WASHINGTON (AP) The Los Angeles Dodgers ended Stephen Strasburg’s undefeated streak by winning 6-3 at Washington on Thursday as Justin Turner homered twice and drove in five runs.
Strasburg (13-1) suffered his first loss since September last year and the Nationals’ lead in the National League East division was trimmed to 4-1/2 games as nearest rival Miami won at Philadelphia.
In the key American League games, Baltimore won at the New York Yankees to avoided a four-game sweep and stay within half a game of the AL East lead, while Detroit won at the Chicago White Sox in a game that was limited to seven innings due to rain.
Strasburg came into the game with a run of 16 successive winning decisions, and while he struck out 10 batters he gave up a season-worst six runs, all inside the first three innings.
Turner hit a two-run shot in the first and a three-run shot in the third, to set a career high for RBIs.
Strasburg responded to the early setbacks, he struck out seven of nine Los Angeles batters and allowed just one base runner after the third but his batters could not bail him out and the Nationals suffered their fifth loss in six games against the Dodgers this season.
Miami pounded out 16 hits in beating Philadelphia 9-3.
Marlins starter Tom Koehler pitched eight strong innings, rebounding from a month-long slump with arguably his best performance of the season, giving up only one earned run and one walk.
Ichiro Suzuki moved within four hits of 3,000 for his career as Miami moved 1-1/2 games ahead of the New York Mets in the early stages of the wild card race.
Baltimore’s Chris Tillman tied for the major league lead with his 14th win of the season as the Orioles won 4-1 at the Yankees.
Tillman (14-2) matched White Sox ace Chris Sale for the most victories in the majors. Tillman was shaky early, giving up three hits and two walks to the first eight batters, but then settled to retire 16 of his final 17 hitters.
Baltimore slugger Chris Davis, shortstop Manny Machado and manager Buck Showalter returned from a stomach bug that’s hit the clubhouse. But Orioles center fielder Adam Jones didn’t play because of back spasms, catcher Matt Wieters missed his third consecutive game after being hit by a pitch in the foot and rookie outfielder Joey Rickard sat out with an injured thumb.
Detroit’s Ian Kinsler hit his 20th home run of the season and Miguel Cabrera added his 19th, and that was enough for the Tigers to win 2-1 at the White Sox in their seven-inning game.
A heavy downpour arrived before the bottom of the seventh and after waiting in vain for two hours for the showers to abate, the game was ended.
The Tigers opened a seven-game trip on a winning note while the White Sox have now dropped seven of eight.
St. Louis’ Aledmys Diaz came up with the game-winning hit in the ninth inning to lift the Cardinals over San Diego 6-5.
St. Louis scored four runs – the last three on Stephen Piscotty’s homer – to tie it in the eighth and went on to its first four-game series sweep at home for six years.
Tommy Pham led off the ninth with a double. With the bases loaded and one out, Diaz ripped a full-count pitch to left field to bring in the winning run.
Despite losing, the Padres did extend their franchise-record of successive games with at least one homer, to 19.
Boston’s Mookie Betts homered on the first pitch in the bottom of the first inning and David Ortiz added a late two-run homer as the Red Sox routed Minnesota 13-2.
Pittsburgh’s Francisco Liriano took another step toward putting his season-long control issues behind him, striking out 13 in the Pirates’ 5-3 victory over Milwaukee.
Tampa Bay’s Tim Beckham homered and later sparked a four-run inning with his eighth straight hit over the past three games, leading the Rays to a 7-3 victory over Oakland.
Colorado’s Chad Bettis pitched efficiently into the seventh as the Rockies beat Atlanta 7-3.
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