Cease loses no-hit bid in 9th as Blue Jays beat Giants 10-0

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Cease loses no-hit bid in 9th as Blue Jays beat Giants 10-0

2026-07-09 12:12 Last Updated At：12:20

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Toronto’s Dylan Cease worked eight no-hit innings against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday before allowing a single to Heliot Ramos leading off the ninth as the Blue Jays rolled to a 10-0 victory.

Cease (6-4) was pulled after Ramos’ clean line-drive single to center and got a standing ovation from the San Francisco crowd. The All-Star right-hander threw a career-high 118 pitches, 81 for strikes. Former Giants reliever Tyler Rogers got the final three outs on four pitches.

Cease struck out 11 to increase his American League-leading total to 148.

BRAVES 3, PIRATES 0

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Joey Bart hit a two-run home run with two outs in the eighth inning, lifting the NL East-leading Atlanta to a win over his former team after Pittsburgh starter Jared Jones pitched six perfect innings before being lifted.

Bart, traded to the Braves from the Pirates on June 18, followed a double by Mike Yastrzemski with a 422-foot drive to left-centerfield off a slider from Dennis Santana (2-4). Drake Baldwin added an RBI single to center in the ninth.

Jones struck out eight on 77 pitches, including 53 strikes, to lower his ERA to 4.37 from 5.28. His bid was nearly ended by Bart with one out in the third, but a long drive to left was caught at the wall by Bryan Reynolds.

RAYS 3, YANKEES 0

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Jonathan Aranda drove in three runs, Shane McClanahan pitched 6 1/3 innings and Tampa Bay beat New York to extend their AL East lead to five games.

McClanahan (8-5) scattered four hits and struck out five without a walk on 85 pitches. He had his longest outing of the season and his second consecutive start without giving up a run. Bryan Baker struck out the side in the ninth inning for his 25th save.

The Rays have struck out the Yankees 45 times in the first three games of the series.

MARLINS 2, MARINERS 0

MIAMI (AP) — Kyle Stowers homered, major league batting leader Otto López had his 40th multi-hit game and Miami beat Seattle.

Tyler Phillips (2-3) pitched five sharp innings, allowing four hits on 71 pitches, before three relievers finished off Miami’s fifth straight victory. The Marlins are a major league-best 25-8 since June 1.

López went 2 for 4, increasing his average to .345 and becoming the first player since Houston’s Jose Altuve in 2014 with 40 multi-hit games before the All-Star break. His fifth-inning double tied Luis Arraez in 2023 for the most hits by a Marlins player before the All-Star break at 126.

Xavier Edwards added an RBI triple on a two-hit night.

TIGERS 6, ATHLETICS 1

DETROIT (AP) — Jake Rogers and Spencer Torkelson homered and Detroit won their fourth straight game, beating the Athletics.

Troy Melton (5-1) allowed one unearned run on four hits and a walk in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out nine as the Tigers won for the seventh time in eight games.

Jeffrey Springs (3-9) took the loss for the Athletics, who have lost five straight and nine of 10. He gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings to fall to 0-9 in his last 15 starts.

NATIONALS 8, ASTROS 2

WASHINGTON (AP) — CJ Abrams and Luis García Jr. both hit their 20th homers of the season, and Washington pounded Houston.

Foster Griffin (10-2) allowed one run in seven innings for Washington, which took two of three from Houston to move two games over .500. Griffin’s 10 victories are the most for a Nationals rookie since the club moved from Montreal before the 2005 season.

Brice Matthews had Houston’s lone RBI on a fifth-inning single.

CUBS 9, ORIOLES 7

BALTIMORE (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two of Chicago’s five home runs and the Cubs outslugged Baltimore.

Michael Conforto and Carson Kelly also went deep on the first two pitches of the fifth inning for Chicago, tying the game immediately after Pete Alonso’s two-run shot had given Baltimore a 3-1 lead.

Chicago then scored five runs in the seventh, including a three-run shot by Seiya Suzuki.

Tyler O’Neill homered twice for Baltimore and Coby Mayo also went deep.

METS 6, ROYALS 2

NEW YORK (AP) — Jared Young was plunked with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, sparking a five-run rally that lifted New York to a win over Kansas City.

Young took a 90 mph slider off his right elbow by Alex Lange (0-4), who allowed five straight baserunners with two outs. Brett Baty chased Lange with a two-run single and Young scored on a wild pitch by Jose Cuas, who then allowed an RBI single to Francisco Alvarez.

Brooks Raley (3-3) worked around Lane Thomas’ double in the eighth.

Rookie A.J. Ewing hit his first career leadoff homer, a 420-foot blast off opener Steven Cruz. Ewing is the fifth Mets player to hit a leadoff homer this season.

