Mike Montgomery took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning, Kyle Schwarber hit his 28th home run and the Chicago Cubs extended their winning streak to a season-high seven games by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1 on Tuesday in manager Joe Maddon’s return to Tropicana Field.
Maddon managed Tampa Bay from 2006-14, then left for Chicago and last year led the Cubs to their first World Series title since 1908. Chicago holds a 3½-game lead over second-place Milwaukee in the NL Central.
A crowd of 25,046, the largest at the Trop since opening day, gave Maddon a standing ovation in the middle of the first inning.
Montgomery (7-8) allowed one hit in six innings, a one-out homer in the sixth by Brad Miller. The left-hander struck out six and walked one.
Pedro Strop, Carl Edwards Jr. and Wade Davis each followed with an inning of perfect relief to complete the one-hitter. Davis struck out the side and remained perfect in 32 save chances.
Javier Baez hit an RBI double against Chris Archer (9-11), who gave up four hits in six innings.
Indians 6 Angels 3: In Anaheim, California, Jay Bruce had a triple and a double among his three hits, Austin Jackson singled four times and the incredible Cleveland Indians notched their 25th victory in 26 games.
Roberto Perez added a solo home run for the AL Central champions to support a strong outing by Mike Clevinger (11-5).
Los Angeles’ offense struggled for the third consecutive game as the Angels missed a chance to gain ground on Minnesota in their bid for the final American League playoff berth.
Red Sox 1 Orioles 0, 11 innings: In Baltmore, Jackie Bradley Jr. scored the game’s lone run on a wild pitch by Brad Brach in the 11th inning, helping the Red Sox improve to 15-3 in extra-inning games.
Boston has won 10 of 13 to move a season-high 23 games over .500 (87-64) and draw closer to clinching a postseason berth. The Red Sox stayed three games ahead of the second-place Yankees in the AL East.
With a runner on second and two outs in the 11th, Brach (4-5) walked Andrew Benintendi and Mookie Betts to load the bases for Mitch Moreland, who sidestepped a bouncing pitch from Brach that enabled Bradley to score without a throw.
Joe Kelly (4-1) worked the 10th and Matt Barnes got three outs for his first save.
The Orioles have lost 11 of 13 to fall out of contention.
Yankees 5 Twins 2: In New York, CC Sabathia recovered from a shaky start to pitch six innings, Brett Gardner had a pair of tying hits and the Yankees clinched their sixth straight series win.
With their ninth victory in 11 games, the Yankees opened six-game lead over the Twins for the top AL wild card. Minnesota, which started the night 1 1/2 games ahead of the Los Angeles Angels for the second AL wild card, has lost four of five.
Pitching on seven days’ rest in a game that started 65 minutes late because of a downpour, Sabathia (12-5) allowed two runs and six hits. Aroldis Chapman worked a scoreless ninth for his 20th save in 24 chances.
Minnesota right-hander Jose Berrios (12-8) yielded three runs in 3 1/3 innings.
Phillies 6 Dodgers 2: In Philadelphia, Rhys Hoskins had four RBIs for Philadelphia, including a tiebreaking three-run double off Pedro Baez in seventh inning.
Los Angeles’ magic number to clinch its fifth straight division title is two. The Dodgers have lost three consecutive games and 19 of 24.
Hoskins saw 30 pitches in going 2 for 3 with a walk. He knocked out Yu Darvish with a sixth-inning RBI single that cut Philadelphia’s deficit to 2-1, and then doubled to the left-center gap on the 10th pitch of his at-bat against Baez (3-6) for a 5-2 lead.
Aaron Nola (12-10) allowed two runs in seven innings while striking out eight. The Phillies have won seven of 10.
Brewers 1 Pirates 0: In Pittsburgh, Chase Anderson struck out eight in six innings, Domingo Santana homered and the Brewers shut out the Pirates for the second straight day.
The Brewers won for the ninth time in 11 games, keeping pace in the NL Central and wild-card races. They won for the fourth time in the past seven days against reeling Pittsburgh, which has lost a season-high seven consecutive games and 12 of 13.
It was the 12th shutout of the season for the Brewers, tied for the second-most in the NL.
Anderson (11-3) allowed five singles. Anthony Swarzak retired six of his seven batters, and Corey Knebel earned his 37th save.
Pirates right-hander Trevor Williams (6-9) pitched five innings of three-hit ball.
Marlins 5 Mets 4, 10 innings: In Miami, J.T. Realmuto homered in the 10th inning and Miami beat New York after rallying for three runs in the ninth against former teammate A.J. Ramos.
With one out, Realmuto connected off Paul Sewald (0-6) for his 17th homer.
Miami trailed 4-1 in the ninth before coming back against Ramos, who faced the Marlins for the first time since they traded him to New York on July 28. Justin Bour led off with his 22nd homer, and first since a six-week stint on the disabled list. Ramos then gave up four singles, including two-out RBI hits by pinch-hitter A.J. Ellis and Ichiro Suzuki.
Ramos’ blown save was his first with the Mets.

Source:Arabnews