Houston: Houston’s Jason Castro came up with a dramatic three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Astros a 3-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday, completing a three-game sweep and opening a two-game lead over the Angels atop the American League West division.
AL Central leaders Kansas City were beaten by Toronto on a big day for the Blue Jays, who signalled their intent to challenge for the play-offs by making a significant player acquisition.
The AL East-leading New York Yankees were also beaten in dramatic style by Texas, while it was also close in the key National League encounter as St Louis rallied late to edge Colorado.
The Astros-Angels game was 0-0 to start the bottom of the ninth inning when Jed Lowrie drew a walk off Jose Alvarez (2-2) with one out before a two-out single by Marwin Gonzalez. Castro then launched his homer to give Houston an important win.
Toronto started Thursday by acquiring ace pitcher David Price from Detroit, and then hit three homers to power past Kansas City 5-2.
Dioner Navarro hit a two-run home run and Russell Martin and Josh Donaldson added solo shots for the Blue Jays, who have homered in 12 consecutive games — their longest streak of the season.
Price will join the team on Friday and may start on Sunday.
Texas’ Josh Hamilton delivered a game-ending single with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Rangers a 7-6 win against the Yankees.
Hamilton, who also had a three-run homer, scored the winning run in a wild ninth inning to leave the four-game series split 2-2.
Delino DeShields drew a leadoff walk in the ninth off Nick Goody (0-1), who was making his major league debut. Yankees closer Andrew Miller got one out and DeShields became the second when he was struck on the foot by a Leonys Martin hit while running the bases.
Martin went to second on a walk and scored when Hamilton singled to right field.
St Louis’ Matt Carpenter hit a pair of home runs and Greg Garcia’s bases-loaded walk capped a three-run rally in the ninth inning, which lifted the Cardinals past Colorado 9-8.
Carpenter went 4 for 5 with four RBIs after moving back to the leadoff spot in the batting order. It was his first career multihomer game and he has a career-high 12 home runs this season.
Jhonny Peralta’s two-run single tied the game 8-8 and Garcia’s walk scored Kolten Wong as the Cardinals recorded their seventh walk-off win of the season.
Despite the defeat, St Louis maintained a 5-1/2 game lead in the NL Central as nearest rivals Pittsburgh were routed 15-5 at Cincinnati.
