Minor, Rangers end Yankees’ 220-game scoring streak

Mike Minor pitched 7 1/3 outstanding innings as the Texas Rangers withstood a lengthy rain delay on Monday at Yankee Stadium and recorded a 7-0 victory over the New York Yankees, who did not score a run for the first time in 221 games.After a delay of 2 hours, 52 minutes before the first pitch, the Rangers won for the fourth time in six games thanks to Minor (12-8).The lefty bounced back nicely from a pair of rocky outings against the Los Angeles Angels and allowed five hits Monday. He struck out five and walked one while throwing 111 pitches.Minor completed at least seven innings for the 13th time and produced his seventh scoreless outing this season.After consecutive walk-off wins over Oakland, the Yankees were blanked for the first time since June 30, 2018, against Boston. It was the second-longest streak of scoring a run since 1900, only behind a 308-game run by the Yankees from August 3, 1931, to August 2, 1933.“Anytime we don’t score or have a good offensive showing, it’s always a little bit surprising just because our guys are so good, but it happens,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “When a good pitcher’s on top of his game, he can make it tough on you, credit to him.”In the first seven innings, Minor allowed multiple baserunners only in the first inning when he walked Gleyber Torres with two outs and Gary Sanchez doubled, but he retired Mike Ford on a soft comebacker.He got Clint Frazier to ground into a double play in the second after Mike Tauchman singled, and he retired nine straight after Luke Voit opened the fifth with a double.The left-hander was lifted after allowing two singles in the eighth, and Shawn Kelley quickly ended the inning. Emmanuel Clase finished up in the ninth.In the first meeting of the season against the Yankees, Texas scratched out two runs against Masahiro Tanaka (10-8) and added five runs in the last two innings.Nomar Mazara lifted a sacrifice fly in the first inning, and Jose Trevino homered on the first pitch of the fifth. Texas nearly scored another run in the fifth, but Frazier made a perfect throw from left field to the plate to get Elvis Andrus after fielding a single by Danny Santana.Frazier overran Mazara’s one-out single in the eighth, and following a walk to Rougned Odor, Ronald Guzman’s single made it 3-0. Delino DeShields then upped the lead to 6-0 by hammering Nestor Cortes Jr’s full-count pitch into the left field seats for his fourth homer of the season. Shin-Soo Choo made it 7-0 by connecting in the ninth off Tyler Lyons.Tanaka gutted out six innings, allowing two runs on seven hits. He struck out five and walked two in a 103-pitch outing. It was the 14th time this year that he pitched at least six innings and allowed two runs or fewer.Springer’s 10th-inning homer hauls Astros past BrewersGeorge Springer led off the 10th inning with his 30th home run of the season, and Alex Bregman matched his career high with four hits to lead the visiting Houston Astros to a 3-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday afternoon. Springer drove a 2-1 pitch by Junior Guerra (8-5) over the centre field fence to hit the 30-homer mark for the second time in his career. Bregman went 4-for-5 with an RBI, and Yordan Alvarez homered for the Astros, who won for the ninth time in 11 games and pulled even with the New York Yankees (90-49) for the best record in the American League.Roberto Osuna (4-3), despite blowing a save chance for the sixth time this season, picked up the win. Christian Yelich hit a game-tying home run off Osuna leading off the bottom of the ninth.Josh James walked two batters in the bottom of the 10th but still earned his second save. He struck out three of the five batters he faced, including Yelich and Hernan Perez back-to-back to end the game. Gerrit Cole fanned 14 batters for the second straight game but was denied his 16th victory of the season when Yelich sent the game into extra innings with his 43rd home run of the season. Cole gave up just one run on three hits and two walks over six innings. It marked the 16th time this year that he struck out 10 or more batters in a game, tops in the majors.Yasmani Grandal also homered for Milwaukee, which had a two-game winning streak snapped.Grandal gave Milwaukee a 1-0 lead in the first inning when he lined a Cole fastball 400 feet into the second deck in left-centre for his 22nd homer of the season.Houston tied it in the third on Bregman’s line single to centre off Milwaukee starter Adrian Houser. The hit drove in Springer, who opened the inning with a walk, advanced to second on a single by Jose Altuve and went to third on a fielder’s choice by Michael Brantley.