>>Arrieta, Cubs Blank Pirates
Jake Arrieta pitched seven strong innings, Anthony Rizzo tied a career high with four hits and the Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-0 on Tuesday night for their sixth straight win.
Arrieta (12-6) allowed two singles - Andrew McCutchen in the fourth and Starling Marte in the seventh - while striking out five and walking three.
Tommy Hunter and Justin Grimm completed the three-hitter with one inning each as the Cubs (58-47) matched their longest winning streak of the season from May 11-16 and moved 11 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2008 season.
In his last nine starts, Arrieta is 6-1 with a 1.38 ERA. He improved to 5-1 in his career against the Pirates.
Rizzo doubled and scored in both the third and fifth innings as he led the Cubs' 14-hit attack with the fourth four-hit game of his career.
Chris Denorfia had three hits while Starlin Castro doubled home Rizzo twice and Jorge Soler drove in the first and last runs with a bases-loaded walk in the first inning off J.A. Happ (4-7) and a single in the sixth.
Chicago drew within three games of the National League wild card-leading Pirates (61-44), who remained 5 1-2 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the Central.
Happ had a rocky Pirates' debut, giving up four runs and eight hits in 4 1-3 innings with two walks and six strikeouts. The lefty was acquired in a trade with Seattle last Friday and was 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in his last four starts with the Mariners.
The Cubs made it 3-0 in the third when Castro hit his first RBI double and scored on a single by David Ross.
Castro greeted reliever Jared Hughes with his second run-scoring double in the fifth.
>>Reds Edge Cardinals
Anthony DeSclafani has figured out how to handle the Cardinals - go right at them.
The rookie handled St. Louis for the second straight start, striking out a career-high nine, and the Cincinnati Reds turned a big first inning off John Lackey into a 3-2 victory Tuesday night.
DeSclafani (7-7), the most experienced member of Cincinnati's all-rookie rotation with 20 starts, gave up seven hits and two runs in six innings. Last Wednesday in St. Louis, DeSclafani gave up only three hits in seven innings of a 1-0 win over the NL Central leaders.
Aroldis Chapman fanned two in the ninth - his fastball topping out at 101 mph - for his 23rd save in 24 chances. The lefty has converted 56 consecutive save opportunities at Great American Ball Park since his last failure in September 2012.
The Reds scored three runs in the first inning off Lackey (9-7), who hadn't allowed that many runs in any of his last nine starts. He went six innings, giving up six hits.
The Cardinals have dominated the Reds in recent years, winning 14 of their last 17 series. The Reds had a bit of a breakthrough in St. Louis last week, taking two of three - their first series win at Busch Stadium since 2001.
They got a good start on extending that success with the big first inning. Jay Bruce had an RBI double - his fifth double in the last six games - and Marlon Byrd followed with another double as Cincinnati sent eight batters to the plate.
After that five-hit, 30-pitch inning, Lackey settled in and allowed only an infield single through the next five innings, retiring the last 14 batters he faced.
Randal Grichuk tripled off the wall in center field and Matt Carpenter hit his 14th homer in the third inning, cutting it to 3-2. It was Carpenter's fourth homer in the last five games.
>>Tampa Blasts White Sox
Chris Archer and the Tampa Bay Rays were well on their way to a lopsided victory over the Chicago White Sox by the time Richie Shaffer homered.
Even so, that drive sparked the biggest celebration. After all, it was his first major league homer - and the first hit of his career.
Archer pitched seven strong innings, and Tampa Bay backed him with a season-high four homers while pounding Chris Sale and the White Sox 11-3 on Tuesday night.
Archer (10-8) allowed two runs and six hits for his first win since June 23. And the Rays matched their highest home run total since Sept. 7.
Logan Forsythe, Mikie Mahtook and Asdrubal Cabrera all went deep besides Shaffer. Kevin Kiermaier and Rene Rivera each had three hits, and Tampa Bay improved to 5-0 against Chicago.
Forsythe hit a two-run drive in the first. Mahtook made it 3-1 when he connected leading off the fifth, and the Rays chased Sale (9-7) in a five-run sixth.
They sent 10 batters to the plate in that inning and added two more runs in the seventh on back-to-back homers by Cabrera and Shaffer against Daniel Webb.
Shaffer's drive to the right-field bullpen drew quite a reaction from his family and teammates. TV cameras caught his parents jumping out of their seats and hugging.
Shaffer got the silent treatment from the Rays before being drawn into a huddle in the dugout, just about everyone jumping in celebration.
Teammates dumped a cooler on Shaffer during a postgame interview on the field and showered him again in the clubhouse.
Archer, who retired the first 19 batters in a loss to Detroit last week, finally got a win after going 0-4 in his previous six starts. The All-Star right-hander struck out seven and walked one.
Chicago's Tyler Saladino hit a solo homer off Archer in the third. Avisail Garcia went deep in the ninth, but the White Sox lost for the fifth time in six games after winning seven in a row.
Sale allowed seven runs in his second straight outing and fell to 1-3 in his past four starts. The four-time All-Star gave up six hits over 5-plus innings.
He left trailing 5-1 after Kiermaier blooped an RBI single to center. A second run scored on the play when catcher Tyler Flowers allowed Adam Eaton's throw to roll between his legs and no one backed up the plate.
MLB Scoreboard
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Interleague
Seattle 10
Colorado 4
American League
Boston 3
NY Yankees 13
Minnesota1
Toronto 3
Kansas City5
Detroit 1
Houston 3
Texas 4
Tampa Bay 11 Final
Chi White Sox 3
Cleveland 2 Final/12
LA Angels 0
Baltimore 0
Oakland 5
National League
Arizona 4
Washington 5
LA Dodgers 2'
Philadelphia 6
San Francisco 8
Atlanta 3
NY Mets 5
Miami 1
San Diego 1
Milwaukee4
>>Dombrowski Out as Tigers GM
The end of Dave Dombrowski's tenure in Detroit came suddenly and unexpectedly - like so many of the moves he made to build the Tigers into an American League powerhouse.
Dombrowski is out after nearly 14 seasons as president and general manager of the Tigers. The four-time Central Division champions announced the move Tuesday, catching people at Comerica Park and beyond by surprise.
Dombrowski was fresh off making several big trades last week, and his exit set off rampant speculation about where he would next work.
Dombrowski was in the last season of his contract and overseeing a team stuck below .500, so there was already speculation about whether he'd be back in 2016. But his abrupt exit - accompanied by a somewhat cryptic explanation from the team - was unusual.
He is being replaced by Al Avila, who has served as his top assistant since 2002. Avila's son, Alex, catches for the Tigers.
"I've decided to release Dave from his contract in order to afford him the time to pursue other career opportunities," owner Mike Ilitch said in a statement. "I feel this is the right time for the Tigers to move forward under new leadership."
About an hour after announcing Dombrowski's departure, the Tigers held a news conference at the ballpark, introducing Avila before Tuesday night's game against Kansas City. Ilitch wasn't at the news conference and neither was Dombrowski.
