Baseball-Highlights of Sunday's MLB games

June 6 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Sunday's Major League Baseball games: Diamondbacks 3, Cubs 2 Jake Arrieta lost for the first time in 25 starts, as the Arizona Diamondbacks posted a 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday. Arrieta (9-1) struck out a season-high 12 but gave up a season-worst nine hits and walked one in five innings. He last lost July 25, 2015, when the Philadelphia Phillies' Cole Hamels threw a no-hitter against the Cubs. Arrieta had won 20 consecutive decisions, the third most in baseball since 1913. The Cubs lost for the first time in 24 starts by Arrieta on Tuesday when they fell 5-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Arrieta was also trying to become the quickest Cubs pitcher to reach 10 victories since Grover Alexander in 1920. Yasmany Tomas hit a two-run double off Arrieta in the second inning, and Paul Goldschmidt added an RBI single in the fifth. Diamondbacks lefty Patrick Corbin held Chicago to two runs in five innings. Marlins 1, Mets 0 Jose Fernandez matched his career high with 14 strikeouts and won a pitching duel against Matt Harvey as Miami defeated New York. Fernandez (9-2) pitched seven scoreless innings for his eighth win in his past eight starts. He allowed four hits and no walks. The only time Fernandez encountered even mild trouble was the first inning when Curtis Granderson hit a two-out double. Fernandez, who has a 2.29 ERA, retired the next 15 batters in a row, striking out the side in the fourth. Harvey (4-8) allowed four hits, no walks and one run in seven innings. He struck out three. He surrendered an RBI single to J.T. Realmuto in the fifth inning, and that was the difference. Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 4 Edwin Encarnacion belted a two-run homer and Marco Estrada took a no-hitter into the eighth inning as Toronto held on to beat Boston. Estrada (4-2) held the Red Sox without a hit through 7 1/3 innings before Chris Young's solo homer. He gave up two hits and three walks while striking out five in eight-plus innings. Jose Bautista, Darwin Barney and Russell Martin hit solo homers for the Blue Jays, who have won five of its last six and 12 of 16 since ending a season-worst five-game skid. David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez each hit RBI doubles and Jackie Bradley Jr. had an RBI single in the ninth for the Red Sox, who dropped two of three in the series and four of five overall. Tigers 5, White Sox 2 Justin Verlander held Chicago to five hits over seven innings -- two of them solo home runs -- and struggling Justin Upton negated those with a two-run double at the end of a four-run fifth inning to help Detroit complete a three-game sweep of Chicago. Shane Greene worked his second perfect inning of relief in as many days since coming off the disabled list and Francisco Rodriguez converted his 17th straight save to help the Tigers defeat their third straight southpaw after entering the series with a 3-8 record against left-handers. Verlander (5-5) allowed a two-out home run to Jose Abreu, his seventh, in the first and a second solo shot to Todd Frazier, his 18th, with two out in the sixth. Verlander walked one and struck out eight. Nationals 10, Reds 9 Daniel Murphy and Wilson Ramos hit home runs to help Washington avoid a series sweep with a victory over Cincinnati. The Nationals' trio of Bryce Harper, Murphy and Ramos combined to go 9-for-15 with two homers and five RBIs in just the second win in the past nine meetings with the Reds. Jay Bruce homered for the Reds, who have won six of nine since snapping an 11-game losing streak. Angels 5, Pirates 4 Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to give Los Angeles a victory over Pittsburgh. With the Angels trailing 4-3, Pujols hit an 0-2 pitch from reliever Tony Watson into the left field stands for his 12th homer. It also scored Kole Calhoun, who led off the inning with a single, giving Pujols three RBIs in the game. It was Pujols' 30th home run at PNC Park, more than any other opposing player. He has 88 RBIs in 92 career games at the Pittsburgh ballpark. Phillies 8, Brewers 1 The long ball ruled the day for a Philadelphia team that entered the game on a 2-14 slide and ranked second to last in the majors in home runs. For the first time since Aug. 22, 2015, the Phillies hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning courtesy of Jimmy Paredes and Cameron Rupp en route to a win over Milwaukee. With 13 hits to the Brewers' 11, the Phillies now move to 18-3 when out-hitting the opposition. Odubel Herrera tied his career high with four hits. Indians 7, Royals 0 The Indians hit four home runs and Corey Kluber pitched six scoreless innings as Cleveland completed a four-game sweep of Kansas City. The American League Central-leading