Martin Maldonado, second from right, is congratulated after hitting a grand slam Friday night during a 13-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Buffalo, N.Y. Joshua Bessex/Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Zack Greinke pitched his first complete game since 2017, Carlos Correa homered twice and Martin Maldonado hit a grand slam, leading the Houston Astros over the Toronto Blue Jays 13-1 on Friday night.
Maldonado drove in five runs and Aledmys Díaz also homered as Houston handed the Blue Jays their first loss in three games at their temporary home in Buffalo.
Greinke (6-2) gave up six hits, walked one and struck out three, throwing 102 pitches.
It was his first complete game since going eight innings in a 1-0 loss for Arizona at San Diego on April 19, 2017. The 37-year-old righty’s previous nine-inning complete game since June 7, 2016, with Arizona against Tampa Bay.
RANGERS 5, RAYS 4: Kyle Gibson returned from the injured list to pitch 5 1/3 scoreless innings, and Texas ended a nine-game losing streak with a win over visiting Tampa Bay.
Joey Gallo hit in his 10th homer and Charlie Culberson drove in a run with a squeeze bunt for the Rangers, who were back home after the nine losses in a row for the longest winless road trip in team history. They hadn’t won since wrapping up a three-game sweep over Houston on May 23 in their last home series.
ORIOLES 3, INDIANS 1: Ryan Mountcastle hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning that was upheld by video review and visiting Baltimore kept up its June winning streak.
The Orioles have won their first three games this month after dropping 14 in a row to end May. Baltimore’s winning string matches its longest of the season.
BREWERS 5, DIAMONDBACKS 1: Freddy Peralta carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning on his 25th birthday and Milwaukee beat visiting Arizona.
Peralta, Brad Boxberger and Trevor Richards combined on a one-hitter. Peralta (6-1) struck out nine, walked three and allowed one run in 7 1/3 innings.
Nick Ahmed broke up the no-hit attempt by reaching for a low pitch and blooping it into left-center for a one-out single in the eighth.
NATIONALS 2, PHILLIES 1: Max Scherzer outpitched Zack Wheeler, Juan Soto hit a tie-breaking solo homer and Washington won at home.
Scherzer (5-4) struck out nine in 7 2/3 dominant innings, allowing one run on five hits. The three-time Cy Young Award winner lowered his ERA to 2.22 with his seventh straight start yielding two runs or less.
Wheeler (4-3) gave up two runs and five hits, striking out eight in 7 1/3 innings.
Soto provided the difference when he crushed an opposite-field drive to left for a 2-1 lead in the sixth. It was his 11th homer in 80 at-bats in Philadelphia’s hitter-friendly ballpark.
DODGERS 9, BRAVES 5: Chris Taylor hit a bases-loaded double in the eight-run fifth inning and Los Angeles won in Atlanta in a rematch of last year’s NL Championship Series.
PIRATES 9, MARLINS 2: Rookie Ke’Bryan Hayes homered for the second game in a row since being activated from the injured list and drove in three runs to lead Pittsburgh to a win at home.
NOTES
VACCINATIONS: Two-thirds of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams have been able to relax coronavirus protocols after four additional clubs qualified and raised the total to 20 franchises reaching 85% vaccinations for players and other on-field personnel.
The commissioner’s office and the players’ association said Friday that two additional teams had reached the 85% level of having received final doses and will be able to relax protocols within the next two weeks once they are fully vaccinated.
Relaxed protocols include dropping the requirements for facemasks in dugouts and bullpens, and loosening restrictions on mobility during road trips.
MLB said 85.2% of Tier 1 individuals such as players, managers, coaches, trainers and support personnel had been partially or fully vaccinated, up just 0.7% from the previous week, and 82.9% had been fully vaccinated, up 1.7% from the previous week.
There were two positive tests – one for a major league player and one for a Triple-A player – among 9,291 tests in the past week, a 0.02% positive rate.
So far this season, there have been 64 positive tests – 36 players, 28 staff – among 185,551 samples tested, a 0.03% positive rate. The positive tests are among 25 teams.
The Chicago Cubs said Friday they will move to 100% capacity at Wrigley Field starting with a June 11 game against St. Louis.
Only Texas among the 30 major league teams began this season at 100% after fans weren’t permitted last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Atlanta went to full capacity on May 7.
Others announcing the move to full capacity in-season have been Atlanta (May 7), Arizona (May 25), Boston (May 29), Kansas City (May 31), Baltimore (June 1), Cincinnati and Cleveland (June 2). Detroit (June 8), Washington (June 11), Philadelphia (June 12), St. Louis (June 14), Houston and Milwaukee (June 25), and Minnesota (July 5).
MLB announced a “Vaccinate At The Plate” program in which each of the 30 teams will stage at least one event in June offering a free ticket to anyone getting vaccinated at the ballpark. The commissioner’s officer said more than 1 million shots had been given at ballparks during the pandemic and that MLB and teams had provided more than 1.5 million PCR tests to schools, youth academies, charities and communities.
RAYS: Tampa Bay placed first baseman Ji-Man Choi on the 10-day injured list because of a left groin strain.
Tampa Bay made the move before the opener of a three-game series in Texas. It was retroactive to Thursday, when Choi was held out of the lineup against the Yankees despite being 8 for 12 with three homers in his career against New York ace Gerrit Cole.
Choi had played only 15 games since missing the first six weeks of the season when recovering from arthroscopic right knee surgery.
Left-hander Ryan Sherriff was recalled from Triple-A Durham for his second stint this season with the Rays.
YANKEES: Phil Nevin’s voice cracked and his face flushed. Forced from the New York Yankees third base coaching box by the coronavirus and infections, he also had to miss his son’s major league debut.
“We had talked about that day for a long time,” Nevin said Friday before he returned to the Yankees dugout for the first time since May 9. “Not to be able to see him right after the game, now that part, that gets you a little bit, because we’ve talked about it for so long, I told my other son, l go: ‘I can still get this day back. No pressure.’”
Nevin, who also suffers from asthma, said he lost 22 pounds and was diagnosed with a bacterial infection in his kidneys and a staph infection. He still has an IV line in an arm that has to be removed before he can be back on the field, but he was back in the dugout and handled the lineup card exchange for Friday night’s series opener against Boston.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.