ST. LOUIS — Miles Mikolas pitched his first career shutout and Tyler O’Neill homered for the third straight game and drove in four runs, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night.
Mikolas needed just 109 pitches to remain unbeaten and struck out a career-high nine. The Cardinals won for the third time in four games and beat the Royals for the fifth straight time.
Mikolas (6-0) retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced. The only trouble he faced came after he allowed back-to-back singles to start the third, but got out of it with the help of a double play.
O’Neill’s three-run homer, his first career to the opposite field, capped a four-run third in which the Cardinals strung together five two-out hits. O’Neill’s double in the fifth scored Marcell Ozuna, giving the Cardinals a 5-0 lead.
Ozuna proceeded O’Neill’s blast with an RBI single, breaking a 0-for-22 slump. Ozuna reached three times and had a pair of hits.
Matt Carpenter homered in the seventh as part of a three-hit night. Carpenter is hitting .542 (13 for 24) in his last six games, including seven doubles, to raise his average to .210. It is the first time since April 7 that Carpenter’s average rose north of .200.
Royals starter Ian Kennedy (1-5) gave up five runs, all with two outs, in 5 2/3 innings. He has lost his last five decisions and hasn’t gotten a win since April 7.
The Royals have lost eight of their last nine.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
PHILLIES 3, BRAVES 0 Nick Pivetta struck out seven over seven innings, and Nick Williams and Aaron Altherr each homered to lead the Phillies to a win over the Atlanta Braves. The Phillies took the opener of the three-game series and moved a half game behind Atlanta for first place in the NL East. Philadelphia hasn’t had a winning record since it made the last of five straight postseason berths in 2011. The Phillies lost 96 games in 2017 — the third straight season of more than 90 losses. Under first-year manager Gabe Kapler, the Phillies are back in a battle for first in late May for the first time since Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Cole Hamels dominated during the glory years. The Phillies and Braves don’t play again after this series until they face each other seven of the final 10 games of the season.
NATIONALS 10 PADRES 2 Juan Soto, the youngest player in the majors at 19, hit a three-run homer in his first career start as the Washington Nationals defeated the San Diego Padres. Mark Reynolds had two solo home runs for the Nationals, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Bryce Harper had a homer and an RBI double. Soto’s drive highlighted a five-run second inning for Washington. The promising outfielder, who played for three minor league teams this season, hit the first pitch from Robbie Erlin (1-3) over the Nationals bullpen in left-center field. Soto also singled. Soto’s homer traveled an estimated 442 feet at Nationals Park. He earned a standing ovation from the crowd and the teenager responded by taking a curtain call. METS 2, MARLINS 0 Jason Vargas returned to the rotation with five excellent innings, AJ Ramos pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth and the New York Mets beat the Miami Marlins. The Mets got their fourth straight win, following up a three-game sweep of NL West-leading Arizona. New York is 6-2 in its past eight games, 5-1 on this homestand and 24-19 overall. The 35-year-old Vargas (1-3) had his previous turn skipped after three sloppy outings to open the season, but he shut down Miami with changeups and guile for his first victory with the Mets. Ten of his outs came via the change, and he struck out seven without reaching 90 mph even once with his fastball. He allowed two hits and a walk before leaving after 86 pitches. New York used three pitchers in a scoreless — but eventful — sixth inning. Paul Sewald got two outs but put two on before left-hander Jerry Blevins entered to face lefty slugger Justin Bour. Blevins walked Bour on a full count and was replaced by Ramos, and the right-hander struck out pinch-hitter Derek Dietrich swinging to leave the bases loaded and preserve a 1-0 lead. Ramos followed with a scoreless seventh, ending the inning by beginning a bold 1-6-3 double play on pinch-hitter J.B. Shuck’s hit-and-run comebacker.
