New York: New York’s Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer to break Lou Gehrig’s long-standing record for most RBIs in the American League and help the Yankees beat Kansas City 4-2 on Wednesday, completing a three-game sweep.
The victory moved the Yankees one-and-a-half games clear atop the AL East division and two-and-a-half games ahead of Baltimore, who edged Houston in another key result.
Among the National League games, Washington shut down the Chicago Cubs, majors-leading St Louis prevailed in a frantic finish against Arizona, and the Los Angeles Dodgers suffered a narrow defeat against Atlanta.
The homer by Rodriguez moved him to 1,995 runs batted in for his career, two more than former Yankees legend Gehrig is attributed with by MLB’s official statistics, although RBI record-keeping back in Gehrig’s era was variable.
New York starter Michael Pineda (6-2) rebounded from consecutive losses and Brian McCann hit a solo shot for the Yankees, who outscored the AL champion Royals 23-4 over the three games.
Chris Young (4-1) gave up both Yankees home runs, and the slumping Royals have dropped four straight for the first time this season.
Baltimore’s Chris Davis hit two homers, including a go-ahead solo shot in the eighth inning, to lead the Orioles to a 5-4 victory over Houston.
Davis got his first multihomer game in more than a year while Evan Gattis had three hits, including his 10th homer of the season.
Washington’s Bryce Harper hit his 18th home run of the year to help the Nationals beat the Cubs 3-0.
The top two free-agent pitchers on the market last off-season, Max Scherzer and Jon Lester (4-3) faced off in a memorable matchup in the finale of the three-game series. Scherzer (6-3), who signed a seven-year deal worth $210 million (Dh771 million) with Washington, was better than his counterpart, throwing seven scoreless innings with 13 strikeouts to win his fifth straight start.
St Louis’ Jason Heyward atoned for a critical error with a game-tying homer leading off the ninth inning and the Cardinals scored the winning run on throwing error by Arizona catcher Jordan Pachecho, beating the Diamondbacks 4-3 to complete a three-game sweep.
With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth, Arizona third baseman Yasmany Tomas threw home for a force out. Pachecho tried for a double play, but threw well above first baseman Paul Goldschmidt’s head and Matt Carpenter scored.
The Cardinals have won nine of their past ten against Arizona.
Atlanta’s Andrelton Simmons had two hits and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the eighth inning, giving the Braves a 3-2 win against the Dodgers.
With the game tied 1-1, Simmons led off the eighth with a single and, after making his way to third base, came home when Dodgers pitcher Adam Liberatore uncorked a wild pitch over the head of the catcher with two outs.
Atlanta’s Cameron Maybin had two hits to raise his average to .306 in May.
