St Louis’ Yadier Molina hit his 100th career home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the Cardinals to a 4-3 win against San Francisco on Wednesday, helping the Cards maintain a five-game divisional lead.
Their nearest rival in the National League Central, Pittsburgh, kept pace by beating Arizona, thanks to a strong pitching performance from J.A. Happ.
The New York Mets saw their lead in the NL East trimmed after a narrow loss in Baltimore, while the cross-town New York Yankees pushed their lead in the American League East out to two games by edging Minnesota.
Photo: AP
Molina led off the eighth by lining a breaking ball from Hunter Strickland (2-3) for only his fourth homer of the year. He earlier drove in a run with a first-inning single, while rookie Stephen Piscotty homered in the third.
The result meant the Cardinals took the series 2-1, making its six-straight series victories for the majors’ top team.
Pittsburgh’s J.A. Happ pitched six scoreless innings to guide the Pirates to a 4-1 win against Arizona.
Happ (5-7), recently acquired from Seattle, earned his first NL victory in more than three years.
Sean Rodriguez had three hits and an RBI for the Pirates, who have a 16-3 record this season against teams from the NL West division.
Baltimore’s Henry Urrutia broke a ninth-inning tie with his first major-league home run, giving the Orioles a 5-4 win against the Mets, ending a run of nine straight losses to the New York team.
Jonathan Schoop and Adam Jones also homered for the Orioles, who had not defeated the Mets since 2009.
Baltimore rallied from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits before Urrutia led off the ninth with the winning drive, securing the Orioles’ fifth win in six games.
The Yankees edged Minnesota 4-3, with New York rookie Greg Bird hitting a pair of two-run drives for his first major-league homers.
Bird, who was called up from the minor leagues on Thursday last week, connected twice off Ervin Santana (2-4), who fell to 0-8 in his past 11 starts against New York.
Yankees starter Nathan Eovaldi (13-2) did not allow a baserunner until the sixth.
Eovaldi is 8-0 in his past 11 starts.
In other games, it was:
‧ Brewers 8, Marlins 7
‧ Angels 1, White Sox 0
‧ Athletics 5, Dodgers 2
‧ Rangers 7, Mariners 2
‧ Padres 3, Braves 2
‧ Phillies 7, Blue Jays 3
‧ Red Sox 6, Indians 4
‧ Royals 4, Reds 3
‧ Tigers 15, Cubs 8
‧ Astros 3, Rays 2, 13 innings
‧ Nationals 4, Rockies 1
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