Cubs Blank Orioles, Pirates Beat Cardinals

By ESPN

Jose Quintana is well aware of the lofty expectations that came with his trade to the Chicago Cubs.

He certainly dazzled his new teammates in his debut.

Quintana struck out a season-high 12 in seven sharp innings and the Cubs beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-0 Sunday for a three-game sweep.

"It was my first outing with the Cubs, but after the first inning, I felt really good," Quintana said. "I threw everything in the first inning and just focused on making quick outs."

Acquired by the defending World Series champions during the All-Star break from the Chicago White Sox for a playoff push, Quintana gave the Cubs exactly the kind of boost they hoped to get.

"It could really be a big boon to us, there's no question," Chicago manager Joe Maddon said. "Everybody else saw it."

The lefty ace allowed three hits, walked none and joined Matt Garza as the only pitchers in Cubs history to fan 12 in their debut.

Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo homered to help the Cubs move over .500 for the first time since June 29. The Cubs hit 10 home runs during the sweep at Camden Yards.

Chicago took advantage of another wild start by Ubaldo Jimenez (4-5) and opened a 4-0 lead in the second. Willson Contreras added a career-high four hits.

The Cubs traded their top two prospects, outfielder Eloy Jimenez and right-hander Dylan Cease, along with infielders Matt Rose and Bryant Flete, to get Quintana. He was 4-8 with a 4.49 ERA for the White Sox.

Chicago began the day 5 1/2 games behind in the races for the NL Central and second wild-card spot.

"We're playing a world champion team that everyone knew was going to get going at some point," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "Unfortunately, they started here. They're on the top of their game. They have a lot of good pieces. We were not up to the challenge."

Quintana retired nine straight batters until Adam Jones led off the fourth with a double. This was the 10th time in his career, and third this season, he fanned at least 10.

"All the other starters saw it. They saw that we grabbed a lead and there was no messing around. There was no walks. There was no bad counts."

Ian Happ had a two-run double and scored on Jason Heyward's single in the second. Heyward stole second and scored the fourth run on a two-out single by Ben Zobrist.

A two-run homer by Bryant, his 19th, boosted the margin to 6-0 in the fourth.

Jimenez allowed six runs and 11 hits, one shy of tying a career-high, over 3 2/3 innings. He has not pitched past the fifth inning in four of his past five starts.

Rizzo hit his 22nd home run in the ninth off Darren O'Day.

"I really believe if we play with that kind of internal fire, that kind of energy we'll win a lot of games in the second half," Maddon said.

Pirates 4, Cardinals 3

The Pirates closed their series against the St. Louis Cardinals the same way they began it: with a walkoff win.

Adam Frazier's game-ending single capped a two-run rally in the ninth inning that lifted Pittsburgh to a 4-3 victory Sunday.

Francisco Cervelli reached on an infield single leading off the ninth against Brett Cecil (1-3), and Jordy Mercer's one-out double scored pinch-runner Josh Harrison with the tying run. Jose Osuna grounded out, David Freese was intentionally walked and Frazier lined a single to center.

Frazier's hit was the first walkoff hit of his career and it came just two days after Josh Bell got his first with a three-run homer in the ninth off Seung-Hwan Oh.

"We hung around," manager Clint Hurdle said. "We gave up two leads, battled back and had a nice, strong ninth inning with some good at-bats. I'm proud of the men and I'm proud of the fight."

Wade LeBlanc (4-2) pitched a hitless ninth. Pirates starter Trevor Williams gave up two runs and 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Yadier Molina had put St. Louis ahead 3-2 with an eighth inning home run, the first allowed by Juan Nicasio this year.

"I think it's been like that all year," Frazier said. "We went through some adversity. It's just fighting until the last out."

Williams gave up two runs and 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings. He singled in the third for his first major league hit after an 0-for-21 start at the plate.

Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez (7-8) allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings, and had an RBI single in the sixth.

Andrew McCutchen's run-scoring single put Pittsburgh ahead in the fifth, and Matt Carpenter's RBI double tied the score in the fifth.

Max Moroff hit his first big league home run for the Pirates, a line drive off the right-field foul pole in the fifth. Moroff had 18 homer runs this season with Triple-A Indianapolis but was 4 for 48 in the majors.

"I hit the ball on the barrel for the first time in a while," he said.

