ATLANTA — With All-Star outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. banished for his lack of hustle, Rafael Ortega stepped up with a sixth-inning grand slam to lift the Atlanta Braves to a 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.
Acuña was pulled before the fifth inning after failing to run out a drive off the right field wall in the third. The ball bounced off the wall for a long single. The 21-year-old Acuña likely would have had an easy double if he had hustled from home plate.
Manager Brian Snitker followed Acuña into the tunnel for an apparent conversation during the fourth inning before Adam Duvall entered the game in left field in the fifth, with Ortega moving from left to center field.
The move by Snitker came in a high-spotlight game — a 2018 playoff rematch and the decisive game of a three-game series between the teams with the National League’s best records.
Acuña is hitting .296 with 35 home runs and 85 RBIs, and leads the NL with 29 stolen bases and 104 runs scored.
CINCINNATI — Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer, Tommy Edman added a solo shot among his three hits and St. Louis held off Cincinnati to split their four-game series.
Jack Flaherty’s scoreless streak was snapped at 23 innings, but he allowed only one run in five frames as St. Louis stayed in first place in the NL Central, just ahead of the Chicago Cubs.
PHILADELPHIA — Austin Hedges had four hits, including a tiebreaking homer in the seventh, and Joey Lucchesi pitched six strong innings to lead San Diego over Philadelphia.
Luis Urías also went deep for the Padres, who had lost seven consecutive rubber games before taking two of three in Philadelphia.
WASHINGTON — The Nationals matched a team record with eight home runs — including two by Juan Soto — in a rout of Milwaukee as Washington took two of three from a fellow contender in the NL playoff race.
Matt Adams and Victor Robles hit back-to-back homers in the first to give the Nationals a 4-0 lead, and Anthony Rendon and Soto did the same in the third as the advantage ballooned to 13-0. Washington has gone for back-to-back homers ten times this season.
DENVER — Garrett Hampson hit a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 10th inning, and Colorado rallied to beat Miami, completing a three-game sweep.
Nolan Arenado homered twice for Colorado, which has won four straight and swept a series for the first time since June 18-20.
PHOENIX — Wilmer Flores and David Peralta homered, Merrill Kelly held San Francisco to one run in 5⅔ innings, and Arizona avoided a four-game series sweep.
Kelly (9-12) struck out five and allowed six hits in his first win at home since June 2. Madison Bumgarner (8-8) took the loss for the Giants after giving up four runs on six hits in six innings.
TORONTO — Yusei Kikuchi pitched his first shutout in the major leagues, throwing a two-hitter that led Seattle over Toronto.
Kikuchi (5-8) struck out eight, walked one and retired the final 14 batters in his first win since beating Baltimore on June 23.
TAMPA, Fla. — Ji-Man Choi’s two-run single in the bottom of the ninth completed a rally from a late three-run deficit and gave Tampa Bay a victory over Detroit.
The Rays trailed 4-1 after seven before coming back with two in the eighth and then the winning hit in the ninth.
NEW YORK — Mike Clevinger struck out 10 in five shutout innings, Mike Freeman had three extra-base hits and Cleveland tamed New York for a four-game split between AL pennant contenders.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Jorge Polanco cleared the bases with a tiebreaking triple in the eighth inning, helping Minnesota to its first-ever four-game sweep of Texas.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Zack Greinke threw seven smooth innings for his 200th win, pitching the first-place Houston past Oakland to avoid a four-game sweep.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani, Kole Calhoun, Matt Thaiss and Anthony Bemboom all homered to lead Los Angeles over Chicago.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pete Alonso hit his 40th home run to break the National League rookie record, capping a late outburst by New York in a win over Kansas City.
Michael Conforto hit a long homer in the first inning and drove in four runs. Amed Rosario put the Mets ahead 6-4 with a two-run single in the seventh, and Alonso went deep in the ninth on an 0-2 pitch. He snapped a tie with Cody Bellinger, who launched 39 long balls for the Dodgers in 2017 on the way to winning Rookie of the Year honors.
Back in the thick of a crowded NL wild-card race thanks to a second-half surge, New York completed a 3-3 road trip and improved to 24-10 since the All-Star break.
Alonso also had an RBI double and scored three times during his second consecutive three-hit game. Rosario had three hits and three RBIs in the leadoff spot, and Joe Panik added three hits as the top four batters in the Mets’ lineup combined to go 11 for 18 with nine RBIs and seven runs.
New York scored six times in the seventh to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 9-4 lead. J.D. Davis tied it with a pinch-hit RBI single and Rosario had the go-ahead single two batters later. Alonso, Conforto and Wilson Ramos added RBI base hits later in the inning.
New York battered Royals reliever Kevin McCarthy (2-2), who was charged with four runs in just one-third of an inning.
Jeurys Familia (4-1) got the win, throwing two innings and allowing one run.
Conforto put the Mets up 3-0 in the first, sending the first pitch he saw from starter Glenn Sparkman 452 feet to right field for his 25th home run.
Sparkman settled down after that to throw six solid innings. He set down 14 of his next 15 batters and pitched around a couple of one-out singles in the sixth.
Mets starter Zack Wheeler didn’t allow a hit through the first three innings, but things snowballed over the next two. He gave up four runs — three earned — on five hits in five innings and committed a costly throwing error in the fifth.
The Royals got one run back in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Ryan O’Hearn, then took the lead an inning later. Kansas City loaded the bases with nobody out and all three runners came around to score. Whit Merrifield had an RBI single in the inning. Nicky Lopez and Hunter Dozier also had RBIs.
Brett Phillips had his first two big league hits of the season, including a double in the seventh. He was 0 for 6 in his first two games of the year this weekend.
STATS AND STREAKS
Mets catcher Tomás Nido snapped an 0-for-24 skid with a double in the seventh. … Ramos singled in the seventh to extend his hitting streak to 13 games, tied for the longest active run in the majors with Cincinnati’s Jose Iglesias. … Rosario moved from shortstop to left field in the bottom of the seventh, his first major league appearance in the outfield. … Cheslor Cuthbert went 0 for 4 for the Royals, matching Chad Kreuter’s team record with his seventh straight 0-for-4 game. Cuthbert is hitless in 30 at-bats dating to Aug. 8. … Kansas City is 1-10 in series rubber games this season and 1-24 dating to May 30, 2018.
TRAINER’S ROOM
With an off day on Monday, the Mets decided to keep Davis out of the starting lineup for a second consecutive day as he nurses a sore calf. After his pinch-hit single, he went first to third on Nido’s double but was then removed from the game.
UP NEXT
Mets: Return home Tuesday night to begin a nine-game homestand against playoff contenders. Steven Matz (7-7) starts the series opener against All-Star Game MVP Shane Bieber (12-5) and the Cleveland Indians. Mets manager Mickey Callaway was Cleveland’s pitching coach under skipper Terry Francona before getting the job in New York.
Royals: Head out of town for a seven-game trip beginning Monday night in Baltimore. Jorge Lopez (1-7) makes his 12th start of the season.
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