PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Rookie Colton Cowser hit a tiebreaking double in the ninth inning after helping to throw out the potential go-ahead run in the eighth, lifting the surging Baltimore Orioles to a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.
Ryan Mountcastle and Jordan Westburg homered for the AL-East leading Orioles, who have won 13 of 16 games and moved 2 1/2 games ahead of idle Tampa Bay.
Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber drove in runs for the defending NL champion Phillies. Philadelphia has lost five of six.
Cowser entered as a defensive replacement for Aaron Hicks in the third inning after Hicks was hurt making a diving catch. In the ninth, he lofted a flyball to left against Craig Kimbrel (6-2) that went off the glove of diving left fielder Schwarber.
Bryan Baker (4-3) got the win in relief of Dean Kremer, who allowed one run on three hits in seven innings. Cionel Pérez pitched out of trouble in the ninth for his first save.
ROYALS 5, GUARDIANS 3
CLEVELAND (AP) — Salvador Perez became the 10th player in major league history to hit 200 homers as a catcher and Ryan Yarbrough allowed one run in six innings, lifting Kansas City over Cleveland.
Perez hit a two-run shot in the sixth off Logan Allen (4-3) to put Kansas City ahead 4-0. He has 240 homers overall in 12 seasons. Hall of Famer Mike Piazza holds the big league record for homers as a catcher with 396.
Yarbrough (3-5) won at Cleveland for the second time in 15 days. Scott Barlow gave up two hits in the ninth before picking up his 12th save.
Kansas City ended a five-game skid while Cleveland fell 3 1/2 games behind first-place Minnesota in the AL Central.
TIGERS 5, GIANTS 1
DETROIT (AP) — Tarik Skubal struck out nine while recording his first victory in over a year and Detroit handed San Francisco its season-worst sixth straight loss.
Skubal (1-1) held the Giants scoreless on two hits in five innings in a game that was a makeup of an April 16 postponement. His previous victory came against Oakland on July 21 last season. He had flexor tendon surgery in August.
Zack Short hit a two-run homer and Kerry Carpenter also drove in two runs for Detroit.
Ross Stripling (0-4) gave up three runs and 10 hits in six-plus innings.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