Salvador Perez and Carter Jensen had RBI singles for the Royals.

CARDINALS 5, BREWERS 1

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Alec Burleson and José Fermín homered, Michael McGreevy worked 6 1/3 strong innings and St. Louis snapped a seven-game losing streak against Milwaukee.

McGreevy (4-7) struck out six and allowed five hits and one run on his 26th birthday. The 26-year-old right-hander in his third big league campaign made his career-high 18th start of the season.

After the Cardinals’ Masyn Winn hit a leadoff double in the first, Jordan Walker followed with an RBI double and Burleson drove in Walker with the third double of the inning.

Walker was 2 for 4 with two runs scored.

Fermín hit a 404-foot solo homer to left-center in the fourth, extending the lead to 3-0. Burleson homered on a cutter from Jared Koenig that traveled an estimated 443 feet to right in the sixth.

Kyle Harrison (8-2) allowed four hits and three runs in four innings, striking out two in the loss. Garrett Mitchell led the Brewers with a single and a double.

REDS 11, PHILLIES 5

CINCINNATI (AP) — Sal Stewart hit two homers — including one when Cincinnati went deep four times in the fourth inning — Noelvi Marte drove in four runs and the Reds defeated Philadelphia.

Chase Burns (11-1) picked up his 10th straight winning decision for the Reds, who are 3-7 in their last 10 games.

Kyle Schwarber hit his major league-leading 32nd homer for the Phillies. J.T. Realmuto also went deep.

RED SOX 5, WHITE SOX 0

CHICAGO (AP) — Jake Bennett allowed four hits in seven innings, Tsung-Che Cheng had his first multi-RBI game and Boston beat the Chicago for their fifth straight victory.

Boston has won 10 of 12 and and 13 of its last 18.

Bennett (4-3) has allowed more than two runs just twice in eight starts. He struck out four and walked one.

Cheng had an RBI single in the third to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead, and Ceddanne Rafaela drove in Cheng two batters later.

Anthony Seigler came across on a wild pitch from Davis Martin (9-4), but Seigler left the game after a collision with catcher Kyle Teel at the plate.

ANGELS 13, RANGERS 1

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Mike Trout hit a two-run homer in his return rom the injured list, Jo Adell had two home runs and drove in a career-high five runs and the Los Angeles beat Texas.

Trout, who missed 17 games due to a strained right hamstring, hit a 438-foot shot that gave the Angels an 11-0 lead in the eighth. Trout has 48 career homers against the Rangers, the most by any player since the franchise moved to Texas in 1972 and the second-most ever against the club. Reggie Jackson hit 54 home runs against the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers.

Adell hit a two-run shot in the fourth inning and a three-run homer in the fifth that made it 7-0.

Vaughn Grissom went 4 for 5 with a double and four RBIs, and Zach Neto was 3 for 4 with two doubles and three runs. Denzer Guzman and Jose Siri each had two hits.

Angels starter Walbert Ureña threw 90 pitches and walked five in four scoreless innings before he was replaced by Samy Natera Jr. (1-0) to begin the fifth. Natera, a rookie left-hander, had five strikeouts in two perfect innings for his first career win.

TWINS 6, GUARDIANS 5

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Alan Roden hit a game-winning RBI single in the ninth inning as Minnesota beat Cleveland for their fourth straight win over the Guardians.

The Twins have won four in a row and five of six overall.

Roden singled twice and drove in two runs. Kody Clemens went 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI, and Brooks Lee singled twice and drove in a pair of runs.

Yoendrys Gómez (1-0) pitched a scoreless ninth for his first win this season.

Brayan Rocchio and Rhys Hoskins homered for the Guardians.

Senate hopeful Haley Stevens knows how to win in Michigan. Democrats must decide if that's enough

SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens is spending the closing weeks of Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary making a simple case: she’s the candidate who wins.

Stevens flipped a Republican-held House seat in suburban Detroit in 2018 and hasn’t lost since, including surviving a bruising primary against a fellow Democratic incumbent after redistricting in 2022. She says it's what sets her apart from her opponent in the Aug. 4 primary, progressive Abdul El-Sayed.

“It is not a hypothetical that I beat Republicans,” Stevens told The Associated Press after a campaign stop in West Michigan this week. “I win tough races. I have had Republicans throw everything at me and still managed to win.”

Holding Michigan’s Senate seat is essential to any Democratic path back to the Senate majority this fall. That imperative only grew this week after Democrats' nominee in Maine, Graham Platner, said he planned to drop out after he was accused of sexual assault, threatening another seat the party had hoped to keep competitive. While no Republican has won a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan since 1994, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers came within 20,000 votes of doing so in 2024.

