MLB roundup: Phillies’ Mick Abel outduels Paul Skenes in debut

Mick Abel tied a franchise record with nine strikeouts over six innings in his Major League debut as host Philadelphia completed a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh with a 1-0 victory.
Abel (1-0), a first round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft out of Jesuit High School in Portland, Ore., scattered five hits and tied the team MLB debut strikeout mark set by Curt Simmons of “Whiz Kids” fame on Sept. 28, 1947 against the New York Giants. He struck out the side in the second inning to become the first pitcher in Phillies history to strike out five batters in the first two innings of their Major League debut.
Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning when Nick Castellanos led off with an infield single, advanced to third on a single by Max Kepler and scored one out later on a fielder’s choice by Brandon Marsh.
Paul Skenes (3-5) suffered the loss despite allowing just three hits and one run over eight innings. Skenes walked one and struck out nine but fell to 0-3 over his last four starts, with his last win coming on April 25 against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, 3-0.
Astros 4, Rangers 3
Isaac Paredes’ three-run eighth-inning home run was the difference as Houston rallied to beat Texas. The two Texas squads split a four-game set.
Paredes’ homer off reliever Robert Garcia (1-2) made a winner out of Framber Valdez (3-4), who allowed three runs in seven innings. Josh Hader retired the Rangers in order in the ninth to earn his 11th save.
Yainer Diaz broke up Texas’ Jack Leiter’s no-hit bid with a solo home run with two outs in the seventh. Leiter pitched into the eighth inning for the first time in his career, but Garcia could not hold a 3-1 Texas lead.
Nationals 10, Orioles 4
CJ Abrams hit the game’s first pitch for the first of his two home runs and visiting Washington went on to beat staggering Baltimore 10-4.
Luis Garcia Jr., Dylan Crews and Josh Bell also homered for the Nationals, who’ve won three games in a row following a 1-8 stretch. They homered five times in a game for the first time since September 2023.
Baltimore, which fired manager Brandon Hyde on Saturday, completed a 0-6 homestand despite home runs from Cedric Mullins, Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday in consecutive innings. The Orioles have lost 12 of their last 14 games.
Braves 10, Red Sox 4
Marcell Ozuna hit a two-run home run and had three RBIs to lead visiting Atlanta to a 10-4 victory over Boston.
The Braves had 16 hits and drew seven walks in the win. Alex Verdugo and Austin Riley each collected three hits for Atlanta, which broke a 4-4 tie by scoring three runs in the fifth. The Braves drew four walks in the inning.
Rafael Devers hit a grand slam for the Red Sox. It was his ninth home run of the season and his second in as many games. Devers and David Hamilton each had two of Boston’s eight hits.
Tigers 3, Blue Jays 2
Spencer Torkelson had a double, a single and three RBIs and visiting Detroit defeated Toronto 3-2.
Torkelson’s RBI single in the seventh broke a 2-2 tie. Dillon Dingler had three hits and Riley Greene added two for the Tigers in the rubber match of the three-game series. Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe went six innings, allowing six hits and two walks with five strikeouts in a no-decision.
The Tigers have won five of six. The Blue Jays are 2-4 to open their nine-game homestand.
Reds 3, Guardians 1
Will Benson remained red-hot Sunday afternoon, when he homered twice to lead host Cincinnati to a 3-1 win over Cleveland and a sweep of the three-game interleague series.
Benson snapped a scoreless tie with a two-run homer off Luis Ortiz (2-5) in the fourth before he added a solo shot off Hunter Gaddis in the sixth. The outfielder, who finished 3-for-4 Sunday, has homered in each of his last four games and is batting .526 (10-of-19) with four round-trippers and 10 RBIs during a six-game hitting streak. The home run streak is the longest by a Reds player since TJ Friedl went deep in four straight games from Sept. 22-26, 2023.
The Reds have won four straight overall following a 2-9 stretch and are back to .500 on the season (24-24).
Carlos Santana had an RBI single in the seventh for the Guardians, who have dropped four in a row after opening May with eight wins in their first 12 games.
Marlins 5, Rays 1
Otto Lopez belted a three-run homer in just his second at-bat off the injured list and Cal Quantrill pitched an immaculate inning as host Miami defeated Tampa Bay 5-1.
Quantrill (3-4) earned the win, pitching his “immaculate inning” in the fourth – nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts. He got four swinging strikes, three called strikes and two foul balls. Overall, Quantrill struck out six and allowed two hits, two walks and one run in five innings.
Miami took two of three games in this in-state-rivalry series. It’s the first time since 2018 that Miami has won a series against Tampa Bay.
