WASHINGTON — Jacob deGrom turned in a record 23rd consecutive quality start, lowered his ERA to 1.77 and boosted his record to .500 as he bids to earn the NL Cy Young Award, allowing one run in seven innings to help the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals 4-2 Friday night.

Throwing fastballs in the 97-99 mph range, deGrom (9-9) struck out eight and walked one, allowing just one run and three hits, all singles. Bob Gibson (in 1968) and Chris Carpenter (2005) each had single-season runs of 22 quality starts, the previous major league mark.

The right-handed deGrom has given up as many as four earned runs in only one of his 31 starts in 2018, back on April 10 against Miami. He’s now up to 28 in a row allowing three runs or fewer, the longest single-season streak in major league history.

MARLINS 1, REDS 0: Pinch-hitter Isaac Galloway smacked an opposite-field double in the 10th inning to score Brian Anderson and give Miami a win at home.

Galloway drove David Hernandez’s 3-2 slider past right fielder Phillip Ervin to score Anderson, who had reached on a double to right.

BRAVES 6, PHILLIES 5: The Braves moved to the brink of their first NL East title since 2013, bouncing back from Ronald Acuna Jr.’s defensive blunder with a five-run seventh inning that carried them past visiting Philadelphia.

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Ozzie Albies sparked the comeback with a two-run homer and Johan Camargo finished it off with a two-out, two-run single, giving the Braves a chance to celebrate as soon as Saturday afternoon with one more victory over the second-place Phillies.

Acuna misjudged Wilson Ramos’ liner to left in the top half of the seventh, turning what should have been an out into a two-run double. Pinch-hitter Jose Bautista tacked on a run-scoring single, giving the Phillies a 4-1 lead.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

ROYALS 4, TIGERS 3: Ian Kennedy pitched three-run ball into the eighth inning, and visiting Kansas City stopped a five-game slide.

Alex Gordon had three hits for the Royals, who led 4-0 after four innings.

The Tigers committed three errors in losing for the eighth time in 11 games.

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Kennedy (3-8) won his second straight start, permitting two earned runs and seven hits in seven-plus innings. He struck out six and walked none.

RAYS 11, BLUE JAYS 3: Austin Meadows drove in three runs, Tommy Pham reached base three times and had two RBI and Tampa Bay won at Toronto.

Pham walked twice, tripled and added a sacrifice fly for the Rays.

YANKEES 10, ORIOLES 8: CC Sabathia won for just the second time since the All-Star break, Didi Gregorius and Aaron Hicks hit two-run homers as New York built a six-run lead and beat visiting Baltimore.

Luke Voit added a two-run single to give him 24 RBI in 31 games with the Yankees, and Hicks scored four runs. After Baltimore closed to 9-8 in the eighth, Aaron Judge doubled in a run for his first RBI since returning from the disabled list on Sept. 14.

New York lowered its magic number to two over Tampa Bay for ensuring a wild-card game on Oct. 3.

INTERLEAGUE

WHITE SOX 10, CUBS 4: Jose Quintana was charged with five runs and nine hits in five-plus innings against his former team as the host White Sox topped the Cubs.

Kevan Smith hit a three-run homer for the White Sox, who finished with 19 hits. Daniel Palka also homered at Guaranteed Rate Field, and Ryan LaMarre went 3 for 3 with three RBI.


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