Los Angeles: Milwaukee’s Lyle Overbay drove in three runs with a two-out double in the eighth inning, lifting the Brewers to a 6-3 win at the Los Angeles Dodgers in Friday’s clash of National League divisional leaders.
The Brewers maintained their two-game buffer atop the NL Central and closed within one and a half games of the Dodgers for the overall league lead.
The other NL divisional leader, Washington, edged Pittsburgh to stay six games clear in the East ahead of Atlanta, which defeated overall MLB leader Oakland.
In the key American League contests, surging Seattle won at Detroit and Cleveland beat Baltimore with an 11th-inning homer from Mike Aviles.
Milwaukee scored all its runs in the eighth inning off Jamey Wright (4-3).
Scooter Gennett’s RBI single tied the game 2-2 and Khris Davis came up with a run-scoring double after Wright allowed four consecutive hits.
Brandon League came on in relief and produced a strikeout before Overbay doubled to left field for a 5-2 lead.
Atlanta hit four homers, including a three-run shot by Freddie Freeman, to overpower Oakland 7-2.
Justin Upton and Evan Gattis homered off Jason Hammel (1-5) in the second inning, and rookie Phil Gosselin hit a two-run shot — the first homer of his career — in the sixth. The Athletics have lost five of their past six games.
The Braves made up no ground on division leader Washington, which notched its fourth-straight win by defeating Pittsburgh 5-4, with Bryce Harper and Adam LaRoche each driving in two runs.
Denard Span added three hits as the NL East leaders opened a 10-game homestand.
Tanner Roark (12-7) gave up three runs over five 2-3 innings to take the win while closer Rafael Soriano had a shaky ninth, giving up a run and three hits, but closed it out for his 29th save.
The Pirates have dropped three straight but still provisionally hold the second wild-card berth.
Seattle’s Robinson Cano homered to help the Mariners down Detroit 7-2 in a clash of playoff contenders.
James Paxton won his sixth consecutive decision to start his career and the surging Seattle Mariners beat Detroit in a matchup of American League playoff contenders.
Mariners’ starter James Paxton (3-0) allowed one run over six innings to win his sixth consecutive decision and lead Seattle to a fifth-straight win, moving half a game ahead of the Tigers in the race for the second AL wild card.
Detroit fell one and a half games behind first-place Kansas City in the AL Central.
Cleveland’s Mike Aviles homered leading off the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Indians a 2-1 win over Baltimore.
Aviles connected off Brian Matusz (2-3), driving the ball beyond left field. Prior to that, Cleveland had scored one run in 22-plus innings including a 1-0 shutout by Arizona over 12 innings on Wednesday.
Cleveland’s Scott Atchison (6-0) retired all six batters he faced to take the win.
Tampa Bay’s Alex Cobb pitched neatly into the eighth inning to steer the Rays to a 5-0 win over the New York Yankees.
With the victory, Tampa Bay became the fourth team in major league history to reach a .500 winning percentage after having been 18 games under that mark in the same season.
The Rays, now 61-61, were 24-42 on June 10. Of the three previous teams to achieve the feat, none went on to finish the season above .500.
Cobb (8-6) pitched 7 1-3 scoreless innings, striking out eight and walking one. He improved to 4-0 in six home starts against the Yankees.
The Yankees have lost five straight games, scoring a sum of just seven runs.
St Louis’ Lance Lynn pitched six strong innings to give the Cardinals a 4-2 win against San Diego.
Lynn (13-8) gave up one run and one walk while striking out six.
Matt Adams, Kolten Wong and Oscar Taveras hit RBI singles for the Cardinals, who won their third straight.
Kansas City’s Josh Willingham came up with a key hit against his former team, with his bases-clearing double sparking a five-run fourth inning that led the Royals to a 6-5 win at Minnesota.
Six Royals hitters reached base to start the fourth against Ricky Nolasco (5-8), making his first start back from an elbow injury. Willingham, traded by the Twins to the Royals just four days previously, drilled a bases-loaded double to make it 3-2.
Kansas City’s Danny Duffy (8-10) allowed three runs in 5 1-3 innings to win his third straight start.
Chicago piled on 17 hits to overpower Toronto 11-5, with Jose Abreu contributing three singles and three RBIs to increase his major league-leading total to 89.
Los Angeles’ Kole Calhoun had a three-run homer among his three hits as the Angels hung on to edge Texas 5-4.
Philadelphia’s Chase Utley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the 10th inning to bring in the winning run, giving the Phillies a 5-3 victory over San Francisco.
Arizona’s Aaron Hill and Cliff Pennington homered in the first inning and the Diamondbacks held firm to beat Miami 3-2.
New York’s Zack Wheeler struck out 10 in a gritty performance to guide the Mets to a 3-2 win against the Chicago Cubs.
Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto threw eight stellar innings to become the first 15-game winner in the majors, guiding the Reds to a 3-2 victory over Colorado.
Houston’s Jake Marisnick hit a two-run double with two outs in the 10th inning as the Astros beat Boston 5-3 and ended a run of eight-straight Fenway Park defeats.
