Burnes allowed a home run to the first batter of the game, and Baltimore‘s new star pitcher left after five innings Sunday against the Brewers. He allowed three runs along with six hits and two walks, but he struck out five and pitched out of trouble on multiple occasions. The Orioles ultimately won 6-4.
“I’ve done a great job of giving up runs in the first inning,” Burnes said. “Didn’t execute anything real well, so it was definitely having to grind through it. Made some big pitches, got out of some jams. Also gifted them a couple runs.”
Some of those jams were self-inflicted — a throwing error by Burnes led to an unearned run in the fourth — but the Brewers couldn’t produce a big inning against the right-hander after scoring 11 runs in each of the first two games in Baltimore. Milwaukee tied a franchise record by scoring at least seven runs in six straight games before that streak ended Sunday.
The Brewers traded Burnes to the Orioles in the offseason for left-hander DL Hall and infielder Joey Ortiz. William Contreras greeted Burnes with a homer to center field leading off the game, and Rhys Hoskins followed with a double. Then the right-hander set down six in a row.
With the Orioles ahead 2-1, Blake Perkins led off the third with a single and then moved to second on a balk when Burnes committed a disengagement violation.
“Perkins is a guy that’s going to steal a lot of bags,” Burnes said. “Always gets a big lead. Had I made a couple better pickoff throws, we could have got him.”
With men on first and third and two out, Sal Frelick took off running toward second on a pitch to Willy Adames, and when catcher Adley Rutschman threw to second, Perkins dashed home. The Orioles caught Frelick in a rundown and tagged him out, but the run scored on the fielder’s choice.
With Baltimore up 3-2 in the fourth, Burnes allowed a single and a walk starting the inning, then fielded Brice Turang‘s bunt and threw wildly to first. The play was ruled an infield single and an error, with a run coming home and runners ending up at second and third. A popup and two strikeouts got Burnes out of that with no further scoring.
Milwaukee stole two bases in the fifth but didn’t score. With a man on third and one out, shortstop Gunnar Henderson fielded a grounder and threw home to retire Contreras. Burnes exited the game after that inning, having thrown 98 pitches.
George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.
The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.
Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.
Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.
Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.
New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.
DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.
Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.
He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.
“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”
Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.
The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.
“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”
Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.
Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.
Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.
Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).
As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).
During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.
Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.
Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.
Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.