St Louis: Lance Lynn and the Major League-leading St Louis Cardinals notched up another victory with an emphatic 7-1 win over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday.
Lynn struck out six batters and allowed one run in seven innings to improve to 8-1 on the season as the Cardinals batters provided plenty of offensive support for their starter.
Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina each hit home runs, with the former blasting his 13th of the year and finishing 3-for-5 with three RBIs.
Molina’s performance comes on the day he was given a one-game suspension by Major League Baseball following an incident where he made contact with an umpire on Sunday.
Molina was thrown out on a close play at first base during Sunday’s game against San Francisco and slammed his helmet to the ground. First base umpire Clint Fagan immediately ejected Molina, who then went to argue. Everitt got in front of Molina, who bumped into him. Molina, a four-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner, was hitting .347 with three homers, 14 doubles and 27 RBIs this season.
The win helped the Cardinals (38-19) stay 2 1/2 games in front of second-place Cincinnati in the National League Central division.
The Reds, meanwhile, kept pace by shutting out Colorado 3-0.
Bronson Arroyo tossed a gem on the mound, keeping the Rockies scoreless through eight innings while allowing just four hits.
Cincinnati broke the game open in the eighth inning where Jay Bruce hit a two-run home run to stretch the home team’s lead.
In New York, Mark Teixeira smashed a grand slam to spark the Yankees past the Cleveland Indians 7-4.
Teixeira, who was activated last Friday after missing the first two months with a wrist injury, connected on his first homer of the season to give New York a 4-1 lead.
Cleveland rallied back to tie the game in the fifth, but Brett Gardner hit a two-run single in the sixth for the Yankees, while Travis Hafner added his own blast in the seventh against his former team.
Mariano Rivera worked the ninth for his 20th save of the season.
In Milwaukee, the Oakland Athletics won their fourth straight game with a 10-2 rout of Milwaukee. Coco Crisp led off the game with a home run to set the tone and went 4-for-5.
John Jaso added three hits and two RBIs while Brandon Moss also homered.
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