Indians won their fifth game in a row. The Royals came to Cleveland on a six-game winning streak and left with a four-game losing streak. Mike Napoli, Tyler Naquin, Carlos Santana and Francisco Lindor all homered off Chris Young (2-6) in a span of nine batters in the fourth and fifth innings. Orioles 3, Yankees 1 Matt Wieters' pinch-hit single in the eighth inning off New York closer Aroldis Chapman led to three runs, lifting Baltimore to a victory. The Orioles finally broke through in the eighth when Mark Trumbo walked and Chris Davis singled off Dellin Betances. After Betances (2-4) struck out Nolan Reimold, the game was delayed because of rain. When play resumed after 1 hour and 37 minutes, Chapman entered for New York. He struck out Schoop before Francisco Pena lined a single to right to load the bases. Wieters then lined a single up the middle that scored two runs, and a throwing error by Jacoby Ellsbury allowed the third run to score. Astros 5, A's 2 Lance McCullers rebounded from a rocky first inning and worked a season-best seven innings as Houston completed a three-game sweep of Oakland. McCullers (3-1) faced seven batters and surrendered two runs in the first inning, but he didn't yield another run in his seven-inning outing. McCullers allowed eight hits and three walks while striking out seven. Oakland right-hander Sonny Gray was as effective as McCullers in making his return off the 15-day disabled list, giving up just a solo homer by Carlos Gomez in his five innings. Houston took advantage of the A's bullpen, though, scoring four runs, including an Evan Gattis solo home run in the sixth. Rays 7, Twins 5 Evan Longoria and Logan Morrison each hit two homers to lead Tampa Bay to a come-from-behind win over Minnesota. Longoria hit at least one homer in all four games of the series and had five during the weekend, establishing a franchise record for home runs in a series. Morrison wasn't far behind, hitting at least one in each of the past three games and four overall. Minnesota hit three homers Sunday, getting back-to-back solo shots from Byung Ho Park and Robbie Grossman in the third inning and a solo blast from Eduardo Nunez that tied the score at 5 in the eighth. Brad Miller's ninth-inning sacrifice fly broke the tie, and Longoria added an RBI single. Rangers 3, Mariners 2 Texas took advantage of two Seattle errors in the fifth inning to score three times and complete a three-game sweep. With a runner on first and one out, Texas' Elvis Andrus hit a grounder to short that Luis Sardinas bobbled to put runners on first and second. Jared Hoying brought in the first run with a single to left-center. Bobby Wilson followed with a shallow fly ball to left off Hisashi Iwakuma (4-5), with Andrus able to sprint home to tie the game as left fielder Stefen Romero was slow to throw the ball in. Jurickson Profar followed with a single to left that Romero couldn't come up with cleanly, and Hoying scored the go-ahead run. Dodgers 12, Braves 6 Rookie Corey Seager went 3-for-5 with his two home runs to bring his total for the series to five, and Los Angeles completed a three-game sweep of Atlanta. Seager has hit 12 home runs since May 11, the most in the league. It was the third multi-homer game of his career and second in the series. Scott Kazmir (5-3) earned the win, limiting the Braves to three runs in five-plus innings before exiting with a left quadriceps cramp. He is not expected to miss a start. Cardinals 6, Giants 3 The Cardinals scored four runs in the sixth inning to erase a 3-1 deficit, and they went on to win and take two of three from San Francisco in the weekend series. The Cardinals cut the lead to 3-2 on back-to-back doubles by Matt Carpenter and Aledmys Diaz. After a walk and a hit batter, Matt Adams it an RBI infield single to tie the score. Yadier Molina's hard grounder up the middle was misplayed by shortstop Brandon Crawford for an error, giving the Cardinals a 4-3 lead. Greg Garcia followed with a run-scoring, fielder's choice grounder. Carlos Martinez (6-5) was the beneficiary of the Cardinals' four-run rally. He pitched six innings of three-run ball. Rockies 10, Padres 3 Carlos Gonzalez stroked a pair of two-run homers and Nolan Arenado added one, too, as Colorado beat San Diego to snap a four-game losing streak. Gonzalez, who had five RBIs, hit his shots in the second and ninth innings, both traveling more than 400 feet. Arenado, who had three hits and reached base five times, smacked his league-leading 18th homer in the fifth. Right-hander Jon Gray (4-2) worked seven innings, charged with two runs on five hits, with a walk. Gray, a former first-round pick, had a career-high 12 strikeouts. He was impressive from the get-go in earning his third straight win as he struck out the initial five Padres he faced. (Editing by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru)