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Seth Lugo pitched eight shutout innings for Kansas City on Friday as the host Royals extended their winning streak to five games with a 2-0 victory over the Houston Astros. Lugo (2-3) ended a three-start losing streak with his best effort in the young season as he struck out a season-best eight. He pitched into the eighth inning for the first time, yielding just one walk and a season-low three hits. Lugo, last season's runner-up for the American League Cy Young Award, retired the first 11 batters he faced before Isaac Paredes took him to right for an opposite-field double. Lugo dropped his ERA from 3.90 to 3.08. Hayden Wesneski (1-2) scattered eight hits in five-plus innings. He struck out one, but the Royals got both runs off the right-hander by manufacturing them. Kansas City's Drew Waters went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, and he scored after the second one. In the fifth inning, he moved to third on Freddy Fermin's sacrifice bunt and scored on Kyle Isbel's sacrifice fly. Hunter Renfroe's sacrifice fly an inning later scored Vinnie Pasquantino. Paredes accounted for two of Houston's hits, but the Astros' best chance to get to Lugo came in the sixth. Cam Smith walked to start the inning and moved to second on Jake Meyers' sacrifice bunt. Smith took third on Jose Altuve's groundout, but he remained there when Yordan Alvarez flew out to right field to end the inning. Houston catcher Victor Caratini had a lead-off single in the eighth off Lugo, but he was erased when Smith hit into a double play. Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. made a diving stop on the hard-hit grounder to initiate the double play. Lucas Erceg pitched a perfect ninth to get his first save of the season. Witt singled three times in four at-bats to extend his hitting streak to 17 games, the best current streak in the majors. --Field Level Media

Colin Rea went five scoreless innings and Pete Crow-Armstrong had an RBI and scored a run as the Chicago Cubs earned a 4-0 victory over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Friday following a two-hour, 20-minute rain delay. Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki each had two hits as the Cubs improved to 5-1 on an eight-game homestand. Rea (1-0) gave up three hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Despite a relatively modest run output in the opener of a three-game series, the Cubs still have an MLB-best 167 runs scored this season. They delivered a combined 18 runs in a two-game sweep of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this week. J.T. Realmuto had two hits for the Phillies, while right-hander Taijuan Walker (1-2) went just three innings, giving up two runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Philadelphia's losing streak increased to five games. The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Crow-Armstrong had a leadoff single, stole second base and scored on a double from Jon Berti. Crow-Armstrong added a second steal later in the game and has 12 for the season. Chicago made it 2-0 in the third inning when Suzuki hit a leadoff double and scored on a Nico Hoerner single. The lead increased to 3-0 when Berti singled to lead off the fourth and came home when Happ followed with a double. The Cubs scored their final run in the seventh inning when Dansby Swanson led off with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on a squeeze bunt from Crow-Armstrong. Four Cubs relievers followed Rea with four scoreless innings, allowing a combined two hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Drew Pomeranz pitched a scoreless eighth inning with two strikeouts for Chicago in his first appearance with the Cubs and his first major league outing since 2021. Pomeranz, 36, had forearm surgery in 2021 as a member of the San Diego Padres and pitched in multiple organizations before he was acquired from the Seattle Mariners this week. --Field Level Media

Major League Baseball suspended Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Tommy Pham for one game and fined him an undisclosed amount Friday for what the league called "inappropriate actions towards fans." Pham's transgression occurred Wednesday when the Pirates were playing at the Los Angeles Angels. Cameras caught him making a vulgar hand gesture toward Angels fans in the left field seats. Pham is appealing the suspension and will be available Friday when the Pirates open a three-game series at the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 23 games in his first season with the Pirates, the veteran outfielder is batting .184 with three doubles and six RBIs. He's made 19 starts in left field for Pittsburgh. Pham is a career .256 hitter currently playing for his 10th major league club and his eighth in the past four years. His next hit will be the 1,000th of his career. --Field Level Media

The Cleveland Guardians' home game against the Boston Red Sox was postponed Friday due to inclement weather approaching the area. Instead, the clubs will play a split doubleheader on Saturday with the games slated for 1:10 and 6:10 p.m. ET. Boston and Cleveland were scheduled to kick off a three-game series Friday night for their first meeting of the year. The series wraps up Sunday afternoon. The pitching matchups for the doubleheader were not yet known. The Guardians were planning to start right-hander Ben Lively (1-2, 3.86 ERA) on Friday against Red Sox right-hander Tanner Houck (0-2, 7.66). --Field Level Media

With inclement weather forecast for the Detroit area, the Tigers' home game Friday against the Baltimore Orioles was postponed until Saturday. The teams will play a split doubleheader on Saturday, beginning with their originally scheduled game at 1:10 p.m. ET followed by a second game at 6:10. Friday was set to feature the opener of a three-game series between the American League teams that will conclude Sunday afternoon. Pitching plans for the doubleheader were not yet known. On Friday, right-hander Casey Mize (3-1, 2.22 ERA) was scheduled to take the mound for the Tigers opposite Orioles rookie right-hander Brandon Young (0-0, 6.75), who was in line to make his second MLB start. --Field Level Media