BREWERS 4, DIAMONDBACKS 2 Travis Shaw, Domingo Santana and Lorenzo Cain each hit home runs off Zack Greinke, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona has lost five in a row and 11 of 12, scoring just 24 runs in that span. Greinke (3-3) struck out nine, walked none and gave up five hits in six innings, but the home runs did him in. Shaw hit a two-run homer in the first, Santana sliced an opposite-field solo shot in the fourth and Cain homered leading off the sixth. Greinke hadn’t allowed more than two home runs in a game this season. Greinke, who got an extra day of rest before this game, slipped to 1-4 at Miller Park after a 15-0 stretch while pitching for the Brewers from May 9, 2011 to June 6, 2012. Chase Anderson (4-3) threw six strong innings in his return to the rotation. He’d been ill and on the 10-day disabled list, came back and allowed three hits in his first start since May 6. Anderson got off to a rough start. David Peralta led off with a single, and a walk and a hit batter loaded the bases. Another walk forced in a run before Anderson worked out of the jam. Anderson retired 14 of the next 15 batters before Jake Lamb homered in the sixth. Matt Albers pitched a perfect seventh, Jeremy Jeffress handled the eighth and Corey Knebel picked up his second save.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
TWINS 4, TIGERS 2 Logan Morrison forced in the go-ahead run with a four-pitch walk in the eighth inning after striking out in his first three at-bats, propelling the Minnesota Twins to a victory over the Detroit Tigers. Jose Berrios (5-
4) struck out nine, giving up just three hits and two walks over eight innings. Fernando Rodney closed for his 10th save in 13 tries. Rodney, whose first eight seasons of his major league career were with the Tigers, has converted eight straight saves in 10 consecutive scoreless innings. The more relevant reunion was the return of Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire to Minnesota, where he managed the Twins for 13 seasons. This was the first game between the division rivals since Gardenhire was hired by Detroit. Nicholas Castellanos gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead with a home run to straightaway center field in the first inning and a two-out RBI single in the third, both hits on first pitches. Berrios retired 15 straight batters after that to sail past the seven-inning mark he’s reached in half of his 10 starts. Max Kepler hit a two-run double in the fifth off Tigers starter Blaine Hardy to tie the game and nearly gave the Twins the lead that inning, but he was ruled out at home trying to score on Eduardo Escobar’s two-out single to left field. The original safe call was reversed by replay review that declared catcher James McCann’s tag clipped Kepler’s back just before his leg slid across the plate. Kepler thought his drive off the tall wall in right-center was going to reach the seats, and his admiration might have cost him a triple. Morrison made sure that potential mistake didn’t matter by keenly watching Tigers reliever Daniel Stumpf (1-3) throw four straight balls with the bases loaded after Gardenhire elected to intentionally walk Mitch Garver. Eddie Rosario’s double sparked the rally after a one-out walk by Escobar.
ORIOLES 3, WHITE SOX 2 Manny Mach-ado, Adam Jones and Mark Trumbo homered, helping Andrew Cashner and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox. Machado hit a line drive to left in the fourth inning for his 15th homer, moving into a tie for the major league lead with Boston’s Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez. Trumbo connected in the fifth against Hector Santiago, and Jones went deep in the sixth after leaving Sunday’s 5-0 loss to the Red Sox due to an illness. Cashner (2-5) got his first win since April 5, helped by some terrific relief work by Mychal Givens. Cashner pitched five-plus innings and was charged with two runs and eight hits. Baltimore improved to 2-3 on an 11-game trip to Boston, Chicago and Tampa Bay. The last-place Orioles (15-32) had dropped four of five heading into the four-game series between two of the AL’s worst teams. Jose Abreu, Matt Davidson and Leury Garcia had two hits apiece for Chicago (13-31), which had won three of four. Santiago (0-2) struck out seven in six innings, but remains winless in four starts and nine relief appearances this year — with the White Sox losing all 13 games. Garcia chased Cashner with an RBI double in the sixth, making it 3-2 and putting runners on second and third with none out. But Givens came in and retired three in a row, getting Welington Castillo to pop out to first before striking out Tim Anderson and Adam Engel. Chicago also had a runner thrown out at the plate in the fifth, and blew a prime scoring opportunity in the ninth. Yolmer Sanchez struck out with runners on the corners and one out. After Abreu was walked intentionally, Trayce Thompson struck out swinging to give Brad Brach his seventh save in eight chances. YANKEES 10, RANGERS 5 Gleyber Torres hit two of the four Yankees homers off Bartolo Colon and New York won to deny the Texas Rangers starter a milestone victory only three days before his 45th birthday. Aaron Judge and Neil Walker also went deep against Colon. Judge’s 12th homer, leading off the fifth, snapped a 4-all tie and put the Yankees ahead to stay. Aaron Hicks added a two-run homer in the ninth for New York, which had a season-high 10 extra-base hits. Colon (2-2) allowed six runs and eight hits in 5 1-3 innings in his 178th career loss. The portly right-hander remained one win short of matching Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marchial’s 243 victories, the most by a player born in the Dominican Republic. No. 9 hitter Torres, the rookie second baseman in his 25th career game, was only three months old when Colon made his big league debut on April 4, 1997. Torres hit a two-run homer in the second, and his solo shot in the sixth, his sixth homer of the season, ended Colon’s night. Masahiro Tanaka (5-2) limited the Texas to three hits over five innings, but walked four and gave up two homers. The right-hander struck out three. Joey Gallo’s 14th homer led off the Texas second. Rougned Odor’s three-run blast, his first this season, tied the game at 4 in the fourth.