Baltimore’s Jorge Mateo, left, celebrates his home run during the fourth inning as New York catcher Austin Wells looks on Thursday at Baltimore. Nick Wass/Associated Press
BALTIMORE — Ryan Mountcastle and Jorge Mateo each homered and drove in two runs to lift the Baltimore Orioles to a series-deciding 7-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday.
Ryan McKenna also connected and Jordan Westburg’s two-run triple helped the Orioles complete a four-run fifth to chase Yankees starter Carlos Rodon (2-2) and secure a third win of the four-game set, the first this season between likely AL East contenders.
Righty Kyle Bradish allowed one run in 4 2/3 innings in his first start after beginning the season on the 15-day injured list with a UCL strain. Keegan Akin (1-0) retired four batters, allowing a run in middle relief.
Gleyber Torres hit his first home run but also made the Yankees’ third error of the series to help extend the game’s decisive inning.
Rondon yielded all seven Baltimore runs — six earned — on eight hits in his shortest outing of 2024.
ASTROS 8, GUARDIANS 2: Jon Singleton homered and had three RBI and Jose Altuve added three hits to lead Houston over visiting Cleveland.
The victory gives the Astros, who are last in the AL West at 11-20, consecutive series wins for the first time this season.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
MARLINS 5, ROCKIES 4: Jesús Sánchez hit a winning single in the bottom of the 10th inning and Miami beat visiting Colorado to sweep the three-game series.
The Marlins got two of their three victories in the series in 10 innings. They earned a 7-6 win in the opener on Monday.
Sánchez’s two-out opposite-field line drive to left off reliever Jalen Beeks scored automatic runner Luis Arraez from second.
The Rockies lost their fifth straight and are the first team since 1900 to have trailed at one point in each of their first 31 games.
METS 7, CUBS 6: Francisco Lindor delivered a pair of two-run doubles off the bench, rallying New York past visiting Chicago for a split of their four-game series.
Right fielder Starling Marte made two rocket throws in extra innings, cutting down runners at the plate to end the 10th and 11th. Brandon Nimmo had two RBI for the Mets, who overcame a 4-0 deficit to salvage a 3-4 homestand.
INTERLEAGUE
RANGERS 6, NATIONALS 0: Nathan Eovaldi pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings before leaving with groin tightness and Ezequiel Duran’s two-out double was the first of three consecutive RBI hits in the second inning as Texas won at home.
Eovaldi (2-2) limited the Nationals to two hits and two walks while throwing 92 pitches — 13 short of his season high. He struck out eight for the fourth time this year, his season high. He won for the first time since April 3 and for the first time in four home starts this year.
NOTES
GAME TIME: The average time of a nine-inning game is 2 hours, 36 minutes through the first full month of the major league season, down 1 minute from 2023 in the second year of the pitch clock.
Over objections from the players’ association, MLB lowered the timer to 18 seconds from 20 with runners on base while keeping it at 15 seconds with no runners.
Last year, the average increased gradually through the season, from 2:37 through April to 2:38 in May, 2:39 in June, 2:41 in July and August to 2:44 in September.
The season average of 2:40 was down 24 minutes from 2022 and the lowest since 1985.
Union head Tony Clark claims the pitch clock may have contributed to pitcher injuries, calling the timer “an unprecedented threat to our game and its most valuable asset — the players.”
LUXURY TAX: The final cost of the New York Mets’ sorry 2023 season has been totaled: $420 million.
Major League Baseball finalized its payroll figures for last year, and the Mets finished at a record $319.5 million. In addition to the payroll, New York paid a record luxury tax of $100.8 million after finishing fourth in the NL East at 75-87 — 29 games behind first-place Atlanta and nine games back of the last wild card berth.
New York’s spending would have been even higher if not for summer trades that jettisoned pitchers Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and David Robertson along with other veterans.
The Mets topped the previous payroll high of $291.1 million by the 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers, who paid a tax of just over $43.5 million for a total player expense of $334.6 million.
The three-highest spenders all missed the playoffs last year. The New York Yankees were second at $283.8 million, followed by San Diego at $257.2 million.
Philadelphia was fourth at $249.2 million, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers at $241.3 million.
World Series champion Texas was sixth at $241.1 million and National League champion Arizona 20th at $128.9 million.
Oakland had the lowest payroll for the second straight season at $62.7 million — less than one-fifth the Mets’ total.
AL East champion Baltimore was 28th at $79.2 million and Tampa Bay, which earned an AL wild card berth, was 27th at $83.8 million.
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