Tampa Bay outfielders Austin Meadows, left, Brett Phillips, center, and Kevin Kiermaier celebrate after a 10-1 win Thursday against the Baltimore Orioles. Julio Cortez/Associated Press
BALTIMORE — Joey Wendle homered twice, Rich Hill combined with two relievers on a two-hitter and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles 10-1 Thursday to extend their winning streak to seven games.
Tampa Bay outscored the Orioles 32-14 and outhit them 43-22 during its first three-game sweep at Camden Yards since May 17-19, 2013. The Rays at 26-19 are seven games over .500 for the first time this year. They have hit 17 homers during the streak, their longest since winning eight in a row from Aug. 19-26, 2018, and have averaged nine runs per game.
Baltimore has lost 10 of 12, and at 17-26 is a season-high nine games under .500. The Orioles fell to a majors-worst 6-18 at home.
Hill (3-1) extended his scoreless streak to 20 2/3 innings before major leagues RBI leader Trey Mancini homered leading off the fourth. Hill allowed one run and two hits in six innings, with four strikeouts, earning victories in consecutive starts for the first time since winning three in a row in June 2019. He has lowered his ERA from 8.82 to 3.89 over his last five starts.
YANKEES 2, RANGERS 0: Domingo Germán followed Corey Kluber’s no-hitter with seven more scoreless innings, Gio Urshela and Aaron Judge delivered RBI singles as pinch hitters in the seventh inning and New York won again at Arlington, Texas.
New York won its sixth straight series and moved a season-high six games over .500 at 25-19. Yankees pitchers have thrown seven shutouts in the team’s first 44 games for the first time since 1967.
Texas had at least one hit in each of the first five innings, a day after Kluber pitched the major leagues’ sixth no-hitter this season.
But Texas didn’t get a runner past second base against Germán (4-2), who finished with two perfect innings and allowed six hits with five strikeouts as New York pitching finished the four-game series with 22 consecutive scoreless innings.
ANGELS, TWINS SPLIT: Miguel Sanó hit a grand slam and José Berríos pitched five solid innings as visiting Minnesota earned a split of a makeup doubleheader with a 6-3 win in the nightcap.
The Angels took the opener 7-1 with a homer and a three-run double from Phil Gosselin. Taylor Ward added a two-run homer to back Alex Cobb’s five strong innings of four-hit ball.
ASTROS 8, ATHLETICS 4: Martin Maldonado homered and drove in three runs, helping visiting Houston move ahead of Oakland for the AL West lead.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 19, REDS 4: Steven Duggar hit his first career grand slam in a nine-run third inning, Brandon Crawford drove in six runs and visiting San Francisco routed Cincinnati to sweep a four-game series.
Darin Ruf had four hits, including a two-run homer in third. Crawford hit a three-run homer in the fifth, becoming the first Giants shortstop with 11 homers in a season’s first 37 games.
San Francisco outscored Cincinnati 33-9 in the series and extended its winning streak to five. The NL West-leading Giants, who have the best record in the major leagues at 28-16 after a 6-2 trip, set season highs for runs and hits (16).
CUBS 5, NATIONALS 2: Ian Happ homered twice and drove in three runs, helping Chicago win at home.
Happ put Chicago ahead to stay with a two-run shot in the third inning. He also led off the fifth with his sixth homer.
MARLINS 6, PHILLIES 0: Sandy Alcantara tossed two-hit ball over six innings and Garrett Cooper homered to lead Miami to a win at Philadelphia.
NOTES
TWINS: Reliever Tyler Duffey was suspended for three games and Manager Rocco Baldelli received a one-game ban for Duffey intentionally throwing behind Yermin Mercedes of the Chicago White Sox in a sequence of events that sparked a debate on the importance of the unwritten rules of baseball.
Duffey was ejected Tuesday night when he threw behind Mercedes in the seventh inning. The Twins were responding to Mercedes’ homer on a 3-0 pitch against a position player while Chicago had an 11-run lead a day earlier. White Sox Manager Tony La Russa scolded his rookie slugger for trying to get a hit in that situation, calling him “clueless.”
CUBS: Jed Hoyer, the team’s president of baseball operations, is disappointed with the Cubs’ COVID-19 vaccination rate and he isn’t sure if it will ever reach Major League Baseball’s threshold for relaxing some of its coronavirus protocols.
Despite the team’s vaccination advocacy and education program, the Cubs remain shy of 85% for their Tier 1 players and staff.
“I think we’re at a place right now, candidly, where I’m not going to give up hope that we can get there, but my level of optimism is waning, candidly,” said Hoyer.
“And it is disappointing because there are conveniences that come with getting to 85% as a group, just mask wearing and dining and things like that that we would all like to have, but I also feel there’s a real competitive advantage that we’re going to miss.”
Reaching the 85% threshold means fully vaccinated players can go without masks in the dugout and bullpens. Fully vaccinated players and staff are able to eat and drink on flights. They also can gather in indoor spaces such as hotels without masks or social distancing as long as non-vaccinated people aren’t present.
Electronic tracing devices are eliminated, and fully vaccinated people who have close contact with someone with COVID-19 do not have to quarantine unless they exhibit symptoms.
• The Cubs placed outfielder Jason Heyward on the 10-day injured list because of a left hamstring strain.
Heyward, 31, left Wednesday night’s 4-3 loss to Washington in the fourth inning. He is batting .183 with four homers and 13 RBI in 39 games.
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