Williams had started his MLB career 0 for 21 before his single to right in the third.

Mariners 7, White Sox 6

After making headlines with his cell phone at home plate during the All-Star Game, Nelson Cruz is letting his bat take over.

Cruz hit a go-ahead home run for the second straight day, a leadoff drive off Chris Beck in the 10th inning Sunday that led the Seattle Mariners over the Chicago White Sox 7-6 Sunday.

Cruz connected on a 3-0 pitch.

"It's location, something you can drive," Cruz said after his 19th home run. "It's not every time you're going to get it."

On Saturday night, he hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning, capping the week in which he handed his phone to Yadier Molina at the plate in Miami and asked the catcher to snap photos of Cruz with umpire Joe West.

Seattle has won four in a row while the White Sox lost their fourth straight, despite two Avisail Garcia home runs helping Chicago to an early 5-0 lead. Edwin Diaz closed all three games of the sweep as the Mariners improved to 46-47 as they try to stay in the AL wild-card race.

"We're playing good ball. Our guys understand we're kind of up against it. We need to kind of turn it on here," Mariners manager Scott Servais said. "It's nice to see guys come back refreshed, a lot of energy in the clubhouse and our dugout, and it's playing out on the field."

Diaz struck out Jose Abreu, Todd Frazier and Avisail Garcia -- all swinging -- for his 16th save in 19 chances. Nick Vincent (3-1) earned the win.

Danny Valencia and Kyle Seager also homered for the Mariners, who swept the White Sox in Chicago for the first time since 2003 when designated hitters Edgar Martinez and Frank Thomas anchored their lineups.

"It's crunch time for us. These next couple weeks will be very telling to see the direction this club decides to go in," Valencia said. "We believe in each other here, we have a really good team in here, and everybody's expecting us to have a good second half and make the playoffs."

Chicago gave starter Derek Holland a lead on the homers by Garcia and a two-run shot by Omar Narvaez.

But Holland allowed a solo home run to Seager in the fourth and then got in trouble in the fifth.

Holland wasn't helped by his defense, as shortstop Tim Anderson threw away a potential double-play ball for his 21st error of the season, tops in the majors by seven. Two batters later, Valencia hit a three-run drive to make it 5-all.

"You want to keep it as clean as possible, period," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said after his team committed three errors. "You play a major league ballgame you want to play every team as cleanly as possible because you know at any moment someone could take advantage of those particular situations."

Holland threw 5 2/3 innings, allowing six runs -- five earned -- and striking out three. He is 1-5 with a 9.82 ERA, with 13 home runs and 40 earned runs allowed in 36 2/3 innings since June 1.

Anthony Swarzak relieved Holland with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth inning and allowed Guillermo Heredia to score on a wild pitch for a 6-5 lead before striking out Jean Segura.

Chicago tied it at 6 on Abreu's RBI double in the seventh.

Seattle rookie Andrew Moore lasted three innings, allowing three home runs, five runs and six hits. It was the fourth start of his career and the first time he did not get through the sixth inning.

Sunday, July 16 Scoreboard

New York Yankees 3, Boston 0

Detroit 6, Toronto 5 (F/11)

Washington 14, Cincinnati 4

Colorado 13, New York mets 4

Los Angeles Dodgers 3, Miami 2

Chicago  Cubs 8, Baltimore 0

Atlanta 7, Arizona 1

Pittsburgh 4, St. Louis 3

Seattle 7, Chicago White Sox 6 (F/10)

Philadelphia 5, Milwaukee 2

Houston 5, Minnesota 3

Kansas City 4, Texas 3

Oakland 7, Cleveland 3

San Diego 7, San Francisco 1

Boston 3, New York Yankees 0

Monday, July 17 Schedule (All Times Central)

Washington at Cincinnati, 11:35 a.m.

Toronto at Boston, 6 p.m.

Texas at Baltimore, 6:05 p.m.

Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, 6:05 p.m.

St. Louis at New York Mets, 6:10 p.m.

Philadelphia at Miami, 6:10 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Atlanta, 6:35 p.m.

New York Yankees at Minnesota, 7;10 p.m.

Seattle at Houston, 7:10 p.m.

Detroit at Kansas City, 7;15 p.m.

San Diego at Colorado, 7:40 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Oakland, 9:05 p.m.

Cleveland at San Francisco, 9:15 p.m.