Trea Turner hit two homers Adidas Ryan Kesler Jersey , including his first career grand slam, and drove in eight runs to help the Washington Nationals rally from a nine-run deficit and defeat the Miami Marlins 14-12 in a wild slugfest Thursday night to end a five-game losing streak.
The Nationals, who dropped 17 of their previous 22, have won 12 consecutive games against Miami dating to last season – their longest winning streak against any team since the franchise moved to Washington in 2005.
The victory came a day after the Nationals called a players-only meeting Wednesday after Washington was swept by Boston and slipped under .500 for the first time since May 2. Turner’s eight RBIs tied for the most ever by a leadoff hitter, according to STATS LLC.
Shawn Kelley (1-0) pitched a scoreless sixth for the win. Sean Doolittle earned his 22nd save in 23 opportunities.
Adam Conley (2-1) allowed five runs in 2/3 of an inning and took the loss.
RANGERS 7, TIGERS 5
DETROIT – Joey Gallo and Ronald Guzman homered as Texas beat Detroit.
Yovani Gallardo (3-0) got the win, giving up four runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out two while winning his third straight start.
Keone Kela allowed a run in the ninth before finishing off his 21st save as Texas snapped a three-game losing streak.
Matthew Boyd allowed a season-high seven runs and seven hits in four innings. He is 0-3 with a 10.59 ERA in his last four starts.
Detroit lost is third straight and dropped to 2-14 since June 17.
TWINS 5, ORIOLES 2
MINNEAPOLIS – Aaron Slegers got his first major league win by finishing six smooth innings in his first start of the season for Minnesota, and the Twins stopped their six-game losing streak by hanging on to beat Baltimore.
Logan Morrison homered and Jake Cave reached base all four times he batted for the Twins, who turned to Fernando Rodney for the ninth for his 18th save following two consecutive blown chances.
Jonathan Schoop hit two home runs, but the Orioles squandered another quality start by Andrew Cashner (2-9) and lost for the 10th time in 11 games. They have the worst record in the major leagues at 24-62 Adidas Clayton Keller Jersey , just the team the Twins needed to face to start a season-long 11-game homestand after a 1-8 road trip.
BREWERS 7, BRAVES 2
MILWAUKEE – Jhoulys Chacin threw seven solid innings and Hernan Perez homered among his three hits, leading Milwaukee to a 7-2 victory over Atlanta in a matchup of first-place teams.
The NL Central Division-leading Brewers won their fourth game in a row to go 17 games over .500 (52-35) for the first time since July 1, 2014, when they were 51-34.
Chacin (7-3) gave up three hits and two earned runs while matching a season high with seven strikeouts in what tied for his longest outing this year. The right-hander was 0-2 in his previous three starts while allowing 10 runs in 15 2/3 innings.
Dan Jennings pitched two perfect innings for his first save this season, and second of his career.
NL East-leading Atlanta dropped its third consecutive game after winning four straight. Braves left-hander Max Fried (1-3) lasted only three innings in his third start of the season, giving up four earned runs and four hits with three walks.
ASTROS 4, WHITE SOX 3
HOUSTON –Jose Altuve hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning and Yuli Gurriel’s RBI single with one out in Houston’s two-run ninth lifted the Astros to a win over Chicago.
The Astros trailed by 1 when Joakim Soria (0-3) walked pinch-hitter Tony Kemp with no outs in the ninth before advancing to third on a single by pinch-hitter Marwin Gonzalez. George Springer snapped an 0-for-8 slump and tied it at 3-3 with his RBI single to shallow center field.
Alex Bregman walked to load the bases and Altuve struck out before Gurriel sent a ball over second baseman Yoan Moncada’s head into right field to give Houston the victory.
Justin Verlander bounced back from his last start where he allowed nine hits and five runs – both season highs – in a loss to Tampa Bay with a solid outing. He yielded four hits and two runs and struck out 10 in seven innings.
Joe Smith (3-1) allowed one hit in a scoreless ninth for the win in his first appearance since June 6.
CARDINALS 11, GIANTS 2
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Luke Weaver pitched two-hit ball over eight innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Giants.
Jedd Gyorko had three hits, including a homer, and drove in five runs to spoil the return of Johnny Cueto after two months on the disabled list. Matt Carpenter and Harrison Bader also went deep Adidas Patrice Bergeron Jersey , while Yadier Molina singled three times.
The Cardinals had a season-high 18 hits – their most since getting 19 against the New York Mets on Aug. 24, 2016.
Alen Hanson homered for San Francisco, which has scored five runs while losing four straight.
Weaver (5-7) faced two over the minimum and had seven strikeouts. He carried a perfect game into the sixth before giving up a single and Hanson’s two-run homer. Weaver then bounced back to retire the final seven batters he faced.
Cueto (3-1) was rocked in his long-awaited return from the 60-day disabled list. He gave up four runs in the first inning – one more than he had in 32 innings before going out with right elbow inflammation.
PADRES 6, DIAMONDBACKS 3
PHOENIX (AP) – Eric Lauer limited Arizona to a run over five innings, Austin Hedges homered for the first time since April 10 and the San Diego Padres opened a four-game series in the desert with a victory over the slumping Diamondbacks.
Lauer (4-5) gave up seven hits, walked two and hit a batter, but only one of those baserunners managed to sco Todd Haley’s contract as the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers is up.
And coach Mike Tomlin doesn’t sound as if he’s in a rush to decide whether Haley will be back next season.
Tomlin sidestepped several attempts to endorse Haley’s return on Tuesday as the AFC North champions continued to dissect what went wrong in an upset home playoff loss to Jacksonville . Asked if he anticipated any changes to his staff, Tomlin demurred.
”I don’t know where these roads are going to lead,” Tomlin said. ”Some contracts are up. Some aren’t. I’m not ready to discuss that.”
Haley just finished his sixth season with the Steelers and has helped design one of the NFL’s most dynamic offenses.
Led by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell and All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh (13-3) has finished in the top three in total yards in three of the past four years.
Though Haley and Roethlisberger have found a level of detente following a somewhat bumpy start to their relationship Adidas Tuukka Rask Jersey , Haley’s occasionally fiery approach has made him a touchstone when things don’t go well.
While the Steelers piled up more than 500 yards against the NFL’s top-ranked defense on Sunday, they also made a couple of curious play calls on fourth down that halted their momentum.
Bell was stuffed for a loss on a toss play when Pittsburgh needed just 1 yard in the first quarter and Roethlisberger threw incomplete to rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster on fourth down in the fourth quarter when advancing the ball a matter of inches would have extended the drive.
The Steelers, however, have gone away from using the quarterback sneak in recent years to help Roethlisberger avoid the contact.
Tomlin brushed off the notion that the sneak is no longer a part of the playbook, saying ”to suggest there’s a resistance to it in concept, I’m not ready to say that.”
Tomlin also isn’t ready to say much about his staff.
Offensive line coach Mike Munchak has interviewed for the open head coaching job in Arizona and wide receivers coach Richard Mann is retiring.
Hines Ward, a two-time Super Bowl winner who is also the leading receiver in franchise history, spent time with the team during the season as a volunteer assistant, though Tomlin declined to get into any specifics about any sort of future role for Ward or anybody else for that matter.
”I’m not going to have a lot of definitive answers (right now),” Tomlin said. ”I don’t want to provide you misinformation.”
Tomlin called his 11th season a ”wild and challenging and fun ride.”
One with more than its fair share of bumps created from within.
From the ”botched” decision to stay out of sight during the national anthem in Chicago in September to wide receiver Martavis Bryant’s trade demand to Tomlin openly talking about having to face New England twice – hinting he expected the Steelers to face the Patriots in the AFC championship game more than a month before it would become a reality – hardly a week passed with the attention focused somewhere other than the field.
”We realize oftentimes it may create a storm around us, but that’s not us Adidas Brad Marchand Jersey ,” Tomlin said. ”We don’t care. We can’t care. We can’t control it anyway.”
Not exactly.
Outside of linebacker Ryan Shazier’s life-altering spinal injury, the Steelers created most of the noise that surrounded them.
While Tomlin said it’s on him to help his players learn to use the attention directed at them and their own social media agendas ”for good” he’s also aware that none of it matters so long as his team wins.
For a franchise where success is only measured in Lombardi Trophies, 2017 ended in disappointment, one the Steelers will have a longer than expected offseason to process.
”It ended the way it ended and looking back at it, there’s nothing we can do about that other than learn from the experience,” Tomlin said. ”Hopefully that strengthens us for our next journey.”
One the Steelers are starting earlier than expected.
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