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Highlights of Thursday's MLB games

[April 21, 2017] April 20 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Thursday's Major League Baseball games:

Nationals 3, Braves 2

Not even facing R.A. Dickey's dancing knuckleball could disrupt the grooved swing of Washington's Ryan Zimmerman as the Nationals completed a three-game series sweep of the Atlanta Braves.

Zimmerman, who hit a grand slam Wednesday, connected for a two-run homer off Dickey in the sixth inning, and Washington prevailed 3-2 on Thursday night behind a 10-strikeout effort from Stephen Strasburg.

Athletics 9, Mariners 6

Trevor Plouffe hit a three-run homer and Ryon Healy went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs as Oakland won its third straight game.

Rajai Davis went 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs for the Athletics but left the game after the bottom of the eighth inning with an apparent leg injury. Jed Lowrie had two hits, including a double, and scored while Ryan Dull (1-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief for the win.

Seattle's James Paxton entered the game with a franchise-record 21 straight scoreless innings to start the season and blanked the A's in the first and second. However, his streak ended in the third when Oakland scored three runs.

Rangers 1, Royals 0 (13 innings)

Delino DeShields lined an RBI single to left field with one out in the 13th inning to give Texas the victory over Kansas City.

Joey Gallo doubled off Travis Wood (0-1) with one out. The first hit for Texas since the fifth inning brought up DeShields, who had one hit on the season coming into the game. It marked only the fourth time the Rangers entered the bottom of the 13th inning in a scoreless game.

Dario Alvarez (1-0), the seventh Texas pitcher, picked up the win with two scoreless innings. He struck out three.

Brewers 7, Cardinals 5

Travis Shaw, Eric Thames and Jett Bandy each clubbed long home runs as Milwaukee slugged its way past St. Louis.

Shaw and Bandy extended homer streaks to three games, while Thames hit his seventh homer in his past eight contests and has a major-league-leading eight. The Brewers lead the majors with 32 round-trippers.

Milwaukee starter Zach Davies (1-2) allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings, but the home run bats allowed him to pick up his first win. Jacob Barnes, normally the seventh-inning man, pitched the ninth for his first save of the season.

Padres 4, Diamondbacks 1

Wil Myers homered to extend his hitting streak to 11 games for San Diego, while Clayton Richard and two relievers shut down Arizona in the rubber match of a three-game series.

The Diamondbacks, who scored 11 runs in the series opener and entered the finale leading the major leagues in runs scored, managed one run in the final two games against the Padres and struck out 14 times Thursday.

Richard (2-2) yielded one run on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings while striking out a season-high eight and not issuing a walk. Brad Hand followed with four strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings. Brandon Maurer picked up his second save in as many nights with two strikeouts in a perfect ninth.

Phillies 6, Mets 4

Maikel Franco snapped out of a slump by delivering an RBI double and a solo homer as Philadelphia earned a rare series victory over New York. The Phillies took two of three from the Mets to snap a six-series losing streak against New York dating back to April 8-10, 2016.

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Franco, who was hitting .148 entering Thursday, doubled home the first run of a two-run third before leading off the eighth with a homer.

Orioles 2, Reds 1 (10 innings)

J.J. Hardy's single in the 10th inning drove home Mark Trumbo with the go-ahead run as Baltimore topped Cincinnati.

Darren O'Day (1-1) pitched one inning with two strikeouts to earn the victory. Brad Brach retired the Reds in order in the 10th for his second straight save.

Jonathan Schoop homered for the Orioles, who took two of three from Cincinnati. Baltimore starter Wade Miley allowed only one hit through seven innings as Joey Votto's solo home run in the fourth tied the score 1-1.

Indians 6, Twins 2

Carlos Santana had three hits, including a pair of RBI doubles, and Trevor Bauer had his best outing of the season as Cleveland swept Minnesota.

Bauer (1-2) pitched 6 1/3 innings and struck out seven while allowing two runs on three hits and two walks. Abraham Almonte had two hits for the Indians, who lost seven of their previous nine games heading into the three-game rain-shortened series.

Red Sox 4, Blue Jays 1 (10 innings)

Mookie Betts hit a three-run double against Jason Grilli in the 10th inning to give Boston the rubber match of the three-game series.

After the Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the ninth on an RBI single by Xander Bogaerts against Roberto Osuna, Kendrys Morales tied the game when he led off the bottom half with a homer off closer Craig Kimbrel (1-0). Kimbrel pitched a perfect 10th.

Astros 2, Angels 1

Lance McCullers continued his dominant pitching in his home park as Houston claimed a series victory.

McCullers (2-0) did not allow a hit until Andrelton Simmons opened the fifth inning with a single to left. He pitched 6 2/3 scoreless inning and allowed three or fewer runs in each of his 23 career home starts. He improved to 11-4 at Minute Maid Park.

Carlos Beltran and Jake Marisnick hit solo home runs in the first and fifth innings, respectively, against Los Angeles starter Matt Shoemaker (0-1)

Rays 8, Tigers 1

Tampa Bay got five strong innings from spot starter Erasmo Ramirez and completed a three-game sweep of Detroit.

The Rays moved Ramirez (2-0) out of the bullpen to fill in for the injured Jake Odorizzi, and after allowing a leadoff home run to Ian Kinsler, Ramirez held the Tigers to one hit and zero runs for the rest of his 66-pitch outing.

Steven Souza Jr. went 3-for-5 with a homer, a double, a triple and three RBIs for the Rays. (Reporting by Aditi Prakash in Bengaluru)

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