ARLINGTON, Texas — Corey Seager certainly made the Arizona Diamondbacks pay when they did pitch.
For the second game in a row, Seager homered on the first pitch of the next at-bat after getting intentionally walked and the reigning champion Texas Rangers swept a quick two-game rematch of last year’s World Series.
“When he’s hot, he barrels up anything thrown near the zone,” Diamondbacks Manager Torey Lovullo said.
Seager homered for the eighth time in eight games, Dane Dunning threw five scoreless innings and the Rangers won 6-1 on Wednesday.
The Diamondbacks intentionally walked Seager with two outs and an open base in the third after the Rangers had taken a 1-0 lead on Jonah Heim’s RBI double. When Seager came up with a runner on and two outs in the fifth, the World Series MVP lined a 97.7 mph inside cutter on the first pitch into the right-field seats to make it 4-0.
“Extremely impressive,” Dunning said.
“I mean he’s carrying us, he’s trying to carry us through that tough stretch,” Rangers Manager Bruce Bochy said. “I don’t know what else to say. He’s just an incredible hitter.”
ROCKIES 7, GUARDIANS 4 Brendan Rodgers hit a two-run home run during a six-run second inning, Ty Blach (2-2) overcame a shaky start to give up two runs over seven innings and Colorado beat Cleveland.
TIGERS 8-2, PIRATES 0-10 Paul Skenes struck out nine and earned his second career victory and Pittsburgh salvaged a doubleheader split with a 10-2 win over Detroit. Skenes (2-0), making his fourth major league start, gave up 2 runs and 3 hits in 6 innings. Skenes has 30 strikeouts in 22 innings and a 2.45 ERA. Andrew McCutchen had a three-run home run in the third inning for his 1,600th career hit. Nick Gonzales also had three hits, including a home run. In the opener, Matt Vierling had a three-run home run and drove in four runs in Detroit’s 8-0 victory.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
BREWERS 10, CUBS 6 Christian Yelich, Blake Perkins and Willy Adames hit home runs and Milwaukee came to life against Shota Imanaga to beat Chicago. Rookie Joey Ortiz hit a double off Imanaga (5-1) in the first. Two batters later, Yelich crushed a 441-foot home run to right-center to give the Brewers an early 2-0 lead.
CARDINALS 5, REDS 3 Matt Carpenter hit a go-ahead home run in the third inning, Nolan Gorman also went deep and St. Louis reached .500 for the first time in six weeks with a win over Cincinnati. Carpenter hit his first home run for the Cardinals since April 30, 2021, as St. Louis (27-27) won for the 12th time in 15 games.
DODGERS 10, METS 3 Shohei Ohtani homered and drove in three runs, Will Smith went deep twice and Los Angeles completed a three-game sweep of New York.
MARLINS 9, PADRES 1 Braxton Garrett (2-0) outlasted Yu Darvish (4-3), Josh Bell had three hits and scored twice and Miami beat San Diego to avoid a sweep. Jesus Sanchez hit a home run and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had two hits and drove in two runs as the Marlins had a season-high 16 hits and snapped the Padres’ three-game winning streak.
