Jun 19, 2019 6 min read

Nick Senzel singled home the tying run with two outs in the ninth inning, and Jesse Winker followed with an RBI single Wednesday afternoon as the Cincinnati Reds rallied for a 3-2 victory and a rare sweep of the Houston Astros.

The Reds matched their season high with a fourth straight win. They also swept the Marlins in April.

Former American League MVP Jose Altuve returned to Houston’s lineup, but couldn’t help the Astros avoid their first sweep of the season and their first on the road since September 2017 at Oakland. The AL West leaders have lost four in a row.

Michael Brantley’s two-run homer put Gerrit Cole in position for only his second career win over Cincinnati, but Roberto Osuna (3-1) couldn’t close it out. Jose Peraza opened the rally with a double and came around on Senzel’s hit. Winker finished it off with a single up the middle.

Matt Bowman (1-0) pitched two innings.

Cole has only one career win against the Reds throughout his career with the Pirates and Astros, going 1-8. His team has lost 12 of the 13 games he’s pitched against Cincinnati.

Cole limited the Reds to Yasiel Puig’s homer in six innings. He gave up six hits and fanned eight . The major leagues’ strikeout leader raised his season total to 148.

San Diego 8, Milwaukee 7: Franmil Reyes hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the seventh and Eric Hosmer added a two-run shot for the San Diego Padres, who overcame three homers by the Milwaukee Brewers in an 8-7 win for a three-game sweep.

Reyes’ shot to right-center, his 20th, came off Jeremy Jeffress (1-1) after Manny Machado hit a leadoff single and Hunter Renfroe walked. Reyes and Hosmer had three hits apiece.

Yasmani Grandal had given the Brewers an 7-5 lead in the top of the inning on a three-run homer against his former team, his 16th.

Christian Yelich hit his MLB-leading 27th homer and Ryan Braun homered, doubled and drove in three runs for the Brewers.

Machado missed a three-run homer by inches, settling for an RBI single in an odd play in the second for the Padres, who won their fourth straight.

Philadelphia 6, Washington 2: Patrick Corbin struck out eight over seven strong innings and the Washington Nationals defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2 to begin a day-night doubleheader.

This was the belated series opener after the teams were rained out Monday and Tuesday. Washington won for the 15th time in 22 games while the Phillies have lost six of eight.

Corbin (6-5) was originally set to start Monday and then pushed back twice by the postponements. But he was sharp against the Phillies, at one point striking out seven of nine batters. He scattered four hits and three walks while ending a personal three-game losing streak.

Dozier and Parra hit back-to-back homers in the eighth off Cole Irvin to push the lead to 6-1.

NY Yankees 12, Tampa Bay 1: Gary Sanchez hit a three-run homer to help chase Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell in the first inning, CC Sabathia got his 250th career win and the New York Yankees thumped the Tampa Bay Rays 12-1 to complete a three-game sweep.

Gleyber Torres added a grand slam during a six-run seventh inning, and New York three-hit Tampa Bay to win its fifth in a row and extend its lead the AL East over the second-place Rays by 3 ½ games. Tampa Bay was swept for the second time this season – the other came against Boston in April.

Snell (4-6) walked four, gave up two hits and was charged with six runs while getting one out on 39 pitches in the shortest start of his career. He is the first reigning Cy Young winner to allow at least six runs and get no more than one out in a start, according to STATS.

Oakland 8, Baltimore 3: Chris Bassitt took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and won for the first time in more than three weeks as the Oakland Athletics beat Baltimore 8-3, handing the Orioles their eighth straight loss.

Josh Phegley had a three-run homer, Marcus Semien extended his hitting streak to 16 games and Stephen Piscotty doubled twice to help the A’s complete a three-game sweep. Oakland won six of seven games against Baltimore this season.

Bassitt (4-3) allowed two hits and two runs in 5 2/3 innings, striking out six and walking three. The right-hander retired 16 of the first 18 batters he faced and didn’t give up a hit until Jonathan Villar lined a 3-2 pitch for a single with one out in the sixth.

Villar had two hits overall. Renato Nunez added an RBI single for the Orioles.

Seattle 8, Kansas City 2: Domingo Santana hit two home runs in a game for the third time this season, Marco Gonzales won his third straight start and the Seattle Mariners avoided an embarrassing series sweep with an 8-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

Santana, who had five RBIs, and Daniel Vogelbach hit back-to-back homers in the first inning to give the Mariners a 4-0 lead and they went on to snap Kansas City’s three-game winning streak. The Mariners had been outscored 15-4 by the Royals in the first two games of a series between last-place teams.

Seattle jumped on starter Brad Keller (3-9) immediately. Mallex Smith doubled to open the bottom of the first and J.P. Crawford walked before Santana hit his first home run of the day to left-center field. Vogelbach followed with his 18th of the season, off the Hit It Here Café in the second deck.

It was the eighth time this year the Mariners, second in the majors in homers, have gone back-to-back.

Seattle showed some of the small-ball potential of its new young lineup in the fourth after Dylan Moore singled to start the inning. Keller hit Smith with a pitch, then gave up run-scoring singles to Crawford and Santana before Vogelbach’s sacrifice fly made it 7-1.