Astros stay on road to playoffs

PITTSBURGH -- A solid road trip kept the Houston Astros on the right path toward a playoff spot.

Evan Gattis hit his 20th home run and Carlos Correa got two hits and scored twice, leading Collin McHugh and the Astros over the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4.

The Astros won the interleague matchup between wild-card contenders. They went 5-2 on a trip that began in Baltimore.

"I'm really proud of our guys. We have a small margin of error these days and we've responded by playing well," manager A.J. Hinch said.

McHugh (8-10) gave up three runs in five innings, ending an 0-4 rut in his last five starts. Ken Giles closed for his fifth save.

Gerrit Cole (7-9) allowed five runs in five innings. He has a 6.07 ERA through five August starts.

Pittsburgh has lost five of six.

"I've been trying to look at approaches and maybe see how I can use my stuff better. I thought today there were some good steps in the right direction: some good sliders, some good curveballs for strikes," Cole said.

"Miss over the plate, and I'm getting punished. That's the bottom line," he said.

Gattis homered in the second, connecting after a single by Correa.

"We did a pretty good job of executing some at-bats," Hinch said. "(Cole) has some really good stuff and we stayed enough inside the strike zone. Gattis delivers the big blow. I think that relaxed the dugout a little bit."

Correa reached on an infield single in the fourth and scored on a triple by Marwin Gonzalez.

George Springer singled to begin the fifth and Alex Bregman followed with a double, setting up sacrifice flies by Jose Altuve and Correa for a 5-1 lead.

Cubs 6, Padres 3

SAN DIEGO -- Major league ERA leader Kyle Hendricks pitched six effective innings and the Chicago Cubs finished off a three-game sweep, beating the San Diego Padres.

Hendricks (12-7) gave up two runs and four hits, striking out eight and leaving with a 2.19 ERA. He has allowed no more than three earned runs in 17 straight starts.

There Cubs relievers took over for the NL Central leaders, with Aroldis Chapman pitching the ninth for his 29th save in 32 chances.

Willson Contreras homered and Ben Zobrist drove in two runs as the Cubs won for the 22nd time in 27 games. At 81-45, they are 36 games over .500 for the first time since ending the 1945 season at 98-56.

The Padres have dropped nine of their past 12. Paul Clemens (2-3) took the loss.

Athletics 5, Indians 1

OAKLAND, Calif. - Kendall Graveman pitched into the seventh inning to become Oakland's first 10-game winner this season, and the Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians to win the series.

The A's took two of three games from the AL Central leaders, who had swept a three-game set from Oakland in July. Cleveland went into the day with the best record in the American League, but was held to one run for the third consecutive game while being outscored 14-3 in the series.

Khris Davis tripled and scored as part of Oakland's five-run second inning off Trevor Bauer (9-6).

Roberto Perez homered while Jose Ramirez and Lonnie Chisenhall had two hits apiece for Cleveland.

Graveman (10-8) extended his scoreless streak to 16 innings before Perez homered in the seventh.

Graveman allowed six hits in 6 2-3 innings and won for the ninth time in his last 11 decisions.

Mark Rzepczynski, Ryan Dull and Ryan Madson combined to retire the final seven batters.

Yankees 5, Mariners 0

SEATTLE -- Rookie Gary Sanchez kept up his torrid stretch with his seventh home run in the past nine games, and Masahiro Tanaka won his fourth-straight start.

Tanaka (11-4) threw seven shutout innings and got the better of the Mariners and his former Japan League teammate Hisashi Iwakuma (14-9).

The Yankees won their third straight road series. They took two of three from the Mariners, one of the teams they're chasing in the AL wild-card race.

Sanchez homered into the second deck in left field in the first inning on the first pitch from Iwakuma, his ninth home run in 18 games since joining the Yankees lineup on Aug. 3.

Sanchez added a double later in the game and his intentional walk in the seventh inning led to Mark Teixeira's RBI single for a 4-0 lead. The Mariners took no chances with the new catcher the next time, either, again intentionally walking him.

Tanaka was shaky early, escaping jams in the second and third innings before rolling the rest of the way. He followed up 7 2/3 shutout innings in his last start against the Angels by keeping Seattle off the scoreboard, allowing six hits and striking out five.

Brewers 7, Rockies 1

MILWAUKEE -- Ryan Braun hit two home runs and the Milwaukee Brewers tied a season high with their fourth-straight win, beating the Colorado Rockies.

Braun hit a solo drive off Tyler Anderson in the fourth inning. He connected for his 24th homer, a two-run drive, off Chad Qualls during a four-run seventh.

The Brewers posted their first three-game sweep over Colorado at Miller Park since 2011.

Nolan Arenado hit his NL-leading 34th homer in the first, his fourth shot in 15 plate appearances. The Rockies went on to load the bases, but Zach Davies (10-6) escaped further trouble.

Davis struck out eight in six innings.

Anderson (4-5) fanned a career-high 10 in five innings.

Sports on 08/25/2016

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