Springer’s two homers help Blue Jays sweep Yankees, take AL East lead
Toronto Blue Jays’ Addison Barger (47) celebrates after his solo home run with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., front right, during fifth-inning baseball game action against the New York Yankees in Toronto, Thursday, July 3, 2025. (Thomas Skrlj/The Canadian Press via AP)
TORONTO (AP) — George Springer hit two two-run home runs and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees 8-5 on Thursday night to complete a four-game sweep and take sole possession of the AL East lead.
Addison Barger had a solo homer among his three hits for Toronto.
New York slugger Aaron Judge drew his 23rd intentional walk in the eighth, matching Mickey Mantle’s 1957 team record.
Yankees right-hander Clarke Schmidt left after three innings because of tightness in his forearm. Schmidt allowed three runs and four hits.
Jasson Domínguez had four hits for New York, but the Yankees were swept for the second time. They lost all three at Boston between June 13 and 15.
New York is 10-16 against AL East opponents.
Chris Bassitt (8-4) struck out nine in 5 2/3 innings, improving to 4-0 in five career home starts against the Yankees. Jeff Hoffman finished for his 21st save in 25 chances.
Springer went 3 for 4 with four RBIs and scored three times. The homers were his 14th and 15th.
Barger and Nathan Lukes each had three hits and two RBIs as Toronto won for the 11th time in 16 and jumped one game ahead of New York.
MARLINS 4, TWINS 1
MIAMI (AP) — Agustín Ramírez hit a two-run home run, Xavier Edwards singled twice and Miami won its fourth straight series with a victory over Minnesota.
Eury Pérez (1-2) struck out a season-high seven and walked one in six innings of one-hit ball for his first win since June 25, 2023, against Pittsburgh. Cade Gibson relieved Pérez in the seventh after 80 pitches.
The Marlins have won 10 of their past 12 — including an eight-game winning streak — and have the same record as the Atlanta Braves for third in the NL East.
The Twins went 2-4 in their six-game road trip, also losing a series at Detroit.
Ramírez connected on a 1-2 fastball from Twins starter David Festa (2-3) and launched it 425 feet to left-center during a three-run first.
Festa allowed five hits and four runs with seven strikeouts in six innings.
Edwards hit leadoff singles in the first and third and stole his team-leading 15th base. Kyle Stowers went 0-for-3, ending his nine-game hitting streak. Ronny Henriquez earned his fifth save.
ROCKIES 7, ASTROS 6
DENVER (AP) — Thairo Estrada hit a two-run homer in the first inning and drove in four runs to help Colorado Rockies beat Houston.
Colorado improved to 9-34 at home, still the worst home start in the modern era. The Rockies have lost all 14 series at Coors Field.
Juan Mejia (1-0) got the win in relief of Kyle Freeland, who threw six solid innings, and Seth Halvorsen picked up his seventh save. Halvorsen gave up a leadoff triple to Jake Meyers and a pair of two-out singles before getting Victor Caratini on a flyout to right to end it.
Houston tied it at 5 in seventh on Cam Smith’s two-run triple, and Colorado got it right back in the bottom of inning. After Tyler Freeman was thrown out at home trying to score from first on Mickey Moniak’s double, Jordan Beck singled to make it 6-5, stole second and scored on Estrada’s two-out single off reliever Jordan Weems (0-1).
Houston scored twice in the first inning, and Estrada tied with his homer it in the bottom of the inning. Isaac Paredes had an RBI double for Houston in the second, and Estrada tied it in the third with an RBU groundout. Ryan Ritter’s two-run single in the fourth gave Colorado the lead.
Brandon Walter gave up five runs over five innings of work for Houston.
ANGELS 5, BRAVES 1
ATLANTA (AP) — Zach Neto had three hits, including a homer, Nolan Schanuel added a two-run blast and José Soriano allowed only three hits in seven scoreless innings to lead Los Angeles to a victory over weak-hitting Atlanta.
The Braves avoided a shutout on Jurickson Profar’s ninth-inning homer off left-hander Brock Burke. It was Profar’s second homer in two games since returning from an 80-game PED suspension.
Soriano (6-5) had seven strikeouts and did not allow a baserunner to reach second base. Neto scored three runs.
Bryce Elder (2-6) gave up four runs on eight hits and three walks in five innings. Elder’s third consecutive loss is a disturbing trend for a team that placed right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach on the 15-day injured list with a fractured right elbow on Wednesday.
NATIONALS 11, TIGERS 7
WASHINGTON (AP) — James Wood had a career-high five hits including his 23rd home run hours after being named to the Home Run Derby, Jake Irvin survived a rocky first to pitch six solid innings, and Washington beat Detroit.
Wood also had four singles, two RBIs and scored three runs.
Alex Call had three hits for Washington, which has won three of four. Paul DeJong, in his third game back from the injured list, added a three-run homer.
After allowing three runs and three hits in the first, Irvin (7-3) tossed five scoreless innings and did not allow another hit.
It was career win No. 500 for Nationals manager Dave Martinez.
Detroit rallied late as Gleyber Torres and Wenceel Perez had RBI singles in the seventh. Parker Meadows singled home a run in the eighth and another scored on Javier Baez’s ground out to make it 9-7. However, Luis Garcia Jr. and Call had RBI singles in the bottom half.
Spencer Torkelson hit a three-run homer for the AL-leading Tigers, who are 8-8 over their past 16 games.
