CHICAGO — Bo Bichette hit a grand slam and Alejandro Kirk homered for the second straight game, leading Ross Stripling and the Toronto Blue Jays over the injury-riddled Chicago White Sox 9-5 Wednesday.

Bichette’s second career slam capped a five-run fourth inning as the Blue Jays avoided a three-game series sweep.

Kirk hit an RBI single in the first and a homer to center in the third. He tops All-Star fan voting for AL catchers and leads all qualified major league catchers in batting average (.307) and OPS (.857).

Kirk batted .364 (8 for 22) with four home runs and eight RBI in five games against the White Sox this season.

Lucas Giolito (4-4) allowed seven runs on a season-high 11 hits in five innings. He has a 9.47 ERA in his last five starts.

Kirk is 4 for 9 with three home runs and six RBI lifetime against Giolito.

Stripling (4-2) gave up one run in six innings. He scattered five hits and didn’t allow a runner past second until Josh Harrison scored from first on a single by Luis Robert in the sixth.

Stripling has allowed 12 hits over his last 20 2/3 innings, posting a 1.31 ERA in his last four starts.

YANKEES 5, RAYS 4: Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 26th and 27th home runs, Jose Trevino delivered a two-run shot that put New York ahead in the eighth inning and the Yankees won at St. Petersburg, Florida.

Judge’s 22nd career multihomer game helped the Yankees come back from a 4-1 deficit after Isaac Paredes hit his fourth home run in two games for the Rays.

Clarke Schmidt (4-2) got the win and Clay Holmes pitched a scoreless ninth for his 12th save in 13 attempts.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

PADRES 10, DIAMONDBACKS 4: Jurickson Profar had four hits, drove in two runs and scored twice for San Diego, which jumped on Madison Bumgarner early in a victory over visiting Arizona for a three-game sweep.

Jorge Alfaro, whose walk-off single in the 10th inning Tuesday night gave the Padres a 3-2 win, hit a solo homer in the sixth. Rookie Jose Azocar fell a home run short of the cycle in his first career three-hit game.

Bumgarner (3-8) got his 2,000th career strikeout but otherwise it was a tough day. The Padres led 4-0 after the first inning and 6-0 after the second to hand Bumgarner his fifth loss in six starts.

MARLINS 7, ROCKIES 4: Pablo Lopez allowed one unearned run in seven solid innings and Miami beat visiting Colorado.

Garrett Cooper, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jorge Soler hit home runs for Miami.

DODGERS 8, REDS 4: Freddie Freeman homered and drove in two runs and visiting Los Angeles extended its winning streak against Cincinnati this season to six games.

CUBS 14, PIRATES 5: Ian Happ and Patrick Wisdom hit two-run homers early and Alfonso Rivas added a grand slam off a position player late as Chicago won at Pittsburgh.

Held to a total of two runs in the first two games of the series, Chicago broke out for seven runs in the second inning.

BRAVES 4, GIANTS 3: Adam Duvall’s run-scoring single capped a three-run rally in the ninth as Atlanta beat visiting San Francisco.

Duvall’s single off Tyler Rogers drove in William Contreras from second base.

The Giants wasted another strong start by Carlos Rodon, who allowed only three hits and one run in seven innings.

INTERLEAGUE

ASTROS 5, METS 3: Yordan Alvarez homered twice off Carlos Carrasco as Houston jumped on him early and held on for a win over visiting New York.

Alvarez hit two of the season-high three homers Carrasco (8-3) allowed before the pitcher left with lower back tightness in the third inning with the Astros up 5-1.

Alvarez, who also homered Tuesday night, now has 21 this season to move into a tie with Mike Trout for second-most in the majors. His home run barrage in this series comes after he missed Sunday’s game with a minor hand injury.

Alex Bregman added a two-run home run for the Astros, who won their third straight.

The National League-leading Mets entered this series having won 4 of 5 games but continued to struggle in Houston where they’ve dropped eight in a row.

RANGERS 4, PHILLIES 2: Brad Miller hit a two-run single against his former team and Texas beat visiting Philadelphia for the ninth time in a row to hand Zack Wheeler his first loss in two months.

Kole Calhoun also drove in two runs for Texas, including a tie-breaking RBI single in the third. Adolis Garcia and Calhoun opened the fifth with back-to-back doubles, though Calhoun was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a triple.

Kyle Schwarber extended his career-best on-base streak to 26 games for the Phillies with a two-run homer that tied the game at 2 in the third inning.

NOTES

BREWERS: Former Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain has cleared waivers and is now a free agent.

The Brewers made the announcement via social media, four days after the two-time All-Star was designated for assignment. The Brewers’ tweet included the message, “Thank you, Lo!” and was accompanied by a video showing some of Cain’s greatest highlights with the franchise.

Cain was designated on the same day he reached 10 years of major league service, enabling him to be fully vested in the players’ pension fund.

The 36-year-old Cain was batting .179 with one homer and nine RBI in 43 games this season. He is in the last year of a five-year, $80 million contract he signed in January 2018.

PADRES: Manager Bob Melvin returned after being sidelined by COVID-19 protocols for 11 games.

Melvin said he’s been asymptomatic for the last nine days. He went into the protocols in between games of a doubleheader on June 11. He said he felt a little scratch in his throat and tested positive. “The next day I had no symptoms. I’ve had no symptoms the entire time since.”

Quality control coach Ryan Flaherty of Portland managed 10 games in Melvin’s absence and bench coach Ryan Christenson was cleared from protocols in time to manage Tuesday night. Christenson went into protocols the same time as Melvin.

The Padres went 6-5 in Melvin’s absence.

ARBITRATION: Pitcher Max Fried won his salary arbitration case against the World Series champion Atlanta Braves and was given his $6.85 million request instead of the team’s $6.6 million offer.

Walt De Treux, Robert Herman and John Woods made the decision, a day after listening to arguments.

Teams have a 9-4 advantage in decisions. New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is the only player still scheduled for a hearing later this week. He is asking for $21 million and the team is offering $17 million.

ANGELS: The Los Angeles Angels optioned Reid Detmers to the minors just six starts after the rookie left-hander threw a no-hitter.

The Angels assigned Detmers to Triple-A Salt Lake, a day after he made his sixth consecutive winless appearance since his no-hitter against Tampa Bay on May 10.

BUSINESS: Major League Baseball teams have been told they can sell CBD sponsorships.

CBD stands for cannabidiol and is a chemical compound found naturally in cannabis plants.

The commissioner’s office informed teams that a sponsor would need to be certified by the NSF, a global health and safety organization, to ensure the CBD products do not contain THC that causes psychoactive effects. A sponsor would need to be approved by the commissioner’s office.

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