Cardinals maintain lead in wild card
CHICAGO — Kyle Lohse and the short-handed St. Louis Cardinals won for the sixth time in seven games, holding their lead in the NL wild-card race with a 6-3 win Sunday over the Chicago Cubs.
Minus All-Stars Yadier Molina and Carlos Beltran from the starting lineup, the Cardinals stayed 2½ games ahead of Milwaukee for the second wild-card spot.
Lohse (16-3) made his team-leading 32nd start, giving up three runs and five hits in six innings.
Jason Motte earned his sixth save in the Cardinals’ last seven games, and now has 40 saves this season. Brewers 6, Nationals 2 WASHINGTON — Jonathan Lucroy had a pair of RBI singles and Milwaukee beat Washington to keep the Brewers in the playoff chase.
Rickie Weeks had three hits while Aramis Ramirez had two doubles for Milwaukee, which twice benefitted from Washington outfielders losing fly balls in the sun. The Brewers are 2½ games behind St. Louis for the final NL wild-card berth.
Washington (92-60) leads the NL East by 4½ games over Atlanta, a 2-1 winner over Philadelphia Sunday. The Nationals magic number to clinch the division remains at six.
Pirates 8, Astros 1 HOUSTON — A.J. Burnett allowed one run in eight innings for his 16th win, and Josh Harrison tied a career high with four hits to jumpstart Pittsburgh’s offense in a win over Houston.
The win snapped a fivegame skid for the Pirates, who at 75-77 are in danger of posting their 20th straight losing season, which would extend their major North American professional sports record.
Padres 6, Giants 4 SAN FRANCISCO —
Yonder Alonso’s two-run single in the seventh inning snapped a tie and helped the San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants.
Mark Kotsay hit a home run and Yasmani Grandal also drove in a run for the Padres, who had lost four of their previous five games. Everth Cabrera had four hits, walked and stole three bases in five plate appearances. D’Backs 10, Rockies 7 DENVER — Aaron Hill hit a tiebreaking three-run homer in the eighth inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat Colorado, the Rockies’ season-high ninth straight loss.
Arizona remained 4½ games behind St. Louis for the second NL wild-card spot. Red Sox 2, Orioles 1 BOSTON — Cody Ross doubled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, Andrew Bailey escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth and the Boston Red Sox ended Baltimore’s sixgame winning streak.
The Orioles began the day one game behind the first-place Yankees in the AL East and two games ahead of Oakland for the top wild-card spot in the league.
Boston stopped its four-game losing streak after Dustin Pedroia led off the eighth with a double against Luis Ayala (5-5) and Ross followed with his tiebreaking hit. Rays 3, Blue Jays 0 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — B.J. Upton hit his eighth home run in 14 games and Jeremy Hellickson won for the first time in more than a month to help the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays.
It was the fifth straight win for the Rays, who started the day 3 1/2 games behind the Oakland Athletics in the race for the AL’s second wild-card spot. Angels 4, White Sox 1 ANAHEIM, Calif. — Jered Weaver kept the Los Angeles Angels within striking distance in the AL wild-card chase, posting his league-leading 19th victory with a ecision over the struggling Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox lost their fifth in a row and led Detroit by a half-game in the AL Central. The Tigers lost the opener of their daynight doubleheader against Minnesota. Indians 15, Royals 4 KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Carlos Santana hit two homers and drove in five runs as the Cleveland Indians routed Kansas City in their highest-scoring game of the season.
Santana connected for a two-run shot in the sixth inning off Jake Odorizzi, who lost in his major league debut. Santana added his team-leading 18th homer, a three-run drive during a seven-run ninth.
Twins 10, Tigers 4 DETROIT — Joe Mauer drove in four runs and the Minnesota Twins rallied against Max Scherzer, handing the contending Detroit Tigers a loss in the opener of a day-night doubleheader.
The Tigers began the day one-half game behind the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox, who played later at the Los Angeles Angels. Rangers 3, Mariners 2 SEATTLE — Ryan Dempster allowed two runs and six hits over six-plus innings and Mike Napoli and Geovany Soto homered to lead the Texas Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners and preserve a four-game lead over the Oakland A’s in the AL West.
With Oakland’s 5-4 win over the Yankees earlier Sunday, the Rangers were looking to avoid a sweep by the scuffling Mariners in order to keep their distance over the Athletics with a pivotal four-game series against them beginning in Texas on Monday.