Chicago’s Cody Bellinger celebrates his RBI single off Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Joel Payamps during the eighth inning Wednesday at Chicago. Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
CHICAGO — Cody Bellinger drove in the tie-breaking run with a ricochet infield single in the eighth inning and the Chicago Cubs beat Milwaukee 3-2 on Wednesday to pull within three games of the first-place Brewers in the NL Central.
Bellinger’s sharply hit ball up the middle glanced off the right ankle or foot of reliever Joel Payamps and to third baseman Andruw Monasterio. Bellinger beat out Monasterio’s throw, allowing Mike Tauchman to score from third.
After dropping the first game of the series Monday, the Cubs came back to take the next two with solid pitching and defense. At 71-62, Chicago is a season-high nine games above .500.
Adbert Alzolay (2-4) got the final four outs in this one for the win, despite hitting Mark Canha with bases loaded in the eighth to force in the tying run. Payamps (4-4) took the loss.
CARDINALS 5, PADRES 4: Tommy Edman hit a two-run homer off Josh Hader in the 11th for his second walk-off hit in two days off the All-Star closer, and St. Louis dropped visiting San Diego to 0-12 in extra innings this season.
San Diego wasted a 3-0 lead and matched the expansion 1969 Montreal Expos, who had the most losses by a team that finished the season winless in extra-inning games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
REDS 4, GIANTS 1: Christian Encarnacion-Strand homered and drove in three runs in his first four-hit game in the majors, and visiting Cincinnati beat San Francisco to avoid a three-game sweep.
Encarnacion-Strand, a Bay Area native who played at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, finished a triple shy of the cycle.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
WHITE SOX 10, ORIOLES 5: The Chicago White Sox hit three home runs off 13-game winner Kyle Gibson to rally from an early four-run deficit and beat win at Baltimore to avoid a three-game sweep.
Anthony Santander homered for the AL East-leading Orioles, who led 4-0 in the first inning before fading to their third loss in 12 games.
Luis Robert Jr. hit his 35th home run in the third inning to put Chicago ahead for good. Andrew Vaughn and Óscar Colás also went deep for the White Sox, who were outscored 18-3 in the first two games of the series.
GUARDIANS 5, TWINS 2: Kole Calhoun hit a three-run home run in the 10th inning to cap a late comeback against the Minnesota bullpen, and visiting Cleveland trimmed its deficit in the AL Central to five games.
Five relievers had a hand in squandering another stellar start by Sonny Gray, who gave the Twins seven scoreless innings. Emilio Pagán (5-2) took the loss despite pitching the best of the bunch. He got the first two outs in the 10th and intentionally walked José Ramírez before yielding to rookie Kody Funderburk, who made his major league debut Monday with two perfect innings against the Guardians.
Calhoun crushed a 3-0 fastball from Funderburk into the seats behind right-center.
MARINERS 5, ATHLETICS 4: J.P. Crawford dropped a two-run single into left field in the seventh inning to give Seattle the lead, and the host Mariners closed out the winningest month in franchise history by beating Oakland.
Seattle rallied from a pair of deficits to finish August on a high note. Seattle went 21-6 in the month, bettering the previous franchise record of 20 victories in a month.
The Mariners have won 13 of their last 15 games and will head into September in the middle of an AL West title race with Houston and Texas.
YANKEES 6, TIGERS 2: Visiting New York ended a 10-series winless streak as Gleyber Torres homered for the third straight game against Detroit.
DJ LaMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton also homered for the Yankees, who have won the first three games of the four-game set. They hadn’t won a series since sweeping three games from Kansas City from July 21-23 and hadn’t taken a road series since winning 2 of 3 at Oakland from June 27-29.
INTERLEAGUE
ANGELS 10, PHILLIES 8: Bryce Harper put Philadelphia ahead in the eighth inning with his 300th home run, but Brandon Drury capped a three-run ninth with a tie-breaking, two-run homer as visiting Los Angeles prevented a three-game sweep.
Harper’s homer, his 15th this season and 10th in August, came in the 30-year-old’s 1,481st game. He homered in three straight games for the second time this month and has 10 homers in August.
BLUE JAYS 7, NATIONALS 0: Alejandro Kirk had three hits and three RBI, Chris Bassitt and Jay Jackson combined on a five-hitter and Toronto won at home.
Santiago Espinal had two hits and two RBI and Ernie Clement had two hits and drove in a run as the Blue Jays took 2 of 3 from the Nationals, denying Washington a sixth straight series victory.
RAYS 3, MARLINS 0: Josh Lowe hit a tie-breaking single during a three-run 10th inning as visiting Tampa Bay won its fourth straight.
NOTES
GIANTS: Outfielder Mike Yastrzemski was activated from the 10-day injured list and rookie outfielder Luis Matos was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
Yastrzemski missed 26 games with a strained left hamstring. The 33-year-old entered hitting .233 with 11 homers and 32 RBI.
MARINERS: Center fielder Julio Rodríguez was out of the lineup for the second straight day due to soreness in his left foot.
Manager Scott Servais said Rodríguez received treatment during the Mariners’ 5-4 win over Oakland with the hope that he may be able to get back into the lineup this weekend during their series in New York with the Mets.
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