Peralta cameo lifts Cardinals over Cubs
CHICAGO: St Louis’ Jhonny Peralta hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Cardinals a dramatic and at-times bad-tempered 6-5 win at the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.
The victory maintained St Louis’ gap atop the National League standings ahead of hard-charging Pittsburgh, which completed a series sweep of San Diego.
Meanwhile, American League leaders Kansas City held on for a victory over struggling Tampa Bay, while nearest rivals Houston lost against Cleveland and Minnesota completed a sweep of Baltimore.
The Cubs were poised for victory when they led 5-4 after reliever Pedro Strop (1-4) quickly retired the first two batters in the ninth.
However, Matt Carpenter followed with a four-pitch walk and Peralta connected on a drive that barely cleared the wall in left field.
Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal gave up a two-out double to Addison Russell in the bottom of the ninth, but struck out Dexter Fowler to end it.
St Louis manager Mike Matheny and catcher Yadier Molina were ejected in the eighth for arguing a ball call.
Pittsburgh beat San Diego 5-2 to complete their 10th series sweep of the season to tie a club record.
Gregory Polanco, Andrew McCutchen and Kang Jung-Ho had RBI singles in a three-run eighth, all with two outs.
Padres starter Andrew Cashner (3-10) allowed one hit in his first six innings but was gone in the eighth and charged for four runs.
Kansas City’s Lorenzo Cain and Jarrod Dyson hit two-run homers and Alcides Escobar contributed four hits as the Royals beat Tampa Bay 9-7.
Dyson and the Rays’ Logan Forsythe both had inside-the-park homers; the first time in 18 years there had been two in a game.
Tampa Bay, swept in a doubleheader on Tuesday, fell for the 10th time in 11 games.
Cleveland’s David Murphy drove in two runs with a double in the eighth inning to lift the Indians to a 4-2 win against Houston.
Murphy snapped a 2-2 tie by pulling a pitch from Joe Thatcher (1-3) over the head of the right fielder to score rookie Francisco Lindor and Michael Brantley.
Indians starter Trevor Bauer (8-5) allowed a two-run homer in the first but settled down nicely, allowing no more runs and no walks in eight innings. He retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced.
Minnesota’s Brian Dozier and Joe Mauer hit back-to-back home runs with two outs in the sixth inning, propelling the Twins past Baltimore 5-3 to complete a threegame sweep.
Manny Machado and Chris Davis hit consecutive homers in the eighth for the Orioles to narrow the gap, but Twins closer Glen Perkins got his 28th save from as many attempts with a perfect ninth.