Rodríguez a 25/25 rookie, Mariners beat Padres 6-1

SEATTLE (AP) – Julio Rodríguez hit the fourth leadoff home run of his rookie season, Eugenio Suárez and Carlos Santana both went deep, and the Seattle Mariners beat the San Diego Padres 6-1 on Wednesday. Seattle rebounded quickly from being shut out for the first time in nearly three months and split the brief two-game set. Rodríguez hit the first pitch thrown by Padres starter Mike Clevinger (5-7) for his 26th home run. Rodríguez later nabbed his 25th stolen base, making him the third rookie in league history to have at least 25 steals and 25 homers in their first season. But unlike Chris Young in 2007 and Mike Trout in 2012, Rodriguez reached the 25/25 plateau in his debut season. Both Young and Trout reached the majors late in the previous season, but were still considered rookies. Seattle kept pace with Toronto and gained a game on Tampa Bay in the crowded race for the top AL wild card. The Padres hold the third and final NL wild-card slot. Luis Castillo (7-5) threw six shutout innings, scattering four hits and striking out nine. CARDINALS 4, BREWERS 1 ST. LOUIS (AP) – Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina made history with the first pitch of the game, then the record-setting battery helped St. Louis extend its NL Central lead by beating Milwaukee. Wainwright and Molina started together for the 325th time, the most ever by a pitcher-catcher duo in the majors. They eclipsed the regular-season mark of 324 held by the Detroit Tigers pair of Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan from 1963-1975. The 41-year-old Wainwright (11-9) gave up just one run in five innings despite allowing eight hits. He threw 98 pitches. Molina gave him a boost, throwing out Kolten Wong attempting to steal on the back end of a strikeout to end the third. Molina also put the Cardinals ahead for good with a tiebreaking single in the second. Nolan Arenado and Lars Nootbaar homered for the Cardinals, who have won three of four. They stretched their division lead to eight games over the second-place Brewers. Milwaukee had a three-game winning streak snapped and remains two games behind San Diego in the race for the final NL wild card. Corbin Burnes (10-7) gave up three runs on seven hits over seven innings. Albert Pujols hit an RBI double in the eighth. He remains at 697 career home runs. Ryan Helsley earned his 17th save in 21 tries. BLUE JAYS 5, RAYS 1 TORONTO (AP) – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 100th home run at age 23, and Toronto beat Tampa Bay to ensure winning a rare five-game series against a wild card rival. Toronto (81-62) has won three of four from the Rays (79-63), who dropped one game behind Seattle (80-82) heading into Thursday’s series finale, Those teams are in the three AL wild-card positions for the expanded playoffs, with Baltimore (75-67) four games behind the Rays. Guerrero homered off Drew Rasmussen (10-5) in the first inning, his 28th home run this season. At 23 years, 182 days, he became the youngest Blue Jays player to reach 100 homers. Ross Stripling (8-4) allowed one run and three hits in 6 1/3 innings. He won for the first time in nine career appearances against the Rays. YANKEES 5, RED SOX 3 BOSTON (AP) – Aaron Judge didn’t homer and Gleyber Torres only sorta did to send AL East-leading New York past Boston, completing a two-game sweep. A day after homering twice to reach 57 for the season – four short of Roger Maris’ AL record – Judge went 1 for 4 with a walk. He singled in the fifth after Aaron Hicks reached on an error, putting runners on first and second. Torres lined a single to right, and Alex Verdugo’s throw to the plate was too late to get Hicks. Catcher Connor Wong thought he had Torres making too big of a turn and fired the ball to first but it sailed wide and into the outfield.