Jorge De La Rosa became the Colorado Rockies’ career leader in victories Sunday, pitching seven innings to prevent a four-game sweep and beat the Miami Marlins 4-1. Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado homered to give the Rockies a 3-0 lead in the first inning. That was one more run than they totaled while losing first three games of the series. De La Rosa (4-2) allowed four hits and one run to lower his ERA to 4.91. He improved to 73-47 with the Rockies, surpassing Aaron Cook, who went 72-68 for Colorado. De La Rosa pitched around four walks and two errors. Three relievers combined to complete a five-hitter, and John Axford struck out the side in the ninth for his 12th save in as many chances. The Marlins went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
In other baseball Sunday:
— Max Scherzer has shown why the Washington Nationals laid out the big money for his services. The former American League Cy Young Award winner struck out a team-record 16 and pitched a one-hitter in the Nationals 4-0 win over Milwaukee.
Scherzer lost his bid for a perfect-game on a bloop single that barely fell in during the seventh inning. Carlos Gomez got Milwaukee’s only hit, leading off the seventh with a broken-bat looper to right field. Scherzer set a career high for strikeouts and broke the Washington mark of 14 set by Stephen Strasburg in his big league debut in 2010. He walked one and finished the day with a 1.93 earned run average.
—The Toronto Blue Jays have put themselves squarely in the middle of the race for supremacy of the American League East. The Jays have won 11 straight with the most recent win coming over the Red Sox in Boston, 13-5. Ryan Goins led the way at the plate with a homer, double and five runs batted in. Danny Valencia also homered as the highest-scoring club in the majors completed a sweep at Fenway Park and sent Boston to its season-worst sixth straight loss. This is the fourth time Toronto has won 11 in a row, most recently in 2013. The Blue Jays can set the team mark Monday night when they visit the New York Mets
— Sonny Gray lowered his ERA to a major league-best 1.60 with 7 2-3 impressive innings and the Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-1. Eric Sogard drove in three runs and the A’s capitalized on three errors.
— Baltimore’s six game winning streak is over. The Orioles were beaten by the Yankees 5-3 as John Ryan Murphy had the Yankees’ only hit in a three-run fifth inning, a two run bases loaded double in the fifth. Mark Teixeira drove in a run and scored one to help the first-place Yankees get the win.
— Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox is the first pitcher since Pedro Martinez in 2001 to strikeout 12 or more batter in four straight starts. Despite that he was the loser against Tampa as the Rays won 2-1. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a two-run homer off Sale in the seventh inning lifting the Rays to the win for a three-game sweep. The loss leaves Sale with a 6-3 record.
— The Mets trailed the Braves by five runs but roared back for a 10-8 win for their biggest comeback victory of the season. The Mets, who continue to lead the National League East, rode the home run to the victory as they banged out four. Jeurys Familia got four outs for his 19th save in 20 tries.
—Josh Harrison singled home Neil Walker with two outs in the 11th inning to lift the Pirates to a 1-0 win over the Phillies. Walker singled off Jonathan Papelbon to start the late rally which led to the Pirates fourth straight win. Pittsburgh has swept six series this season, the most of any team in the majors.
— Miguel Cabrera once again tagged Corey Kluber and the Indians, hitting a booming home run and leading Detroit to an 8-1 win over Cleveland. Cabrera hit his 14th homer, a solo drive in the fourth inning that went an estimated 450 feet. The two-time AL MVP is 20 for 35 with five homers in his career against Kluber, the reigning Cy Young Award winner, who has lost three straight. Cabrera loves Cleveland pitching as he went 7 for 11 in the series with a pair of homers and six RBIs.
— Byron Buxton went 0 for 4 in his major league debut, but scored the winning run in the ninth inning to lift the Minnesota Twins to a 4-3 victory over the Texas Rangers. Buxton reached on a fielder’s choice and scored from first base one out later on Eddie Rosario’s double to center.
— The L.A. Dodgers doubled up San Diego 4-2 in 12 innings. Adrian Gonzalez drove in the go-ahead runs with a bases-loaded single in the 12th.
__ Rubby De La Rosa took an eight-hitter into the ninth, and the Arizona Diamondbacks chased Chris Heston after five innings in his first start coming off a no-hitter and beat the San Francisco Giants 4-0. Heston pitched his gem against the New York Mets on Tuesday in his 13th major league start.
— Rookie Lance McCullers and four relievers combined for a two-hitter and Evan Gattis tied a career high with four hits as the Astros cruised to a 13-0 win over Seattle.
__ In the Sunday night game at Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs Starlin Castro drove in a run in the bottom of the 11th to edge the Cincinnati Reds 2-1. The Cubs took three of four in their weekend series. Speedster Billy Hamilton had a career-high five stolen bases for the Reds.
— The Kansas City at St. Louis game was postponed because of rain.