The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago Cubs, each with home wins, extended their respective advantages as division leaders of the National League, while the Braves were the losers in the professional baseball day of the Old Circuit.
Starter Clay Buchholz pitched five hits, Venezuela’s David Peralta hit a three-run homer and the Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres 1-5 at home in the first game of a four-game series.
Buchholz (6-2) gave a double to Travis Jankowski, but withdrew in order to the next 13 batters he faced. Hunter Renfroe homered in the eighth inning before Buchholz retired in order in the ninth to add the tenth complete game of his career.
The starter struck out six and did not give up a passport to improve his mark to 3-0 in three starts in his career at Petco Park. He has won five of his last six starts.
While the Diamondbacks went 67-55, a game and a half ahead of the Colorado Rockies.
In his second major league start, Jacob Nix (1-1) allowed the first five batters of Arizona to be embassy and was removed from the game after hitting a ball to Jon Jay. Nix conceded five runs and five hits, giving five passports and striking out one.
Left-hander Jon Lester looked brilliant for six innings and earned his first win in more than a month, while left fielder Ian Happ homered to allow the Cubs to beat at home by a 0-1 shutout of the Pirates of Pittsburgh.
Lester (13-5) allowed five hits, delivered eight strikeouts and did not hand over tickets to improve to a 3-1 record against the Pirates this season.
His previous victory dated back to July 15 at San Diego, against the Padres, after which he had a losing record of 0-3 with a 10.32 ERA in five starts since the All-Star break.
Relievers Steve Cishek, Carl Edwards and Pedro Strop pitched an inning each to complete the work of six undisputed.
Strop hit David Freese with a pitch when there were two outs in the ninth, but the game ended and his 10th save was credited in 13 attempts.
Happ hit his bambinazo when there was an out of the fourth episode, against the Dominican starter Iván Nova (7-7). He reached 13 homers in the campaign, thanks to the ball that put the ball in the seats, between right and center.
That was the only extrabase of the game. Some spectators applauded Happ as he walked the trails. The gardener is originally from Mount Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
The victory allowed the Cubs to put on a 70-50 mark and increase to three and a half games over the Milwaukee Brewers, who rested, the lead that leads them to the Central Division.
The pitching of the Rockies was in charge of silencing the explosive bat of the rookie sensation, the Venezuelan Ronald Acuña Jr., who cut his run of consecutive homers and also imposed at home 3-5 to the Braves.
The Rockies scored three dirty runs in the ninth inning that made the difference in the win.
Center fielder David Dahl hit a home run in the third inning and capped the final attack with a two-run single against Brad Brach (1-3), which took the loss when there were two outs. Thus, broke the five-game streak that held the Braves (68-52), leaders of the East Division.
The Rockies took advantage of a mistake by shortstop Danby Swanson in the beginning of the ninth and earned their fifth win in six games.
One night after being hit in the left elbow by the first throw of the Dominican Jose Ureña in the duel against the Miami Marlins, Acuña Jr. returned to the lineup in search of reaching six straight games hitting home.
The 20-year-old Venezuelan slugger came to the batter’s box wearing a red brace, and was cheered before his first turn. He found the second pitch he got and sent the ball into center field for a single, which left him with nine straight games hitting a hit.
But that was the main contribution of Acuña Jr. in the duel. He batted 4-1, with an out line to right field in the eighth inning, and had no more chances to be the first player in the history of the Braves with a homer in six consecutive duels.
Seunghwan Oh (5-3) took the win and Wade Davis solved the ninth round without conceding, to get his thirty-third save so far this season.
Left fielder Rhis Hoskins hit a three-run homer, shortstop Scott Kingery added another solitary and the Philadelphia Phillies won 9-6 to the New York Mets in the second game of the doubleheader, in which they honored.
In the first game, the Dominican Jose Bautista connected a grand slam and towed seven races, the best professional mark, for the Mets to win at home with a 2-24 thrashing.
Center and right fielder Bryce Harper hit three hits with three produced runs that left him in charge of the Washington Nationals attack that prevailed 4-5 at home to the St. Louis Cardinals. Ruben Mantilla
