CHICAGO (AP) — Randal Grichuk hit a long home run and the Toronto Blue Jays took advantage of a season-high four errors by Chicago as well as a bases-loaded walk to beat the AL Central-leading White Sox 6-2 on Wednesday night. Grichuk hit a 451-foot drive leading off the second inning. Toronto rookie Alek Manoah threw five solid innings in his third major league start and the Blue Jays won despite another strong start by Chicago’s Lance Lynn. The White Sox were sailing along with a 2-1 lead after Lynn struck out nine over seven innings. But a shaky bullpen and poor defense spoiled things for Chicago. Toronto scored three runs in the eighth and tacked on two more in the ninth. Aaron Bummer (0-4) walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with the bases loaded in the eighth to force in the tying run. Two more scored when shortstop Tim Anderson overthrew first trying to complete a double play on Teoscar Hernández’s grounder against Codi Heuer, giving the Blue Jays a 4-2 lead. Toronto tacked on two more... [More]

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Shohei Ohtani hit his major league-leading 13th home run and the Los Angeles Angels defeated the slumping Cleveland Indians 7-4 on Monday night after star outfielder Mike Trout was injured early. Trout strained his right calf in the first inning. The three-time AL MVP was limping after running to third on an inning-ending popup. Angels manager Joe Maddon said Trout was undergoing further evaluation, including an MRI, and the team would know more on Tuesday. Ohtani connected off Sam Hentges (1-1) during a five-run second to give the Angels a 6-1 lead. The Japanese superstar, who hit the go-ahead homer with two outs in the ninth inning Sunday at Boston, has gone deep in consecutive games twice this season. Tony Watson (2-1), the second of seven Los Angeles pitchers, earned the win and Raisel Iglesias picked up his seventh save. Cesar Hernandez, Franmil Reyes and Harold Ramirez homered for Cleveland, which has dropped four straight. DODGERS 3, DIAMONDBACKS 1 LOS ANGELES... [More]

CHICAGO (AP) — Willson Contreras, Jason Heyward and Javier Báez homered off Jon Lester in his return to Chicago, and the Cubs beat the Washington Nationals 7-3 on Monday night. Lester and Kyle Schwarber, two key members of Chicago’s 2016 World Series championship team, heard loud cheers all night long in their first game at Wrigley Field against their former team. Contreras put his arm around Schwarber’s shoulders before he batted in the first inning, and the catcher gave Lester a brief hug when the pitcher was at the plate in the third. Schwarber celebrated with a two-run homer into the bleachers in the fourth. Per the custom at Chicago’s iconic ballpark — even for old friends like the affable Schwarber — the ball was thrown back onto the field. In between the standing ovations and cheering for Lester and Schwarber, the Cubs were mostly all business during their third win in four games. Adbert Alzolay (2-3) pitched five innings of three-run ball in his first win since April 29. Lester... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Gleyber Torres’ tying single in the ninth inning and winning infield single in the 11th helped the New York Yankees overcame Max Scherzer’s commanding 14-strikeout performance to beat the Washington Nationals 4-3 Saturday. Scherzer allowed two hits in 7 1/3 innings, but the Yankees rallied three times. Kyle Higashioka’s home run tied the score at 1 in the third, Torres made it 2-all against Brad Hand in the ninth and Mike Ford’s single evened it 3-3 against Hand in the 10th. With automatic runner DJ LeMahieu on second in the 11th, Tanner Rainey (0-2) walked Giancarlo Stanton on a full count and Aaron Judge on four pitches, loading the bases. Washington went to a five-man infield, replacing left fielder Kyle Schwarber with Jordy Mercer. Torres hit a dribbler to the third-base side that bounced off Rainey’s bare hand as New York got its first walk-off win this season. Justin Wilson (1-0) struck out two in a perfect 11th, and New York moved back over .500 at 17-16. Washington... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Gleyber Torres’ tying single in the ninth inning and a winning infield single in the 11th helped the New York Yankees overcame Max Scherzer’s commanding 14-strikeout performance to beat the Washington Nationals 4-3 Saturday. Scherzer allowed two hits in 7 1/3 innings, but the Yankees rallied three times. Kyle Higashioka’s home run tied the score at 1 in the third, Torres made it 2-all against Brad Hand in the ninth and Mike Ford’s single evened it 3-3 against Hand in the 10th. With automatic runner DJ LeMahieu on second in the 11th, Tanner Rainey (0-2) walked Giancarlo Stanton on a full count and Aaron Judge on four pitches, loading the bases. Washington went to a five-man infield, replacing left fielder Kyle Schwarber with Jordy Mercer. Torres hit a dribbler to the third-base side that bounced off Rainey’s bare hand as New York got its first walk-off win this season. Justin Wilson (1-0) struck out two in a perfect 11th, and New York moved back over .500 at 17-16. Washington... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Gleyber Torres’ tying single in the ninth inning and a winning infield single in the 11th helped the New York Yankees overcame Max Scherzer’s commanding 14-strikeout performance to beat the Washington Nationals 4-3 Saturday. Scherzer allowed two hits in 7 1/3 innings, but the Yankees rallied three times. Kyle Higashioka’s home run tied the score at 1 in the third, Torres made it 2-all against Brad Hand in the ninth and Mike Ford’s single evened it 3-3 against Hand in the 10th. With automatic runner DJ LeMahieu on second in the 11th, Tanner Rainey (0-2) walked Giancarlo Stanton on a full count and Aaron Judge on four pitches, loading the bases. Washington went to a five-man infield, replacing left fielder Kyle Schwarber with Jordy Mercer. Torres hit a dribbler to the third-base side that bounced off Rainey’s bare hand as New York got its first walk-off win this season. Justin Wilson (1-0) struck out two in a perfect 11th, and New York moved back over .500 at 17-16. Washington... [More]

CHICAGO (AP) — More than 90% of the traveling party for the Chicago White Sox got the COVID-19 vaccine after their home opener, moving the team closer to meeting Major League Baseball's threshold for relaxing some of the protocols put in place for the pandemic. Showing an unusual amount of transparency for the sport, the White Sox announced the step before Sunday's game against the Kansas City Royals. The team said in a release that “virtually the entire” traveling party had received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and general manager Rick Hahn put the number at “well in excess of 90%.” “We got to an extraordinarily high percentage of those eligible participating and we couldn’t be happier with that,” Hahn said. In its release, the team thanked the city, the Chicago Department of Public Health and Rush University Medical Center for their help with the vaccinations. Major League Baseball and the players’ association sent a memo to players and staff last month that said some of... [More]