BALTIMORE – Cavan Biggio hit for the cycle, just like his dad.
Biggio homered in the third inning, singled in the sixth, doubled in the eighth and tripled in the ninth to boost the Toronto Blue Jays over the Baltimore Orioles 8-5 on Tuesday night. The rookie drove in four runs and scored three times.
“I did know my dad had one,” Cavan Biggio said. “I have a ticket to the game he got it in in my room my whole life. I didn’t think I was going to get up there for the opportunity.”
He got his first hit off Chandler Shepherd, the second against Shawn Armstrong, the third versus Richard Bleier and the last off Mychal Givens.
Craig Biggio hit for the cycle at Colorado’s Coors Field on April 8, 2002, as part of a career that earned him induction into the Hall of Fame. He led off with a single against Denny Neagle, then tripled and homered off Neagle before doubling versus Mike James in the eighth.
The only other father-son duo in major league history to hit for the cycle was Gary Ward for Minnesota at Milwaukee on Sept. 19, 1980, and Daryle Ward for Pittsburgh at St. Louis on May 26, 2004.
Cavan Biggio became the first player to hit for the cycle for Toronto since Jeff Fry against Texas on Aug. 17, 2001, and the first opponent to accomplish the feat in the 27-year history of Camden Yards.
“That was a crazy scene,” Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo said. “The whole dugout was cheering for him. A triple is hard to get in this ballpark. He was really going all out rounding second. He’s aggressive at the plate and he’s really doing better.”
Trey Mancini and Jonathan Villar homered for last-place Baltimore, which lost for the third time in four games and dropped to 49-102.
Mancini finished with four RBIs. He hit his 34th homer in the first and snapped a tie with a run-scoring single off Justin Shafer in the seventh.
“I think everybody wants to finish the year strong,” Mancini said. “It sounds cliche but it’s honestly what I think about when I go up to the plate is to do what I can to help the team win and try to have a good at-bat.”
The Blue Jays tied the game again when Biggio doubled, stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the eighth.
Justin Smoak put Toronto ahead when he homered off Givens (2-6) leading off the ninth, Smoak’s 21st homer and first since Aug. 27.
Biggio tacked on two more runs with a triple before an error by Villar at shortstop allowed the eighth run to score.
Derek Law (1-2) pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
Randal Grichuk hit his 10th homer in 26 games against Baltimore.
Villar hit his 22nd home run off Ken Giles in the ninth.
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was not happy about several gaffes his team made on the bases and defensively.
“I feel like for the most part this year we’ve competed our tails off. Just fell short quite a few times,” Hyde said. “I just thought we made a lot of mistakes tonight. I thought we played like a really tired team. We need better effort.”
Reds 4, Cubs 2
In Chicago, the Cubs were shut down by Sonny Gray and two relievers, hurting their playoff positioning.
Yu Darvish (6-7) struck out 13 in seven innings for Chicago, but was hurt by a slow start. Kyle Schwarber had three hits and two RBIs for the Cubs.
Darvish fanned 14 in his previous start, a 4-1 win at San Diego on Thursday. He has 217 Ks in 170⅓ innings on the year.
“Yu is on quite a run right now, but unfortunately their guy is really good, too,” Chicago manager Joe Maddon said. “In spite of us swinging the bats well lately, Sonny did a nice job also.”
Gray (11-7) struck out nine in 6⅔ innings. The All-Star right-hander improved to 5-1 with a 1.46 ERA in his last nine outings
“I felt pretty good out there today after I kind of got going,” Gray said.
The Cubs had won five in a row, outscoring their opponents 59-18 during the stretch. But Chicago managed just two runs against Gray before Michael Lorenzen and Raisel Iglesias closed out the game for Cincinnati.
The Cubs (82-69) dropped into a tie for the second NL wild card with Milwaukee. They also missed out on an opportunity to gain ground on NL Central-leading St. Louis, which lost 6-2 to Washington.
Rookie Aristides Aquino hit his 16th homer for the Reds (71-81).
Darvish struck out three in the first, but the Reds scored three times. Votto doubled home Josh VanMeter before Aquino hit a drive to left-center for his first homer since Sept. 2.
Aquino, who was recalled from the minors on Aug. 1, has six homers against Chicago in six games.
“I made a good pitch to Votto, but he’s a great hitter,” Darvish said. “For Aquino, that’s my mistake. I should throw a breaking ball.”
Yankees 8, Angels 0
In New York, Luis Severino pitched four dominant innings in his injury-delayed season debut for the Yankees.
A two-time All-Star and the ace of the Yankees staff, Severino got hurt while warming up before his first scheduled spring training appearance on March 5.
While Severino was back on the mound, New York announced reliever Dellin Betances partially tore the Achilles tendon in his left foot in his season debut Sunday at Toronto.
The Yankees lowered their magic number to one over Cleveland to clinch their 55th postseason appearance — 22 more than any other team.
Gleyber Torres hit his 38th homer, and Jonathan Loiasiga (2-1) got the win.
Noé Ramirez (5-4) was charged with the loss.
In Other Games
Brewers 3, Padres 1
Nationals 6, Cardinals 2
Phillies 5, Braves 4
Mets 6, Rockies 1
Giants 7, Red Sox 6
Dodgers 7, Rays 5
Mariners 6, Pirates 0
Marlins 12, Diamondbacks 6
Twins 9, White Sox 8 (12)
Athletics 2, Royals 1
Indians 7, Tigers 2
Astros 4, Rangers 1
Source : Baseball – The Japan Times