MILWAUKEE (AP) — Ranger Suárez pitched six shutout innings, Trea Turner the go-ahead run with two outs in the seventh and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0 on Thursday.
The Phillies won two of three games the matchup between NL division leaders.
Milwaukee’s Freddy Peralta extended his scoreless innings streak to 29, three shy of the team record Teddy Higuera set in 1987. Peralta struck out eight and allowed three walks and two hits while throwing 92 pitches over five innings.
The game was scoreless when Alec Bohm hit a one-out triple into the right-field corner off Tobias Myers (1-2). with a two-out single to left on an 0-2 pitch.
The Brewers had two runners on with nobody out in the fourth and sixth innings, but Suárez (11-6) worked his way out of the jams.
Matt Strahm stranded the potential tying run at third in the eighth by retiring Caleb Durbin on a fly to center. Bryson Stott provided an insurance run when he Harrison Bader with two outs in the ninth.
Jhoan Duran retired the side in order in the ninth for his 26th save in 29 opportunities. Bader robbed Andruw Monasterio of an extra-base hit — and perhaps a homer — with a at the wall for the second out.
Milwaukee was 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
PIRATES 5, DODGERS 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Paul Skenes pitched six scoreless innings and earned his 10th win of the season as Pittsburgh beat NL West-leading Los Angeles to complete a three-game series sweep.
Skenes (10-9) allowed two hits, struck out eight, and walked one. The right-hander finally got his record above .500 for the first time this season and lowered his ERA to a major league-best 1.98.
Skenes, last season’s NL Rookie of the Year who was 4-8 this season for the last-place Pirates, has won six of his last seven decisions.
The Dodgers were held to five hits and had their division lead cut to two games over idle San Diego.
Mookie Betts broke up the Pirates’ shutout bid with a leadoff home run in the ninth inning, and RBI singles by Pedro Pages and Miguel Rojas cut the deficit to 5-3. However, Colin Holderman struck out Ben Rortvedt to end it for his first save of the season.
Dodgers starter Blake Snell (3-4) was tagged for five runs and nine hits in five innings.
Tommy Pham’s single in the third inning opened the scoring, and Nick Yorke’s two-run double highlighted a four-run fifth that pushed the Pirates’ lead to 5-0.
The Dodgers lost for the fifth time in six games, and the Prates won for the 12th time in 16 games.
ROYALS 4, ANGELS 3
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr. hit a two-out solo home run in the eighth inning and the Kansas City Royals beat the Los Angeles Angels 4-3 on Thursday night to avoid a sweep in a three-game series.
The Royals hit four solo homers in a game where all seven runs came on home runs.
Lucas Erceg (7-4) struck out two in one inning and Carlos Estévez picked up his major league-best 37th save.
Angels starter Kyle Hendricks allowed two runs on three hits in six innings, while Kansas City starter Noah Cameron allowed three runs on five hits in five innings.
The Angels got on the board in the first on a three-run homer by Luis Rengifo. With two outs, Taylor Ward singled, Jo Adell walked and Rengifo hit a slider 384 feet down the left-field line.
The Royals answered in the second on Adam Frazier’s home run, the 1,000th hit of his MLB career. Vinnie Pasquantino connected on his 29th home run of the season leading off the fourth inning to trim the deficit to 3-2.
The Royals tied it when Salvador Perez hit his 24th home run of the season, leading off the seventh inning.
RAYS 4, GUARDIANS 2
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Ryan Pepiot struck out six in five hitless innings and Christopher Morel had three hits and an RBI as Tampa Bay defeated Cleveland.
Carson Williams also drove in two runs for Tampa Bay, which won its season-high seventh straight game and for the 10th time in 12 games.
With the victory, the Rays move within two games of idle Seattle in the race for the final AL wild-card spot — the closest they have been to a playoff spot since July 26, when they were 1 1/2 games back.
Pepiot (11-10) walked two in the victory and a combined no-hit bid was spoiled after 5 2/3 innings when José Ramírez singled off Bryan Baker.
Pete Fairbanks allowed consecutive homers by Ramírez and Kyle Manzardo in the top of the ninth before getting the next three outs to close out the victory.
Junior Caminero, Brandon Lowe, and Jake Mangum also had hits for Tampa Bay.
YANKEES 8, ASTROS 4
HOUSTON (AP) — Carlos Rodón pitched six strong innings to tie for the major league victory lead with 16 and Trent Grisham hit his career-high 30th homer of the season and 100th of his career to help New York beat Houston.
Ryan McMahon also homered for the Yankees.
New York led by a run in the eighth when McMahon hit an RBI single before Grisham’s three-run shot made it 8-3.
The Yankees took two of three in this series for their first series win against a team with a winning record since they swept Seattle from July 8-10.
Rodón (16-7) yielded three hits and two runs — one earned — to tie Milwaukee’s Freddy Peralta for the victory lead.
Houston starter Cristian Javier (1-2) allowed six hits and four runs in 4 1/3 innings.