Dietrich Enns (1-1) allowed eight runs and eight hits in four-plus innings for Detroit.
METS 3, BREWERS 2
NEW YORK (AP) — Brandon Nimmo homered again, Juan Soto came through with a tiebreaking single and New York held off Milwaukee.
David Peterson (6-4) rebounded from a pair of rough starts, tossing 6 2/3 effective innings to give New York’s injury-ravaged rotation a much-needed boost.
Pete Alonso added an RBI double as the Mets took two of three from Milwaukee — just as they did in their Wild Card Series during the National League playoffs last October.
Next stop, the second Subway Series of the season against the crosstown-rival New York Yankees.
Fans in the sellout crowd of 42,241 received replica Soto jerseys on Fireworks Night, and the $765 million slugger gave New York a 2-1 lead in the sixth when he grounded an RBI single off hard-luck loser Jose Quintana (6-3), who spent the past two seasons with the Mets.
Alonso then drove the first pitch from reliever Nick Mears off the left-center fence for a double that made it 3-1.
Andruw Monasterio hit his first homer this year off Peterson in the seventh, but the Mets hung on for their second consecutive victory after losing 14 of 17.
Ryne Stanek got four straight outs, ending the eighth with a primal scream after striking out all three batters in the inning.
Edwin Díaz fanned two in a scoreless ninth for his 18th save in 19 opportunities.
CUBS 1, GUARDIANS 0, 10 INNINGS
CHICAGO (AP) — Rookie Matt Shaw’s deep sacrifice fly to center scored Nico Hoerner from third in the 10th inning, giving Chicago a win over Cleveland.
Hoerner, the automatic runner, advanced to third on Michael Busch’s groundout. He trotted home on Shaw’s liner that Lane Thomas caught in front of the ivy at Wrigley Field .
Dansby Swanson had two of Chicago’s three hits as the Cubs swept the series and dealt the Guardians a season-high seventh straight loss.
Chris Flexen (5-0), the Cubs fourth reliever, pitched a perfect 10th for the win. NL Central-leading Chicago improved to 52-35 and moved four games ahead of second-place Milwaukee.
Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase (4-2), pitched the ninth and 10th and took the loss. Steven Kwan had two singles in a game with no extra-base hits.
Cubs rookie starter Cade Horton threw seven scoreless, five-hit innings in his longest outing so far.
GIANTS 7, DIAMONDBACKS 2
PHOENIX (AP) — Robbie Ray threw his first complete game since 2017, Rafael Devers had three RBIs and San Francisco beat Arizona.
The teams split the four-game series, with the Giants winning the final two.
Ray (9-3) retired the first 12 batters before Eugenio Suarez led off the fifth inning with his 27th homer of the season to cut San Francisco’s lead to 4-1. The veteran left-hander needed 102 pitches to navigate his nine innings, giving up three hits, including two solo homers, walking one and striking out seven.
Ray pitched for the D-backs from 2015 to 2020 before being traded to Toronto. He won the AL Cy Young with the Blue Jays in 2021.
The Giants led almost the entire night, taking a 2-0 lead in the first after Heliot Ramos hit a run-scoring double and Jung Hoo Lee added a sacrifice fly. Mike Yastrzemski and Willy Adames both had three hits. Ramos and Andrew Knizner added two hits.
Arizona’s Brandon Pfaadt (8-6) gave up four runs on six hits and two walks over six innings. The right-hander struck out eight.
DODGERS 6, WHITE SOX 2
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dustin May pitched two-run ball over seven innings after retiring the first 16 batters and Los Angeles beat Chicago to complete a three-game sweep.
The 27-year-old right-hander struck out a season-high nine and walked one in the best start of his six-year major league career. He won for the first time since June 15 against San Francisco.
Brooks Baldwin broke up May’s perfect game bid with a single in the sixth and then chased May (5-5) with a two-run homer in the eighth, ending the longest outing of his career. May left to a standing ovation.
Freddie Freeman went 2 for 4 with three RBIs and a run scored. He was robbed of a homer by Mike Tauchman, who leaned over the lower wall in right field and snagged the ball in the fifth.
Mookie Betts homered for the first time in 21 games, his solo shot off Tyler Gilbert extending the lead to 6-0 in the seventh.
ROYALS 3, MARINERS 2
SEATTLE (AP) — Vinnie Pasquantino had a two-run single in the seventh inning and Kansas City beat Seattle.
Bobby Witt Jr. tied the score 1-1 with a single to center field with one out and then stole second base to put two runners in scoring position. Pasquantino grounded a single to right field drive in both runners, with Witt scoring after making an elusive move to avoid the tag from catcher Cal Raleigh to give the Royals a two-run lead.
Seth Lugo (6-5) allowed just one run on six hits in 6 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out seven.
Lucas Erceg and Taylor Clarke got two outs each, and Carlos Estévez pitched 1 1/3 innings to get his 24th save. Estévez gave up a leadoff homer to Dominic Canzone in the ninth and had runners on second and third after a wild pitch with one out, but struck out Julio Rodríguez and got Raleigh to ground out to end the game.
Jorge Polanco homered in the fourth inning to put the Mariners up 1-0, and also had two doubles,.
Logan Evans, recalled from Triple-A Tacoma, made his first big league start since May 10 and gave up three hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He walked one and struck out three.
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