Royals beat Rays 8-3 to complete series sweep and build American League lead
>> KANSAS CITY: Kansas City’s Lorenzo Cain and Salvador Perez both hit two-run homers as the Royals beat Tampa Bay 8-3 on Thursday to complete a four-game series sweep and build their lead in the American League standings.
The Royals moved 3½ games clear of Houston — who lost to Cleveland and its star rookie pitcher Cody Anderson — and 5½ games above AL Central division rival Minnesota, who were beaten at home by Detroit.
In the key National League encounter, St Louis defeated Pittsburgh to build their league and division lead over the Pirates to 5½ games.
Kansas City pitcher Yordano Ventura (4-6) went five innings, allowing four hits, in his return from four weeks out with an elbow condition that was causing numbness in his hand.
Eric Hosmer, Cheslor Cuthbert and Kendrys Morales all drove in runs for the Royals off Nathan Karns (4-5).
Cleveland’s rookie pitcher Cody Anderson kept Houston’s batters under control and guided the Indians to a 3-1 victory.
Making only his fourth major league start, Anderson (2-1) allowed Hank Conger’s leadoff homer in the third but little else in six 2-3 innings. Anderson has given up just three earned runs in 30 1-3 innings for a remarkable 0.89 ERA since being called up from the minors.
Astros starter Brett Oberholtzer (2-2) was almost as impressive, holding the Indians scoreless until they broke out for three runs in the sixth inning: touted rookie Francisco Lindor tied the game with a leadoff homer. Ryan Raburn’s RBI double put the Indians ahead, and Carlos Santana’s triple made it 3-1.
Detroit’s Ian Kinsler had a leadoff homer, a double and three RBIs to power the Tigers to a 4-2 victory over Minnesota.
Kinsler hit the second pitch of the game into the left-field seats for his 32nd career leadoff homer.
Tigers starter David Price (9-2) struck out eight in eight innings in his final start before going to the AllStar Game. Both runs against him were unearned.
St Louis pitcher Carlos Martinez made his case for inclusion on the National League All-Star team by pitching seven 1-3 scoreless innings to steer the Cardinals past Pittsburgh 4-1.
Martinez (10-3) improved to 7-1 with a 1.20 ERA in his past 10 starts. He is one of the five players contending for the NL’s All-Star Final Vote.
The Cardinals did their scoring in the fifth inning on two-run singles by Matt Carpenter — with one out — and Yadier Molina one out later.
Seattle’s Felix Hernandez threw seven scoreless innings to become the third pitcher with at least 11 wins before the All-Star break and lead the Mariners to a 7-2 win against the Los Angeles Angels.
Hernandez (11-5) only once faced trouble and reached the 11-win mark before the All-Star Game for the second time in his career.
Logan Morrison hit the first leadoff home run of his career and the Mariners had a season-high 19 hits; 12 off Angels’ starter Garrett Richards (9-6).
New York’s Masahiro Tanaka allowed two hits over seven 2-3 innings to lead the Yankees past Oakland 6-2.
Chicago’s Jeff Samardzija pitched a shut-out as the White Sox beat Toronto 2-0.
Los Angeles’ Zack Greinke pitched eight scoreless innings, extending his streak without conceding a run to a career-high 35-2/3 innings and lowering his major league-best ERA to 1.39 as the Dodgers beat Philadelphia 6-0.