Ryu picks up win No. 11

PITTSBURGH (AP) ― A sharp Ryu Hyun-jin and some clutch hitting enabled the Los Angeles Dodgers to overcome the absence of two top sluggers.

Ryu pitched seven strong innings, Adrian Gonzalez reached base five times and Los Angeles beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 on Monday night.

Ryu (11-5) joined Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw in making the Dodgers the first team in the majors with three 11-game winners. The left-hander allowed two runs and five hits with a walk and five strikeouts. “He had a good fastball, a good curveball and he threw his fastball to both sides of the plate,” Los Angeles manager Don Mattingly said. “I thought he pitched really well and kept them off balance the whole time.” 

Justin Turner had two RBIs and scored twice for the Dodgers, who snapped Pittsburgh’s six-game home winning streak.

Pirates starter Edinson Volquez (8-7) had won four straight starts, tying his career high.

Los Angeles played without right fielder Yasiel Puig (left hand) and shortstop Hanley Ramirez (left wrist) after both were injured when they were hit by pitches last weekend in St. Louis. Puig and Ramirez had X-rays in Pittsburgh that came back negative Monday.

To compensate for their absence, Mattingly started Matt Kemp in right field ― his first appearance there since 2009 ― and Turner at shortstop. Turner’s start was his first since June 28, the day he sustained a strained left hamstring that put him on the disabled list for three weeks.

Dee Gordon and Juan Uribe also had two hits apiece for Los Angeles, which is two percentage points behind first-place San Francisco in the NL West.

Mikolas pitches Rangers past Yankees

NEW YORK (AP) ― Miles Mikolas didn’t need to look into the batter’s box to know who was stepping in with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. The roaring crowd said it all.

Listening to more than 45,000 New York Yankees fans try to urge Derek Jeter to get one more big hit motivated the young right-hander.

Mikolas got Jeter to ground into a double play, then pitched smoothly into the eighth inning Monday night to lead the Texas Rangers to a 4-2 victory.

Mikolas (1-2) slapped his glove and pumped his fist twice while letting out a shout of approval as he left the field. Then he retired his final seven batters.

Trailing by one with none on and two outs in the sixth, Texas got run-scoring singles from Geovany Soto, Rougned Odor and Choo Shin-soo to go ahead in only its third win in 17 July games.

San Francisco 7, Philadelphia 4

Boston 14, Toronto 1

Miami 3, Atlanta 1

Chicago White Sox 3, Kansas City 1

Milwaukee 5, Cincinnati 2

Minnesota 4, Cleveland 3

Washington 7, Colorado 2

Detroit 4, Arizona 3

Baltimore 4, LA Angels 2

Seattle 5, NY Mets 2