Baseball-Highlights of Wednesday's MLB games

Sept 3 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Wednesday's Major League Baseball games: - - - Dodgers 2, Giants 1 Chase Utley homered, and Clayton Kershaw threw a complete game and tied his career high with 15 strikeouts, guiding the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday. The National League West-leading Dodgers earned their eighth win in nine games and completed a home sweep of the Giants for the first time since 2013. They increased their margin over second-place San Francisco in the division to 6 1/2 games. The Giants dropped their fifth game in a row. - - - Mets 9, Phillies 4 Ruben Tejada collected two hits, including an inside-the-park home run, and four RBIs as the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-4 at Citi Field on Wednesday. Tejada hit a two-run homer to cap a three-run second inning, had an RBI grounder in the fifth and laced a run-scoring single in the seventh to complete the Mets' scoring. He finished one RBI shy of his career high set Sept. 5, 2010. - - - Nationals 4, Cardinals 3 Ryan Zimmerman made sure the Washington Nationals held on to this lead. After cracking two solo homers, Zimmerman snapped an eighth-inning tie with an RBI double as Washington picked up a rare win in St Louis. Zimmerman's liner down the right field line scored Anthony Rendon, who worked an eight-pitch walk from Jonathan Broxton to start the eighth and reached second on a sacrifice bunt by Matt den Dekker. - - - Blue Jays 5, Indians 1 Dickey pitched a complete game, Josh Donaldson had three RBIs and Toronto defeated Cleveland. Dickey allowed four hits, no walks and one run to win his seventh straight decision in the rubber match of a three-game series. He struck out six in his second complete game of the season. - - - Orioles 7, Rays 6 (11 innings) Chris Davis hit two home runs, including the winner in the 11th inning, and Baltimore snapped a six-game losing streak. Davis led off the 11th with a towering shot to center off Matt Andriese for his 38th homer of the season. Jonathan Schoop hit a two-run homer off Brad Boxberger in the ninth to force extra innings. - - - Reds 7, Cubs 4 Joey Votto went 2-for-5 with a three-run, ninth-inning homer and Cincinnati beat Chicago. Votto's 27th home run of the season drove in Jason Bourgeois and Jay Bruce as the Reds took the series from the Cubs. Hector Rondon gave up the two-out shot and suffered the loss, the Cubs' sixth in their last eight games. - - - Royals 12, Tigers 1 Yordano Ventura won his fourth straight decision and Cheslor Cuthbert hit his first big league home run and drove in four runs as Kansas City crushed Detroit. Ventura struck out 11, matching his career high set in his previous start, and allowed one run and five hits in seven innings. He is 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA in his past five starts. - - - Angels 9, A's 4 Albert Pujols hit his 35th home run of the year and Andrew Heaney allowed three runs in seven innings to lead Los Angeles over Oakland. Pujols lined a two-run homer in the second inning off Sonny Gray. Pujols has hit at least 35 homers 10 times in his first 15 major-league seasons, one of just four players in major league history to accomplish the feat. - - - Yankees 13, Red Sox 8 New York hammered five home runs in the first five innings and built a 12-1 lead before holding off Boston. Greg Bird and John Ryan Murphy hit back-to-back homers and Carlos Beltran connected during an eight-run second inning for the Yankees. Stephen Drew and shortstop Didi Gregorius also homered in support of Masahiro Tanaka. - - - Marlins 7, Braves 3 Christian Yelich had four hits, including two doubles, and Marcell Ozuna homered as Miami handed Atlanta its eighth straight loss. The Braves, who were 42-42 on July 8, have lost 15 of 16 games and 30 of the past 49. It is the first time they have been 25 games below .500 since 1990. - - - Twins 3, White Sox 0 Tommy Milone pitched seven strong innings and Miguel Sano continued his torrid pace at the plate as Minnesota defeated Chicago. Milone's seven shutout innings were his best since he threw 7 2/3 scoreless innings against the White Sox in his first start of the season on April 10. - - - Brewers 9, Pirates 4 Jonathan Lucroy drove in three runs and Adam Lind hit his 18th home run of the season as Milwaukee downed Pittsburgh Starling Marte and Aramis Ramirez had two hits each, including Ramirez's second home run in as many days, but Pittsburgh managed just two hits off Milwaukee's bullpen. - - - Mariners 8, Astros 3 Logan Morrison sparked a late-inning rally for a second consecutive game and Seattle beat Houston. Morrison hit a three-run homer, his 15th this season, off Josh Fields to end the drama in the top of the ninth. - - - Rockies 9, Diamondbacks 4 Carlos Gonzalez hit two homers, including a go-ahead grand slam and drove in a career-high seven runs as Colorado beat Arizona. The victory gave the Rockies a split of the four-game series and sent the Diamondbacks to their eighth loss in the past 11 games. - - - Rangers 4, Padres 3 (10 innings) Mitch Moreland's 10th-inning double lifted Texas over San Diego. Elvis Andrus hit a one-out single and Moreland followed with the winning hit to right off Bud Norris (1-1). (Compiled by John O'Brien)