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Major leagues: Indians defeat blundering White Sox
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Carlos Santana and Leonys Martin homered and the Cleveland Indians took advantage of a White Sox blunder on the bases to end Chicago’s five-game streak with a 5-2 victory on Saturday.
The Indians climbed back to .500 and prevented the White Sox from reaching the break-even mark for the first time since April 5.
Chicago loaded the bases with no outs in the third on a single by Tim Anderson and walks to Yolmer Sanchez and Charlie Tilson. Leury Garcia hit a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead, but pitcher Jefry Rodriguez escaped further damage when he caught Sanchez off second on pickoff attempt.
Sanchez got caught in a rundown and was tagged out by third baseman Jose Ramirez, who then threw over to first base to get Tilson retreating to the bag to end the inning.
Santana’s solo homer off Ivan Nova (3-5) made it 2-1 in the sixth. It was Santana’s 11th home run of the season.
Minnesota 6, Tampa Bay 2: Marwin Gonzalez and Byron Buxton both homered and drove in two runs as the Minnesota Twins kept scoring, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 6-2.
Texas 6, Kansas City 2: Joey Gallo hit a tie-breaking home run for the second straight game before leaving in the fifth inning due to injury as the Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2.
Gallo was removed because of tightness in his left oblique while batting. He initially felt the injury while in the outfield and then again on a check swing during a plate appearance. He will undergo treatment and further evaluation.
National League
Washington 5, Cincinnati 2: Gerardo Parra hit a three-run homer that ended Tanner Roark’s streak of keeping the ball in the park and Matt Adams added a solo shot, leading the Washington Nationals to a 5-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in a stadium where they’ve dominated.
Washington has won nine of its last 10 at Great American Ball Park. Overall, the Nationals are 17-5 against the Reds since 2016.
The Nationals faced Roark (4-4) for the first time since trading him to the Reds in the offseason. Parra’s homer in the second inning ended Roark’s string of 35 1/3 innings without allowing a homer, the second longest of his career.
Interleague
Atlanta 10, Detroit 5: Mike Soroka won his sixth straight decision and showed some baserunning flair, Freddie Freeman and Austin Riley each hit a two-run homer, and the Atlanta Braves snapped a three-game skid with a 10-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
Soroka (6-1) scuffled a bit, at least compared to the high standard he set this season, allowing season highs of three runs and seven hits and striking out five in 6 2/3 innings. He began the game with a 1.07 ERA that, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, was the third-best since 1913 by a pitcher 21 or younger in his first eight starts.
San Francisco 8, Baltimore 2: Brandon Belt drove in four runs, Buster Posey homered and the San Francisco Giants used a rare offensive outburst to breeze past the Baltimore Orioles, 8-2.
San Francisco built a 7-1 lead in the fifth inning and cruised to only its second win in 10 games. The Giants came in ranked last in the NL with a .221 batting average and had scored as many as seven runs only once in their previous 19 games.
Mike Yastrzemski scored twice and had an RBI for the Giants, who made it easy for rookie right-hander Shaun Anderson to earn his first major league victory.
Record set for home runs in month: Major league batters set a record in May for most home runs in any month.
Batters hit 1,135 home runs in May, topping the previous mark of 1,119 in August 2017, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Toronto rookie Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit No. 1,120 for the month on Friday night.
Four of the top five home run months have been in the last three years. June 2017 is third at 1,101, followed by May 2000 (1,069) and May 2017 (1,060).
Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich led the big leagues with 21 homers through the end of May, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger with 20 and New York Mets rookie Pete Alonso with 19.
Batters have hit 2,279 home runs this season, a record average of 1.34 per team per game. At that pace, they would finish with 6,508, shattering the mark of 6,105 set two years ago – which topped the Steroids Era high of 5,693 in 2000. Home runs dipped to 5,585 last season.
Last year, there were 1,889 home runs through May.
Hits topped strikeouts in May – 7,178 to 7,137 – but strikeouts are ahead 14,885 to 14,397 for the season, according to Elias.
Minnesota, which owns the best record in the majors at 39-18, has scored at least three runs in 25 straight games, setting a single-season franchise record.
The Twins, who lead the majors with 108 homers, failed to go deep while splitting the first two games of the series at Tropicana Field.
Kyle Gibson (6-2) allowed one unearned run and six hits over five innings for Minnesota.