Dodgers swept by Astros, Yankees stop losing streak

(AFP) The Los Angeles Dodgers conceded their third straight loss Sunday to the Houston Astros, who completed their first sweep against the team since 2008.

The Astros sealed this third win at Dodger Stadium by 5-1, with a home run and two runs batted in by Venezuelan José Altuve.

Dominican Yainer Diaz contributed to the win with a homer in the eighth inning and Mexico's Isaac Paredes added a hit.

For the Dodgers, reigning Major League Baseball champions, their superstar Shohei Ohtani was unsuccessful after four at-bats.

Before this sweep, the Los Angeles franchise had won nine of its last 10 games.

On Monday, they will try to get back on the winning track in a playoff opener at the Milwaukee Brewers, who beat the Miami Marlins 3-1 on Sunday with a stellar performance from Jackson Chourio.

The 21-year-old Venezuelan opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the third inning and closed it by hitting a sacrifice fly to score Sal Frelick in the eighth.

The New York Yankees, who lost to the Dodgers in the last World Series, won 6-4 at the home field of their neighbors, the Mets, who still took the win in the so-called Subway Series 2-1.

The “Bronx Bombers” got out of a slump of six consecutive losses thanks to their leader, Aaron Judge, who hit a home run and drove in three runs.

The key play of the game came in the seventh inning, when Cody Bellinger made a spectacular ground-level catch off a hit by Dominican Juan Soto. He quickly followed up by throwing a perfect strike to first base, where Puerto Rico's Francisco Lindor completed the play.

"It was probably our best play of the year so far," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

"It was definitely a tough play. Those hits are low and hard to read, but at the time I felt like I could catch it," said Bellinger, who landed in the Bronx this year after playing for the Chicago Cubs.

Soto also came up empty in his two at-bats while Lindor drove in two runs for the Mets, who remain 1.5 wins behind the National League East division-leading Philadelphia Phillies.

The Yankees, meanwhile, are in second place in the American East, three wins behind the Toronto Blue Jays.