NEW YORK — Wilmer Flores hit a game-winning home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday and the New York Mets beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2 to improve the best start in team history to 12-2.
Noah Syndergaard struck out eight straight batters, two shy of Tom Seaver’s major league record, and Brandon Nimmo finished a double shy of the cycle. Nimmo connected for a tying home run against Taylor Williams leading off the sixth on a cold, blustery afternoon at Citi Field.
Flores broke a 2-2 tie with a drive over the left-center wall against Matt Albers (2-1) for his second home run this year. New York has opened a season with five straight series wins for the first time.
“It was good just to get out of that cold,” Flores said.
CARDINALS 3, REDS 2: Carlos Martinez struck out a season-high 11 batters in seven shutout innings and Harrison Bader’s two-run homer helped St. Louis win at Cincinnati.
Martinez (2-1) allowed two hits and four walks while helping send the Reds to their eighth consecutive loss, one short of matching their longest losing streak of last season.
PIRATES 7, MARLINS 3: Starling Marte hiked his average 64 points, punctuating a 5-for-5 afternoon with a ninth-inning homer to help Pittsburgh win at Miami.
Marte’s five hits was a career high and his average rose from .241 to .305. He scored four times and hit his third homer off Junichi Tazawa.
ROCKIES 6, NATIONALS 5: Ian Desmond hit a tiebreaking, two-out homer in the ninth inning against his former team, Charlie Blackmon drove in three runs and Colorado rallied at Washington.
After Sean Doolittle (0-1) struck out Carlos Gonzalez and Gerardo Parra to open the ninth, Desmond sent a belt-high, 3-2 fastball over the 402-foot sign in straightaway center as Colorado took 3 of 4 in its only visit to Washington.
PADRES 10, GIANTS 1: Joey Lucchesi struck out nine in six innings, fellow rookie Christian Villanueva homered, doubled and drove in three runs, and San Diego Padres beat visiting San Francisco for the third straight game.
Jose Pirela was a home run short of the cycle and had three RBI for the Padres, who have won 5 of 7. The Giants have lost 4 of 5.
DODGERS 7, DIAMONDBACKS 2: Clayton Kershaw struck out 12 and pitched two-hit ball over seven innings as Los Angeles won at home to end an 11-game losing streak against Arizona in the regular season.
Los Angeles had been 0-5 versus the Diamondbacks this year, and hadn’t beaten them in the regular season since last August. But the Dodgers swept Arizona 3-0 last year in the NL division series.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
ATHLETICS 2, MARINERS 1: Sean Manaea pitched seven strong innings and Jed Lowrie hit an early two-run homer off Felix Hernandez to lead Oakland at Seattle.
INTERLEAGUE
PHILLIES 6, RAYS 4: Aaron Altherr hit a three-run homer, Scott Kingery had a three-run double and Philadelphia won its sixth straight, at St. Petersburg, Florida.
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.