shutout loss

AUSTIN, Texas — Owen Wolff scored in a goal in the 83rd minute, Brad Stuver had two saves, and Austin FC beat LAFC 1-0 on Sunday night to snap LAFC’s six-game win streak.

LAFC (17-8-8) has 59 points, one behind second-place San Diego and one ahead of Minnesota in the Western Conference. Vancouver has 63 points.

Austin (13-12-8) has 47 points and will be the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference for the MLS Cup playoffs, which begin Oct. 22.

Wolff’s goal ended LAFC’s shutout streak at 429 minutes, dating to Sept. 21 against Salt Lake.

Zan Kolmanic played a corner kick into the area that deflected off the head of LAFC’s Eddie Segura before Wolff headed home the finish inside the back post.

Denis Bouanga and Son Heung-min did not play (international duty) for LAFC. Bouanga is second in MLS with 24 goals this season and Son has eight goals and three assists in eight starts since signing with LAFC on Aug. 6.

The match had been scheduled for July 5, but was rescheduled due to severe weather and flooding in the area.

HOUSTON — Cristian Javier didn’t give up a hit in six innings and three relievers completed the two-hitter to help the Houston Astros to a 2-0 win over the Angels (62-72) on Friday night.

Javier struck out six, walked three and threw 85 pitches in six innings. He was making his fourth start of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June 2024.

He was relieved by Enyel De Los Santos (5-3), who gave up a double to Yoán Moncada for the Angels’ first hit of the game, but secured the win.

Kaleb Ort secured a four-out save — his first save of the season — after relieving Craig Kimbrel in the eighth. Kimbrel walked three and threw eight strikes in 25 pitches. Ort secured a fly out from Jo Adell to end the eighth, then finished with a perfect ninth.

Carlos Correa broke the scoreless tie with an RBI single in the seventh that scored Yordan Alvarez. The Astros (75-60) were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position before that hit off losing pitcher Luis García Jr. (2-1).

Alvarez drove in a second run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Cam Smith, who walked earlier in the inning.

Key moment: Before Correa’s single, Alvarez reached first base on a fielding error by second baseman Christian Moore. He scored after advancing on a bloop single from Jose Altuve.

Key stat: Javier’s six no-hit innings are tied for second-longest no-hit outing of his career with a nine-strikeout performance in the 2022 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. His career best was a seven-inning performance against the New York Yankees on June 25, 2022.

Up next: The Astros will send RHP Spencer Arrighetti (1-5, 6.21 ERA) to the mound against Angels RHP Kyle Hendricks (6-9, 5.04) on Saturday.

BALTIMORE — Charlie Morton struck out a season-high 10 batters in five innings, Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Laureano hit home runs and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Angels 2-0 on Friday night in a game that was delayed by rain before the start and again in the fifth inning.

Morton (3-7) surrendered two straight singles to begin the fourth, but he struck out LaMonte Wade Jr. on three pitches before two groundballs got him out of the jam. Morton fanned Zach Neto leading off the fifth. He left after rain forced the second delay.

Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz (3-8) used three groundball outs to retire the side in order in the first, but O’Hearn hit his 10th home run on Kochanowicz’s first pitch in the second for a 1-0 lead. Laureano led off the fifth with his eighth homer for the final run. The second delay followed after a one-out single by Ramón Urías.

Yennier Cano, Gregory Soto and Bryan Baker each pitched a scoreless inning for Baltimore before Félix Bautista had the final two of 14 strikeouts by the Orioles in notching his 12th save in 13 chances.

Kochanowicz gave up two runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings and the Angels used four relievers to finish.

The Orioles beat the Angels for the 20th time in the last 25 matchups. The Angels won two of three against Baltimore on May 9-11.

Key moment: Morton allowed the first two batters to reach in the first inning but came back to strike out Mike Trout and Jorge Soler looking and Logan O’Hoppe on a foul tip to set the game’s tone.

Key stat: The Orioles began the day with a staff ERA of 5.00 — second-worst in the AL followed by the Angels at 4.76.

Up next: Angels LHP Tyler Anderson (2-3, 3.99) starts Saturday against Orioles RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (5-4, 3.23).

ST. LOUIS — The revolving door on the pitcher’s mound continues to spin for the Dodgers, who called Justin Wrobleski up from the minors to start Friday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

There’s a good chance Wrobleski will be on his way back to the minors by the start of Saturday’s game.

In between he pitched six innings in a 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Dodgers’ fourth loss in six games and their 11th loss in 20 games dating to May 16.

“I wouldn’t say, a problem,” manager Dave Roberts, who has used 13 different starting pitchers through 64 games, said of the revolving door. “It’s certainly not ideal.”

