Minnesota Twins’ Aaron Hicks’ breaks his bat as he makes contact in the second inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington, DC, yesterday.
BOSTON: Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit two homers as the Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 10-5 yesterday to stay top in the American League East while the Miami Marlins again needed extra innings against the New York Mets, winning 8-4.
David Ortiz added a three-run blast and Mike Carp also homered, while Jacoby Ellsbury added an RBI triple for the Red Sox, who ended a six-game homestand with a 4-2 record.
Ryan Dempster (4-6), who got his 2,000th career strikeout when he fanned Alberto Callaspo to open the sixth, allowed three runs and six hits in six innings to earn his second straight win.
The Marlins, who needed 20 innings to scrape past the Mets 2-1 on Saturday, again went beyond the distance before completing a two-game sweep of New York after Miguel Olivo capped a four-run 10th inning with a two-run homer.
Logan Morrison had two hits and scored the go-ahead run on an error by Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy and Greg Dobbs plated a run with a sacrifice fly in the 10th as the Marlins overcame a 4-1 deficit.
The opening game of the series was postponed due to rain and will be played as part of a double-header on September 14.
In Cincinnati, Matt Holliday hit a grand slam to cap a seven-run 10th inning as the St Louis Cardinals beat the Reds 11-4 to take a four-game lead at the top of the National League Central.
Daniel Descalso ignited the 10th-inning outburst by doubling in the go-ahead run and Matt Carpenter followed with a two-run single as the Cardinals improved to a major league-best 41-22.
Carlos Beltran homered and drove in a pair of runs and Trevor Rosenthal (1-0) earned his first major-league victory with four strikeouts in two innings of relief in the match..
Atlanta tightened their grip at the top of the National League East after three-time All Star Dan Uggla hit a pair of homers to power the visiting Braves to an 8-1 rout of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Freddie Freeman had two hits and three RBIs and Jason Heyward had two singles, two walks and scored twice for the Braves. Atlanta starter Mike Minor (8-2) allowed one run and six hits in six innings to improve to 5-0 since May 8.
Elsewhere in another match played yesterday, Adrian Beltre blasted a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning to help the visiting Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-4 to avoid a three-game sweep.REUTERS
