Royals top Cardinals as Hammel earns first win

ROYALS 5, CARDINALS 1

ST. LOUIS — Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez each homered and Jason Hammel earned his first victory of the season as the Kansas City Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 on Tuesday night.

Hammel (1-5) has been winless in his previous 13 starts dating back to his last win Sept. 6, 2017. Hammel also had been winless in his previous seven road starts.

He went seven innings, giving up nine hits and a run to help the Royals win for the second time in 10 games. He struck out six and hit a batter with no walks.

Luke Weaver (3-4) pitched seven innings in his first career outing against Kansas City. He allowed seven hits and struck out eight against one walk.

Gordon added two singles in a 3-for-4 night after entering the game hitless in his previous 14 at-bats. He was in a 4-for-40 skid that dated back to May 9.

Kansas City is 1-3 in interleague play this season. The Royals had lost their last five games against St. Louis and are 4-10 against their cross-state rivals in interleague play dating back to May 24, 2015.

Besides hitting the home run, Perez threw out two baserunners.

Kansas City went ahead 2-1 in the fourth on a two-out double by Alcides Escobar, who snapped an 0-for-9 skid with a single in the second inning. Whit Merrifield walked with one out and went to third on a single to right by Gordon. Escobar, who went 3-for-4, lined a 3-2 offspeed pitch to left to drive home Merrifield.

A leadoff homer by Perez in the sixth gave the Royals a 3-1 edge.

Kansas City added two runs in the ninth of reliever Greg Holland,

Tuesday’s games NATIONAL LEAGUE

Atlanta 3, Philadelphia 1 Washington 2, San Diego 1 Miami 5, New York Mets 1 Cincinnati 7, Pittsburgh 2 Milwaukee 1, Arizona 0 Colorado at LA Dodgers, (n)

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Toronto 5, LA Angels 3 Boston 4, Tampa Bay 2 Texas 6, New York Yankees 4 Chicago White Sox 3, Baltimore 2 Minnesota 6, Detroit 0 Seattle at Oakland, (n)

INTERLEAGUE

Cleveland 10, Chicago Cubs 1 Houston 11, San Francisco 2 Kansas City 5, St. Louis 1

a former Royal, who did not get any of the four batters he faced out.

St. Louis took a 1-0 lead in the first on a double steal. With two outs, Jose Martinez singled and went to third on Marcell Ozuna's single. Ozuna took off for second and Perez faked a throw to second. Martinez started home but stopped. Perez threw to third baseman Mike Moustakas, who dropped the throw, allowing Martinez to score.

Gordon homered with one out in the second to tie the game.

Gerrit Cole’s only major miscue against San Francisco came on a pitch to Brandon Crawford that likely will give his brother-in-law bragging rights at family gatherings for years to come. Cole struck out eight over six innings to lead the Houston Astros over the San Francisco Giants. Both of the runs off Cole (5-1) scored on a fifth-inning home run by Crawford, whose sister Amy is married to Cole.

Jose Ramirez hit his 14th homer and the Indians routed the Cubs in their first meeting at Wrigley Field since the 2016 World Series. The AL Central leaders moved back to .500 with an easy victory against the team that beat them two years ago to end a 108year championship drought.

ASTROS 11, GIANTS 2 INDIANS 10, CUBS 1 AMERICAN LEAGUE RANGERS 6, YANKEES 4

Cole Hamels limited the slugging New York Yankees to four hits over seven innings while Jurickson Profar and Ronald Guzman homered for the last-place Texas Rangers. Profar’s three-run homer in the first that just cleared the 8-foot wall in center put the Rangers ahead to stay against Domingo German (0-2). Guzman started the fourth with a liner into the right field seats, making it 6-1 only a few batters before the Yankees starter came out. New York, a big league-best 31-14, had won 22 of its previous 26 games and was coming off a three-game stretch with 14 homers and 28 runs.

Mookie Betts hit his major league-leading 16th homer, Chris Sale struck out nine in 72/ innings and the Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays. Sale (5-1) gave up four hits and walked two. He has allowed three runs or fewer in his first 11 starts, the longest stretch by a Boston pitcher to open a season since Pedro Martinez’s 12 in 2001.

RED SOX 4, RAYS 2 NATIONAL LEAGUE BRAVES 3, PHILLIES 1

Ozzie Albies hit his 14th homer and Brandon McCarthy tossed 52/ sharp innings, leading Atlanta to the victory. McCarthy (5-2) allowed one run and four hits. He is 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA against Philadelphia this season and 1-2 with a 6.60 ERA against the rest of the league.