NEW YORK — The Tampa Bay Rays completed their first sweep at Yankee Stadium in six years and took over first place in the AL East, getting a three-run homer from Mike Zunino in a 10-5 victory over New York on Thursday.
Tampa Bay beat the Yankees for the sixth time in seven meetings in the abbreviated 10-game season series. The Rays also became the first team to sweep a three-game series at Yankee Stadium since Cleveland on Aug. 28-30, 2017. Tampa Bay previously swept series of three games or more at New York in 2013 and 2014.
The Rays became the fifth team in major league history to sweep a series of at least three games at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium on the same trip, according to STATS. The 1990 Oakland Athletics were the last team to achieve the feat.
Zunino homered to left field off Luis Avilan in the sixth inning to give the Rays an 8-4 lead. His second homer in as many games elicited audible cheers from the Rays’ dugout in the empty stadium.
One batter earlier, Joey Wendle’s single loudly clanged off the right-field wall and scored Manuel Margot, who started the five-run inning with a single off Adam Ottavino (2-2) that just sailed over shortstop Tyler Wade’s glove.
Yandy Diaz padded the lead in the ninth with a two-run homer, drawing more enthusiasm from the Tampa Bay dugout.
Gio Urshela hit a two-run homer in the fifth off reliever Diego Castillo (2-0). Luke Voit hit his 10th homer two batters into the game move into a tie for the AL lead with Mike Trout.
Gleyber Torres injured his left hamstring running to first base on an RBI groundout in the third and left the game. The Yankees said Torres was getting further evaluation.
WHITE SOX 5, TIGERS 0: Lucas Giolito matched his career high of 13 strikeouts in seven dominant innings, hot-hitting Tim Anderson stroked his fourth home run of the series, and host Chicago completed its first four-game sweep of the Tigers in 15 years.
Giolito (2-2) allowed three hits and one walk to earn the victory, his fifth in seven career decisions against Detroit, as Chicago completed a 5-2 homestand with its fifth straight win. The right-hander also struck out 13 against Oakland on Aug. 11, 2019.
BLUE JAYS SWEEP PHILLIES: Rowdy Tellez homered and hit a go-ahead two-run single in a seven-run sixth inning, and Toronto rallied from a seven-run deficit to beat Philadelphia 9-8 and sweep a doubleheader at Buffalo, New York.
In the first of the seven-inning games, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. chopped a single over a drawn-in infield in the seventh to give Toronto a 3-2 win.
Phillies shortstop Didi Gregorius committed a costly two-out error, one of two by Philadelphia’s infield in the sixth, to set up Tellez’s Game 2 heroics.
ASTROS 10, ROCKIES 8: Abraham Toro homered in the second of two five-run innings and visiting Houston extended its major-league best winning streak to eight games,
Jose Altuve had two hits, including a two-run double that fueled a five-run second inning, when the Astros batted around against German Marquez (2-4). It was Altuve’s second straight multihit game since being returned to the No. 2 spot in the batting order after three games in the No. 6 hole.
Ryan McMahon hit two homers for the Rockies, who have lost 7 of 8, including all four games of a home-and-home set against Houston.
DODGERS 6, MARINERS 1: Clayton Kershaw struck out a season-high 11 in seven strong innings, Cody Bellinger homered for the second straight game and Los Angeles won at Seattle.
Kershaw moved past Don Drysdale and into second place on the Dodgers’ all-time strikeout list. It came on his fifth strikeout of the game when he got Shed Long Jr. swinging leading off the fifth inning. Kershaw now has 2,493 and trails only Don Sutton in franchise history. Sutton has 2,696.
TWINS 7, BREWERS 1: Jose Berrios pitched one-hit ball over six scoreless innings, Nelson Cruz hit a two-run homer and Minnesota won at home.
Ryan Jeffers drove in a run with a single in his first major league at-bat, going 2 for 3 with a hit by pitch and catching Berrios to help the Twins improve to 7-1-1 in series this season.
INDIANS 2, PIRATES 0: Unbeaten Shane Bieber racked up 11 more strikeouts and Cleveland won at Pittsburgh to complete a three-game sweep and extend its winning streak to a season-high six games.
Bieber (5-0) has struck out a major league-best 65 in 40 2/3 innings, an average of 14.4 per nine innings.
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