Jeremy Pena and Isaac Paredes homered and Spencer Arrighetti tossed six strong innings as the Houston Astros clinched a series win with a 5-1 win over the Texas Rangers on Thursday in Arlington, Texas.

Arrighetti (7-1) allowed one run on three hits with one walk and three strikeouts for Houston, which took three of four from Texas and has won six of its last seven games.

The Astros needed just three batters to claim a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Pena opened the game by depositing a 2-1 splitter from Nathan Eovaldi (5-6) over the left field wall for his second homer of the season.

After Yordan Alvarez walked, Paredes followed with a two-run shot to left field, his sixth homer.

Alvarez went 0-for-3 after hitting five home runs in his previous three games.

Josh Jung hit a solo homer for Texas, which was held to four hits and has lost six of its past seven to fall a season-worst six games under .500.

Astros right fielder Cam Smith had two hits and turned in the defensive play of the game in the bottom of the first, leaping high at the wall to rob Brandon Nimmo of a solo homer.

Texas got on the board in the second inning on Jung’s leadoff homer to left-center field. The 424-foot shot was Jung’s sixth this season.

Houston added to its lead with two runs in the third inning. Paredes drew a two-out walk, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Taylor Trammell’s double. Smith followed with an RBI single to center.

Eovaldi yielded five runs on four hits over seven innings. He walked two and struck out six.

The Rangers were unable to mount a comeback against Arrighetti, who won his third straight outing and lowered his ERA to 1.34 after eight starts.

Nate Pearson, Steven Okert, Enyel De Los Santos and Bryan Abreu followed Arrighetti with a combined three scoreless innings.

Houston won despite being held to two hits over the final six innings. Eovaldi retired the final 10 batters he faced after allowing Smith’s RBI single in the third.

–Field Level Media

Since the Cleveland Guardians have been looking down at the rest of the American League Central for the majority of the season, it’s not a huge surprise that they haven’t yet been swept in a series.

After avoiding that fate once again against the Washington Nationals on Wednesday afternoon, Cleveland — which holds a three-game lead atop its division — shifts its focus to a weekend visit from the Boston Red Sox. The teams open their three-game series on Friday night.

Rookies Travis Bazzana and Chase DeLauter powered the go-ahead, three-run fifth inning that propelled the Guardians to a 3-2 win in the series finale against Washington. Both had 2-for-4 nights, with Bazzana cracking two doubles and scoring a run.

“They’re confident,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said of the organization’s top two prospects entering the season. “They know they belong in the big leagues.”

Bazzana is hitting a team-best .302 and carries a five-game hit streak into the new series.

“Whether he’s swinging it hot or not, you can’t tell,” DeLauter said of the Australian-born Bazzana. “He shows up every day, has competitive at-bats, works the box. He doesn’t swing at balls, hits the strikes hard. What more can you ask for?”

The Guardians’ scheduled Friday starter, Slade Cecconi (3-5, 5.18 ERA), allowed three runs in five innings last Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies, taking his first loss in five May outings.

Cecconi had given up just four runs over his previous three outings (16 2/3 innings), including a 7 1/3-inning outing to beat the host Detroit Tigers on May 18.

In his only previous start against the Red Sox, Cecconi was touched up for seven runs on 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings on Sept. 2, 2025.

The Red Sox had a chance at a marquee series win before hitting the road, but the recent loss of reliever Garrett Whitlock quickly doomed them as the major-league-leading Atlanta Braves scored the final eight runs and cruised to a 10-2 Thursday win in Boston.

“If you said before the game that we’d get (Chris Sale) out of there after five and it’s 2-2, you’d be feeling pretty good about that,” interim Boston manager Chad Tracy said. “Then, obviously, it just got away from us.”

Starter Payton Tolle (4 2/3 innings) and reliever Tyron Guerrero got Boston through the fifth. Then, four different relievers allowed runs en route to the blowout defeat.

Whitlock was placed on the injured list with left knee inflammation before Thursday’s game, a day after receiving a pain-killing injection. He had not pitched since Sunday, when he hyperextended his knee while warming up in muddy conditions.

Boston is now 9-19 at home and 14-13 on the road.

One silver lining? Before Thursday, the first four losses on the recently completed six-game homestand against the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta were decided by two runs or fewer.

“I think there was a lot of good in this homestand, but obviously, at the end of the day, it’s wins and losses. That’s what matters,” Red Sox third baseman Caleb Durbin said.

Tracy is expected to use left-hander Tyler Samaniego (0-2, 1.04) — who was recalled from Triple-A Worcester to replace Whitlock — as an opener ahead of Brayan Bello (2-5, 6.43) on Friday. It will be the 27-year-old rookie’s first start in the majors.

Bello is 1-0 with a 0.98 ERA in 18 1/3 innings (three appearances) as a bulk reliever. By comparison, he is 1-5 with a 9.68 ERA in 30 2/3 frames across seven starts.

–Field Level Media

Victor Wembanyama scored 28 points with 10 rebounds to lift the San Antonio Spurs to a 118-91 home win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.

The teams will play one last time in Game 7 on Saturday in Oklahoma City.

After the Thunder’s 127-114 win in Game 5 on Tuesday, when Wembanyama had 20 points and six rebounds, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said his team needed more from its superstar.

It didn’t take long for Wembanyama to show a difference from Game 5, with two 3-pointers and a block in the game’s first 90 seconds as San Antonio jumped in front early and never trailed.

The Spurs led by 15 early in the second quarter but the Thunder closed the deficit to five just before halftime before going into the break trailing by seven.

San Antonio ratcheted up its defense late in the third and put together a 20-0 run to put the game away by the end of the third quarter.

The Thunder missed 14 consecutive shots, going nearly eight minutes between points.

Oklahoma City scored just 13 third-quarter points, its fewest in a quarter this season.

With the game out of reach after three quarters, Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault sat Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren in the fourth quarter.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with just a team-high 15 points on 6-of-18 shooting. It was Gilgeous-Alexander’s lowest-scoring output since he scored 14 in Game 3 of last season’s Western Conference finals against Minnesota.

Dylan Harper scored 18 points off the bench for San Antonio while Stephon Castle added 17 points and nine assists with just one turnover.

While the Thunder’s bench has dominated the Spurs’ for much of the series, San Antonio’s reserves outscored Oklahoma City’s 46-38 in Game 6.

The Spurs got going early with a barrage from beyond the arc.

San Antonio hit eight first-quarter 3-pointers, three from Wembanyama.

The Thunder were just 1 of 6 from beyond the arc in the first.

Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams returned after missing the last three games with a hamstring strain, but played just 10 minutes, coming off the bench for the first time since Dec. 10, 2022, during his rookie season. Williams scored one point.

–Field Level Media