ST. LOUIS -- Matt Holliday had the go-ahead RBI single in the seventh inning after Kolten Wong's pinch-hit homer tied the score, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday.
St. Louis took sole possession of first place in the NL Central for the first time this season with its third-straight win. The Cardinals moved one game ahead of Milwaukee, which lost to the Chicago Cubs.
St. Louis scored three in the seventh. Wong homered off Pittsburgh starter Gerrit Cole (7-5) to tie the score at 4-all. Jon Jay followed with a triple and scored on Holliday's single to left.
Holliday, who also had a two-run double in the third, is 7 for 11 with three home runs and 12 RBI in the last three games.
Seth Maness (6-3) picked up the win in relief. Trevor Rosenthal got the last three outs for his 41st save.
Cubs 4, Brewers 2
CHICAGO -- Welington Castillo homered and drove in three runs, Luis Valbuena also hit a home run and the Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers.
Rookie sensation Jorge Soler had two doubles in his home debut for the Cubs and Jacob Turner (5-8) won in just his second start for Chicago after being acquired from Miami last month. The right-hander allowed just one run and five hits in 6 1-3 innings.
Hector Rondon pitched the ninth for his 23rd save in 27 chances.
Soler became just the third player in the last 100 years to have at least one extra-base hit in each of his first five games in the majors. Will Middlebrooks did it for the Boston Red Sox in 2012 and Enos Slaughter for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1938.
Jimmy Nelson (2-6), who was called up from the minors to make the start, took the loss.
A's 6, Mariners 1
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Adam Dunn provided instant pop for the struggling Athletics, hitting a towering, two-run homer in his first at-bat for Oakland to highlight a win over the Seattle Mariners in a matchup of playoff contenders.
Acquired a day earlier in a trade with the Chicago White Sox, Dunn became the 12th player in Oakland history to homer in his first at-bat with the team.
Dunn homered during a five-run first inning. His drive was a welcome sight for a team that just got swept in a four-game series by the AL West-leading Los Angeles Angels and was shut out for 29 straight innings.
The A's broke loose a day after manager Bob Melvin let them have it in a closed-door team meeting. He called his team's play "embarrassing and "pathetic" after the A's totaled just four runs in the sweep at Anaheim.
Dunn went two for three batting cleanup as the designated hitter. He provided a nice lift for an Oakland offense that has struggled since dealing Yoenis Cespedes to Boston for Jon Lester on July 31.
With 461 career home runs, Dunn tied Red Sox star David Ortiz for 35th place on the all-time list.
Tigers 12, Indians 1
CLEVELAND -- David Price bounced back from an alarming start and Miguel Cabrera homered twice, hitting one of Detroit's three homers off Cleveland's Corey Kluber, as the Tigers slowed the Indians' climb in the standings.
Price (13-10) gave up one run and eight hits in seven innings. The left-hander was coming off a troubling loss to New York in which he allowed nine consecutive hits in one inning and eight runs over two. Price called it "probably the worst game I've ever had in my life."
But he was more like himself against the sleepy Indians, who had won six of seven to get within 3Ā½ games of first in the AL Central.
Cabrera hit a two-run homer in the first inning off Kluber (13-9) and Victor Martinez and J.D. Martinez connected for consecutive shots in the third. Cabrera homered again in the eighth off rookie Bryan Price. He went four for five with three runs and three RBIs.
Tigers rookie Tyler Collins hit his first major-league homer, a three-run shot in the ninth.
Giants 4, Rockies 2
DENVER --Hunter Pence hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth and, more than three months after he homered in the early innings, led the San Francisco Giants over the Colorado Rockies in a game resumed after being suspended on May 22 because of rain.
The game restarted tied at 2 with two outs in the bottom of the sixth and a runner on first. Jeremy Affeldt struck out pinch-hitter Josh Rutledge to end the inning.
Affeldt (4-2) earned the win with 1 1-3 hitless innings. Before Affeldt took over, David Huff was the pitcher of record for the Giants -- he was traded to the New York Yankees on June 11.
Marlins 9, Mets 6
MIAMI -- Giancarlo Stanton hit his 34th home run and the Miami Marlins scored three runs in the eighth inning to beat the New York Mets.
Miami took advantage of some wildness by Mets reliever Jeurys Familia (2-4) in the eighth. Familia had two throwing errors and a wild pitch, leading to the three tiebreaking runs as the Marlins snapped a five-game losing streak to the Mets.
Padres 3, D'backs 1
SAN DIEGO -- Cory Spangenberg had a two-run single for his first big-league hit and Tyson Ross pitched six strong innings to lead the San Diego Padres against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Spangenberg, the team's first-round pick in the 2011 draft, had his contract selected from Double-A San Antonio and started at third base. He came up with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning and singled to right off reliever Eury De La Rosa for a 3-0 lead.
Twins 6, Orioles 4
BALTIMORE -- Joe Mauer drove in four runs, Phil Hughes held Baltimore without an earned run over eight innings and the Minnesota Twins beat the Orioles to avoid a four-game sweep.
Nelson Cruz hit his major-league leading 36th home run and Nick Hundley had a three-run shot for the AL East-leading Orioles, who lost for only the second time in eight games.
Mauer tripled in two runs in the sixth inning and added a two-run single in the eighth to put Minnesota ahead for good.
Hughes (15-9) gave up five hits, no walks and three unearned runs. The right-hander has allowed one earned run or fewer in five of his last six starts.
Rays 4, Red Sox 3 (10)
ST. PETERBURG, Fla. -- Matt Joyce had an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to help the Tampa Bay Rays salvage a split of a four-game series by beating the Boston Red Sox.
Ryan Hanigan opened the 10th with a double off Burke Badenhop (0-3), which withstood a replay review. Kevin Kiermaier was intentionally walked before Ben Zobrist had a sacrifice bunt. After Wil Myers was given an intentional walk, pinch-runner Sean Rodriquez, who ran for Hanigan, scored on Joyce's hit to left.
Sports on 09/02/2014