Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd has returned from a strained left biceps. Boyd pitched 4 2/3 innings of two-run ball in Chicago's 7-2 win over Philadelphia in his third start of the season. He allowed five hits, struck out five and walked none. The 35-year-old Boyd was activated from the 15-day injured list and reliever Luke Little was optioned to Triple-A Iowa. Chicago posted its eighth straight victory. It’s the longest win streak for the team since it also won eight in a row from July 21-29, 2023.
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Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros leads the majors in homers and several other offensive categories. Teammate Carlos Correa is even comparing him to Barry Bonds. Alvarez hit his 11th homer on Wednesday, a two-run shot in the first inning that sent the Astros to a 2-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians. Correa says Alvarez reminds him of Bonds because he rarely swings and misses, walks a lot and rarely strikes out. Alvarez went 3 for 4 on Wednesday and looked almost stunned when he finally made an out in his last at-bat.
Yordan Alvarez hit his major league-leading 11th homer and Peter Lambert pitched six scoreless innings, leading the Houston Astros to a 2-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians. Alvarez’s two-run shot in the first inning off Tanner Bibee helped the Astros win of two of three in the series. Before coming to Cleveland, Houston started 1-9 on the road and dropped eight straight away games. Lambert struck out eight in his second start. Alvarez went 3 for 4. He came in leading the majors in homers, extra-base hits and total bases and was tied for first in RBIs.
Nick Martinez dominated his former team for eight innings, helping the Tampa Bay Rays avoid a series sweep with a 6-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Martinez , who signed a one-year, $13 million deal with Tampa Bay this offseason, allowed one run while striking out five on Wednesday a day after the Reds battered the Rays for 12 runs. The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Rays. The Reds suffered their first loss in their last six games. The Rays got to Brandon Williamson early. Williamson allowed five runs on seven hits over 4 1/3 innings.
Chase DeLauter might have gotten his season back on track with a go-ahead, three-run triple in the eighth inning that propelled Cleveland to an 8-5 victory over Houston. DeLauter was mired in a 7-for-50 slump when he came up with one out and the bases loaded, with the Guardians trailing 4-3. On a 2-2 count, he lined a fastball over the middle of the plate from Houston’s Bryan King down the left-field line. Brice Matthews tried to make a diving stop on the ball, but it was beyond his glove and dropped before rattling into the left-field corner. Angel Martínez, Bryan Rocchio and Steven Kwan scored as DeLauter slid into third with his first career triple.
Elly De La Cruz hit two of Cincinnati’s five home runs, rookie Sal Stewart added three RBIs to reach 24 on the season and the Reds scored the first nine runs to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 12-6. De La Cruz, who went 3 for 6 with five RBIs, hit a two-run homer to begin the scoring in the first and he added a solo shot in the ninth for his eighth of the season. It was De La Cruz’s sixth career multihomer game, passing Pete Rose for the most in Reds history by a switch hitter. Stewart drove in two runs on a single to center field in the sixth for a 9-0 lead and he pushed home another run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
Chase DeLauter hit a bases-loaded triple down the left-field line in the eighth inning as the Cleveland Guardians rallied for a 8-5 victory over the Houston Astros. The Guardians’ rally spoiled a milestone night for Houston’s Jose Altuve, who became the third player in franchise history to reach 2,000 career games. Altuve, the fifth active player in the majors to reach 2,000 games, went 0 for 5 and is hitless in 10 at-bats in the series. The Guardians trailed 4-3 with one out in the eighth when DeLauter lined a fastball from Bryan King on a 2-2 count that went down the left-field line. Brice Matthews tried to make a diving spot on the ball, but it was beyond his glove and it dropped before rattling into the left-field corner.
Isaac Paredes hit his first two home runs of the season and Christian Walker also went deep as the Houston Astros beat the Cleveland Guardians 9-2 for just their third victory in 15 games. Walker lined a two-run shot to left-center in the first inning to open the scoring. The first baseman snapped an 0-for-15 slump by going 3 for 5 with three runs. Paredes broke a 2-all tie with a leadoff homer in the fourth that sparked a four-run inning. He added a solo shot in the eighth. Paredes and Carlos Correa each had three hits. Correa’s two-run single capped the fourth-inning outburst and put the Astros in front 6-2. Spencer Arrighetti gave up two runs in five innings for the win.
Rookie Sal Stewart homered, doubled, stole a base and scored twice as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 for their fourth straight win. Stewart put Cincinnati on the board with a two-run homer in the first inning, ending Jesse Scholtens’ scoreless streak to start the season at 9 2/3 innings. With his eighth homer, Stewart matched Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox for the lead among major league rookies and St. Louis’ Jordan Walker for the National League lead. Rhett Lowder got the win for Cincinnati, allowing one run in six innings.
Austin Hedges scored the first run of the game for the Guardians but had a bigger moment after the final out. Hedges proposed to his girlfriend, Lexi Dickinson, on the field Sunday following Cleveland’s 8-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. She happily accepted. The 33-year-old catcher and his wife-to-be began dating in November 2024. He is in his 12th major league season, including six with Cleveland. Hedges is popular and respected in the Guardians' clubhouse, which is why many of his teammates were present for the proposal.