Naquin, who hit a walk-off inside-the-park home run as the last batter Friday night, grounded out as the last batter Saturday night.The two American League division leaders – Toronto in the East, Cleveland in the Central – have split the first two games of their three-game series.In the first five innings, the two teams took turns bruising the earned run average of the other team’s starter. In both cases, the Indians failed to score, and it looked very much like that two-run homer in the first inning would stand up for Toronto.
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Tyler Naquin followed Jose Ramirez’s game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning with a walk-off inside-the-park homer to lift the Cleveland Indians to a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night at Progressive Field. He left with a 2-1 lead, handing the ball off to Benoit.
Jose Ramirez, still proving to be among the best hitters with runners in scoring position in baseball, singled up the middle to cut the Blue Jays’ lead to 5-2. It deflected past right fielder Michael Saunders and Naquin rounded all the bases.
The ball ricocheted halfway back to the infield and by the time centre fielder Upton corraled it, falling in the process, it was too late to get Naquin at the plate. Upton finally retrieved the ball, but fell down in the process. Meanwhile, Naquin was given the green light to keep running and slid head first into home plate to win the game and start the celebration. And when second baseman Javier Baez made a wild throw that got past the catcher and flew into the Cubs’ dugout, the umpires waved Raburn home.
Joe Biagini (4-2, 1.97 ERA), Joaquin Benoit, Jason Grilli and Roberto Osuna allowed only two hits in the final five innings. It was his third blown save in 30 opportunities this season.
Blue Jays: RHP Marcus Stroman allowed two runs and struck out eight over 6 1/3 innings in his last start against Houston.
– With a ninth-inning homer from Jedd Gyorko, the Cardinals have tied the Major League Baseball record for consecutive multi-homer games at nine. Jhonny Peralta led off the 11th with a double and Grichuk doubled to the wall in left center off Frank Herrmann (0-1) two batters later.
– No team since since 1900 had hit four home runs before recording an out until the Orioles achieved the feat against the Astros. He also hit Joc Pederson twice with pitches.
Yankees 7, Angels 0: The Yankees hit four solo home runs and Masahiro Tanaka allowed five hits in 7 2/3 innings as NY continued its mastery over sinking Los Angeles. The 31-year-old answered a pair of disastrous seven-run outings by yielding just three in 7 2/3 innings in a hard-luck 3-2 loss to Boston on Monday. Ramirez flew out, Chisenhall struck out and Tyler Naquin, the hero from the previous two games, grounded out to end it.
RED SOX 10, TIGERS 2: David Ortiz homered and Rick Porcello pitched seven innings in his return to Comerica Park in Boston’s victory over Detroit.
Washington came from three runs down to edge Atlanta 7-6 when Clint Robinson hit a tiebreaking single with two outs in the ninth.
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Josh Tomlin (11-7), activated from the family medical emergency list before the game, allowed six runs in 4 1/3 innings.
