Yankees’ bats hammer Vargas, Kansas City

YANKEES 11, ROYALS 7

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Aaron Hicks hit a three-run homer to cap a five-run fourth inning, the Yankees piled up 16 hits and New York rolled to an 11-7 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.

Michael Pineda (4-2) allowed three runs and six hits with two walks over six-plus innings. The big right-hander was shaky throughout but good enough to win for only the second time in 16 road starts.

The Yankees teed off on Jason Vargas (5-2), who came into the game with a major league-leading 1.01 ERA. The left-hander allowed as many earned runs in the fourth as he had in his first seven starts combined, and was lifted after allowing six runs on seven hits and two walks in four innings.

Vargas had been unbeaten in his last 10 home starts.

Then again, maybe his abysmal night shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. Vargas has never beaten the Yankees in nine starts and 10 outings, going 0-6 with a 7.15 ERA.

Starlin Castro had three hits and drove in a run. Brett Gardner and Didi Gregorius each had two hits and two RBIs. In fact, the only Yankees without a hit by the fifth inning were Matt Holliday and Aaron Judge, and all Judge had done was draw a pair of walks and score both times.

Holliday and Judge promptly got their base hits in the sixth.

Salvador Perez hit a two-run homer and Whit Merrifield also went deep for Kansas City, which scored three times in the ninth to make the final score more respectable.

The Yankees entered the game leading the big leagues with a plus-59 run differential, and they added to it on a windy night at Kauffman Stadium. They pounded their 59th home run through their first 37 games, and scored seven or more runs for the fourth consecutive game.

They routed the Royals 7-1 in the series opener Tuesday night.

RAYS 7, INDIANS 4 Corey Dickerson hit a three-run shot — his third homer in two days — and Alex Cobb controlled Cleveland over seven innings as Tampa Bay completed its most successful road trip in a year. Dickerson connected in the second inning off Josh Tomlin (2-5) and Logan Morrison hit a solo shot in the third for Tampa Bay, which went 4-2 on a swing through Boston and Cleveland. It’s the Rays’ first winning trip since last May. Cobb (4-3) allowed three runs and six hits. NATIONAL LEAGUE CUBS 7, REDS 5 Anthony Rizzo and Kyle

Schwarber drove in two runs apiece, and the Chicago Cubs handed the sloppy Cincinnati Reds their season-high fifth straight loss with a 7-5 victory on Wednesday night. Kyle Hendricks (3-2) pitched six effective innings and drove in a run as Chicago improved to 22-5 in its last 27 games against Cincinnati. Ben Zobrist reached three times with two hits and a walk in his return to the lineup after missing two games with lower back tightness.

DODGERS 6, GIANTS 1 Clayton Kershaw took a share of the major league lead with his seventh win and earned career victory No. 20 against the rival Giants, helping the Los Angeles Dodgers avoid a sweep by beating San Francisco 6- 1 on Wednesday. Kershaw (7-2) struck out five in seven shutout innings

and retired the first 10 batters he faced before Justin Ruggiano’s fourth- inning single. The left-hander moved into a tie for most wins with Houston’s Dallas Keuchel. Yasmani Grandal hit a two-run double in the first and Yasiel Puig singled in a pair of runs in the sixth as the Dodgers jumped on Johnny Cueto (4-3), who lost for the first time at home this season. DIAMONDBACKS 5, METS 4, ( 11)

Chris Herrmann homered off Rafael Montero leading off the 11th inning, sending New York to its season-high seventh straight loss. Montero (0-3) relieved to start the 11th, and Herrmann worked the count full, fouled off a pitch and connected on a belt-high fastball for his first game-ending home run in the major leagues. New York went 0-6 in Milwaukee and Arizona, the Mets’ longest winless trip since 1999, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. At 16- 23, New York dropped seven games under .500 for the first time September 2014.

PIRATES 6, NATIONALS 1 Gerrit Cole spent the last six weeks stringing together dominant performance after dominant performance with little to show for it, thanks to a Pittsburgh Pirates offense that always seemed to sputter whenever their ace’s turn in the rotation came up. Yet Cole tried to stay upbeat, stressing that if he kept doing his job eventually the lineup would, too. Eventually turned into Wednesday night, when Cole shut down the best offense in the majors and the Pirates broke out late in a 6-1 victory over the Washington Nationals. INTERLEAGUE ASTROS 3, MARLINS 0 Lance McCullers paid tribute to the late Jose Fernandez and pitched like him, allowing no earned runs for the third start in a row, and the Houston Astros

beat the Miami Marlins 3-0 Wednesday afternoon to complete a three-game sweep. McCullers (4-1) wore cleats with Fernandez’s initials and uniform number. Their friendship began when they were high school pitchers in the Tampa area, before Fernandez became the Marlins’ ace and then died in a boating accident last September. McCullers limited Miami to three hits in six innings and lowered his ERA to 2.65.

RANGERS 9, PHILLIES 3 Andrew Cashner finally won in his home state of Texas, pitching seven solid innings to help the Rangers match the longest winning streak in the majors this year at eight games with a 9-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night. The right-hander from the Houston area also got his first win with the Rangers, who scored all nine runs in the first five innings after getting just six in the first six starts by Cashner (13) when the stocky 30- year- old was in the game. Jared Hoying hit his first big league homer and had his first four-hit game in his second start since coming up from the minors to replace center fielder Carlos Gomez, who is expected to miss at least a month with a right hamstring strain. BRAVES 8, BLUE JAYS 4 Kurt Suzuki hit a three-run homer to cap a six-run first inning, and the Atlanta Braves held on after Freddie Freeman left with an injury in an 8-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night. Freeman was struck on the left wrist by a pitch in the fifth inning. The umpires initially ruled that Aaron Loup’s pitch did not hit Freeman. But with the Atlanta star in obvious pain, the Braves challenged and the call was reversed after a video review. Freeman headed to the clubhouse instead of first base, with no immediate word on the seriousness of the injury.