That calculation has led Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and influential Michigan Democrats, including former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, to rally behind Stevens, arguing she gives Democrats their strongest chance in November against Rogers, who is running again.

But if electability is the party establishment’s top priority, it’s an open question whether Democratic primary voters agree.

“Democratic leadership should think more in terms of what we want to accomplish, and less about, ‘We’ve got to make it appeal to everybody,’” said Dave Burdick, 71, of Douglas, Michigan. He's backing El-Sayed, who has surged by arguing that Democrats don’t have to run to the middle to win.

El-Sayed has built his campaign around bold policy proposals, rejecting corporate PAC money and casting himself as an alternative to the status quo of the Democratic Party.

“People don’t want a moderate. They want somebody who’s going to come in and effect change,” Burdick added.

On a summer afternoon in South Haven, a community along Lake Michigan, Stevens walks into a pet supply store with the ease of a seasoned campaigner. Within minutes, she's chatting with the owner about the area, greeting reporters by first name and striking up conversations with customers. She slips easily between small talk and campaign mode, asking about customers’ lives before mentioning legislation she’s championed and asking for their vote.

“I thought she was great fun,” said owner Roxanne Leder. “She was energetic and had a positive outlook.”

It’s the kind of campaigning Stevens’ allies say has defined her political career. They acknowledge she lacks the viral progressive moments that have fueled El-Sayed’s rise, but say she’s at her best in small rooms, union halls and local businesses — which they say is where elections are won.

Stevens has leaned into that contrast herself.

“Unlike my opponent, I’m not running at the first mic or camera I see,” Stevens said during a debate Tuesday. “We do not need a celebrity senator. We need a workhorse.”

It’s also a style familiar to Michigan Democrats. From former Gov. Jennifer Granholm to current-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, successful statewide candidates have often paired an upbeat, personable campaign style with a pragmatic message centered on economic issues.

But unlike Granholm or Whitmer, Stevens has yet to generate the kind of broad grassroots enthusiasm that defined their statewide campaigns. El-Sayed, meanwhile, has packed rallies with progressive supporters and high-profile endorsers.

Stevens has leaned more heavily on tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, which could become one of Stevens’ biggest liabilities in the primary. Outside groups have spent more than $30 million to boost her candidacy, dwarfing the spending behind El-Sayed. The largest spender, United Democracy Project, the super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, has spent more than $13 million on Stevens’ behalf and reserved another $7 million before the primary.

For Burdick, the 71-year-old El-Sayed supporter, that spending is disqualifying. He said he would not vote for Stevens in the general election because of her support from AIPAC.

Leder, by contrast, said she expects to vote for Stevens in August because she’s far more familiar with the congresswoman than with El-Sayed. She said she still plans to do more research before making a final decision.

“I'm just a Democrat,” said Leder. “Please, please no Mike Rogers.”

El-Sayed is running on Medicare for All, campaign finance reform, abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and ending all U.S. weapons sales to Israel. He’s also a Muslim who has never held elected office.

To many Democratic leaders in Washington, that makes him a risky nominee in a battleground state often viewed as moderate and centered on manufacturing.

But Michigan has repeatedly rewarded candidates who cast themselves as outsiders challenging the political establishment. In 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in the state’s Democratic presidential primary by running against party leaders. Donald Trump later built his own anti-establishment coalition, carrying Michigan in 2016 and again in 2024.

Burdick, a self-described “old white guy living in rural Michigan” who is a democratic socialist, said Trump and Sanders resonated with voters because they were upset.

“Well, you know what? They’re still mad,” he said. “They portray people like Abdul as unrealistic, but I think it’s unrealistic to think that we can continue the way that we’re heading.”

On Sunday, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign. It prompted establishment Democrats to jump off the sidelines and back Stevens, including Democratic group EMILY’s List and Attorney General Dana Nessel.

“Haley is wicked smart, has won multiple highly competitive races, and she connects with people on a level so sincere and genuine that everyone who meets her feels truly seen and heard,” Nessel said in a statement.

El-Sayed has also built support among labor groups that have played an influential role in Democratic politics, including an endorsement from the United Auto Workers.

Fems for Dems, an influential Democratic grassroots group in the state, is not endorsing in the primary. But its founder, Lori Goldman, told AP in an interview that she planned to vote for El-Sayed.

“I personally am not going to have business as usual when I go to the ballot box. I want to vote for people, candidates that are going to go there and fight on our behalf,” she said.

Goldman, who founded the group 10 years ago in the politically important Oakland County, acknowledges the changing dynamics of Democratic primaries.

“Who would the natural choice be 10 years ago? Haley Stevens, right? Because we just followed the party line,” she said.

“People are breaking away from the party line. People want change.”