CHICAGO — Ryan Braun hit two of Milwaukee’s four homers, Jhoulys Chacin struck out 10 in seven innings and the Brewers cut into Chicago’s NL Central lead with a 7-0 victory over the Cubs on Tuesday.
Lorenzo Cain homered on Jose Quintana’s second pitch. Braun hit a two-run drive in the first and third. Erik Kratz added a solo homer in the sixth and an RBI double in the eighth.
Chacin (12-4) allowed three hits and walked two. The right-hander is 6-1 in his past eight outings.
The Brewers pulled within two games of the Cubs after dropping eight of 11 against them. Milwaukee will try for a two-game sweep on Wednesday.
Quintana (10-9) got tagged for five runs and six hits in five innings after dominating the Brewers over seven previous starts.
Manager Joe Maddon got ejected for the second time in four games when plate umpire Phil Cuzzi called Ben Zobrist out on strikes in the sixth. Zobrist was also tossed by Cuzzi as the Brewers were getting ready to bat in the ninth.
BRAVES 10, MARLINS 6 Ronald Acuna Jr. became the youngest player in major league history to homer in five straight games, hitting a leadoff shot on the first pitch and adding a three-run long ball in the seventh inning to help the surging Atlanta Braves beat the Miami Marlins 10-6 on Tuesday night. Freddie Freeman hit his 20th homer to tie it in the sixth, and Dansby Swanson had a tiebreaking RBI single in the seventh as the NL East-leading Braves won for the 13th time in 17 games. Atlanta is 16 games over .500 for the first time since winning the division five years ago. The 20-year-old Acuna homered on Miami’s first pitch for the second straight night and became the first player to hit a leadoff homer in three consecutive games since Baltimore’s Brady Anderson went deep in four straight in 1996. On Monday, he became the fourth player in major league history to hit leadoff homers in both games of a doubleheader. Acuna went deep to left-center in the first off Trevor Richards and homered to right-center, his 19th of the year, off left-hander Adam Conley to give the Braves a 10-6 lead in the seventh. J.T. Realmuto drove in four runs for Miami, hitting his 15th homer to tie it at 2-all in the third and lining a two-run single in the fourth to give the Marlins a 5-4 lead. Acuna, who went 3 for 5, has homered in seven of his last eight games and is hitting .358 with 12 homers, 25 runs and 24 RBIs since moving to the top of the batting order, a stretch of 24 games beginning after the All-Star break. Acuna tied the Atlanta record of homering in five consecutive games, a mark Brian McCann set in 2006.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
WHITE SOX 6, TIGERS 3 Ryan LaMarre hit his first major league home run and Lucas Giolito escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam as the Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 6-3 Tuesday night. LaMarre, who played college baseball at Michigan, gave the White Sox a 4-3 lead in the second inning, and Giolito pitched out of trouble in the sixth inning with a 6-3 lead. Chicago won for the second time in eight games, improving to 2-9 against Detroit this season. YANKEES 4, RAYS 1 J.A. Happ allowed one soft single in seven shutout innings to win his third consecutive start since joining the New York Yankees, who beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 on Tuesday night. Austin Romine hit a two-run homer to help New York improve to 7-2 since getting swept in four games at Boston this month. Still, the wild card-leading Yankees remained 10 games behind the runaway Red Sox in the AL East despite having the second-best record in the majors at 75-44. Aaron Hicks had an early RBI single and New York won for the 14th time in 17 home games against Tampa Bay over the past two seasons. Miguel Andujar and slumping Greg Bird contributed consecutive two-out doubles in the eighth to make it 4-1. Happ (13-6) struck out four and walked four, throwing 71 of 106 pitches for strikes. The veteran
INTERLEAGUE
RED SOX 2, PHILLIES 1 Pinch-hitter Brock Holt hit a tiebreaking solo homer, Rick Porcello threw seven impressive innings and the major league-leading Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 Tuesday night. Sandy Leon also went deep for Boston, which improved to 86-35. The Red Sox increased their total to 168 homers, matching their number from last year when they hit an AL-low 168. Porcello (15-5) gave up one run and two hits, striking out 10. He tied Max Scherzer and Luis Severino for the most wins in the majors.
ORIOLES 6, METS 3 Chris Davis, Adam Jones and Tim Beckham each homered to back a strong performance by starter Andrew Cashner, and the Baltimore Orioles beat the New York Mets 6-3 on Tuesday night to snap a five-game skid. Baltimore won both games against the Mets at Citi Field on June 5-6 and can complete the season sweep today.
INDIANS 8 REDS 1 Jose Ramirez hit his 36th home run and Corey Kluber extended his dominance of the Cincinnati Reds and the Cleveland Indians rolled to an 8-1 win on Tuesday night. The Indians won the first two games of the series by a combined 18-4 despite a rough week with outfielder Leonys Martin hospitalized with a serious bacterial infection and right-hander Trevor Bauer on the DL with a fractured right leg. Kluber (15-6) allowed one run and five hits and struck out seven in seven innings. leveland sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning scoring four runs on four hits, including a two-run single by Yonder Alonso. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez’s diving stop on Yan Gomes’ hard grounder prevented further damage. In the second inning, Ramirez doubled and scored on Alonso’s sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Melky Cabrera made it 6-0.
TWINS 5, PIRATES 2 Jorge Polanco got two hits, scored twice and drove in two runs and Miguel Sano hit a two-run homer, leading the Minnesota Twins to a 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night. Jake Odorizzi (5-7) won for the first time in six starts, striking out nine in 5 1/3 innings. Trevor Hildenberger, the fourth reliever of the game for the Twins, pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save since the trade of closer Fernando Rodney. Pirates starter Jameson Taillon (9-9) finished six innings and allowed three earned runs, the 14th straight time he’s taken the mound and surrendered no more than that. Taillon has logged six innings in 10 of those starts, and he’s 4-2 with a 2.70 ERA in his last six turns. The Twins, who began the day 12½ games behind AL Central-leading Cleveland, are 15-4 in their last 19 home games. The Pirates, who started this series with a five-game deficit in the NL wild-card race with three teams between them and the second spot, lost for only the fourth time in 16 games against AL teams this year.
D’BACKS 6, RANGERS 4 Paul Goldschmidt hit his 27th homer to put Arizona ahead to stay All-Star lefty Patrick Corbin worked seven innings for his 10th victory and the NL West-leading Diamondbacks beat the Texas Rangers 6-4 on Tuesday night. Corbin (10-4) struck out seven without a walk while allowing three runs and throwing 66 of 96 pitches for strikes. He has made 10 consecutive starts without allowing a homer, the longest span for the Diamondbacks in 15 years and matching Boston’s Chris Sale for the longest active streak in the majors. Goldschmidt went deep to left in the first with a solo shot off Yovani Gallardo (7-2). Arizona led 4-0 in the fourth after Daniel Descalso had an RBI double and scored on a wild pitch. Descalso earlier had an RBI groundout. Alex Avila’s sixth homer was a two-out solo shot to straightway center in the sixth.