Nor is it unusual for the Dodgers, who used 17 starters and 40 pitchers overall last season when they won the World Series. But that door is certainly spinning faster than it did last year with the Dodgers using 11 different starters before May 1.

The Dodgers’ bullpen leads the majors in innings pitched while their starters have thrown the second-fewest innings because of injuries.

The Dodgers have 15 pitchers on the injured list, among them Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and Tyler Glasnow. Including bonuses, the Dodgers will pay the three pitchers more than $100 million combined this season. So far, that has bought them 15 starts.

In their absence, Wrobleski, Landon Knack and Jack Dreyer have made a combined 12 starts; none of them will make more than $800,000.

And it’s not just pitchers: The Dodgers have made 18 transactions in June and the month is just a week old, creating a constant shuffle between the majors and triple-A Oklahoma City that could disrupt Dodgers’ locker room chemistry.

Roberts, however, said he’s not worried.

“It’s part of the culture nowadays in the major leagues, as far as kind of having optionable players and kind of having guys in and out of clubhouses,” he said. ”For our particular club, the core is still the core. But certainly on the periphery or the ancillary players that kind of go up and down, they’re kind of in and out, which is not easy for them.”

To combat that, Roberts said his coaches try to make sure the players feel comfortable during their stays, which can sometimes last less than 24 hours.

“It’s still not easy when you’re here for a couple days and then you’re out, then you’re back,” Roberts said.

Wrobleski (1-2), who made his second start of the season, agreed.

“Obviously, it’s a challenge,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I kind of know how this works and I know that my next start is not guaranteed to always be in one place or another. I wouldn’t say it’s an excuse. I haven’t pitched great up here.

“It’s definitely hard. But at the end of the day, you have to be ready to pitch whenever you’re called upon, no matter where you’re at. That’s kind of my mentality and wherever I’m at, I’m just going to continue to try to get better and continue improving.”

In a game delayed 77 minutes by rain, Wrobleski was undone by a pair of two-out pitches. The first was hit into the left-field stands by Pedro Pages for a two-run home run in the second inning. Brendan Donovan lined the other up the middle in the fifth to score two runners, both of whom reached on walks.

Willson Contreras accounted for the final run with an eighth-inning solo homer off reliever Chris Stratton.

But if injuries have crippled the Dodgers’ pitching, the offense simply crumbled Friday. They stranded nine runners, were one for 13 with runners in scoring position and struck out nine times. So while they lead the majors in runs, batting average and homer runs, they’re hitting just .228 in June.

All of which makes the absence of infielder Hyeseong Kim from the starting lineup all the more baffling. Kim, who is hitting .404/.436/.558 in 24 games, has just seven at-bats in June.

“I wish every time somebody got on base, we could get a hit and score,” said Mookie Betts, who had three of the Dodgers’ 10 hits. “I really wish every time runners are in scoring position, we could get those timely hits. But that’s not how the game works.

“The game is going to go through its ebbs and flows. You have to just kind of ride the wave. You can’t jump off.”

But you can’t get stuck in a revolving door either.

ST. LOUIS — Roman Burki made eight saves while keeping his third consecutive clean sheet to start the season and St. Louis City kept the MLS Cup champion Galaxy winless with a 3-0 victory Sunday.

Cedric Teuchert, Marcel Hartel and Simon Becher scored the first goals of the season for St. Louis, which began with two scoreless draws before this win over the Galaxy that was less one-sided than the score.

Burki was outstanding in his 18th career shutout for St. Louis, turning away every scoring attempt by the injury-depleted Galaxy. The standout Swiss keeper had to make just one save in St. Louis’ first two games combined.

The defending champions have scored just one goal in their three losses without star playmaker Riqui Puig and rampaging forward Joseph Paintsil. Both key components of last year’s team are out indefinitely with significant injuries, and L.A. has been unable to compensate even though healthy stars Gabriel Pec and Marco Reus repeatedly created scoring chances against St. Louis.

Christian Ramírez had the Galaxy’s best chance in the first half, but Burki saved his left-footed shot in the box.

Teuchert got St. Louis on the board in the 44th minute, banging home a rebound after a scramble in L.A.’s box.

Hartel then connected a few minutes into the second half, taking a pass from Teuchert and beating Novak Micovic in the top left corner.

Pec missed a golden chance in the 64th minute, failing to hit a fairly open net after a setup from Reus. In the 74th minute, Reus got a free kick past the St. Louis wall from just outside the penalty area, but Burki swatted it away.

Becher scored in the 84th minute.