Cards awaken bats to outslug Braves
ST. LOUIS — Joe Kelly pitched six effective innings, Matt Holliday broke out of a slump with two doubles and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 6-2 on Thursday night.
David Freese drove in two runs as St. Louis won for the fifth time in six games.
The Braves played without Jason Heyward, who is out with a broken right jaw after he was beaned during Wednesday’s 4-1 win at the New York Mets.
Justin Upton hit his 24th homer, but the Braves lost for the second time in three games at the start of a six-game trip. Atlanta had won eight of its last nine regular-season games against St. Louis.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Nationals 5, Cubs 4 (13 innings) at Chicago: Denard Span scored the goahead run on pinch-hitter Chad Tracy’s grounder in the 13th inning, and Washington beat Chicago after Stephen Strasburg blew a three-run lead in the ninth.
Span doubled leading off the 13th against Michael Bowden (1-3). He moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Steve Lombardozzi and came around on Tracy’s roller to the first-base side of the mound.
After a two-hour rain delay at the start, Strasburg was one out away from a complete game with a 4-1 lead before Chicago rallied to tie it.
Reds 2, Diamondbacks 1 at Cincinnati: Shin-Soo Choo scored in the eighth inning on Arizona’s fourth wild pitch of the game, and Cincinnati raced to an improbable win.
Choo scored both Cincinnati runs, helping the Reds to their third win in the four-game series.
Dodgers 6, Marlins 0 at Miami: Clayton Kershaw allowed five hits in eight innings to lower his ERA to 1.72, best in the majors, and Los Angeles won its third game in a row with a shutout of Miami.
Former All-Star closer Brian Wilson made his first major-league appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery and pitched the ninth, allowing one hit while striking out two. It was his first game since April 2012.
Phillies 5, Rockies 4 at Philadelphia: Domonic Brown hit a game-ending RBI single to give Philadelphia a victory over Colorado.
The Phillies scored twice in the eighth and ninth for their second come-from-behind win in as many days, They have won four of five to improve to 4-3 under interim manager Ryne Sandberg.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Yankees 5, Blue Jays 3 at New York: Andy Pettitte pitched six effective innings, Curtis Granderson homered, and New York beat Toronto after a 3½-hour rain delay for their 10th straight victory against the Blue Jays.
New York improved to 12-1 against Toronto this season with its second four-game sweep of the Blue Jays, and moved to 3½ games of the second AL wild-card spot.
The last-place Blue Jays have lost five straight
Twins 7, Tigers 6 at Detroit: Chris Herrmann’s second RBI double of the game broke an eighth-inning tie and helped Minnesota to a win over Detroit.
Detroit had trailed 6-2 going into the bottom of the sixth, but rallied to tie it on Austin Jackson’s three-run homer. That allowed Justin Verlander to extend his unbeaten streak against the Twins to 11 starts, despite allowing six runs and 10 hits in seven innings.
DEVELOPMENTS
Cain leaves game: Giants right-hander Matt Cain left his start against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thurday in the top of the fourth inning after getting hit in the pitching arm on a line drive by Pittsburgh’s Gaby Sanchez.
Athletic trainer Dave Groeschner and manager Bruce Bochy hustled out to check on Cain, a former Houston High star, who walked off the mound to the dugout on his own moments later.
Cardinals minor leaguer suspended: St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Yoenny Gonzalez has been suspended for 50 games for an unspecified violation of baseball’s minor league drug program. The 21-year-old, selected in the eighth round of the 2012 amateur draft, was hitting .192 with no homers and 10 RBIs in 104 at-bats this season with Johnson City of the rookie level Appalachian League.
Heyward has surgery: Braves outfielder Jason Heyward had surgery Thursday on his broken right jaw after he was struck by a pitch. The team has not said how long he will be out, but he could miss the rest of the regular season.