Anthony Santander drilled a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Baltimore Orioles to a 1-0 win over the New York Yankees on Friday night, spoiling Aaron Judge’s return.

After Gerrit Cole and rookie Grayson Rodriguez hooked up in a classic pitcher’s duel, the scoreless game was turned over to the bullpens.

Orioles closer Felix Bautista struck out two in a perfect top of the ninth before Santander sent a 2-0 offering from Tommy Kahnle into the seats in right field with one out in the bottom half for his 18th home run.

The American League-leading Orioles avoided a third straight loss and maintained a 1 ½-game lead over second-place Tampa Bay in the East.

Judge was 0 for 1 with three walks in his first game back from a toe injury. The Yankees slugger had been sidelined since June 3.

Cole limited Baltimore to three hits over seven innings without a walk and five strikeouts.

Rodriguez was just as good, allowing three singles over 6 1/3 innings with two walks and four strikeouts in the best performance of his young career.

DJ LeMahieu had two hits for last-place New York, which lost its fifth consecutive road game.

Tauchman’s catch allows Cubs’ streak to continue

Mike Tauchman robbed pinch-hitter Alec Burleson of a potential winning home run to end the game and the Chicago Cubs topped the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 for their seventh straight win.

With a runner on third and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Burleson sent a deep drive to centre but Tauchman reached over the fence to take away a sure home run and prevent the Cardinals from winning.

Patrick Wisdom hit his team-leading 18th home run and Trey Mancini had a tiebreaking RBI single in the sixth inning for Chicago, which has its longest winning streak since also taking seven in a row last Sept. 25-Oct. 2.

Lars Nootbaar accounted for all of St. Louis’ offence with solo home runs in the first and third innings.

Casas provides spark for surging Red Sox

Triston Casas homered and had and RBI double to back Kutter Crawford as the Boston Red Sox won their fifth straight game, 3-2 over the San Francisco Giants.

Moved up to sixth in the order, Casas doubled home a run in the second inning and took Logan Webb deep in the fifth to give Boston a 2-0 lead.

Crawford allowed one run and three hits over 5 2/3 innings while walking one and striking out seven.

The Red Sox improved to 15-5 in July and are a season-best nine games over .500 (56-47).