MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL – ROCKIES
James Paxton and three relievers combined on a four-hitter to help the Seattle Mariners beat the Colorado Rockies 5-0 on Wednesday night.
Paxton (4-0), activated off the disabled list earlier in the day, retired 16 of the first 17 hitters he faced, allowing only a two-out infield single in the third inning.
Making his first start since May 2, Paxton struck out Pat Valaika to open the sixth, but then allowed consecutive singles to Tony Wolters and Charlie Blackmon, ending his 74-pitch outing. He had been sidelined with a left forearm strain. He struck out six and walked one.
Steve Cishek retired all five hitters he faced and James Pazos pitched the eighth. Nick Vincent allowed a single in the ninth, to finish the four-hit shutout.
Rockies rookie Antonio Senzatela (7-2) allowed four runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and two walks in five innings, losing for just the second time in 11 starts.
AROUND THE MAJORS WEDNESDAY
Max Scherzer has pitched a complete-game to lead the Washington Nationals to a 3-1 West Coast win over the San Francisco Giants.
The Nationals swept a three-game series at AT&T Park.
Washington managed the victory without star Bryce Harper. Harper agreed to drop his appeal of a four-game suspension and will have one game shaved from the punishment. Harper reached the agreement Wednesday with Major League Baseball and began serving the suspension
The punishment stemmed from a bench-clearing brawl on Monday after Harper was hit by a 98 mph fastball from Giants reliever Hunter Strickland. Strickland received a six-game suspension and also planned to appeal.
— Adam Jones homered and drove in five runs, Chris Davis added a two-run shot and the Baltimore Orioles beat Masahiro Tanaka and the New York Yankees 10-4 on Wednesday night. Baltimore took two of three from the AL East leaders after coming in with a seven-game losing streak. The Yankees have lost 11 straight series in Baltimore — the second-longest road skid in franchise history behind a 12-series drought at Oakland from 1985-91.
— Logan Morrison and Derek Norris homered in a three-run 10th inning to cap a late Tampa Bay comeback as the Rays beat the Texas Rangers 7-5 on Wednesday night. Kevin Kiermaier tied the score with two outs in the ninth inning with a first-pitch home run off Texas closer Matt Bush. The 10th-inning homers came off Sam Dyson (1-6), who began the season as Texas’ closer.
— After a hot month of May returned the Blue Jays to respectability, the start of June will bring a stiff test: a visit from the first-place New York Yankees. Devon Travis hit a tiebreaking two-run home run in the seventh inning, Luke Maile also hit a two-run shot, and Toronto beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-4 on Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep.
— Dexter Fowler hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning to back Carlos Martinez and give the St. Louis Cardinals a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday night. Martinez, 4-4, allowed one run on four hits while striking out nine as he pitched eight innings to help St. Louis snap a three-game losing streak.
— Eric Thames hit his first home run in three weeks, Keon Broxton also went deep against an ineffective Jacob deGrom, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the New York Mets 7-1 Wednesday night for just their third win in 10 games. Released by the Mets following a 50-game minor league drug suspension in 2009, Junior Guerra (1-0) defeated New York for the first time.
— J.D. Martinez and Justin Upton hit two-run doubles with two outs in the third inning as the Detroit Tigers held off the Kansas City Royals 6-5 on Wednesday night. Royals starter Ian Kennedy, 0-5, walked the bases loaded before giving up the doubles on consecutive pitches.
— George Springer reached base in all six plate appearances and hit two of Houston’s season-high six home runs to lead the Astros to their seventh straight victory, 17-6 over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday. Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Evan Gattis and Marwin Gonzalez also went deep for the Astros, who scored 40 runs in the three games to set a franchise record for runs in a series of any length. They had 19 hits on Wednesday and 37 in the series.
— Sean Manaea was on top of his game Wednesday night. Oakland’s left-hander allowed three hits and struck out nine in seven innings, and the Athletics defeated the Cleveland Indians 3-1.
— Rookie Franchy Cordero tripled in the eighth and scored on Yangervis Solarte’s fielder’s choice and the San Diego Padres beat Chicago 2-1. It’s the Cubs’ season-high sixth straight loss. Luis Perdomo and two relievers combined to hold the struggling Cubs to three hits. The rebuilding Padres won their season-high fourth straight game and swept the Cubs for the first time since Aug. 6-8, 2012.
— Justin Bour hit two home runs, increasing his season total to 15, and the Miami Marlins completed their first series sweep of the season by beating woeful Philadelphia 10-2. Marcell Ozuna hit his 14th homer for the Fish, who have won four games in a row, their longest winning streak since last July. The Phillies are off to their worst start since 1961.
— Chris Owings singled home the go-ahead run in the 14th inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks outlasted the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 on Wednesday in a game that took more than 4 1/2 hours to play — plus a 93-minute rain delay. Paul Goldschmidt and Nick Ahmed homered for the Diamondbacks, who led in the ninth and 11th before finally putting away the Pirates. T.J. McFarland (3-0) pitched three hitless innings for the win.
— Eric Young Jr. made his first home run of the season timely, the solo shot in the eighth inning providing the Los Angeles Angels with a 2-1 victory and a three-game series sweep of the Atlanta Braves. The Angels’ Albert Pujols remained at 599 career home runs, collecting one single in four at-bats.
— Pablo Sandoval hit a tiebreaking single in Boston’s four-run sixth inning and Drew Pomeranz struck out eight in his second straight win, helping the Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox 4-1. Sandoval went 3 for 4 in his first game since he was activated from the disabled list Tuesday after being sidelined by a sprained right knee.