HOUSTON — Ji-Man Choi put Tampa Bay ahead with a two-run double in the seventh inning, Travis d’Arnaud homered and drove in four, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Houston Astros 9-8 to avoid a three-game sweep Thursday.
Jose Altuve of the Astros hit a tiebreaking solo leadoff homer in the sixth, his 25th, but Tampa Bay scored three runs in the seventh to make it 8-6. Tommy Pham had an RBI single off Chris Devenski (2-3) and Choi brought in two more with a drive to center.
Houston ended a seven-game winning streak and the Rays snapped a season-high four-game road skid.
“We were all pumping each other up the whole game, every lead change, we weren’t pouting or anything,” d’Arnaud said. “We ended up on top, which was huge.”
The Rays used seven pitchers, including opener Andrew Kittredge and long man Trevor Richards, who combined to allow four hits and two runs in the first three innings. Jose De Leon (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning and Emilio Pagan earned his 15th save.
INDIANS 2, TIGERS 0: Mike Clevinger struck out 10 in eight sparkling innings, and Francisco Lindor homered to lift Cleveland at Detroit.
Cleveland swept the three-game series and is 15-1 against the Tigers this year. The Indians have won 14 straight against Detroit.
Clevinger (10-2) allowed four hits and no walks in his longest outing of the season. He was lifted after 115 pitches, and Brad Hand worked a perfect ninth for his 33rd save in 38 chances.
ATHLETICS 9, ROYALS 8: Jurickson Profar homered and drove in three runs, Seth Brown added two RBI and Oakland won at Kansas City, Missouri.
Everybody in the A’s starting lineup had a hit or drove in a run, bailing out starter Chris Bassitt after a dismal performance. Bassitt failed to survive the fifth before turning the game over to Yusmeiro Petit (4-3), who was just about the only effective pitcher all game.
Fellow relievers Jake Diekman and Liam Hendriks gave up back-to-back RBI singles in the eighth, then Hendriks gave up a two-out RBI single to Ryan O’Hearn in the ninth. But Hendriks bounced back to strike out Bubba Starling and earn his 17th save.
TWINS 10, WHITE SOX 5: Jake Cave homered twice at Chicago, C.J. Cron went deep and Minnesota set a major league record for home runs on the road in a season.
Cave led off the third with a drive off Dylan Cease to give Minnesota 139 homers away from home, eclipsing the mark of 138 set by San Francisco in 2001. Cron, the next hitter, followed with a homer to center.
Cave added a shot in the seventh for his second career multihomer game, increasing the Twins’ overall total to 261. The record for homers in a season, 267, was set last year by the New York Yankees.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CUBS 4, METS 1: Victor Caratini homered twice off Jacob deGrom, including a tiebreaking, three-run drive in the seventh inning that powered Chicago at New York for a three-game sweep.
Jon Lester pitched six effective innings as the Cubs increased their lead for the second NL wild-card spot to 2 1/2 games over Philadelphia.
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