Brewers 5, Twins 2
Freddy Peralta (5-3) allowed one run over five solid innings as Milwaukee avoided a sweep with a 5-2 victory over Minnesota, snapping the Twins’ 13-game winning streak.
Zebby Mathews (0-1), called up from Triple-A St. Paul, allowed four runs on five hits in three innings in his season debut. Minnesota had not lost since a 6-1 defeat at Boston on May 2.
Isaac Collins and Sal Frelick each drove in a pair of runs for Milwaukee. Trevor Megill, the fifth pitcher of the day for the Brewers, earned his sixth save.
Royals 2, Cardinals 1
Maikel Garcia delivered a tiebreaking RBI single in the seventh inning as Kansas City avoided being swept by visiting St. Louis with a 2-1 victory.
The Royals left seven men on against Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore, who was brilliant in allowing one run, six hits and one walk over six innings. However, Kansas City wasted no time getting to reliever Chris Roycroft (1-3) in the seventh of a 1-1 contest.
Alec Burleson’s home run in the fourth inning was the only run given up by Royals starter Michael Wacha among eight hits. Wacha struck out six and walked one over five frames.
The victory snapped a four-game slide for the Royals, who had lost six of seven. They also momentarily cooled off the Cardinals, who had won three straight and 12 of 13.
Cubs 6, White Sox 2
Seiya Suzuki drove in two runs, leading the Chicago Cubs to a three-game sweep of the visiting Chicago White Sox.
Colin Rea pitched 5 1/3 innings for the Cubs, but reliever Drew Pomeranz (1-0) completed the sixth frame. The Cubs scored three times in the bottom of the inning to take a 4-1 lead.
Four Cubs contributed two hits each, including Nico Hoerner, who doubled twice. The Cubs have defeated the White Sox eight consecutive times.
Diamondbacks 1, Rockies 0
Ketel Marte homered in the first inning, Merrill Kelly pitched seven scoreless innings and Arizona deprived Colorado of its first series win of the season with a 1-0 victory in Phoenix.
Marte went deep as the second batter of the D-backs’ first and Kelly (5-2) gave up only one hit while striking out 11, one short of his career high. Kelly took a no-hitter into the sixth before Rockies’ leadoff hitter Jordan Beck grounded a double inside the bag at third on Kelly’s 83rd pitch to break it up. Kelly walked three and threw a season-high 109 pitches.
Colorado fell to 8-38, the worst start in the modern era (since 1901). The 1904 Washington Senators, the 1932 Boston Red Sox and the 1988 Baltimore Orioles all were 9-37.
Giants 3, Athletics 2
Heliot Ramos homered and later drove in the tie-breaking run with a single in the eighth to lift host San Francisco past the visiting Athletics and complete a sweep of the three-game series.
Reliever Tyler Ferguson (0-2) started the eighth with the Athletics leading 2-1, but he surrendered a lead-off triple to pinch hitter LaMonte Wade Jr., pinch hitter Patrick Bailey’s RBI single, a sacrifice bunt and Ramos’ RBI single.
The comeback spoiled another exceptional outing by A’s left-hander Jeffrey Springs. He allowed one run and two hits over 6 2/3 innings, striking out five without a walk. Springs, who came in 2-0 in three starts this month with a 1.50 ERA, gave up a home run on his first pitch of the game to Ramos, but then retired 20 in a row, never pitching out of the stretch.
Angels 6, Dodgers 4
Travis d’Arnaud hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning and the visiting Los Angeles Angels finished off a three-game sweep with a 6-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Shaun Anderson (1-0) gave up one run in 2 2/3 innings of relief, striking out Shohei Ohtani to end the game.
Zach Neto led off the game with a home run for the Angels and Taylor Ward added a two-run shot – his 12th – three batters later.
Dodgers reliever Anthony Banda (3-1) gave up the d’Arnaud home run -his first of the season – and suffered the loss. Will Smith’s 3-run home run in the seventh knotted the game at 4-4.
Mariners 6, Padres 1
Randy Arozarena homered to start a three-run rally and Bryan Woo sailed through seven innings as visiting Seattle completed a three-game sweep of San Diego with a 6-1 win.
Woo (5-1) gave up just five hits and a run with no walks and five strikeouts, throwing 67 of his 87 pitches for strikes and permitting just one hit over his last 5 1/3 innings. He lowered his earned run average to 2.65.
Michael King (4-2) absorbed the loss, yielding six hits and four runs (three earned) in 5 1/3 innings. He walked one and fanned eight. King didn’t allow a hit until Arozarena jacked his sixth homer off a hanging sweeper with two outs in the fourth. That was the first of five straight hits for Seattle, which took the lead for good via Leody Taveras’ ground-rule double to right and made it 3-1 on an infield single from Miles Mastrobuoni.