Troy Tulowitzki, Jose Bautista and Kevin Pillar homered against Chris Tillman as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles 10-4 on Sunday.
American League East-leading Toronto improved to 78-58, becoming the first team since the 2004 Astros to reach 20 games above .500 after having a losing record following the All-Star break.
Toronto were 50-51 on July 28, the day after the Blue Jays acquired Tulowitzki from Colorado. Two days later, Toronto added left-hander David Price in a deal with Detroit.
Photo: AFP
Tulowitzki and Bautista each had a two-run shot, and Pillar belted a solo drive. Josh Donaldson drove in two runs for the Blue Jays, raising his MLB-leading total to 114 RBIs.
Marco Estrada (12-8) pitched five innings for his first win in three starts.
The slumping Orioles lost for the 14th time in 17 games. Tillman (9-11) is 0-4 with a 15.50 ERA in five starts against Toronto this season.
YANKEES 6, RAYS 4
Brian McCann and Alex Rodriguez hit back-to-back homers off All-Star Chris Archer to send New York past Tampa Bay.
Ivan Nova (6-7) pitched six solid innings to stop a three-start losing streak and help the Yankees take two of three in the series. New York, who lead the American League wild-card chase, remained 1-1/2 games behind Toronto in the AL East.
After the first 18 Yankees batters were held to one hit, New York finally broke through in the sixth inning and erased a 3-0 deficit. McCann hit a three-run shot with two outs off Archer (12-11) for his career-high 25th home run.
Rodriguez connected on the next pitch from Archer, who had allowed only one home run in eight previous starts against New York. He entered 5-0 with a 1.78 ERA against the Yankees.
Andrew Miller stranded two runners in the ninth for his 31st save in 32 attempts.
Asdrubal Cabrera and Kevin Kiermaier homered for the Rays.
PIRATES 7, CARDINALS 1
Gerrit Cole pitched seven scoreless innings as Pittsburgh used home runs from Aramis Ramirez, Sean Rodriguez and Starling Marte to beat St Louis.
Cole (16-8) gave up two hits, struck out seven and walked three as he bounced back from his worst start of the season.
Second-placed Pittsburgh cut the Cardinals’ lead in the National League Central to 5-1/2 games and earned their first series victory at Busch Stadium since April 2013.
John Lackey (11-9) gave up three runs and 10 hits in 7-1/3 innings, but extended his streak of quality starts at home to 15.
Cole also drove in his first run of the season with a two-out single in the seventh off Lackey.
In other games, it was:
‧ Marlins 4, Mets 3
‧ Nationals 8, Braves 4
‧ Cubs 6, Diamondbacks 4
‧ Astros 8, Twins 5
‧ Angels 7, Rangers 0
‧ White Sox 7, Royals 5
‧ Dodgers 5, Padres 1
‧ Giants 7, Rockies 4
‧ Indians 4, Tigers 0
‧ Reds 6, Brewers 3
‧ Red Sox 6, Phillies 2
‧ Mariners 3, Athletics 2
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