Friday's MLB: Reds trade All-Star pitcher Castillo to Mariners for four prospects
Houston — The Seattle Mariners acquired the top starting pitcher on the trade market Friday night, getting All-Star Luis Castillo from the payroll-paring Cincinnati Reds for four minor league prospects.
Cincinnati obtained infielders Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo, and right-handers Levi Stoudt and Andrew Moore. Marte was the Mariners’ top-rated prospect, Arroyo was third and Stoudt fifth.
Seattle has not been to the playoffs since 2001, the longest postseason drought in the four major North American professional sports.
Friday's games
(At) New York Yankees 11, Kansas City 5: Aaron Judge became the first big leaguer with 40 homers this season, smashed a grand slam for No. 41 and robbed a home run in right field as the New York Yankees rallied to beat the Kansas City Royals 11-5 Friday night.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning as New York completed its major league-leading 29th comeback victory.
Judge was lavished with “MVP!” chants throughout the night, none louder than after his slam in the eighth cemented yet another Yankees rally. He also had a single and finished with six RBIs.
Judge and Anthony Rizzo homered early on a rainy night in the Bronx, but Kansas City came back against Gerrit Cole, with Whit Merrifield’s two-run single in the fifth ending a scoreless drought of 31 2/3 innings for the Royals.
Salvador Perez followed Merrifield with a go-ahead, three-run homer in his return from the injured list.
New York erased its deficit by batting around during a messy eighth inning that followed a 23-minute rain delay.
Albert Abreu (2-0) pitched a scoreless eighth against a Kansas City team that waived him June 21. Scott Barlow (4-4) took the loss.
Judge began the game by reaching over the right-field fence to rob MJ Melendez of a homer.
New York Mets 6 (at) Miami 4: Starling Marte homered, tripled and drove in three runs, Brandon Nimmo broke an eighth-inning tie with a two-run shot as New York overcame two early deficits to defeat Miami and run its winning streak to four games.
Nimmo finished with three RBIs and Marte was a double short of the cycle for the NL East leaders.
Pinch-hitter Eduardo Escobar reached on an infield single leading off the eighth against reliever Steven Okert (5-1) and advanced on Tomás Nido’s sacrifice bunt. Nimmo then drove an 0-1 pitch from Okert over the wall in right-center.
Daniel Vogelbach doubled twice for the Mets, who had eight extra-base hits – six against Marlins All-Star starter Sandy Alcantara.
Adam Ottavino (5-2) pitched a scoreless seventh and Edwin Díaz converted his 23rd save.
The Marlins scored three in the first on Miguel Rojas’ bases-loaded double off Chris Bassitt, who gave up four runs, six hits and four walks in six innings.
Baltimore 6, (at) Cincinnati 2: Cedric Mullins hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in a four-run ninth inning, and Baltimore beat Cincinnati to move two games over .500 for the first time since April 2021.
Dillon Tate (2-3) earned the victory for Baltimore, which had not been two games over since it was 4-2 last year. The Orioles, at 37-25 following a 14-24 start, is 16-7 in July, assured of consecutive winning months for the first times since May and June 2016.
Ramón Urías walked against Buck Farmer (0-1) leading off the ninth, Rougned Oder doubled and Mullins grounded a first-pitch changeup up the middle and into center field for a 4-2 lead. Trey Mancini followed with an RBI single. Ryan Mountcastle followed with a sacrifice fly.
Joey Votto hit two-run homer in the first for the Reds.
(At) Atlanta 5, Arizona 2: Austin Riley had a homer and three RBIs, Kyle Wright earned his NL-leading 13th victory and Atlanta topped Arizona.
Riley homered in the first and drove in runs with doubles in the third and fifth. Wright has won five straight decisions and gave up five hits and two runs with two walks and five strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings.
Geraldo Perdomo hit his third homer and Madison Bumgarner (6-10) took the loss, surrendering eight hits and five runs – four earned – in six innings.
Chris Devenski pitched the seventh for Arizona, making his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery last year.
St. Louis 6, (at) Washington 2: Nolan Gorman and Lars Nootbaar hit back-to-back homers in the sixth inning as St. Louis beat Washington and won consecutive games for the first time since July 15-16.
Washington’s Juan Soto went 1 for 4 in what could be his final homestand with Tuesday’s trade deadline looming. The Nationals were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
Miles Mikolas (8-8) allowed two runs in seven innings, giving up six hits and a walk while striking out four for St. Louis.
Aníbal Sánchez (0-3) lost his third consecutive start for Washington, which has a majors-worst record of 34-67. He pitched into the sixth inning for the first time this season.
Dylan Carlson and Paul Goldschmidt had run-scoring groundouts sandwiched around Sánchez’s run-scoring wild pitch for the Cardinals.
Philadelphia 4, (at) Pittsburgh 2 (10): Rhys Hoskins drilled a go-ahead two-run homer in the top of the 10th to lift Philadelphia past Pittsburgh.
Hoskins finished off a four-hit night by taking the third pitch he saw from Duane Underwood Jr. (0-3) and sending it to the grassy area beyond the center field wall for his 20th home run of the season to give the Phillies their third straight victory.
Nick Castellanos, Alec Bohm and Matt Vierling had two hits apiece for Philadelphia. Seranthony Dominguez (5-3) retired the Pirates in order to force extra innings and Connor Brogdon worked a perfect bottom of the 10th to pick up his first career save.
Ke’Bryan Hayes hit his fifth home run of the season for Pittsburgh and collected his third three-hit game this month, but the Pirates’ bullpen faltered late to send the club to its fifth consecutive loss.
Cleveland 4, (at) Tampa Bay 1: José Ramirez hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the fifth, Shane Bieber struck out eight in seven innings and Cleveland beat Tampa Bay.
Ramirez’s 21st homer, a drive off Jeffrey Springs (3-3), gave Cleveland a 3-1 lead. Ramirez added a two-out RBI single in the eighth after Steven Kwan’s third single.
Bieber (5-6) needed 26 pitches in the first, when Ji-Man Choi hit a run-scoring single. He gave up one runs and five hits. Emmanuel Clase pitched the ninth for his 22nd save in 24 chances.
Tampa Bay has lost six of seven and leads Cleveland by 31/2 games for the AL’s third wild card. The homestand opener drew just 14,671,
Milwaukee 4, (at) Boston 1: Christian Yelich drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the seventh inning, Brandon Woodruff struck out nine and Milwaukee won in its return to Boston for the first time in eight years.
Andrew McCutchen had a run-scoring fielder’s choice and Tyrone Taylor added a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
The game was scoreless until the sixth when the Brewers finally got to rookie Brayan Bello (0-3) in an extended relief outing he was initially set to start.
Woodruff (9-3) went 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run and four hits and two walks. Josh Hader struck out three in the ninth to pick up his 29th save.
The Red Sox are just 2-5 on current 10-game homestand – their longest of the season – and 4-9 in the last 13 at Fenway. They are 3-12 in their last 15 overall.