Royals win 2nd straight game

NEW YORK — Yordano Ventura struck out a season-high 10 batters in seven innings, and the Kansas City Royals held on for a 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox Sunday afternoon. Whit Merrifield finished 3-for-5 with a double, an RBI and a run to lead the Royals at the plate. Salvador Perez added a solo home run as Kansas City won its second consecutive game. Ventura (5-4) fanned 10-plus batters for the fifth time in his career and the first time since Oct. 3, 2015, against the Minnesota Twins. He struck out the side in the second inning and again in the sixth inning. A pending nine-game suspension did little to distract Ventura, who is appealing the penalty for his role in a June 7 brawl with the Baltimore Orioles. Ventura allowed one run on five hits and walked one. Cubs 13, Braves 2: The Chicago Cubs were a comedy of errors defensively with Bill Murray on hand for the final two games against Atlanta. The Cubs won both in laughers anyway, making the actor-comedian happy and improving the team’s major-league-best record to 43-18. Jon Lester (8-3) didn’t allow an earned run over seven innings and the Cubs made four errors in the first two innings against the Braves Sunday. The Cubs had three errors in Saturday’s game. Anthony Rizzo had three hits and three RBIs, while Javier Baez blasted a three-run homer as part of a six-run eighth inning that followed a three-run seventh by the Cubs. Tigers 4, Yankees 1: Michael Fulmer continued his impressive run when he pitched six effective innings and won his fifth straight start as Detroit defeated New York. Fulmer (7-1) ran his scoreless streak to 28-1/3 innings by holding the Yankees to two hits. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it is just shy of the Detroit rookie record set by John Hiller, who had 28-2/3 scoreless innings Aug. 10-29, 1967. The right-hander also has allowed one earned run in his last 34-1/3 innings, giving him an earned run average of 0.26 in his last five starts and lowering his overall earned run average from 6.52 to 2.52. He only allowed a leadoff single to Aaron Hicks and a bloop double to Austin Romine that started the fifth. Blue Jays 10, Orioles 9: Russell Martin hit a three-run homer, Kevin Pillar had a homer and two RBIs, Devon Travis had two RBIs and Toronto held on to defeat Baltimore. The Blue Jays won the final three games of the four-game series after the Orioles took the opener. Adam Jones hit two home runs and Pedro Alvarez, Chris Davis and Matt Wieters each homered once for the Orioles, who fell behind by six runs before cutting the lead to one. In other games it was: Rays 5, Astros 0; Athletics 6, Reds 1; Brewers 5, Mets 3; Twins 7, Red Sox 4; Diamondbacks 6, Marlins 0; Rockies 2, Padres 1; Nationals 5, Phillies 4; Indians 8, Angels 3; Rangers 6, Mariners 4; Cardinals 8, Pirates 3; Giants 2, Dodgers 1. — Reuters