PITTSBURGH: Jeff Locke ran his winning streak to eight games, Pedro Alvarez hit a three-run homer and the Pittsburgh Pirates hung on to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-5 Wednesday night.
Locke (8-1) was scored upon for the first time in four home starts but extended his unbeaten streak to 16 outings. Locke, who hasn’t lost since his first start of the season, allowed two earned runs on seven hits and three walks over 5 2-3 innings.
The Pirates took the lead with a four-run fifth punctuated by Alvarez’s 21st home run.
Andrew McCutchen reached base five times, scoring twice for the Pirates (52-31), who have the majors’ best record and had a nine-game winning streak snapped in the series opener Tuesday.
Delmon Young and Domonic Brown each had three hits for the Phillies, who have lost four of six.
Marlins 6 Braves 3: In Atlanta, Ricky Nolasco tossed seven strong innings amid persistent trade rumors, Justin Ruggiano hit a three-run homer and Miami beat Atlanta. Marlins manager Mike Redmond said before the game that Nolasco has not been affected by trade speculation and the right-hander supported that claim by giving up only two runs on six hits.
Nolasco (5-8) had no walks with seven strikeouts, giving him 1,001 for his career.
The Braves led 2-0 before Ruggiano’s homer off Mike Minor (8-4) in the fifth. Miami added a run in the sixth when Placido Polanco singled and scored on Adeiny Hechavarria’s double. Jeff Mathis added a two-run double in the eighth.
Diamondbacks 5 Mets 3: In New York, Randall Delgado outpitched Matt Harvey for his first major league win in more than a year and Arizona snapped a five-game skid with a victory over New York.
Cody Ross hit a three-run homer off Harvey to put Arizona ahead, and Delgado struck out a career-high nine in seven innings to give the NL West leaders their first victory by a starting pitcher since Wade Miley beat St. Louis on June 5.
Diamondbacks starters went 0-11 over the next 24 games until Delgado (1-2) held New York in check for his first win since June 6, 2012, with Atlanta at Miami.
Reds 3 Giants 2, 11 inings: In Cincinnati, Shin-Soo Choo’s two-out single in the 11th inning drove in Todd Frazier from second base, lifting Cincinnati over San Francisco.
Frazier walked to lead off the 11th against Javier Lopez (1-1) and went to second on Chris Heisey’s sacrifice. After Devin Mesoraco was intentionally walked, Ryan Hanigan popped out before Choo gave the Reds three straight wins for the first time since June 10-12 against the Cubs.
J.J. Hoover (2-5), Cincinnati’s seventh pitcher of the game, struck out four batters in two innings for the win.
The spiraling Giants have lost nine of their last 10 games.
