Rockies this MLB season, the Dodgers increased their National League West lead to three games over the San Diego Padres, who lost 2-1 at home to the Cincinnati Reds.
Betts went four for five with five RBIs, capped by his seventh career slam on a 3-0 pitch from reliever Anthony Molina to make it 8-0.
Photo: AFP
Andy Pages and Ben Rortvedt singled and Shohei Ohtani reached on catcher’s interference to load the bases.
Teoscar Hernandez followed with a solo shot off Angel Chivilli, his third homer in two games.
Betts’ two-out RBI double highlighted a four-run second against Rockies starter Kyle Freeland (4-15). The left-hander gave up four runs and nine hits in 5-2/3 innings with five strikeouts.
Photo: AFP
Snell (4-4) allowed singles to Tyler Freeman and Hunter Goodman plus two walks in ending a personal three-game skid with his first win since Aug. 16. It was a big bounceback from the left-hander’s last start in which he gave up nine hits and five runs over five innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates last week.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner has 124 strikeouts in 14 career starts against the Rockies.
Dodgers catcher Will Smith was scratched minutes before the game with right hand soreness. It is the fifth game he has missed since taking a foul ball off his hand on Sept. 3.
Photo: AFP
In San Diego, California, Elly De La Cruz and pinch-hitter Miguel Andujar delivered RBI singles in the eighth inning as the Reds took two of three games in their series against the Padres, fellow NL playoff contenders.
Andrew Abbott (9-6) threw eight sparkling innings to help Cincinnati pull even with the San Francisco Giants in the wild-card standings, two games behind the New York Mets for the NL’s final post-season berth.
Nick Pivetta pitched four-hit ball for seven scoreless innings and the Padres had a 1-0 lead on Fernando Tatis Jr’s home run before the Reds broke through against relievers Kyle Hart and Adrian Morejon in the eighth.
Hart allowed T.J. Friedl’s one-out bunt single before Morejon came on with two outs and gave up De La Cruz’s single to right to bring in Friedl, who beat Tatis’ throw with a headfirst slide to score the tying run from second base.
De La Cruz stole second before Morejon (11-5) walked Austin Hays and yielded Andujar’s single that dropped in front of left fielder Ramon Laureano to bring in De La Cruz with the go-ahead run.
The Padres dropped three games behind the Dodgers in the NL West with 16 to play. San Diego hold the second of three NL wild-card spots.
Tatis homered to left with one out in the fifth off Abbott, his 21st. It was San Diego’s first homer this series after the Reds hit five in the first two games.
With two outs in the seventh, Laureano leaped at the wall to rob Ke’Bryan Hayes of a homer.
In New York, Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter hit two-run homers in a five-run eighth inning, while Jack Flaherty pitched five scoreless innings as the Detroit Tigers pulled away for an 11-1 victory over the New York Yankees.
The Tigers have outscored the Yankees 23-3 in the first two games of their three-game series.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Elsewhere on Wednesday, it was:
‧ Angels 4, Twins 3
‧ Athletics 5, Red Sox 4
‧ Blue Jays 2, Astros 3
‧ Braves 2, Cubs 3
‧ Giants 3, Diamondbacks 5
‧ Guardians 3, Royals 4
‧ Mariners 4, Cardinals 2 (13i)
‧ Marlins 8, Nationals 3
‧ Orioles 2, Pirates 1
‧ Phillies 11, Mets 3
‧ Rangers 6, Brewers 3
‧ White Sox 6, Rays 5
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