MAJOR LEAGUES
Dan Uggla had two homers and four RBIs and Freddie Freeman drove in three more runs with a double to help the Atlanta Braves extend their already big lead in the National League East division with an 8-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.
In other key games, Dexter Fowler’s 10th-inning single led the Colorado Rockies past the San Diego Padres 8-7, Matt Holliday’s grand slam capped a seven-run 10th inning to help the St Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 11-4 and the Miami Marlins beat the New York Mets 8-4 in extra innings for the second consecutive game.
In the American League, the Detroit Tigers finished a three-game sweep of the skidding Cleveland Indians with a 4-1 victory, the Texas Rangers rallied from a four-run deficit to beat Toronto 6-4, and the Kansas City Royals defeated the Houston Astros 2-0 for their fifth straight win.
Uggla, the Braves’ second baseman, leads all players at his position with 222 home runs since the start of the 2006 season — 42 more than Yankees slugger Robinson Cano.
Mike Minor (8-2) allowed a run and six hits, struck out six and walked three while helping the NL East division leaders gain a split of the four-game series against Los Angeles. Atlanta’s rotation has yielded four runs in 37-1/3 innings spanning the team’s past six games.
Atlanta has a 7-1/2-game lead over second-place Washington — the largest of any division leader.
Dexter Fowler’s single with two outs in the 10th inning scored DJ LeMahieu from third base as the Rockies rallied for a win over the Padres. Fowler finished with four hits and Troy Tulowitzki had two, including his 16th home run. Rockies starter Juan Nicasio retired his first 16 batters.
In Cincinnati, J.J. Hoover (0-5) walked Allen Craig to lead off the 10th. One out later, David Freese singled Craig to second, extending his career-best hitting streak to 19 games, tied with San Francisco’s Marco Scutaro for the longest in the National League this season.
Daniel Descalso followed with his RBI double off the left field wall and Matt Carpenter added two insurance runs with a bases-loaded single before Holliday hit his homer, his 10th of the season.
Miami’s Derek Dietrich hit a tying home run in the eighth and second baseman Daniel Murphy’s 10th-inning error allowed Logan Morrison to score the go-ahead run in his first game in 11 months, boosting the Marlins to a victory.
Greg Dobbs added a sacrifice fly off Rob Carson and Miguel Olivo followed with a two-run homer in the four-run 10th, eliminating the need for a repeat of Saturday’s 6-hour, 25-minute, 20-inning marathon, won by the Marlins 2-1.
Detroit’s Jose Alvarez pitched six impressive innings in his Major League Baseball debut and Don Kelly hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in the sixth to help the Tigers finish a three-game sweep of the Indians. Alvarez (1-0) held Cleveland hitless until Ryan Raburn’s fifth-inning homer.
The first-place Tigers lead Cleveland by 5.5 games in the American League Central division. Cleveland has lost seven straight.
The Rangers’ Adrian Beltre hit a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning to lead help Texas avoid a three-game sweep to the Blue Jays and their first four-game losing streak of the season.
Nelson Cruz and David Murphy also homered for the Rangers, while Neal Cotts (2-0) worked one inning for the win.
Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer each had a run-scoring single in the eighth and Luis Mendoza pitched seven innings of four-hit ball for Kansas City.
Elsewhere, Chicago’s Cody Ransom hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in the seventh inning and Edwin Jackson pitched the Cubs to a 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
San Francisco’s Chad Gaudin pitched six strong innings and Marco Scutaro and Brandon Belt homered as the Giants beat Arizona 6-2 to move within 1.5 games of the first-place Diamondbacks in the NL West division.
In Milwaukee, Carlos Gomez hit a two-run homer, Scooter Gennett had a two-run triple and Kyle Lohse pitched eight strong innings for his first win in eight starts to help the Brewers beat Philadelphia 9-1 to take the final three games of the four-game series.
Boston’s David Ortiz hit a three-run homer and Jarrod Saltalamacchia connected twice to power the Red Sox past the Los Angeles Angels 10-5. The Red Sox have won six of eight.
The Yankees’ Chris Stewart hit a tiebreaking single in the ninth inning and David Phelps matched Felix Hernandez for six innings to help New York beat the Seattle Mariners 2-1.
In St Petersburg, Florida, J.J. Hardy, Adam Jones, Alexi Casilla and Nick Markakis had two RBIs apiece as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Tampa Bay Rays 10-7.
Alex Rios and Tyler Flowers homered and Hector Santiago pitched into the seventh inning as the Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 4-2 to split their four-game series.
The Washington Nationals swept a day-night doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins, winning the first game 7-0 and the second 5-4.
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