Pitcher Nestor Cortes allowed one hit, struck out 11 and walked four in 7 1/3 innings as the Yankees beat the Rangers 1-0 on Monday in New York. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Associated Press
NEW YORK — Nestor Cortes took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning before Eli White singled, and Anthony Rizzo doubled in a run in the bottom half to lift the New York Yankees over the Texas Rangers 1-0 Monday for their sixth straight series win.
A 27-year-old left-hander making his 22nd big league start and sixth this season, Cortes pitched a career-high 7 1/3 innings, walked four and struck out 11, one shy of his high. He threw 68 of 103 pitches for strikes.
White, the Rangers’ No. 9 batter lofted a 2-2 fastball into short center field for a clean hit on Cortes’ final pitch. Clay Holmes (4-0) relieved and got Marcus Semien to ground into a double play.
Aaron Judge singled in the eighth off Brett Martin (0-3) and Rizzo, in a 2-for-31 slide, lofted a curveball to the opposite-field gap in left-center.
Aroldis Chapman allowed a two-out single to Jonah Heim in the ninth, then retired Nick Solak on a flyout to finish the two-hitter for his seventh save.
New York has won 13 of its past 15 games, taking two of three in the series despite scoring just five runs.
Texas lost for just the second time in its past seven games.
New York had just two hits against Jon Gray, a two-out single in the fourth by Josh Donaldson and a leadoff single in the fifth by former Ranger Joey Gallo.
Gray was replaced by Brock Burke with one out in the fifth because of what appeared to be an injury. Jose Trevino singled and DJ LeMahieu walked before Burke escaped bases-loaded trouble by striking out Judge and throwing a called third strike past Rizzo.
Gray already has been on the injured list twice this season. He was sidelined from April 9-18 with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand and from April 20 to May 3 with a sprained left knee.
ORIOLES 6, ROYALS 1: Tyler Wells pitched six strong innings to earn his first victory of the season and host Baltimore used a six-run fifth inning to surge past Kansas City.
Baltimore has won four of five for the first time this season and finished its homestand 5-4. Kansas City has lost seven of its past nine to fall a season-high eight games under .500.
The game was a makeup of Saturday’s postponed game to cap a rain-altered series. Friday’s game was washed out and made up as part of a doubleheader the teams split Sunday.
Wells (1-2) allowed Ryan O’Hearn’s RBI single in the first, but cruised through the rest of his start. He retired 15 of the last 18 batters he faced and struck out three in the longest outing of his career.
ATHLETICS 2, TIGERS 0: Paul Blackburn threw 6 2/3 strong innings to improve to 4-0 as visiting Oakland beat Detroit to snap a season-high nine-game losing streak.
Tony Kemp hit a solo home run in the third and Chad Pinder added an RBI single in the fourth.
Blackburn gave up four hits and struck out three before leaving in the seventh inning. Despite walking two batters, rookie Dany Jimenez escaped damage and earned his fifth save to finish off the four-hitter.
Michael Pineda (1-2) took the loss, despite allowing only two runs on six hits in 6 2/3 innings. Javier Baez and Manager A.J. Hinch were ejected after arguing balls and strikes in the ninth after Baez was called out on strikes.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
PIRATES 5, DODGERS 1: Jose Quintana pitched six scoreless innings for his first win since 2019 and the first victory by a Pittsburgh starting pitcher this season as the Pirates won at home.
The Pirates also ended a 16-game losing streak against the Dodgers dating to 2018 and snapped Los Angeles’ six-game winning streak.
Quintana (1-1) allowed four hits and four walks, striking out five. His previous win came on Sept. 5, 2019 at Milwaukee while pitching for the Chicago Cubs.
NOTES
RANGERS: A day after calling Yankee Stadium a “Little League ballpark” following Gleyber Torres’ game-winning home run over the right field short porch, Texas Rangers Manager Chris Woodward said he regretted his postgame remarks.
“Probably bad words on my part,” he said Monday. “I gave it a layup for a lot of people. But listen, I meant no disrespect, obviously, to this place. And it’s obviously a world-class organization, ballpark. I talk about it as always being like one of my favorite places to come play, but I understand why Yankee fans will get upset about it. That’s why I love them.”
Torres’ ninth-inning drive off John King (1-1) traveled 369 feet and was hit at 106.5 mph, giving the Yankees a 2-1 win in a doubleheader opener.
“Small ballpark. That’s a easy out in 99% of ballparks,” Woodward said Sunday. “Just happened to hit it in a Little League ballpark to right field.”
LONDON GAMES: Major League Baseball intends to play regular-season games in London in 2023, 2024 and 2026.
The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox split two games at London’s Olympic Stadium in June 2019. The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs were scheduled to play there on June 13-14, 2020, but those games were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Cardinals and Cubs are the leading candidates to play in London next year.
MLB plans to hold a Home Run Derby at London’s Crystal Palace Park on July 9 this year.
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