Baseball-Highlights of Saturday's MLB games

(adds late games) July 4 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Saturday's Major League Baseball games: - - - A's 2, Mariners 0 Rookie Kendall Graveman outpitched Oakland nemesis Felix Hernandez as the Athletics beat Seattle 2-0. Graveman (6-4) blanked the Mariners for seven innings, allowing five hits and a walk and striking out one. He is 5-2 with a 1.78 ERA since May 23. Hernandez had gone 13 starts at the Coliseum without losing, dating to Sept. 19, 2008. - - - Nationals 9, Giants 3 Tyler Moore had three hits and drove in four runs, Bryce Harper hit a two-run homer and the Washington Nationals beat the San Francisco Giants 9-3. In addition to his 25th home run, Harper had a double and a single and scored twice for the Nationals (45-36), while the Giants dropped their fifth straight. Washington right-hander Strasburg departed in the fourth inning with an injury after grabbing his left side. - - - Yankees 3, Rays 2 Rookie Ramon Flores delivered a run-scoring sacrifice bunt with no outs in the bottom of the ninth as the New York Yankees squandered a two-run lead before beating Tampa Bay, which slumped to its seventh successive loss. Barely 12 hours after an extra-innings victory over the Rays, the Yankees won again to consolidate top spot in the American League East. - - - Tigers 8, Blue Jays 3 J.D. Martinez hit a home run for the ninth time in 11 games and David Price pitched seven solid innings to lead the Detroit Tigers over Toronto Blue Jays. Martinez's two-run blast in the first inning was his 22nd of the season, second most in the American League. The win was a welcome tonic for the Tigers, who found out AL-leading hitter Miguel Cabrera would be out injured for an extended period. - - - Red Sox 6, Astros 1 Clay Buchholz went the distance to win his fourth straight decision and lead the Boston Red Sox over the Houston Astros. Buchholz (7-6) retired 12 batters in a row between the second and fifth innings. The right-hander allowed one run on six hits, striking out eight, and has posted a 0.87 ERA in his last four starts for Boston. - - - Cardinals 2, Padres 1 Rookie Tommy Pham scored both runs as St Louis ended a four-game losing skid with a win over San Diego. St Louis was outhit, 9-4, but Pham, moved to the leadoff spot as manager Mike Matheny shook up the order, delivered one of those hits, a leadoff double in the sixth that represented his first major league hit. - - - White Sox 3, Orioles 2 Jeff Samardzija did not get credit for the win in his stat line, but the right-hander led the Chicago White Sox to their fourth straight victory. Samardzija took a no-decision but allowed just one run on three hits and struck out nine in his 7 2/3 innings of dominating work to send the Orioles to their third consecutive loss. - - - Pirates 1, Indians 0 Jeff Locke retired his last 19 batters to end a strong eight-inning performance and Neil Walker singled home the only run as Pittsburgh ended Cleveland's five-game winning streak. Locke allowed only two hits, while Walker ran his hitting streak to seven games. - - - Dodgers 4, Mets 3 Right-hander Zack Greinke pitched seven shutout innings to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 4-3 victory over the New York Mets. Greinke (7-2) conceded just four hits and extended his streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 27 2/3, the second longest active streak behind Texas pitcher Yovani Gallardo's 29 1/3 inning stretch. - - - Twins 5, Royals 3 First baseman Joe Mauer stroked four hits, including a two-run homer, and the Minnesota Twins downed the Kansas City Royals. Third baseman Trevor Ploufee singled, doubled and tripled in his first three at-bats but struck out in the seventh inning in his final at-bat to fall short of the cycle. - - - Cubs 7, Marlins 2 Kris Bryant provided the holiday fireworks with two home runs -- including his first Wrigley Field grand slam -- to lead the Chicago Cubs to victory over the Miami Marlins. The rookie third baseman also collected six RBIs in the opening two innings as Chicago (43-36) chased Miami starter Jarred Cosart after just 1 2/3 innings. - - - Braves 9, Phillies 5 Center fielder Cameron Maybin had three hits, including a home run, to spark an 11-hit attack for Atlanta as the Braves beat struggling Philadelphia. It was the fourth straight win for Atlanta and the sixth consecutive defeat for the Phillies, who have lost nine of their last 10. - - - Brewers 7, Reds 3 Adam Lind homered and the Milwaukee Brewers scored six times in a wild fifth inning and beat the Cincinnati Reds for their seventh consecutive victory, their longest winning streak since they won nine straight in April 2014. Milwaukee (35-48) came in batting .371 with 40 runs scored in five games on its current road trip and has now amassed 19 runs and 27 hits in the first two games in this series. - - - Angels 13, Rangers 0 The Los Angeles Angels piled up a season-high 17 hits and crushed the Texas Rangers for their seventh win in nine games. (Compiled by Andrew Both; Editing by John O'Brien)