NEW YORK: JJ Hardy homered twice and the Baltimore Orioles hit a season-high six home runs in an emphatic 12-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Orioles (66-49) scored in five straight innings - the second through sixth - and ended up with 15 hits overall.
It was just the second time in club history that they hit more than one homer off three pitchers in the same game.
New York Mets right-hander Bartolo Colon earned his 200th career victory in a win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The 41-year-old departed after eight innings with a 5-1 lead, only to see the bullpen allow three runs in the ninth.
Colon allowed six hits and one run, a solo homer by right fielder Marlon Byrd in the seventh, to improve to 11-9 this season and 200-137 for his 17-year career, during which he has pitched for eight teams.
He is third among active pitchers in victories, trailing only San Francisco’s Tim Hudson (213) and the New York Yankees’ CC Sabathia (208).
Derek Jeter tied Hall of Famer Honus Wagner for sixth place on the career hits list, and Carlos Beltran highlighted a five-RBI night with a sixth-inning grand slam, as the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians 10-6.
Jeter tied Wagner with his 3,430th hit when he started a five-run first inning with an infield single against Cleveland right-hander Trevor Bauer (4-7). In his first three chances at passing Wagner, Jeter grounded out, struck out and had a sacrifice.
The Atlanta Braves slammed four home runs and hung on to beat the Washington Nationals 7-6 and end their eight-game losing streak.
The Braves had scored only 18 runs and gone 0-8 on their recently completed West Coast road trip but they came out swinging against Washington ace Stephen Strasburg (8-10), who was tagged for four home runs for the first time in his career. Atlanta improved to 7-3 against the National League East leaders and cut Washington’s lead to 3 1/2 games.
The Milwaukee Brewers used five pitchers and three pinch hitters to cover the final three innings in a 9-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Milwaukee, running on fumes thanks to a heavy workload and a lack of reliable depth, took advantage of two errors by shortstop Justin Turner in the bottom of the seventh and got a three-run home run from second baseman Rickie Weeks in the eighth.
The Oakland Athletics got a three-run triple from Coco Crisp in the fifth inning and a two-run double from Eric Sogard in the sixth to build a 6-0 lead and held on for a 6-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
The A’s extended their winning streak against the Twins to 11 games, an Oakland record, and beat them for the eighth straight time at the Coliseum, another Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma allowed one run over seven innings and got a big boost from catcher Mike Zunino’s three-run homer as the Mariners earned a 4-1 victory over the struggling Chicago White Sox.
REUTERS
